Your own website?

I've just been using Wordpress though my needs might be a little different than yours since I'm working towards publishing a novel rather than articles.

Once I do have a book out there, I may look at getting my own domain and a more robust website but, for now, Wordpress allows me to have a blog and to easily create additional pages (something which Blogger and LJ do not do).

Whatever way you choose to go, if you can secure a domain in the name you want, I would do it, even if you don't build anything on it at present. One of my big frustrations is that someone with the same name as myself has it registered and is using it.

If you're just after a free, easy to use solution, I second the Wordpress recommendation, although you'll end up with a sub-domain on the Wordpress site. It would look more professional if you bought a domain name, and either pointed that at the Wordpress site, or got your own hosting.

You can get hosting very very cheaply these days, and a lot of web hosts have 'Fantastico' which is basically an auto-installer that makes setting up things like Wordpress, and even forums, a breeze.

I've designed and run my website for a long time now, there are lots of ways that you can do it and make it cost efficient.

You could go with the "Blog" website, where you sign up for a free blog account and use that as your site. All free, all the time....you can use their templates so you don't have to worry about hosting or design fees. Other people might have more info about different blog sites etc.

If you want a professional looking site, you can still do it for a good price. You would have to pay for a domain name (doesn't cost much!) and then there are companies that offer free hosting up to a certain disk quota and traffic quota. (I use Doteasy.com and used their free services for quite awhile until I needed to upgrade because of traffic)

If you like challenges, you can have a do-it-yourself website. I taught myself basic html programming (from a book) and got "1st page" a free html design program. There are free ftp programs you can find for uploading the files to your site (I use aceftp) and you can find TONS (I mean TONS) of free website templates, that you just have to change to be your content with a bit of html.

You can check out my site, right now I actually have two sites in one, so each one has a different template that I got for free.

http://www.sandrawickham.com

Good luck!!!!!!

I used Microsoft Office Live for Small Business to start my Everyday Economics site. The hosting is free and I registered a domain name www.everydayec.com for free, too.

After one year the domain costs 14.95 a year. Not too bad. You can use their templates or switch over to advanced and edit the html.

I like it, can use iframes to put in my adsense, heck anything I could do with any of the paid hostings I've used.

As you can see, there's tons and tons of options there.

I guess the biggest issue is free vs. professional. If you go with free, you're going to look less professional because your domain name will include something else (like wordpress.org) and may even contains advertisements. I would strongly suggest you consider going low-cost and at the very least get your own domain name, which will look much more professional.

For easiest set up and lowest cost, I think the domain name directed to a Wordpress site would work for your purposes. Once you're more established, you can change the site and keep the domain name.

We've had a couple of threads about this in the last few months. You should poke around and look for them, I remember finding them very helpful, especially ones where people posted links to their sites so I could see how they designed them.

I also strongly recommend getting a professional domain rather than opting for free hosting. If you're willing to put the time into it, you can learn basic html coding without too much fuss so you can create your own site and wil have complete control over the look and feel. I've done my professional site completely by hand, and it really doesn't take that long once you get the hang of it. I update it a couple of times a month, tweaking any new changes to most of the pages and updating the recent clips on the front page. No sweat.

I do free web design

As for hosting, it costs depending on what type of package you're looking to get. Typically I've picked up the ones with $5/month or less, though the highest I had was a $10/month (much earlier... big bill!). Domains are $7-8 per year, depending on where you buy them.

I set up my free website/blog just under a year ago with Wordpress. Although it uses blogging software, I've added lots of pages, so it looks more like a website than a blog.

I did get my own domain name, which Wordpress calls Domain Mapping, and charges $10US/year.

Someone else with my name already had the dot com address, so I got a dot ca address instead (I'm Canadian). That meant I had to register with the Canadian Internet Registration Authority for $8.50, using an intermediary called Register.ca Inc. They charged just over $30 Canadian per year.

Dot com addresses seem to be cheaper, if you can get the right one. I registered a different dot com domain name with GoDaddy and three years' use of the name plus their services cost me a total $51.54 US.

Although it's not difficult to set up, once you start adding pages, it does help to know html. I also had to change templates a couple of times.

