Pause for a second. Close your eyes. Think back to the writer you were five years ago. What had you accomplished? What publications and books were attached to your name? What speaking gigs were under your belt? What organiztions were you a part of? What projects had you started and completed? What social media platforms were you active on?

Now fast forward. WHERE are you, as a writer, today? WHO are you today? WHAT projects, achievements, books, awards have you attained? My guess is that this current version is quite a bit different than the writer I asked you to first envision.

Now, open up your website or document that contains your author bio. Which of these two versions of yourself and your career are presented? If it’s the first, then you are selling yourself short.

Five years ago I had written five books, visited a dozen schools, and written aritcles for a handful of online platforms. Now I have double the books and school visits, have been blogging weekly for three years, presented at conferences/camp/retreats across the Midwest and been invited to speak at an international children’s book festival. I am also a member of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and the vice president, as well as group leader, of my local writing organization, the Mississippi Valley Writers Guild. I also now coach other writers through workshops, digital products, one on one sessions, and have created my very own eCourse. My skills, knowledge and accomplishments are DRAMATICALLY different from the author I was five years ago. Heck, five years ago, I didn’t even have a website.

So what’s my point? My point is that you need to present the most current version of yourself online, so that when people are looking for a guest speaker, a panel member for a festival, a local author for a book club, or a school visit presenter they are looking at you NOW, not you and your abilities of five years ago.

I explain this thought process a little more in depth in my eCourse (The Take Action Author Plan) in section three, The ABC’s of Authorpreneurship, when I get to the letter U.

It makes sense right?

I want you to make a list. What elements of your online presence could use a little updating? Your bio and resume are ones I have already mentioned, but what about your publication list? Your website homepage? How about your online store, author headshot or links to interviews/articles on other sites?

Here is a check list ot help you generate ideas and then get the job done.

Copy and paste this check list to print, or email me for a free digital download.

It is my personal goal to go through this list monthly, so that the chore of updating becomes a healthy habit in my business. Also, bonus, if you/I/we do it every month, it is likely to be less time consuming each time we undertake the task. Double bonus, not really sure if that’s a thing, but we’re gonna go for it, all of this updating will alert Google to the fact that your site is active, alive and well… and will consequently raise it’s level in search rankings. #winning.

To put my money where my mouth is, I recently did some updating of my own website. Recently I have updated…

The Read page on my website.

I keep a running list of books I read on the READ page of my site so that anyone looking for reading recommendations, whether for kids or adults, I have them ready to go. (Side note: I also have the book titles linked to affiliate programs, so that when purchases are made, I earn a small commission. It’s an easy passive revenue stream to add to your business. If you want to learn more, I talk more about it in this blog post, so start there, and then just email me with any questions!)

I added videos to the Take Action Author Plan Page.

The Take Action Author Plan is my independent eCourse that teaches writers how to self-publish a book, market that book and also level up their writing career. The course includes around 3 hours of video content, that is broken up into bite size chunks of 2-5 minutes. I decided to include a few of these videos on this page to give viewers a sneak peek of the course material and see if it is a good fit for them.

I updated my Blog Archive.

Earlier this year I created a blog archive, so that it was easier for people to find past posts basedon the category of information. There are six such categories in my blog archive. Authorpreneur Advice, Writing Tips, Behind the Scenes of My Stories, Inspriational Blog Posts, Environmental Blog Posts, and Guest Blog Posts (from visiting authors). I post on my blog each week, but remember to add that post to it’s specific category in the archive is a step that has slipped my mind… for a few months. I promise you it is now updated. Pick your favorite category and go give it a browse to make sure you didn’t miss anything spectacular!

I made a “first chapter” video for Close Quarters.

I read the first chapter of Close Quarters for this video and then posted it on the EXTRAS page of my website alongside the book club discussion guide for this novel. I plan to do this for of my books, so stay tuned for more videos!

I added Learning with the Word Nerd to the TEACH page.

There is a lot of craziness and nervousness surrounding the start of the school year. I wanted to help, so I created a new Facebook page on which I share tips and resources. I named this new page, Learning with the Word Nerd and then added the information about it to the TEACH page on my website. If you are a teacher or an at-home-parent educator, I’d love for you to check it out! I also added a few educational videos I created for this new endeavor and the updated versions of the resources I sell on Teachers Pay Teachers on the TEACH page. Go check them out!

I added the Instagram icon to my social links on my website.

Within the last few months I’ve decided to be an active particiapant on Instagram, so I added the icon and link to my Insta account in the footer of my website.

I added the WRITE page to include my episode on a podcast.

In August I did my first ever podcast interview. It was a great experience and I love how it turned out. I added a link to the episode to my WRITE page so that visotrs to my site can easily discover and listen to all the word nerd goodness I share via the Writescast Podcast. (Bonus, the episode serves as an excellent sneak peek into my Take Action Author Plan course!

I added a pop-up.

I know that pop-ups can be seen as annoying, but really, they can capture new audience members, so I did it. If you are visiting my site, you’ll likely be asked if you’d like to join my email list, in which I share 5 Good Things with readers, twice a month. Once you subscribe, the pop up will no longer… well, pop up, for you. And, if you visit my site frequently, you’ll only get one pop per a week. I am hopeful that this gentle reminder will help me grow my audience, especially those who are unfamiliar with me and checking out my content for the first time. P.S. If you are not on my email list, you can subscribe and grab a free gift by clicking the audience that best describes you: READER, WRITER, TEACHER.

And just like I recommended above, I updated my bio.

Nothing major, just a few tweaks. It didn’t take long and I am very happy that my author bio now reflects the most current version of me, my skills, publications and offerings.

Now it’s your turn and I wanna know, what are you going to update first?!?!

Today’s post post was made beautiful by CANVA. You can check out my blog archive collection here.

If you liked what you read on my blog today (or are in search of weekly word nerd goodness) and would like to have it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning, you can sign up HERE. If you are interested in any of my email lists (with free goodies/downloads!) click the audience that best describes you: Writer. Teacher. Reader. As always, feel free to share this post with others you think might be interested via email, Facebook or Pinterest.

Finally, affiliate marketing is promoting a product or service in return for a commission. When you purchase a product or service through one of my links, I earn a small part of the sale. There is NEVER any extra cost to you. If you looked up the same product on the same site through another source besides my website, the price will still be exactly the same. 100% of the time.

I also NEVER link to products or services that I don't 100% believe in. I will never tout a company or their goods if they are disreputable or if I don't believe them to be worthy of your hard-earned money. In no way are my affiliate links a scam. (Language borrowed with permission from Kristen Kieffer on Well-Storied.com)