Your Own Websites

[Ron Maiden]

i've noticed a few of you have your own sites set up with samples of your scripts etc : has anyone actually had anything useful come of this? I've got to the point now where i have a completed novel and 5 scripts and i'm wondering if having a site is worth it?

TIA

[dpaterso]

My personal opinion: I think the idea of a website helping an unsold/unoptioned writer to connect to people in the industry is a fantasy.

I have had a few aspiring writers contact me over the years after they read my script samples online (I'd set up an index page (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57/scripts.htm) for my own use, to help me keep track of what I was working on, and accessible from anywhere... handy for copy/pasting loglines into query emails, too). I've stayed in contact with some of those writers and regularly swap news and tips. And, an aspiring director did make a feature movie (http://www.thephoenixagenda.com) from one of my scripts after he read a sample online as a result of a web search, which was jolly nice of him.

But these are rare occurrences, so rare in fact that I've let my website account lapse, the pages should fade away over time (sometimes they display, sometimes an error says "not found" but then they display OK next time).

Don't let my opinion or experience influence you. I think maybe it's one of those "Well, it can't hurt to post samples/loglines/synopses online, can it?" things. Use the Force to guide you.

-Derek

[RylenolFlu]

I would create a website if I knew how.

I agree with dpaterso, if it can't hurt, it can only help.

[dpaterso]

Thread drift warning! :)

I would create a website if I knew how.
I think I saw this in a thread in Tech Help forum -- Microsoft's http://officelive.com offers free websites. You have to provide your credit card details when you sign up but that's used for identity verification, they don't charge you anything if you go for the free for personal use option. I created a test website in a couple of minutes, couldn't be easier, tho' as with most freebie sites the web page editor insists on using its own dumb templates instead of just letting me upload my existing html files. I guess I'd have to pay an ISP money to get that option. But anyone creating a new web page from scratch might be perfectly happy with the existing templates.

I was an AOL member for some years so I created an AOL Hometown website at no extra cost, but I'm using another ISP now hence my soon-to-vanish web pages mentioned above. Right now I'm playing with a freebie blog on Blogger (see link below) to see whether that'll do the biz instead. That was pretty easy to set up too, check the Blogging forum for other recommendations if you're interested.

-Derek

[Plot Device]

Yes, I have made cotacts on the web via the blogosphere.

I set up my blog on the Google website called Blogspot last year. And I began "blog-hopping" around OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS in the Blogspot universe. I was doing targetted searches for Blogspot accounts where the words "film" and "screenwriing" showed up. I found dozens and dozens of such blogs JUST in Blogspot. And (here's the cool part) most people have a section called "My daily blog digest" or "Other blogs I visit" etc. So I began clicking away on all those other blogs that these screenwriter people obviously liked. It must have lead me to over 100 blogs about Hollywood, movies, and screenwriting. And I further found that SEVERAL blogs kept appearing again and again in all those the "Other blogs I visit" lists (very popular screenwriting blogs). John August and Two Adverbs to name a few.

The most important thing I did was I began leaving comments in the various blogs of the more popular blogs, and THAT was what brought traffic to my own blog. So I have indeed made contacts in the industry via my commenting. I also found Absolute Write via my blog-hopping because AW was another frequently seen web site in the list called "cool web sites" or "cool message forums" or "writing communites" etc.

[Mac H.]

If you want a totally free website, then you can just use the 'Google Pages' website.

Like DPat suggested, it has plenty of simple templates to get you up and running fast.

I have a extremely minimalist site here www.MacHarwood.com (http://www.MacHarwood.com) - it is simply a placeholder for if I want a 'real' site later.

The only cost was I wanted to reserve the .com address .. it was about $22 for 3 years if I recall.

If I had been happy with http:\\MacHarwood.googlepages.com then it would have been 100% free. As you can see, no advertisements. No popups. No inline ads.

Just free.

Mac