Ali
http://alisonbate.ca

I'm doing wordpress too. I put my full name in the address, and I don't think it looks too shabby. I just use mine for posting my clips, I'm not trying to attract traffic. Check out what I did with it:
www.denisebertacchi.wordpress.com.
I put a thumbnail at the top of each post to represent the story, a short discription, then use the "more" thingy. I post the whole clip after the "more" thingy (yeah, I really know what I'm talking about). This way you can scroll down the whole page and see several clips without having to wade through each one.

Autodidact said:

One of my goals for this year is to get my own little, simple, website to post my work on, rather than offering clips. I'm guessing that most of you big time freelance writers have done this already. What is the best way to go about this? By "best" I mean free. And considering that I don't know anything about it. Not too demanding, am I? Thanks.

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I have to say, that I'm a little bit of an elitist when it comes to a person's internet presence.

I give my mother shit for having an @aol.com email account. I wouldn't consider a professional author's site "professional" if its domain name is a free-hosting site, or there are unsolicited ads on it as a result of being on a free site.

Web domains and domain hosting are so inexpensive (and the costs are tax deductible) that it's ludicrous -- at any salary range -- to not pay for a domain and site. Hell, 2 cups of starbucks a month is pittance, even at a writers' wage-levels.

stldenise said:

I'm doing wordpress too. I put my full name in the address, and I don't think it looks too shabby. I just use mine for posting my clips, I'm not trying to attract traffic. Check out what I did with it:
www.denisebertacchi.wordpress.com.
I put a thumbnail at the top of each post to represent the story, a short discription, then use the "more" thingy. I post the whole clip after the "more" thingy (yeah, I really know what I'm talking about). This way you can scroll down the whole page and see several clips without having to wade through each one.

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You know... your wordpress.com site is actually *very* cool, and I'll defer my website elitism for a bit. An impressive collection of writing credits, simply and effectively displayed.

dclary said:

I have to say, that I'm a little bit of an elitist when it comes to a person's internet presence.

I give my mother shit for having an @aol.com email account. I wouldn't consider a professional author's site "professional" if its domain name is a free-hosting site, or there are unsolicited ads on it as a result of being on a free site.

Web domains and domain hosting are so inexpensive (and the costs are tax deductible) that it's ludicrous -- at any salary range -- to not pay for a domain and site. Hell, 2 cups of starbucks a month is pittance, even at a writers' wage-levels.

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But you can get it, free. At least for a year. the domain name, I mean. With what I posted, the hosting is totally free for a small site that would list clips. Why pay for something that will still look professional? I can understand going for more bandwidth in other applications such as a larger site. Not arguing, just wondered.

I was going to say, my sister-in-law is building a web-design portfolio and is building custom sites for great rates that I hadn't heard beat until a couple of posts ago. Her contact info is on the site she designed for me linked in my sig, if you're interested in a quote.

auto - I use wordpress and for what I've done with it, I think I've done well so far. Just to showcase my work and blog about my writing life. I also use it for The Freshman Writer. Go for it.

Autodidact said:

Pardon me, did I hear you correctly? Did you say YOU DO FREE WEB DESIGN???!?

Do tell me more.

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Yeah. Basically what I do is: you send me various theme related data (a favorite book cover for the layout, a color scheme, what sections you'd want) then I make the layout and code it. Then all you have to do is fill out the content and stick it in your hosting service.

Web space is so cheap nowadays that I'd personally get a cheapie host so you have your own direct URL. I have both www.barbnefer.com and www.barbaranefer.com with my writing credits/portfolio. Because I already have three other websites, I just added those on.

Otherwise, Blogger is good and free (and owned by Google, so hopefully not likely to go belly up soon0. I'm using it for the companion website to my book, and I have a personal blog plus I'm going to use it for a quick index to my examiner articles.

KosseMix said:

I do free web design

As for hosting, it costs depending on what type of package you're looking to get. Typically I've picked up the ones with $5/month or less, though the highest I had was a $10/month (much earlier... big bill!). Domains are $7-8 per year, depending on where you buy them.

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I've got a hosting and a domain could u do me a layout?