Looking to put together a website...

[rurounihime]

I know a lot of you have your own websites. I know next to nothing about it but I'd like to put together a website for my professional writing. Does anyone have anything they really recommend or don't recommend? What parts of your website and its features do you love? Not love at all?

I have a blog and a Twitter, so I'd love to be able to connect up to those via my site... Haha, as you can see, I'm a total noob at this. I don't even know the terminology.

Thank you for any assistance you can give me!

Comments

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

We changed ours MULTIPLE times and most recently ended up linking the site to Wordpress. So far it's working pretty well. We use GoDaddy as our webhost and I have e-junkie for direct book sales from the website. With the Wordpress link, you can write a blog post and put it on the website really easily.

The best thing about using Wordpress for your blog is that you click one button and it automatically sends your blog link to Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and any other social media you set up. (It lets you choose.)

So far I like it, but I don't really maintain the site the way I should. It's very time-consuming to make changes, plus it's infrequent so there's that RE-learning curve every time you have to go back in and do something. I think the worst thing about a website is just the constant freaking maintenance. There are also a lot of little hidden expenses. We pay the hosting fee, the e-junkie fee, and a special fee to Wordpress to block spam (we were getting a hundred spam messages a day, so that was a necessity). Probably some other fees I've forgotten at the moment.

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

um, i know heaps about websites (i've got two of own and have webmastered several others.

for a newbie, i'd totes recommend wordpress. we can talk more if you want.

[winnett.livejournal.com]

Is this for original writing? To promote yourself, or just to start building your 'brand'? Just curious. :)

I used Wordpress. That and blogger are the two most popular. I also have a FB, TW and G+ account for my author persona. I was told pintrest/tumbler is also a good one to have (one of those) because the younger crowds tend to hang out there... but I just can't face doing another SM.

The thing is, you want to build your 'platform' by engaging with people, building a 'community' so when your book is ready to come out, you can talk about it, versus just bombarding people with 'buy my book'. Also, it's all about Google and increasing your 'author rank' which means making good, steady postings to your blog and making sure Google knows it's you making it. Then link your awesome posts all over all your SM and get your friends to link it and your author rank/SEO rises.

Or something like that. I'm a noob too.

[libby-drew.livejournal.com]

I know. Ugh. All this crap takes up more time than I ever wanted to spend on it. Or on anything, for that matter.

I use Weebly for my professional site, which has the benefit of being cheap. ($25/year hosting) and super easy to use and update. I can make updates in seconds/minutes and broadcast those changes to all my other social media when I publish them. I maintain a blog there too (mirrored from LJ), and if you keep dynamic information on your landing page--like your twitter feed--if really helps you in Google rankings. I like weebly's stats function too, although Google analytics is another cool tool.

I've heard good things about Wordpress as well, so checking them out is probably good advice.

*hugs*