All About Web Space for Authors

It's guest Monday and today Sierra Godfrey is schooling us on the often confusing waters of deciding what you want your web home to be--website, blog, self-hosted, free, etc. She's going to give us some practical tips to make it easier for us to know which direction is best for us.

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BLOG TOUR ALERT: Today I'm at Sexy Lady talking about From Blank Page to Published Book - How CRASH INTO YOU Came To Be

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Take it away, Sierra...

All About Web Space for Authors

by Sierra Godfrey

When I'm not writing, I work as a freelance graphic designer. I design brochures, logos, and Wordpress-based websites with my build partner, fellow writer Mike Chen. We opened shop on our joint project, Atmosphere Websites, last summer. In that time, we've had a ton of questions about blogs vs. websites. And funnily enough, authors seem to be the ones asking the questions. 

Roni has written a lot on the subject of author websites as she's emerged out of the chrysalis of unpublished writer with a strong blog into the butterfly of published author with a real need for a website that accomplishes many things. I've written about this at length, too, especially for unpublished writers. A few weeks ago, Anne Allen had a post about whether you need a website at all. Here are some answers to some of the more common concerns and questions we've gotten:

1. What's the difference between a blog and a website? 

Put very simply, blogs are for social interaction. They're for engaging with others. It's okay if you want to use yours as a soapbox, but remember that the basic function of blogs is for people to comment and interact with you.

Websites are more for information purposes. They don't always nor automatically feature mechanisms for you to interact. For published authors, they're perfect for marketing books.

Of course, you can market your books just fine on your blog, but if you do only that, people will stop coming around--because you're no longer having a conversation with them.

Some published authors have asked us: Do I really need a blog? The answer is no, of course not. But if you want to provide an easy to way to converse with readers and writers, then yes.

2. What's the advantage of paid services over free ones?
First, here's the breakdown:

• Blogger is free,
  run by Blogger and hosted by Blogger.


• Wordpress.com is free, run by Wordpress and hosted by Wordpress.


• Wordpress.org is free content management software that you download and install on your own server space

Server issues

Why on earth would you use your own server space and pay all associated hosting fees when you could just use Blogger or Wordpress.com's server?  The simple answer is that if they go down, so you do. 

Custom Design

One of the questions we get a lot is why anyone should pay for website design when there are so many free templates out there--for both blogs and websites. And it's true, there are free templates and some of them are really great looking. I personally maintain a blog through Blogger's free service, although I've tricked the heck out of it so it looks exactly how I want it to look. (I address why I use the free Blogger site rather than my own Wordpress site below.) Here are a few reasons for both:

With a paid web host, you:

• Have control over how it looks and acts, and can customize the graphics


• Can add customized features that a lot of free templates don't allow


• Can change it, add to it, grow it,  and you generally have a bunch more options for doing this, including account size space

Free services are great because:

• They're, well, free


• There are a lot of beautiful templates


• A company (Blogger, Wordpress) runs the server and takes care of upgrading templates and updating the interface

Domain names

"But I can get my own domain name on my free Blogger blog. Why do I need to pay for a hosting package?" You're paying for that domain name--and still not owning your blog space, and you're not getting extras like your@yourname.com email addresses, which you usually get for free with paid hosting packages. And, if you don't have a website, there's no room to add one later. But if what you want right now is a blog atwww.yourname.com. then the domain name option through Blogger or Wordpress.com is a good one.

3. So why are you using Blogger?

A few weeks ago, I was telling someone about the advantages of getting your own server space and domain, and installing Wordpress on it, and paying someone to do a custom design. And then they asked me, "So how come you're using a free Blogger blog?"

 

  

To be honest, there's no good reason--I just haven't gotten around to switching yet. I don't even have the excuse of having to buy or set up my own website, because I already have it. So for me, it's the matter of transferring my Blogger blog over to a Wordpress blog. I see no advantages in staying with Blogger except that I'll lose my blog followers; this is pretty easily overcome by publishing a post begging people to switch and leaving it up there. And I don't have the number of followers that Roni does. She's a little more cautious about losing her hordes--and yet, she's expressed to me that she worries about losing all the content she's published on her Blogger blog.

When I move my blog over to my own website, I'll get a better blog publishing interface (in my opinion; Wordpress has many more blog-friendly features than Blogger does even with Blogger's new interface, which strangely mirrors Wordpress's now). And all the posts I've written for the past three years will import right over, and the chance of losing them all to a crash of Blogger's doing will be minimized.

 

In the end...

Using a free blog or website vs. a paid, custom-designed one is a personal choice. Generally, you're going to want more space, freedom, and control when you're a published author, which are things a free service can't supply as well. And there's no question--a yourname.com site looks professional. 

For marketing reasons, I always advocate having your own server space. There are a number of low cost and very reliable hosting companies that offer space, email, and domain names at affordable prices. (I use 1and1.com and have four web hosting packages through them; my business partner Mike uses Bluehost.com for the same reason.)

