Don't forget the icing sugar...
So, you’re an emerging writer and it’s time you launched yourself into cyberspace? That’s great. I’m going to share with you some steps to getting started with a simple website that you can build yourself on a modest non-existent budget. Just one thing though, and sorry to be a nag, but you did do your homework from last time, didn’t you? If so, you can have a virtual pat on the back and a seasonal mince pie for your efforts. If you’re new to this site then I’d advise you to go through the checklist in Part 1 and decide which of the success ingredients you’re going to need to put together in your website. Trust me, it’ll make the process much easier in the long run.
First steps
1. Decide what you want your website to be called, i.e. your domain name. Many new writers keep it simple with something like www.firstnamelastname.com. If you have a specific product or project to promote then you can also (or instead) register the domain name for that, like www.noveltitle.com.
2. Now check whether your choice of domain name is available. To do this you need to go to one of the domain names registers, here, for example. If you can’t get .com or .co.uk (for UK writers) then check out other suffixes like .org, .info, .net, and .org.uk. However, they start getting a bit bizarre after a while, like uk.com, .tel or .biz!
3. Then you need a hosting company, aka an Internet Service Provider (ISP), to give you webspace and host your website. There are zillions of companies out there that offer web hosting services, and usually include the registration of your domain name. For this website I used eukhosts as it’s relatively cheap (less than a hundred pounds for two years hosting), and I’ve had great customer service from them.
4. Another decision you need to make is whether you’ll be making very regular updates, like news, features or articles, and inviting comments from your readers – in which case you need the functionality of a blog – or whether you’re happy to start with fairly static pages without much interaction.
Yes, but how do I actually build a website?
Back in ye olde days of the internet you needed some knowledge of html or would’ve had to hire a web designer. But now there are some amazingly easy-to-use software systems that require very little technical expertise.
Option 1. You can download free and paid-for website templates, which you then fill with your own words. Open Source Web Design has a vast collection of templates on offer, although you may need a bit of hand-holding from someone who’s tech savvy. By the way, your hosting company may also offer a free website builder.
Option 2. Probably a better alternative is what I call a ‘blog-style’ system. These were originally designed for people who wanted to keep blogs but they’ve become really popular and are almost the default option for those starting a website for the first time.
The two most popular ones are Blogger and WordPress (the latter of which I used to build this site). Others include Squarespace and the free Weebly, both of which are very simple for the non-techie person to use. With these you can add all types of content, i.e. text, images, audio, video, and update the content easily and within a specific template.
N.B. You can create a basic blog right away for free, but unless you choose a paid-for option that includes your own domain (and web hosting) then your website will be www.firstnamelastname.blogger.com or www.firstnamelastname.wordpress.com.
Me? I prefer to pay the extra to have my own domain name, as I think it looks more professional, but it depends on your budget.
Next time I visit this topic I’ll be talking about design, and getting the right look for your website. In the meantime if you have any questions or comments please post them below. I’d also love to hear from new/emerging writers who already have a website. How easy/hard did you find it to get yourself online?
Fiona Joseph
4 Comments
This is a very straightforward article, fiona, with lots of useful advice.
A quick note on Weebly http://www.weebly.com/ which I use for my site http://www.nicklemesurier.org.
I chose them because an entry on google identified them as one of TIME’s top 50 websites of 2007 and they seemed to have drawn lots of attention from the press. The basic package is free, and to someone with no knowledge of html very easy to use. It is all drag and drop stuff. As you say, if you use the free package your domain will include the weebly name. For less than £40 I bought my current domain for two years. I’d wanted nicklemesurier.com but it seems someone else had got in before me!
The site offers a number of templates and you can upload articles, links, photographs, videos and so on. The templates are not the very bestI’ve seen – yours is much more attractive and its all a little bit static – but they are quite good and there are a lot of them. The site is generally easy to manage, though there are certain times of the day when it runs very slowly, probably when more American users are online. I also find I often get a cute ‘Oops, we’ve encountered a problem. Please try that again’ message when editing, which is annoying.
Frankly, I’m thinking about changing and probably won’t use them for my next site which will be a feature for older writers.
Thanks, Fiona! You turned me on to Word Press, and I have found it much more flexible than Blogger, which I have used for a long time. I haven’t gotten around to adding photos yet [even one of me! I should take your advice…], but I update every day and then every month. I’ve been able to put up a lot more information than I could on Blogger: http://www.suchfriends.wordpress.com.
The picture at the top of the template looks good, but is not really related to my subject–writers!–so I’d like to change that when I have time to play around with it some more.
In the meantime, I got a domain name–gypsyteacher.com–through the GoDaddy site, which someone in the States recommended to me. I haven’t had any problems with it [lately], just use it for e-mail, but I really hate their sexist marketing campaign. Can I move? I’m up for renewal [it’s really cheap]. Could I drop them and take ‘gypsy teacher’ with me? Anyone out there know?
Do you use Google Analytics to track the visits your sites receive? http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/analytics/ I’ve just signed up for free and wondered if anyone had experience of it, or any other means of tracking activity?
Weebly offer a basic summary of page views, updated daily and presented in a graph. I have no idea if the information is accurate or just made up. Sometimes I get a hundred page views in a single day. I wonder who from?
Hello both! Nick, it’s good to hear about your experiences of Weebly. For a free tool it seems pretty good and not so steep a learning curve for someone getting online for the first time. Your next project sounds v. exciting and WordPress I’m sure would meet most if not all of your needs. To answer your second post, yes I use Google Analytics, as do many others. It has extremely detailed information on visitors and where they come from, and – importantly – how long they spend on your site (‘stickiness’). Most interesting for me is the info on traffic sources, i.e. how people find you – whether through search (and what search terms people have used); direct visits; referrals from other websites (I get a LOT of visits from my Twitter profile, so that tells me it’s worth the time I invest in Twitter). You can also measure the number of new visitors compared to repeat visitors. Being able to see your site grow month by month in terms of traffic helps to sustain motivation, so yes GA is a good tool to use.
Kathleen, I’m delighted that WordPress is working out so well for you. Re the photo at the top of your page, you should be able to customise this with one of your own – a montage of all your writers would look fab! As for domain name renewal you can absolutely go for another provider; you aren’t tied in at all. Be sure to tell GoDaddy why you’re leaving. ‘A complaint is a gift’ is always my motto!
Thanks for sharing your experiences and questions, N. and K. Fiona x