Ways To Begin Your Web Presence

I remember the feelings and my fears when I wanted to launch my first website. It was several years ago and I didn't know the first thing about where to go and what to do.

So I took the most logical step and asked around within my network of friends and acquaintances and found someone. A web designer in another part of the country was happy to work with me. I looked at her work and liked what I saw then we negotiated a reasonable price that I could handle and deadlines.

I worked intensively on that first website, the contents of what it said about my writing and my work, the articles that it displayed along with a bookstore section for my various books in print. There were several weeks of intense back and forth email conversations. I constantly checked the website and it's development and finally everything was in place. I had a well-designed, practical website which was a static brochure of my writing work.

Then after several weeks, I wanted to change something. No problem because the designer changed it. Then I received the bills for these minor changes--and that's when I began to have a strong desire to learn everything I could learn about web design and some basic HTML skills.

As you launch your website, you have to make a basic choice whether you are going to have someone else do it (out source is the big buzz word for it) or do it yourself. From my hard earned experience, I decided to do it myself. It puts the control firmly in my hands and is a lot less expensive in many ways but it is a choice on your part.

During the last few years, tools like blogs and other simple ways to launch a web presence have been developed. It's easier than ever for an individual to launch quality work online.

Determine Your Topic

No one can be all things to all people. Some authors launch a hodge-podge of material which is a mixture of things only their immediate family would care about, writing for the broader public and maybe a hobby or two thrown into the mix. Because that material is not targeted to a specific audience, it hits the target--no one. It's important when you launch your web presence that you determine your topic and stick with that topic.

Select a topic which is broad enough and something you have plenty of passion and things to say about it--or at least you can find other things online to quote and point out about that topic. If you stick to your topic and consistently build good content into your website--and promote it to everyone who crosses your path using simple tools like a link in your email signature line--then your audience will find you and come back to read what you have to say.

If you notice on these entries about The Writing Life, they are focused on writing and publishing. I've had other writers comment that they are amazed I don't veer from the topic but each one ties back into something about writing. That focus is intentional on my part and the consistency builds the audience. Readers know what they will find when they come to read my articles and content. It's important to select a theme and stay with that theme--no matter what other things you think you want to include on the site.

Three Places To Begin

When you want to launch a website, it may seem daunting to do it yourself. Here's different ways to begin and I've used each of these tools and know they are effective to build a presence online.

SiteBuildIt is one of the best values online. You can build unlimited pages and use a huge user guide. This system does much more than build pages but automatically gives you the ability to build your audience through the creation of a newsletter. Everything you need is in one economical price. I've built thousands of pages online with this system and it does not require that you know anything about the technical side of producing a website. It's where I built all of the pages in Right-Writing.com. Periodically I can change the design of the entire website--with one command. It's remarkable so I recommend you give serious consideration to this system.

Homestead is another inexpensive system to consider for your website building needs. They have simple template tools which are all point and click. You don't have to be a technical wizard or know much about computers to use these tools. In a short amount of time, you can create a professional website.

XsitePro is an inexpensive yet powerful website design program. Once again you don't have to have any technical computer know-how to begin to design well-crafted and professional websites. With XsitePro, you need a hosting location such as Hostgator, which gives you a place on the Internet to put these professionally designed pages.

These tools are just a few of the easy-to-use systems that I recommend for building a web presence. It is important for you to begin some place and these three possibilities will give you a starting point.

If you don't have a topic to launch your web presence, then launch your own name as a website. Focus just on having some web pages that tell about you and your passion for writing and doing what you are doing. You never know when your name will pop into an editor's head, they will go to google and what will they find. Give them something to discover about you. If you take control of the information and create it, it will be there.

Plan Careful Moves

Whenever I make a move (in any area such as the writing life or my physical location or my Internet websites), it's best when I make a careful plan then move. A careful plan allows for the best and most thorough outcome. It doesn't always happen this way.

For example, several months ago, I decided to move my Internet websites from Homestead.com to Hostgator.com. I have been a long-term advocate of Homestead.com and they host millions of websites plus have great "point and click" tools where you don't have to learn HTML or much computerese to operate them successfully. I've built about a dozen websites on Homestead.com and still have a number of my sites there.

