So, I want to start my own blog... What next?

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I made my website/blog using squarespace and it seems like I'm the only one. :cry:

I'm a SquareSpace fan; they're a solid service with some truly elegant themes and lots of user features—but they're a little pricey.
 

pdichellis

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I think that's a great start, but you need a Contact page too.

I can't remember if the .com version of WordPress supports forms, but that's a good way to do a contact page; users fill out a form and the site emails you, thus preventing spam.

If it doesn't use a form, you can use a graphic with your email address, mask it, (i.e. name AT example.com), or live dangerously and use a mailto tag and a clear address.

Thank you, I'll check into forms!

Best wishes,
Peter DiChellis
 

Lillith1991

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I'm considering starting a blog, but I honestly don't know if I would be able to maintain one. I mean, in theory I could, but I don't know about in practice. I have a blogger account in google + I'm not currently using, or I could Use word press.

Any opinions?
 

Updrifting

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I'm a fan of Wordpress. It's intuitive to use, inexpensive (I pay something like $20 per year), gives you a bunch of ready-to-go design options and opportunities to exist low- or high-tech. As a reluctant technology aficionado, it's been great for me, and I know I could do a lot more with it than I do.

As to your concern re: keeping up with it, there indeed is the rub. I started off like a house afire in 2012, and now I'm down to 1 entry per month on average. Until I have a real reason to dig into the SEO of it all (read: have a published book to support), though, I don't think it hurts to dabble, get your feet under you and establish what may be a valuable resource for you down the line. Just my opinion, and good luck!
 

Quentin Nokov

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I need free services and I'm content with simple designs and basic layouts so I made a Tumblr account--does anyone recommend them?
 

Userc16

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I need free services and I'm content with simple designs and basic layouts so I made a Tumblr account--does anyone recommend them?

I've always thought of Tumblr as a sort of 'dump your creative media' place. For instance I have a small thing for architecture so follow some architectural blogs there, but I don't think I (personally) would post much stuff other than photos, quotes and small snippets there.

Interestingly the name Tumblr comes from the word 'tumblelog' which, quote Urban Dictionary, is: 'A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging.', or if you'd prefer Wikipedia - the less 'hip' version - : 'The first microblogs were known as tumblelogs.'

So following that, I believe Tumblr is perfect for snippets of text or media, but not as ideal for long blog posts.

Hope this helps :)
 

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Well yeah there are various benefits to Blogger particularly that so many others (at least on Absolute-write, anyway) use it, and it's simple to log in to create feedback on others' weblogs - the opinion is to have a web-link to your "ID" which is representing your actual weblog site.
 
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NateSean

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I had my first guest blog recently and every single day after that I've had a new view record. Yesterday my blog got 82 hits. Coincidence?
 

Yorwick

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I use Blogger for mine. It's basic but it gives me a chance to share information and videos quickly and easily. If I want to do anything more complicated I have a website that I designed in Dreamweaver, hosted by Yahoo Small Business. I pay for that already and wouldn't want to pay for the blog too, so Blogger is perfect for me. I do also work in Wordpress for a blog that I designed for The South Asasif Conservation Project, an archaeological dig in Egypt. I chose Wordpress for the Project because I thought it would offer more options and flexibility. It does, but I have found the interface to be less that user-friendly. Maybe it's just me, but I find that updating it and adding images is slower and more cumbersome than for my Blogger blog. Having said that, both of these blogs are supplements to complete websites. If your blog is going to be your main online base, Wordpress may be worth the learning curve.
 

Quotidianlight

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I have been on the internet for a long time and after watching many companies close, merge or change in ways I don't like, I keep my blog on my website and backup regularly. I use squarespace for a lot of other reasons, but I think it's easier to do a complete back up wit a privately hosted WordPress site.
 

kdaniel171

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I have been on the internet for a long time and after watching many companies close, merge or change in ways I don't like, I keep my blog on my website and backup regularly. I use squarespace for a lot of other reasons, but I think it's easier to do a complete back up wit a privately hosted WordPress site.

Agree. Things are rather volatile on the web and it's better to set up blog on your own domain. You can backup it and have complete control over the content you want to publish.
 

butterflycollective

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This is a good thread.

I have used Blogger and Wordpress. Both are okay but I find myself gravitating to blogger. I started my blog and kept it going for eight years, writing on local issues. Problem was, it started out private and within six months was the playing ground for administrative investigations inside the agency I blogged about, news coverage and my going to a family reunion and having to explain to people there what was going on. It was definitely a lesson that I haven't forgotten. You do have to be prepared for what audience you attract and how that audience might respond. You have to deal with issues outside your blog you might not have expected. That was the most challenging part of the experience for me.
 

AJMarks

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I have both my own domain and blog, and a free blog site through Wordpress. The free one is as easy to create and maintain as my owned sites. I wanted total control, which I didn't have in the free site, if WordPress decided to place an ad on my site they could and there wasn't much I could do about it. Personally both are very easy, it all depends on how much money you wish to spend. I've got three blogs which cost me less than $150 a year. Really look around because you can find some great deals, but you want a hosting service you can be with for a long time. Transferring domains from one host to another can become a real nightmare.
 

rbmanley

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Get your domain name first, then use any platform (maybe) in the beginning

If you're serious and want to eventually proceed beyond just having an outlet for an occasional piece, you need to at least get a domain name. You can point your domain name anywhere – even to a Facebook page. It gives you a foundation upon which you can later build your empire.

But if you are thinking of building up, you'll probably want to pull all of your old articles along with you. If you start with a WordPress blog, for example, you won't have any problems as you grow. But if you were to start with a free Blogger account and then later decide you wanted more and wanted to move to WordPress, it would be a hassle to transfer all your old articles to the new platform.