But free blogs offer wonderful, great-looking services as well--and work just fine for lots of folks. Blogs and websites are all a part of how you manage your identity online, and as an author all those choices are highly personal. 

Please ask me any questions, or let me know how YOU plan to go forward with free or paid web spaces.

About Sierra:

Sierra has enjoyed crafting stories for as long as she can remember. She especially likes stories that feature women who grow from the choices they face—and get the guy at the end. She’s a member of RWA and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two little boys, and two annoying cats. In her spare time she works as a freelance graphic designer and technical writer. To the untrained eye she can appear somewhat sassy, but at heart she loves a good story and is really quite sweet, especially when the lighting is right. Visit Sierra at her blog or Twitter.

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“...a sexy, sizzling tale that is sure to have readers begging for more!" –Jo Davis, author of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION

CRASH INTO YOU is now available! Read an excerpt here.

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All content copyright of the author. Please ask permission before re-printing or re-posting. Fair use quotations and links do no require prior consent of the author. ©Roni Loren 2009-2012 |Copyright Statement|

Is Blogging Dead?

Last week I read a post by Wendy Lawton over at Books & Such Literary Agency in which she talked about "What's Not Working?" when it comes to marketing. One of the things that surprised me was that she listed blogging as the first one that is "not working." She even goes so far as to say this:

"I wouldn't recommend a writer start blogging in order to publicize his book in today's climate. It would be tough to picture a scenario where the outcome would justify the means." 

I have to admit, the statement shocked me a bit. Obviously, I'm a bit biased because I'm an avid blogger and really enjoy that part of social networking. But after I got over my initial pause, I read through the post again to think through what she was saying more rationally.

Her argument is that unless you've already built an uber-blog, then you're going to have a nearly impossible task of standing out in an over-saturated blogosphere.

Okay, I can see her point there. The blogosphere IS glutted. And when it comes to writers blogging, we're a wall-to-wall crowded room of writing advice, writer ramblings, interviews, giveaways, and randomness. After a while, click after click begins to blend together and sound the same. I know my blog reading has gone down in the past year because of lack of time and because much of it feels like reruns. It takes a great headline on Twitter at this point to get me to click over to something. My google reader goes neglected.

So how in the world do any of us stand out in that crowd?

I'm not entirely sure. My guess is that it's often like books--it comes down to the voice of the blogger, the freshness of their take on things (even if they are old things), and their engagement with their readers. And even then, many times the audience on the blog is comprised of other writers--so we're still really only reaching a niche group. A fabulous group, but a limited one a best.

Wendy also, by the way, isn't big on blog tours for the same reason. Authors put forth all this effort to write up new posts and interviews for tour stops--which takes a crapload of time--and then "tour" on sites that pretty much appeal to other writers. So you're swimming in the same pond, promoting to the same school of fish.

Believe me, that is weighing heavy on my mind as I try to formulate my plan for my book release. I am planning to do a blog tour, but now I'm wondering if my time might be better spent doing something else. I mean, there are only so many interviews people want to read. And I'm hard-pressed to think of sites that I could guest on that would expose me to a totally new group of people. I honestly think getting reviewed on the book blogger sites is probably much more effective.

So in that respect, I can see Wendy's point about blogging's effectiveness. (For the record, her exception to the "blogging doesn't work" belief is the person who has a particularly unique slant, some previous celebrity, or an already established audience.)

Does that mean I'm giving up blogging? Hell no. I love blogging. It makes me happy and I feel blessed that you guys are still reading me after two years, lol. (Thank you!) And I really do love reading others' blogs. But this post is not about me (shocking, I know.) ;) This post is for those of you reading who are in the early stages of your blogging or who are considering starting a blog or who have been blogging but kinda sorta loathe it. Here's my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

Even "If" Blogging Is Dying, You Should Blog If...

1. You just love blogging and don't care if it's promoting you as a "brand."

2. You are a published author who has or will have fans seeking you out online.

(Caveat: If you are a published author and don't like to blog, that's fine. Just find some online outlet where readers can get to know you and interact--twitter, facebook, whatever.)

3. You have a unique slant to offer (like Wendy mentions).

Meaning, you have something to offer your readers that would sustain a popular blog even if you weren't an author with a book.

4. You write non-fiction.

I'd be hard-pressed to imagine how blogging wouldn't help a non-fiction writer.

5. You're not into short-form social networking like Twitter, FB, Tumblr, etc. and feel more comfortable connecting online in long form.

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that come to the top of mind for me. Number one is my reason (and hopefully number two will apply to me soon too, lol.)

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you think blogging is dying? Do you find yourself reading fewer blogs, leaving less comments, or do you see traffic on your blog trending down? How do you connect with the authors you love? What makes a blog a must-read for you even when you develop blog reading fatigue?

