Web pages

>1. What should be on the web page? I am an MFA in creative writing and planned on including some poetry and short stories

--Sounds good!

>2. What absolutely shouldn't be?

--Assume that everything on your website will be available to the whole world in perpetuity. Anything you don't want the whole world to know about you shouldn't be on your website. For instance, some people like to play it close to the chest on their new projects because they don't want to get ripped off or scooped by others.

--Do not, under any circumstance, make promises you can't keep. don't put up areas and say "under construction". don't add the area until you've constructed it. Don't start a blog if you aren't certain that you will sustain it for some time. In general, don't put up time-sensitive material if you don't plan to maintain it.

For reference, I maintain my whole site once a year -- design, layout, content, links, update the cv, etc. But I also don't have anything more time-sensitive than that (like CFPs or job listings or anything).

>3. What about links?

--Only put up links that you have the time to maintain (except if you have a blog, in which case it's expected that links in your entries may or may not age well). You also should be wary of just linking for link's sake. Is there some area of the www that you know particularly well? Good, then make your site a resource.

>4. Should you share this page with students or should it be just for professional contacts (not that students won't find it if they goggle you and all)

--they'll find it one way or another. My site is quite baroque and my blog occasionally mildly confessional. I don't direct my students to my site (though at my old job my courses were on my site, but there was no blog) but it's sometimes nice when they find it and discover we like the same music or whatever.

HTH!

VE.

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