I point them to my site so they can see my face, read some of my previous work, and be assured that I'm really a bona fide reporter. My visitor count always shoots up sky-high just after I post a note to a newsgroup, for instance. Alas, she says, some editors still want clips mailed to them and won't take the time to get online. John Scalzi 's site also has generated online writing work. Scalzi says he doesn't do much of anything to advertise the site, other than attaching the URL to the signature file at the end of all e-mails he sends out.
People seem to find it just fine.
He also gets exposure from word of mouth, and because of previous jobs where people remember his work. On the day I checked his site, he'd put up some words about the first sheep birth on the Internet and some thoughtful commentary on the anti-gay minister who planned to picket at the funeral of a gay murder victim in Wyoming. This is a nice touch, going beyond just showing off work published in other venues. That's what writer Naomi Bloom has done on her Web site , which contains writing samples, resume, background information, a photo of her, etc. Potential clients find out about the site when they see his URL listed on his business card, letterhead, or any hard-copy writing samples he sends them.