Five Epic Attempts At Website Building & A Facebook Fail

So last week I did a post on Ten Components of a Rocking Author Website and I talked about how I wasn't really thrilled with my current author website (not this site, but my static site). Well, that little thought ending up bugging the hell out of me for the rest of the day. And then I opened up the can of worms that is attempting to build a new website. It put me into the dangerous zone which my husband kindly calls "mission mode" and I refer to as obsession.

So began the journey.

Website Attempt #1 (Homestead)


First, I went to my current provider (Homestead) and tried to mess around with the site I already had built. Well, it didn't really go so well. They have this thing where if you switch your template, you lose all of the personalization you've already done on your site. There's no feature to let you see what the other template would look like without getting rid of what you already have. (Or, if that's not the case, that's how the website read. Click this and all will be lost! Okay, not in those words, but basically that.) So I didn't want to lose all the work I've done, just to "test" out a new template. So I decided to go see what I could do somewhere else while keeping my homestead site in tact as a back-up prom date.

Website Attempt #2 (Wordpress)


So off I went to Wordpress because a) I've had a blog on there before and b) everybody and their mama seems to have their website "powered by Wordpress." Well, I ended up struggling a lot trying to find a template I could tweak enough to get it to how I wanted it. I don't know CSS and I was on cold medicine, so double whammy set me up for techfail. I got a site up, but it wasn't really what I wanted. The columns wouldn't go where I wanted them, the padding in the content window was too thick. It was a decent site, but it wasn't how I wanted it to look and unless I could learn to tweak the template at a html level, I was going to have to live it with it. So off I went again...

Website Attempt #3 (Squarespace)


You get a 14-day free trial on Squarespace, so I decided to give it a shot. I found a template that worked, but I was having trouble figuring out their system. It's seems like a lot at first. I built a basic site. Got frustrated, moved onto #4.

Website Attempt #4 (Blogger)


So after I was completely bald from pulling my hair out and my forehead was dented from banging it on my keyboard, I went back to my fuzzy safety blanket. Oh, Blogger. Me and you are like cream cheese and crackers--a perfect combination. I've been on Blogger for two years and the system is like second nature to me. So I built a nice little website over here. Well, it wasn't perfect. Blogger is a BLOG platform, not really meant to be a website platform. You can only have a certain number of pages, your landing page is your blog (not a welcome screen) and your sidebar is on all your pages whether you want it or not. BUT I was willing to do a work around. So I was happy with the site I built.

But alas...the lovely author Carolyn Jewel messaged me on Twitter and told me I really shouldn't build my site on blogger because it's not on my own host. I have no control over my content. If Blogger decides to shut me down for any reason (say someone reports the site for over 18 content and I didn't mark it as over 18 or something), they can literally shut you down and you lose everything. She then sent an email with her "pitch" on why I shouldn't do it that way. She made a lot of sense and she's had a website for many years so has a lot of experience under her belt. So then I got to thinking again. And I went back to....

Website Attempt #5 (Squarespace....again)


So I still had the site up on Squarespace. I opened up the program again and started looking through the help files. And OMG, their help section is SO fabulous and user friendly. I've never found a help section that was so easily navigated and that answered the exact questions I was looking for. After arming myself with some knowledge, I went about tinkering with my site I had put together. And I finally got the hang of it! I'm really happy with the functionality, the ability to tweak templates liberally, and the way the site turned out. The only complaint I have is I wish they had more font choices--but that's nitpicky.

Oh and did I mention I did all of the above in the last five days? Yeah, mission mode indeed.

So, have I got you curious yet?  Here is my brand new site: www.roniloren.com
(Warning: the pic in the header is sexy--not graphic--but make sure your boss isn't hanging out at your desk or something.)

*Alright and FACEBOOK ALERT:
I also found out through this whole process that it is against Facebook policy to have more than one account. So I have a personal account and one for my pen name and apparently that is a no-no. So no big deal until you're caught right? Well, yeah, it is. If they catch you or someone reports it, they will SHUT DOWN your accounts, BLOCK your email address, and you will LOSE all of your contacts and files on your account. So say my books comes out and I build this nice following of readers on FB. Well, then the account is shut down and I lose all that work. Not to mention losing all my personal account stuff. Gah! Now worth the risk IMO.

So if you are friends with me on Facebook or have liked my former fan page, please please "Like" my new page. There is a link in the right sidebar to click Like or you can go to the page here.

And believe me, I know the fan page thing is kind of lame and it limits me because I can't "friend" people with it, but I don't have any other option. I don't want to get rid of my personal/family account because (sadly) this is how I keep in touch with most of my family and friends who are spread all over the country. And I don't want to open up that page to everyone because it's not a place for my writing/book stuff, it's just family pictures and such. Plus it's under my non pen name. So there you go. I'd love it if you "liked" my page. If not, I understand. (And if you want me to "like" you back, email me your page link."

Okay, so what do you think of my new website? Do you have an author website and what platform did you build it on? Did you know about this facebook policy?