Web Site Upgrade and Expansion

I’ve been thinking about it for months and now, I’m finally getting around to upgrading my web site. It is one part expansion and one part upgrade so it is not a full overhaul.

Upgrade first. The site is now approaching its fifth birthday and the world of websites, that makes it almost ancient.  That doesn’t mean it has to be thrown out because it is old, but it does need a refresh.  People who visit my site say they find it full of interesting stuff. Visitors usually visit more than one page.  And, I still like it but recognized that changes are needed.

It was originally designed to support more than one book and now there are four in print with a fifth coming later this month or early in March.  So, I’m planning to add content and other tweaks. Here are three that are already in the plan.

First, I’m going to add excerpts from each book. So, if you haven’t read it, you’ll get an idea of some of the content.

Second, I’m going to add 15 – 30 second videos about each novel so that visitors can see/hear me talk about the book. Hopefully, when I get done, there will be at least one per book and possibly a few more.

Third, I’m going to add a section called “Fun and Dumb Things I’ve Done.” You can add the words “in helicopters and airplanes.”  I plan to talk about some emergencies I’ve faced, funny conversations that happened in the cockpit as well as some of the dumber things I’ve done as a pilot.

The second part is that the site is going to be expanded significantly. Right now, it is just an “author’s site.” When we’re done, there will be a landing page that enables you to go to either the “author’s” site or the new part, the “speakers” site.

The reason behind this expansion is that last year, I made the decision to become a professional speaker as a way to continue to build “my brand.” I’ve been doing talks for free on a variety of subjects and think that the time had come to get paid for certain types of speeches.

To do this, I needed a “speaker’s” site to go along with the “author’s” site. I’d already created the talking points to use in helping “sell” myself. For each topic, there’s info about what the audience will learn, a summary of the content and why the information is important. There will be links to vignettes from each speech so the visitor can see and hear portions of the content.

The calendar will be new and easier to find. Right now it is hidden under one of the tabs of the “author’s” site.  The new calendar will be different than the list that is currently there and it will support both the speaker and author sites. It should be easier to see where I’m speaking and signing books.

I won’t get into the technology that goes along with this because, quite frankly, I don’t understand it all. As long as it all works, that’s all I care about.

So, as they say in the TV and radio biz, stay tuned.

Marc Liebman

January 2017