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CL_Hilbert

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Those of you with author websites: how did you go about doing it?

I've bounced between a bunch of blogging platforms over the years, but I'm starting to feel like I need a central hub of my own. I want to make a fairly simple website for myself--basically just an author bio and a list of publications--but I have very little idea how to go about doing it.

I've seen Squarespace advertised a lot by Youtubers lately who make their own websites and they seem really well done... but Squarespace sites are also about 200$/year to maintain. That seems like a lot to me, but then, I have no frame of reference. Is that a lot? Is that thrifty? No clue.

I was hoping others on here could share their writer website experiences. Where did you go to get a website? How'd you set it up? Do I need to brush up on my HTML? (Do website makers even use HTML anymore? Oh god, I feel old. Haha)
 

Laer Carroll

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WordPress.com is the foremost of the free website providers, for the following reasons. Ease of creation and use. Variety of looks (customizability to create a unique "brand"). Uptime (hosted on geographically separated mirrored servers so if disaster strikes one server your site stays up). Can be both a blog and a web site: frequently changing posts + rarely changing posts (bio, list of your books, background for series such as geography, timelines, family trees, whatever).

Start here: https://en.wordpress.com/features/.
Then go here: https://wordpress.com/themes

Create a site as soon as you become serious about a writing career. It takes time to learn the tech and art of building sites that express your unique brand. You need to have an elegantly attractive and easy-to-use site BEFORE you need it. It's the one place where you have complete control of the face to present to your readers.

START SMALL. TAKE BABY STEPS. STAY SMALL as you can. You do NOT need to know HTML though tech enthusiasts will try to sell that idea to you. You need to focus on your writing, and eventually on interacting with your fans, not launch into an education program however modest.

If anyone in this thread gives you advice, check out their website. It will give you some idea if their advice is useful. There are plenty of sites by AWers, a good many of whom are pro writers with one or more books published.
 
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Cobalt Jade

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I use Wordpress. Wordpress is a blogger platform, but there are plenty of gadgets and widgets, and you can have static pages if you want. I use Dreamhost as my server, which is very Wordpress-friendly. I had a family website going before I made my own domain, so I had practice beforehand. I highly recommend going the Wordpress route.
 

CL_Hilbert

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Thank you! That is very helpful.

I was leaning towards Wordspace and the advice to stay small puts my mind at ease. 90% of what I write is short stories, so I really only need a place to list them in a way that looks clean and professional. I don't need a full Squarespace website experience with a bunch of pages and drop down menus and such.
 

Laer Carroll

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I went the self-hosted route through Wordpress.org (different from Wordpress.com though they're the same company.

Totally free WordPress.com is a good place to start. It allows you to try different approaches to creating a site which looks and acts just as you want it to, only costing you time. For many users it stays their best choice. If they later decide they want some feature WP.com does not have, WP makes it easy to go to a self-hosted server.

WP.org sites do have some drawbacks. They're a bit more expensive, and if you pick the wrong host site you may have any one of several problems. Self-hosted sites require you to be somewhat more knowledgeable about HTML, CSS, uptime/downtime concerns, and so on - or require you to hire someone who has that expertise. But for someone building a complex heavily functional site it's one of the premiere choices. Many major news, ecommerce, even governmental organizations use WordPress.
 

Maskoz

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I realize this thread is from February, but I hadn't seen it before and I've had some incredible guidance from a web programmer friend of mine over the past year. Thought it might be useful to others who see your post.

I'd previously been on Wordpress (both the free and the hosted versions) and was going to rebuild my site that way and then focus on SEO, but he stopped me. He said don't worry about SEO. Worry about traffic. So instead of building a free standing site, construct a one-page website that serves as a portal to your presence on all your various social media platforms (which are apparently weighted much more heavily than free-standing sites). That way, Google and all the other algorithms see the traffic moving back and forth from gigantic, established sites, to your tiny tiny postage stamp. His analogy was this: "Don't build a storefront in an overcrowded alleyway, put up posters on main streets that show people how to find your content."

The more sites you post on that lead back to your site, the better. I don't want to be a spammer by putting my website here, but it's in my profile if what I've said here doesn't clearly articulate what I mean. I've found it massively more useful (and far easier to manage) than any of my old Wordpress sites. For the one page I used Wix, which is way more user-friendly than Wordpress, has a free option, has reasonable hosting packages, and doesn't need to be backed up/updated all the time like Wordpress does. I linked it out to Youtube, Goodreads, Medium, Behance, Bandcamp, Twitter, and Facebook to make the best use of all the different algorithms.

