According to HarperStudio, who experiments with new publishing models to make books more effective, creative and sustainble, sites for authors and/or books, must accomplish the following five things:

1. Is interactive and speaks to a distinct community
2. Is inherently entertaining
3. Engages someone who has never heard of the book or author
4. Gives the reader a reason to come back
5. Can be found easily on Google

And, happily listed at the top of their examples of sites that “got it right” is the official site for John Hodgman, AreasofMyExpertise.com, which we (ERA404) designed last year.

And while JH, himself, should take credit for the first four and WordPress deserves recognition for the last one, I’d proudly extend HarperStudio’s list by one, and take credit for it:

6. Creatively extend branding across new media

Go us!