Creating a website

There are a lot of easy site builders out there. Most have the ability to see what the page will look like as you build it. Most free blogger sites have the ability to make it a static website. Some to look at are Wordpress, Weebly, Blogger, and Wix, however I've heard Wix isn't mobile friendly.

IMO, your website is the one thing you shouldn't skimp on. It's your public face for the world and worth paying for. Buying a domain is pretty cheap. I'm paying under $5 year for the domain and a privacy service. You can have that redirect to your free site. When I had a hosting company, I would pay for 2 years up-front so it wasn't a constant billing issue. When finances are tight, it can be a lot easier to scrape up a couple hundred all at once that make sure you have that small amount monthly. Claiming your domain early is important because internet squatters can buy it out from under you then charge ridiculous amounts to sell it to you when you really want it. I'm currently using a Wordpress builder and have my site hosted on a private server.

I'll also suggest you take time to look at author sites and figure out what you need on your site. Some basics people look for include an about me page, a bookshelf listing all books or stories that may be available, and contact information. If you are represented by an agent, make sure to put that in your bio information.

Wix.com makes it easy. Here is mine. You select a template and then make changes to each section. It's really easy, and you don't need any coding experience because there is no coding to do. You browse and upload photos, so that's easy to. You edit text by clicking on text boxes.
http://warmhawaiian.wix.com/survivingthefog

I got a domain (not too expensive), and I redirect it to my wordpress.com site (I think it costs $13/year to do that?) I don't really know anything about these sorts of things, but it wasn't too bad to set up.

I use WordPress on my own domain site. I pay $36/year for my domain registration and ISP. (I got locked into a deal like 7 years ago.) But WordPress was a free add-on offered. (I use Bluehost.)

I also think Wix is super awesome, and easy to use. I just wanted my own domain name and was more into the blog-format, so I went with WordPress. I'm pretty sure Wix has the ability for you to upload to your own domain as well.

I did not like Weebly. I found it highly annoying.

My suggestion? Play around on a free site like Wix or WordPress. I don't find WordPress ads annoying (and am not sure how Wix does the ads, it's been a while). If you decide you want to go whole hog, you can easily transfer from WordPress OR Wix to your own domain.

Whatever you choose, just make sure you have the ability to transfer it. Many people decide they want their own domain name eventually, so you want that flexibility just in case.

Here is a 100% free WordPress site I created for my inmate creative writing work I do. Just to give you an idea:

http://speakoutclc.wordpress.com/

I used to create my own websites using Dreamweaver and had my own domain name and all that, even made websites for other people. Then I discovered Wordpress and that was the end of that. These days, I prefer to spend most of my time writing, instead of writing code and html (unless I have to for writing).

You can start with a free website on Wordpress that will show yourname.wordpress.com but for $18, you can get your own domain name. For an additional $20 (I think) you get rid of the ads that show up at the bottom of each post. Or you can just upgrade to $99 and get all that plus 10GB space and videopress and all that. The details are on their site when you sign up for the free one (great way to start). I love that the themes are all up there to choose from - there are many free ones that look very professional. I don't get a commission for recommending Wordpress at all but after discovering them 2 or so years ago, I'm hooked.

I just created my own author website through them instead of doing it with using my snazzy website design software, and did that $99 route after upgrading piece meal before that with my other blogs for writing.

Good luck!

CrastersBabies said:

Here is a 100% free WordPress site I created for my inmate creative writing work I do. Just to give you an idea:

http://speakoutclc.wordpress.com/

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Just had to say that's a wonderful page btw! And I love the poems and the artwork on the side widget!

I'm going to move this to the blogging forum where there's a lot more help.

The important thing to keep in mind is that your author's site should show your "brand": you and your works as you want to be seen by your readers. You are unique, you want to try to show it.

For instance, if you write steampunk sci-fi your site will look very different than if you write Star Wars type sci-fi. Sites for writers of epic fantasy and romantic erotica will also look very different from each other.

And within those broad categories you likely have your own unique take on them. Try to show that as well.

You may also want a personal blog as well, where you natter on every day or two about very personal stuff. It's probably best to keep that separate from your professional site and keep its blog devoted only to pro matters. However, you can include a link in the pro site to the personal site. And link to your pro site from your personal site. That way you get the best of both worlds. (There is also an SEO advantage to this division, but that's a very technical topic.)

For your pro site to stay interesting and in the minds of your readers it's a good idea to post something every week, but no more than three items. Make them short & include a graphic. (If it's long, put it in the "static" part of your site & put a short notice in the blog part of your pro site with a link to the long post.)

You might think it's hard to post non-personal stuff so frequently, but you likely have a lively enquiring mind and often surf the web for matters important to you. These posts are not directly about your works. But they showcase your interests and the sort of material you include in your works, so they indirectly advertise your books and shorter works.

One of the places to look for stuff interesting to your and your readers is YouTube. WordPress makes it very easy to include their videos in your blog. What displays is the first key frame of the video. If readers click the image the YT video runs, and they can select whether to see it on your site or flip to YT for a full-screen view.

And as several others have said in this thread, WordPress.com is a good place to start. It's free and easy to set up. It's then a lot easier to tailor it away from a cookie-cutter look to your unique look. If in the future you want very sophisticated capabilities you can get a self-hosted site and (via WordPress.org) copy your WP.com site to your site.

I had one as well for a while to help with updates and promotions for my website, but it didn't do so well and I ended up taking it down.

After a lot of trial and error, this is what I have come to:

I use Wordpress, hosted by HostGator.

Wordpress was hard for me to learn. I mean sure I got the basic blogging pretty easily, but when I started to want to do more--that's when I had trouble. That's where "Websites Made Easy" by James Stafford was a lifesaver! He has a couple free videos on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/howtobuildawebsite11

Then if you like those, he has more free videos on his site (but you have to give you email addy to get to them--for me it was totally worth it). If you want more after that, there are also paid videos. (This is a great business model, BTW, offer great content for free to interest people in your paid content.)

The links to my website/blog and my book website are in my siggy. I hope that helps.

I've heard some good things about GoDaddy Wordpress hosting (although apparently, most of their other hosting services are pretty bad). If you familiarize yourself with some basic Cpanel tutorials, then pretty much any reputable shared hosting service should do.

[Arc]Will said:

I've heard some good things about GoDaddy Wordpress hosting

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Please excuse my expressing my surprise. I've always heard (from people "in the trade") that GoDaddy is truly horrible for WordPress hosting (as well as in a number of other ways).

[Arc]Will said:

If you familiarize yourself with some basic Cpanel tutorials, then pretty much any reputable shared hosting service should do.

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Agreed. (I would exclude from the category of "reputable" GoDaddy, 1and1 and any hosting companies recently taken over by the dreaded Endurance International Group).