*Edit - ok, I guess it's not in my profile, but if you really want to see it, I'm sure you can find it from what's there.
 
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Woollybear

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I'm also curious about this topic. I've been looking through wordpress this morning.

1. I can buy a domain name through wordpress for $18 or through go daddy (and point to WP) for $12. Any reason I should buy my domain through Wordpress since go daddy is cheaper?

2. In a 2011 zombie thread there was a suggestion that WP.org allows a plug in for selling direct and WP.com does not. In other words, self- publishers should use the .org/self hosted option. True or false?

3. What's the best hosting service for wordpress.com?

I have a ton of questions but most are silly. These three are getting me all hung up though.
 
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Marissa D

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1. Doesn't really matter where you buy your domain, as far as I know. If GoDaddy's cheaper, go for it--but also, check what renewals will cost from both places and price it out.

2. True only if you are planning to sell books direct from your website--are you? That's a whole 'nother can of worms, as you have to deal with customer service (helping clueless people learn how to sideload files onto their devices) as well as possible tax reporting issues. I mean, yeah, sure--but it might be easier just to stick to selling through the usual suspects like Amazon and B&N and iBooks etc. at first.
 

AW Admin

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I'm also curious about this topic. I've been looking through wordpress this morning.

1. I can buy a domain name through wordpress for $18 or through go daddy (and point to WP) for $12. Any reason I should buy my domain through Wordpress since go daddy is cheaper?

2. In a 2011 zombie thread there was a suggestion that WP.org allows a plug in for selling direct and WP.com does not. In other words, self- publishers should use the .org/self hosted option. True or false?

3. What's the best hosting service for wordpress.com?

I have a ton of questions but most are silly. These three are getting me all hung up though.

1. I'm not a fan of GoDaddy for domain registrations, especially. I'd suggest Name.com.

2. Essentially, unless you're running a huge site, if you want to sell directly from your site, wordpress.com is not a cost-effective solution. In general, selling directly from your site is a giant PITA; I'd urge you to use extant providers like Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, etc.

3. WordPress.com is the only hosting service for WordPress.com. Dreamhost, Name.com, BlueHost are all affordable and fairly decent hosting options. I've had good luck with HostGator as well.

It's a good idea to keep your domain registration service, where you register your domain, separate from your hosting provider, where the files actually live. I'd also suggest paying the extra ten bucks or so for a private registration.
 
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Elenitsa

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In general, selling directly from your site is a giant PITA; I'd urge you to use extant providers like Amazon, iBooks, Smashwords, etc.

Why is it a PITA? I think it is simpler than using any intermediary (plus that in my country, Amazon isn't delivering, and the others are unknown). I really intend to get a site (or get my books listed on a site) and show them there, providing an e-mail where the orders to come (with the delivery address, so that I can send the books with direct reimbursement).
 

DanielSTJ

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I use Wordpress and have found great delight in seeing people view and like my posts.

I'm still learning though! Fingers crossed! :)
 
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AW Admin

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Why is it a PITA? I think it is simpler than using any intermediary (plus that in my country, Amazon isn't delivering, and the others are unknown). I really intend to get a site (or get my books listed on a site) and show them there, providing an e-mail where the orders to come (with the delivery address, so that I can send the books with direct reimbursement).

It's less of an issue if you're not using the site to conduct transactions (that is, people send you a check, rather than transmit financial data via your site) or so that people can download an ebook from you.
 

Elenitsa

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It's less of an issue if you're not using the site to conduct transactions (that is, people send you a check, rather than transmit financial data via your site) or so that people can download an ebook from you.

No financial data and no downloads from the site. The financial transaction is done by mail (paying for the book package when you receive it). This is how the bookstores/ publishing houses who do mail deliveries function too.
 

godzillachild

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I'm so glad you got a website, it looks great! I use wordpress myself and am hosting it through bluehost because they offer a pretty good discount on your first domain name.
 

williemeikle

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Mine is all handcoded by me in HTML / CSS, as I enjoy the tinkering - the domain and hosting cost me $30 a year, and that also allows me to host my email newsletter with them too which goes out to 4000 every month at no extra cost. It also links through via a blog summary page to a Wordpress.com page for my blog, which gives me the best of both worlds.