Tidying Up One’s Online Home

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.


So we just updated Miranda’s website, and even changed her domain name in the process. It’s funny how one’s online home can become so out-of-date, and for so long. The copyright on her old site still said 2007, and had zero mention of her upcoming book. The photos were all from years ago, and to even begin updating it would have to start with emails and phone calls to the person who designed it years ago.

So we started fresh. One big change we made was go give people a more easy way to find the site. The original URL was MirandaBeverly-Whittemore.com

Go ahead: from memory try to type that into your web browser. That domain will now redirect to a new one that is a bit easier to remember: MirandaBW.com. What’s nice, is that this also now aligns with her Twitter handle: @MirandaBW.

Her new site was something I created rather quickly on WordPress, but there are some key changes:

  1. The focus on her new work, Bittersweet.
  2. A general update of lots of small things, such as her author photo.
  3. Aligning her overall messaging, such as her short and long author bios.
  4. Connecting everything: including links to FriendStories.com, and her social media profiles.

Here is the old website:

And here is the new one:

Is the new one perfect? Nope. But it’s a good start, and a platform that Miranda knows how to access and update on her own, which means that in 2020, the site is more likely to be up to date!
Thanks.
-Dan