The power of words

For the last several years, words have been my life. After publishing six novels, I believe in the importance of word choice. In a story, the difference between choosing a passive phrase or an active phrase influences how connected your reader feels to your character (and whether or not they finish your book). As a writer, I have had to learn to write differently from how I talk. And although I’m getting better with my first drafts, there are still multiple revisions that fine tune my use of words.

Keywords share a similar power. The right keyword will bring the buyer you are hoping for. The wrong keyword will bring someone who might surf through your website, but won’t be interested in what you’re selling. My target market isn’t as big as others may be and I want to make sure the people who come to my website are looking for high quality, hand-crafted turned wood sculpture and dishes. Even those looking for wood wall art will not be happy with my product line. Therefore, it is essential to choose keywords effectively.

Google is that vast ethereal cyber-something that honestly overwhelms me most of the time. Thank goodness for a class that holds my hand through a system so big it could handle any size of company; from a mom-and-pop operation to the largest corporation. Being able to get computerized help with advertising and keywords gives me a confidence I truly need to succeed. As I slowly navigate my way through creating my first ad campaign, I can see the value of taking advantage of the Internet benefits as much as simply being able to launch my website.

I’m looking forward to seeing the results of my journey through GoogleAds.

Getting the legal stuff taken care of...

There are times when I think if I take on one more thing my brain will burst, and I’ll break into a million tiny pieces. I don’t think my world has changed much with the COVID-19 pandemic, but then I hear about people being afraid to communicate even across respectful social distancing lines. How did they come to be so driven by fear? My concern for taking on something new isn’t fear but more a matter of time. I’m in my fifth year of college classes (almost a junior because I’ve been taking it so slow) and I’m staring to question whether I should just move on.

Yet, somehow everything manages to get done, and I know that whatever doesn’t get done isn’t going to topple the earth’s spin or bring countries to a standstill. It won’t even affect my world all that much. I am learning to let go.

Starting a business is familiar territory. I ran my husband’s business for years. I still do, although it’s much smaller than it used to be. After we built our second house, I remember following our accountant’s advice to incorporate his business in order to protect our home and young family. At the time, the internet was only just being developed and home computers were the latest toy. I called the state office where I lived and they held my hand though all the paperwork needed to establish the business as a legal corporation. Then he decided to broaden his business to include another state. I called them and did it there, too.

Then we moved and I did it all over again in yet another state. Along the way, I dabbled in this or that type of business which required special tax filings and registrations. It wasn’t hard, just time-consuming, and I’m sure I missed something. But I had faith in my accountant and we were lucky.

Moving back to Oregon, we re-established my husband’s business so he could continue doing what he’d been doing. However, that time is swiftly coming to a close and a new business is now on the horizon. When I signed up for this class, I thought only of improving my author’s website and learning some tricks for marketing my books. It didn’t take long to see the potential of using what I was learning to create not only an outlet for my husband’s creative talent with wood, but to envision a new working environment; something that wouldn’t be so hard on his body and keep him alive longer.

Finding what I needed to legally establish this new online business didn’t take me long. Years of working not only for myself, but others, has given me experience navigating government websites and asking the right questions. Gone are the days when a phone call put you in touch with a real person who knew the answers. I guess the internet websites accomplish the same thing. In any event, my new business is registered and we are that much closer to being ready to start this new journey.

Finally, my new website has a name: Homestead Woodworks. It's really my husband's business, but I'm the one putting together the website and designing everything. He'll do all the work creating the products. As I contemplated the learning modules in class this week, I think there were a few things that stood out to me when it comes to web design.

As our lives have become busier, websites have become simpler. It's an interesting phenomenon that what holds our attention today is something that doesn't clutter our vision. I started my website with a template that I felt would translate easily into the type of site I wanted. Many of the best practices I ran across were elements I had already implemented into my site design.

I have high resolution photos of the products I'm selling. Each description is basic and concise. I have a few catch phrases that hook the viewer into reading more about what we create. I haven't written it yet, but the bio for my husband (because he's the one creating the product) will be heartfelt and introduce the buyer to what is important about the product from our point of view.

