Remember the Magic 8-Ball? It was a toy that was around when I was a kid -- maybe still is -- and you would ask it a question and shake it up, and it would give you helpful answers such as:

• Go for it
• Don't do it
• You what?!?
• You're kidding, right?
• Huh?

Well, maybe I don't remember the answers exactly.
Anyway, it always seemed to me that if you had to shake up a Magic 8-Ball to get an answer, you were pretty squarely in the undecided category to begin with, and you might as well do what it said.
Now, I talk to a lot of writers who are overwhelmed at the prospect of a website, and it's too bad, because they have valuable things to say that aren't getting the currency they deserve.
So in the spirit of the Magic 8-Ball, I offer the following types of websites to meet the goals of different writers.
1.
You Want to Promote Your Novels You've already published a work of fiction, whether it's self-published, small press, or big publisher, and you want to give it more traction.
Start a blog and review books in your genre.
Post at least several times a week, preferably every day.
Run your own reviews, but mix in links to other people's reviews with your comments.
You can have an affiliate link to your favorite online bookseller for extra income -- if someone buys through that link, you get a commission.
2.
You Want to Promote Your Nonfiction You write materials that help people solve their problems and get through life more successfully.
You're published on paper, print-on-demand, ebooks, audio, video, or all of the above.
You have the chance to make serious money with your site.
Create a website dealing with the problem you solve.
Optimize it to get search engine traffic.
Create sales pages for your products and promote them by writing short articles giving good information about your topic and distribute them to the article directories.
3.
Promote a Cause Your book is all about changing the world.
Create a blog with articles and news relating to that problem.
Let's say your passion is finding a cure for Parkinson's disease.
Post news items relating to Parkinson's research, along with information to help Parkinson's sufferers and their families, and have a prominent link to your favorite Parkinson's-related charity so that your readers can easily donate to the cause.
4.
Write for Fun and Income Find a hot topic and blog about it.
It might be celebrities, some specific health concern, making money, relationships, gadgets.
Google Trends can be a source of inspiration for this.
Post snippets of news and opinion relating to your topic, along with your own unique take, and get some contextual ads on your site, such as AdSense.
5.
Support Your Writing Habit A lot of people make a good living doing affiliate marketing, which is commission sales online.
You promote someone else's product and get a commission.
If it's an ebook, for example, you might get 50-100 percent of the purchase price for selling it.
Build a website with links to the product author's sales page, and you write articles relating to the product and post them to article directories, bringing traffic and links to your site If you haven't started your website yet, you are already missing out on great opportunities to build your author's platform and promote your work.
Your writer's website is your doorway into a world where your skills are desperately needed and -- if you meet people's needs -- richly rewarded.
If the whole thing seems new and intimidating, just get a Blogger blog and start.
It will be easier and harder than you think.
There is information readily available to learn what you don't know, and people readily available to help or do it for you.
If you don't start, you leave the global marketplace lacking your unique contribution.