I've also been hearing good things about Square Space as an alternative to WordPress. Although it costs a bit, it would position you nicely if you wanted to start selling stuff.

Best of luck!
 

handsomegenius

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It's better to host it yourself, especially if you're already paying for a domain and hosting. These days just about any cheap shared hosting account has a one click wordpress install on the control panel. A lot of hours go into building a decent blog so you might as well own the damn thing.

More important than deciding where to put the blog is deciding what your actual goals are with it and how you're going to get there. A great many people start blogs because they have a vague idea that it's worth doing, but beyond that it's fairly aimless.
 

Princess Amps

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This has been interesting. I'm trying to figure out what platforms I want to use, but since I'm a very busy student, I'm easing into it. Here's my question. If you do vlogs, is it still necessary to do a blog too? Doing videos sounds less terrifying to me for some reason.
 

under the moon

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That's fascinating. I feel just the complete opposite. The idea of doing a vlog is thousands of times worse than a blog! My editor sent me a 200-page marketing guide (okay, 150 pages; but what's the difference?) and included in it, of course, is how one has to find bloggers associated with your genre somehow, and you're supposed to leave comments or suggestions and rub elbows with them in the hopes that they'll blog about you in the future when you need a review or interview or whatever.

For me, this whole situation is like a catch-22. I mean, we're all mostly writing, first, because we're compelled to write. The goal would be to get out of the 9-5 job and be able to write more, if not all the time. But with a 9-5 job and other responsibilities, how does one have the time to market oneself constantly--the blogging, the schmoozing, the electronic face time? So then when one doesn't do the marketing enough/correctly, their work is minimally recognized, if at all, so it's on and on at the 9-5, trying to write/market in the meantime, and what actually ever changes? You can't put half an effort into it, it seems to me, into the marketing. But I seriously do not have the time to "do it up" the way it should be.

Also, I think nowadays the goal of actually getting entirely out of the job is unrealistic; I think the most one can hope for is maybe moving to part-time or freelance. I don't even know anyone today who supports themself entirely by writing.

But I digress; how do YOU all make the time to do what's right for marketing your work? :Soapbox:
 

rfitzwilly63

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I still have the dream, probably only a dream, of getting out of the 9-5 (for me more like 7-4). But I like dreaming, part of my inspiration. I have not even started on the marketing thing at all, not even a query. But, with two novels in different genres complete and a butt load of song lyrics... time to start. Kick myself in the ass and face some rejection letters with a smile.
 

Filigree

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That's fascinating. I feel just the complete opposite. The idea of doing a vlog is thousands of times worse than a blog! My editor sent me a 200-page marketing guide (okay, 150 pages; but what's the difference?) and included in it, of course, is how one has to find bloggers associated with your genre somehow, and you're supposed to leave comments or suggestions and rub elbows with them in the hopes that they'll blog about you in the future when you need a review or interview or whatever.

Underthemoon, I'm a little late to this thread and I'm derailing it a bit. But my jaw dropped when I read the quoted paragraph. Who is your publisher, and what are *they* doing to market your book?

From what I've read over the last few years, single-author promo through blog hops & reviews is much less effective than it once was. Unless you can get reviewed or featured on a site with industry reach in your genre, it's a crapshoot at best. Blog for the love of it, to share your world and meet people...please don't turn it into a relentless marketing tool. An author blog doing marketing has to have value-added content and interaction far beyond various 'Buy my book' posts.

Good publishers know this, and spend time doing wider promo that readers might not see (but distributors and industry reviewers certainly do.) Effective promo by authors helps, but it should not be the largest form of marketing.

I'd be worried that if your publisher is sending you, the author, a 150-page marketing guide, they may not be doing enough to earn their cut of book sales.
 

SandyC

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Filigree, what I've found really helpful is joining facebook groups about whatever subject you're writing about. Of course, if you're writing fiction it's not quite so easy, but if you have a specific theme, there'll always be a facebook page about it! I'm writing non-fiction, about the scientific evidence for the afterlife, and I'm a member of 4 facebook pages on that subject. I've put 5 blogs up so far (one per month) and I post a fb link to it each time a new one goes up. So far I have 11 followers and have had over 1,000 hits. Many of those who read it comment in facebook that they're looking forward to the book coming out. An author friend who has had 200 books published does the same, but she also uses twitter (I haven't had the nerve to try that yet) and has amazing success with it.
 

writerinthemist

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I tried having a blog. It was about as much fun as a colonoscopy! Despite hits and a few watchers, I felt like I was talking to myself. Hardly anyone on wordpress actually put in a response. I deleted the stupid thing. Blogging is for the birds.

I actually lost count of the number of technical articles I've had published. I just want my novel traditionally published. I can't see how my personal thoughts, etc. would be of any interest to a reader.
 
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Filigree

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That's okay, too...not everyone has time or energy for blogging. I think too many folks get caught up in the 'must have a platform' mania, and forget that their writing is their platform. Whether it lends itself to fiction or nonfiction, whether it's offered for free or published commercially. Something about it has to be useful or entertaining to other humans, if you want it to resonate outside your experience.

The other thing to bear in mind is that nonfiction can be a completely different animal than fiction. Success and wide reads in the former category may not translate at all to the latter. An agent or editor likes to see that you've had some writing and publishing experience, but that won't matter if it's not directly related to your fiction.

To be more blunt: I have a silly litle blog that I write 90% for fun, and only a bit for self-marketing. I have artwork in major university special collections across the US (and have worldwide collectors). I've lost count of the ad-copy I've written for other people, over the last 30 years. None of that matters to the agents now looking at the query or the mms I'm shopping now.