How important is Web Marketing and SEO for budding web authors and webmasters today? As future web authors, if we don't pick up the necessary skills to get read on the web, we might as well quit before we start. I thought it was important enough to write up a Web Marketing Page focused on the subject.
If you already have a solid following (gratz!), but if you're viewing audience is still fairly small, live user feedback sites like Stumble Upon, Reddit or web article discovery sites like Digg could be a perfect platform to help spread your message. There's a growing number of web directories where you can submit your new site to.
What is "Web Marketing"? It's the virtual soap box you have to stand on to get an audience. While many writers become authors because they feel a need to write, without readers your words will have little impact. Since it's my deepest hope to inspire people, to instigate critical thinking and focus I for one am working to find readers.
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. You'll want to deliver your web writing, movies or images in a way that search engines (Google) can easily find, and give a high search score. When potential users are submitting keywords relevant to your web pages, showing up on the first page can mean the difference between delivering a message to the world, or to only a select few.