For a website remember you need two things. You need to own your domain name (ie
www.adriennekress.com) and you need to own your "space" on the web. Kind of like buying a plot of land. Many companies offer you a packaged deal, but if you shop around you can buy each item at separate locations and save some money. The cost for buying both the webspace and the domain is very little, and I would recommend doing it as there is nothing that screams amateur than those free sites where they put their name first followed by yours:
www.freeawesomesites.com/authorname
Once you have paid these fees (which you continue to pay annually) it costs nothing for you to update your site.
Blogs are different. They grew out of a different culture, free online journaling. This means that while yes there are blogs out there that are just the name of the author or whathaveyou, most blogs are "name of blog" + "name of blogging host". For example a popular blog host is "Blogger" so you will find "blogspot" written into many addresses. Mine for example is:
www.ididntchoosethis.blogspot.com Others may have "Livejournal" for example. This address is made up but is a good example:
www.authorname.livejournal.com
These blogs are considered just as professional and no one turns down their noses at such addresess.
Blogs also grew out of an idea that "everyone deserves a voice on the internet". We can debate that later. But what that means is they are ridiculously easy to set up. I use Blogger, and they provide you with templates to design the look of your blog, and a very simple way to change what is in your sidebar. In theory you don't need to know html (the coding behind what makes the internet work) at all. I know I don't.
Blogs are great for authors, because authors like to write. But they must be updated at least twice a week really for them to get visitors. You as a blog owner must also visit other blogs, comment on their posts, and become a part of the community so that visitors will come to you. Driving up traffic is often what takes the most work, more so than finding something to write.
Either way it is an excellent idea in this day and age for a professional to have a web presence. But remember the web is vast. Do not post anything you wouldn't want your mother to know, and remember that even if you delete something, it can be found somewhere in the bowels of the internet. Also be safe. Posting pictures of your children online can be fun, but there are bad people out there who like pictures of kids. Also posting too much information about where you live etc is extremely dangerous.
The internet can be awesome if you use it properly. Just be thoughtful about it!