I have signed up with Paypal and opened a business account so my buyers can use either their Paypal account or their credit cards to purchase. This saves me from needing a merchant account through my bank. I also have a Square credit card reader for onsite purchasing, but that's not how we plan to market our product. And with a Paypal business account, chances are we can obtain a scanner from Paypal if that became necessary.

As I put the finishing touches on the website this weekend, I am grateful for the advice from the lesson materials that remind me what is important for the internet surfer of 2020. It's gratifying when I have already implemented some of the best practices and helpful to learn more.

This week, we go live!

Taking a Web Design Class - Reflection of my week

Why do I allow myself to get trapped into those “30-day refund guarantee” gimmicks? I did it again, and I should know better!

There I was, trying to get information about web hosts from the actual web host sites and they want me to sign up first, before letting me into the site to see what they have to offer. And because I don’t know enough about what I’m doing, I got sucked in. There ought to be a “back-out button” for at least the first 30 minutes!

Then, of course, because I immediately saw the error of my ways, I tried to follow the screen commands to cancel my order, but to do that you have to call in and—you guessed it!—they aren’t open in the evening. I did call the next day and canceled my order. The customer service representative was cordial and professional and it only took a few minutes. But really. Someday, that may be the site I want to use, but not today.

Research, apparently, for web hosts must be done by searching what others have found and not from the source. It’s really too bad because I’ve always believed it’s better to go to the source. Like, when people say they know what members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe when they haven’t actually talked to a member. They’ve learned everything they know about the Church based on reading or listening to what others say, usually people who don’t like the Church.

And that’s why I stayed with my first choice of Wix.com to build my site and buy my domain. It may be more expensive in the beginning, but I’ve used it before and I like it. The site is easy to navigate and offers me the opportunity to play with the web site design before I buy anything. For me, they got it right.

Homestead Woodworks, here we come...

Finished the Rock My World manuscript! Can't decide whether to start editing or keep writing something else. I'll wait to see where my inspiration directs me. In the meantime, I'm reading the boxed set of Books 1,2,and 3 of the Utah Fury Hockey series by Brittney Mulliner. So far, I've finished the first one, Puck Drop, and I'm halfway through the second, Match Penalty. Fun stories, lot's of great dialog, hard to put down...but, oh how I wish she would have made one more hard pass through the books for word use errors! If you can get past them, the books are great! Here's a link to the first book, if you're interested.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDK7QFF.

Building a Life is live

When you have lived with a builder for over 30 years, it's a natural step to write a story that involves building a house. Finalizing the revisions for Building a Life was done during the construction phase of the last house my husband built for us and I'm sure he laughed when I would come out of our trailer (parked on site for convenience) and ask an obscure question about building while he was working.

In every book there is a little real life. In this book, the soccer scenes, especially the goals scored by Nick, came from my son's high school championship team. He played center forward, just like Nick, and it was pretty fun to sit in the stands and listen to other soccer moms cheer for Hendo, the nick-name his team gave him. So here's a shout out to Scott for the inspiration behind the soccer scenes!

My next project, Daisies in the Driveway, is ready for revision. But the month of May will be focused on traveling and I won't get back into the swing of writing until the middle of June. My husband and I are going to Japan to see a friend (we call her our Japanese daughter) and her family. Perhaps our trip will give birth to more ideas for stories down the road!

In the meantime, Building a Life, is now available from Amazon and booksyoucantrust.com.

Building a Life

After weeks and months of revisions and finalizing cover art, my new novel Building a Life is in the final stages. Release is set for May 1st or 2nd. Here is a sneak-peak at the cover:

And a little bit about the book:

Sara Castleton resolved to make better choices now that there was a new life growing inside her. When her husband, Peter, plowed through that stop sign and left this world, he left a mess behind. Picking up the pieces of her shattered life and finishing the house Peter started could be the answer to her future, but she needed help.

When Nicholas Bradford was asked to step into Sara’s unfinished house project, he reluctantly agreed. He didn’t always see eye-to-eye with Peter’s friends and business associates, but one look at his pregnant widow and Nick couldn’t say no.

Before they know it, they aren’t just building a house, they’re Building a Life.

I'm so excited to be teaming with Books You Can Trust Publishing on this project. They have been excellent to work with.

Now, back to the keyboard to finish the next one! (Daisies in the Driveway)