I plan on writing a longer article on this subject before too long, but the short version is that we can’t let ourselves be daunted by the challenges in front of us. I know a lot of people who spend endless time managing their friends and photos on myspace, and some of that time could be spent on mastering the obstacles involved in getting to a better place in our careers and with our online positioning.

If a web site is too daunting, just starting a simple blog on someone else’s service may be a good first step. The best thing would be to start on a blog that you could eventually transition to your own domain if you get more momentum and a bigger audience. WordPress is one example of a blog service that I believe allows you to transfer over to your own domain over time, and I think there are others that would allow this also. As long as you start on a “portable” service, you should be fine.

As you start writing, that’s the key thing, then you will build some confidence and hopefully get a better idea of what your audience responds to. As I’ve written elsewhere on this site, that kind of feedback loop is invaluable.

- Jon Reed -

Of course, as a freelance writer, you have the luxury of not having to live off of your web site revenues, so any traffic you build will be a bonus. Look at it this way: if/when you look for book deals with larger publishers, they will all be interested in your “platform,” which is, essentially, your ability to market yourself. If you have a web site already built and active, even if it’s not all you hoped it could be, it will be a big head start over having nothing at all.

Too many creative people, in my opinion, are content with a myspace page. In my opinion, there’s no substitute for your own web site as well. I will write a full article on this topic at some point.

- Jon Reed -