I had some great reasons for switching to Hostgator.com including the additional technical capability, more space and a cheaper price. As I advanced in my technical skills for my sites, I constantly found things that I could not do on Homestead.com. In a sense, I had outgrown the "point and click" technology and was moving into a different area.

A couple of months ago, I began moving some of my websites to Hostgator.com. I started with some sites which did not have a lot of additional material associated with it and were easy to move. Then I moved my personal website http://www.terrywhalin.com/. I had been on Homestead for so many years that I "forgot" my main email address which people have around the globe: terry@terrywhalin.com was also connected to this account. For several days, I didn't get any email at this address (big clue). I had to make some additional changes to correct this issue.

This weekend, I moved my literary agency website from Homestead.com to Hostgator.com. If you searched for Whalin Literary Agency on Google, then you would find this entry:

Whalin Literary Agency
Whalin Literary Agency carries this experience in the marketplace. We help authors develop their ideas and then connect those authors to the best possible ...
whalinagency.homestead.com/ - 8k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

It is not what I wanted people to find for my agency website but was the top entry in Google. So...I made the switch this weekend and my new agency site is up and operational. I still have a few images to move and put in place but overall it has the same functionality as the old website.

Late last night I was pleased with this move. Then I remembered my agency email account was set up like my terry@terrywhalin.com Unless I made some additional technical moves, I would not be receiving those emails. I made the additional changes and that email is functional.

As I shift around my Internet websites, the work isn't finished. I have a number of my single product landing pages to move to my new Hostgator platform. With each site that I move, I learn something and become a little quicker at making this transition. I'm on my way as I carefully plan this transition.

Why am I telling you about it? I hope that my experience will be useful to you in your own moves and writing life. It's not simple for any of us.

Basics Can Work For New Authors

Whether you are just starting out as an author or writer or maybe you've been around for some time and want to get a new presence online. In this entry about The Writing Life, I wanted to give a few ideas about how to use the basics with your website to easily build a presence. At first, it may look complicated but it's not.

A long time ago, I learned the value of creating my own website. Yes, I could hire someone to do it for me. Many years ago I actually went in the outsourcing direction--and I found it frustrating. At times I couldn't get in touch with my web person--and every time I wanted to make the smallest and easiest change, it involved someone else's time--so I was charged for it.

The first step is to figure out what theme or topic you are going to address on your website. Who is your target audience or reader? Is it for a particular book or author? You need to focus on that theme so anyone who comes to the site will clearly know what they are getting and you can build repeat visitors.

I personally use one of the largest domain places, Godaddy.com Find an available domain and right before you purchase it, do a Google search for "godaddy coupon" and you will often find a discount code that you can use to get some money off the domain purchase.

After you have your domain, you need a hosting site. Choose one with flexibility and that hosts many websites and provides good service. The one that I'm using and recommending these days is Hostgator. It's inexpensive and you can do many things with it. Previously I was recommending Homestead. I still have some of my material there but I'm slowly moving everything to the new place. Homestead is still a good place but doesn't allow me to do some of the technical things that I want to do these days.

One of the options to quickly set up your site on Hostgator is to start a WordPress Blog. For an example, I've done this process for my terrywhalin.com site. The search engines like blogs and will pick up on the fact that you are using WordPress--even if it doesn't look or function like a blog. It will help your overall traffic and exposure online.

As I mentioned earlier this week, with your basic site, set up a newsletter and start the process of being directly connected to your audience. Pick up this free ebook about newsletter creation and read it carefully then begin the communications process. It's a step I recommend for every author or would-be author. Jump in at any point and if you do it consistently, it will reap rewards for you.

Finally I wanted to point out an article which yesterday appeared in my local newspaper, The Arizona Republic. I found this same article online and it's about Henry Winkler and his new children's book. Notice in the article Winkler is promoting his 14th Hank Zipzer book called Enter At Your Own Risk. I was fascinated with his struggle with dyslexia and how he's overcome it--yet notice Winkler's co-author or the writer for the series, Lin Oliver. I instantly recognized Oliver's name as the long-term Executive Director of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

Many would-be book authors look for their own entrance into the marketplace yet struggle with their lack of visibility. If you are in this situation, can you get near someone high profile, join forces with them and use their platform to propel your writing into high gear? It's something else to think about for your writing life.