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*RomanceWriter*

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For those of you with websites, did you make your own or have someone design it for you? Who did you webhost with? Any recommendations?
 

LuckyH

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Although it’s easy enough to do it yourself, I considered it to be important enough to be done by experts, including the hosting. After all, a writer’s website is almost a requirement by publishers, and their own efforts are seldom good enough for what you want, because they’re concentrated on their business, rather than yours.

I can’t help you with recommendations, I believe we live on different continents.
 

AyJay

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Romance - I hired a graphic designer who was familiar with WordPress to create my site. Now I'm pretty much on my own. WordPress isn't terrible to navigate for editing, adding new content, etc. though I'm pretty limited with the higher level functions. It is free and has some technical support options. I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with it so far.
 

Linda Adams

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I did mine myself, using some free photo sites and Microsoft Expressions. Most of the hosting sites will offer business-like templates, so you could probably start with that if you see a template you like. The one I'm one has a program where you just plug in all the information, and then it publishes the site.

Worth noting:

Cartoon graphics and animated graphics look unprofessional. The animated graphics also are very distracting. If you aren't sure about picking graphics, go for photos. This list includes a lot of public domain photos: http://delicious.com/Garridon/photos Just make sure you real the requirements to use them.
 

Matera the Mad

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I do it myself. Always. But I'm me. It's been raw code all the way up until now; I'm working on some content management ideas. Would like to use Joomla, but I'm getting frustrated up to here with it--just too much and too...what, obscure? I like to keep things simple, so I might throw a lot of it into WordPress when I am satisfied with my own theme. WP is easy, leaves the mind free for other thoughts ;)
 

Amarie

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I sort of did my own, using a company that offers customizable templates, but before I started, I took a couple of online 'design you website' courses. My site doesn't have any bells or whistles, but it will work for the moment, and I know enough to know how to keep it updated, which was important to me.
 

*RomanceWriter*

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The more I search, the more confused I am. There are SO many web hosting sites, it's unreal.
I'm looking for one that is reasonably priced and easy to use with templates and such.
 

sheadakota

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Romancewriter- I had a friend of mine design my website- check my site out (click link in siggy) If you like what you see, PM me and I can give you his addy- it doesn't hurt to ask- he runs his own design company.
 

zpeteman

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I created my own. I used Rapidweaver for design and management and it's hosted by Domain.com for a couple bucks a month. I've been pretty happy with it.
 

Melanie Nilles

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I have mine hosted on Yahoo through their small business services. I like all the features I get, including customized emails.

As for design, I took mine from a site featuring free templates, although another site with templates less than $40 had some I liked more. I used to design my own with html tables and such, but the css code is so much easier to work with (except you want to know something about html raw coding to make changes to the content on the site).

If you check my site, you'll see the design I chose is pretty general. A lot of the template designers offer customization for a fee, and there are some flash templates also, if you like something with flash animation (like twinkling stars or a window over the graphic that opens and scrolls down).

I found mine at freewebtemplates.com. Some are pretty bad but most are decent.
 

GreenHairedGirlie

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I designed my own website, but I'm also a graphic artist with years of experience working with raw code :p
I use InMotion for my hosting- they are really wonderful, with great customer service and affordable rates. I definitely recommend them.
My domain name is registered through Google, which costs $10 per year.
 

ishtar'sgate

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I'm pretty much illiterate when it comes to anything like that so I hired a professional. She took care of the web hosting too. I think it's GoDaddy. The site is pretty much static except for a Q&A page. I need to update it quite a bit but no moolah for that right now.
 

CocoCat

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My boyfriend's a web designer so I pretty much get my own way so far as website requirements go. Let me know if any of you need one setting up, he's very good and reasonable with prices.
 

Gary Clarke

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I designed my own too. Bought the domain name and the space from networksolutions, used one of their basic templates. It was a bit time consuming to set up, but now it's just a case of updating the reader's letter pages and info - which I must admit is harder and harder to keep on top of as I'm so busy all the time with promo work/editing/the new project etc.

www.celinekiernan.com
 

James81

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The more I search, the more confused I am. There are SO many web hosting sites, it's unreal.
I'm looking for one that is reasonably priced and easy to use with templates and such.

Don't know if I'm actually allowed to make a recommendation openly, but I guess if not someone will be along to edit this. :D If so, PM me.

Anyway, I recommend either Hostgator or Bluehost. I've had both and both were awesome. Right now I've got Hostgator for the site in my sig, and they are just awesome. I don't recommend ipowerweb. Had them also and the site went down a lot and the customer service is a bit lacking.

I did my site myself, and I use wordpress because, well, wordpress is the most awesome thing since sliced bread. And it's very easy to use and get the hang of--especially if you aren't really web-savvy or a coding genius. :tongue There are a lot of free themes out there for it, too, which is great.

If you need any help with anything, let me know. I'm not a coding guy, but I know my way around basic stuff.
 

jasonleeward

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About My Website and its Structure

I created my website layout using Photoshop then had a design company build it. I thought about how I wanted it to look, my needs for it, and that it had easy navigation. A user friendly website is what invites returning visitors. Instead of using a traditional layout I made certain that mine would engage the visitor and keep them clicking on pages.

My website design is a three panel layout that eliminates down scrolling. At the top, my links surround a photo banner on three sides and below this are the three text panels. The left panel has my networking links. The middle panel tells what my website is about and has a bookmark button along with updates and subscription info. The right panel provides a noteable links section featuring pages of greater interest; some of these are Notes (character related), Photos (3 roll-over galleries), Characters (Flash page) and Playlist (there's 2, one with character requests). Interactivity is an important part of my website. There's also a 45 second Flash intro that's part of my novel's theme. My website has taken time to develop, and will continue to do so as my needs as a writer/author grow.

Take a look and let me know what you think of it!
 
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