The Magic of Your URL
Writers — Your Usernames Matter
Anyone who publishes content online should understand the importance of their URL
Just imagine yourself. Standing on Oprah’s stage, waving at the audience as they cheer, you shake her hand and prepare to have a seat.
Your book was featured, and since that, it has hit the top of the charts!
You are worldwide and the world is raving about what a good thing it is that your work was found.
Your work made the big leagues and is a huge success. So successful that where you used to think Oprah did you a favor by raising your voice, you now can see that you helped her as well. Your work has brought more fame to the one person we all thought couldn’t get any more famous.
Your books have become movies. Your movies have become remakes.
You have done things with your writing career that only greats like Stephen King, J. K. Rowling and Edgar Allen Poe have done. You have created entire worlds within the world.
You stand next to our predecessors like Walt Disney and Steve Jobs because your work has changed the fabric of our existence.
You are filled with gratitude as you wave and smile.
After you have a seat, Oprah asks you where the fans can find your body of work.
You answer with a confident and professional smile.
“Yes! You can find me at Holly underscore official dash 372 Kellums dot com.”
“Oh, and my handle is Holly dash Kellums everywhere else, besides Insta. Insta is Holly Kellums 2 Official.”
Okay, I exaggerated. But in some of your cases, this is just a slight exaggeration.
If your username or web address would not sound legitimate coming out of your mouth on the world stage, it does not sound legit now. Plus, there are many other reasons why your user-names matter.
The magic of the URL
Usernames matter for many reasons, so we will name a few and outline how you can use the URL’s magic to reach more people.
- Choose a URL that you can use across all platforms and has a few special characters or numbers as possible — none preferably. The main reason you publish your work is for people to find you and view it. Confusing or inconsistent URLs make it harder for people to find you online.
- Don’t use secret codes or weird number and character combos that no-one would know. As a creator of any sort, much of your traffic will come through other members of your creator network. Other writers and creators cannot tag you in collaborations or reference you and your work — if they cannot get you to come up for a tag because they do not know the secret code of your URL.
- Make it easy for people to find you and your work. Ensure that your names, usernames, and domains are as simple, consistent and easy to remember as possible. You are already trying to be heard in a noisy world, but it is also a world of people used to the microwave culture of headlines, fast food and short video clips. Reading more than a title is hard enough for many people, don’t make it even more work for those people to find your work or they may never get there.
Fewer people go to book stores and libraries than ever. Creating an online home for your writing that people can easily find is just as important now as it was to get your work into book stores and libraries 20 years ago.
To all my fellow writers, who know about the URL, thank you for making it easy for me to support you.
To all who may not have known, I am sorry for that time I gave up on tagging you. I promise I tried. I simply didn’t know you substituted an E for a 3 in your username.
Written by Holly Kellums
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