Author Websites

[Trisha]

Many people would like to have their own website to market their book or create a fan base, but the costs can be very prohibitive. I've successfully used the Google Apps system on many occasions, and it's worth taqking a look at. For only $10 a year, a self-directed and motivated author can create a web presence. Go to www.google.com/a for a tutorial -- the only drawback is limited design tools but after the learning curve I found the service indespensible.

[R.d.]

Another way to get a quick, presentable web presence is to set up a blog at www.wordpress.com. They have a large number of templates available to give a custom look to them.

Also there is no software needed to post new articles or pages, just use your existing browser.

[Chelle]

Xanga and Blogspot are free and user-friendly. I can tell you from the computer-stats, there is a lot of book-related searches that hit these sites.

[Kathy-Diane]

I recently set up a weblog at wordpress.com and find it is excellent. I'm a techno-weenie and their FAQ section is a big help. It's a great way to creat a web page and a blog in one go. The best part was the price! Very user friendly in my book. http://www.kathy-dianeleveille.com

[Mary]

Ditto on the WordPress blog. I've had a Blogger blog (Blogspot) and a WordPress blog. I much prefer WordPress. It has built-in stats that show you which posts are getting hit and how often. For Blogger, I believe you have to sign up for Google Analytics to get the stats. (It's been a year since I've posted to my Blogger blog, so this may have changed.) The other thing WordPress is good at is building community. Far more people have found my WordPress blog and interacted with me there as compared to my Blogger blog. (You could hear the lone cricket at Blogger.)

http://woowooteacup.wordpress.com

[David]

Having your own domain is not that expensive. My yearly cost is about $110.00. My wife put it together and I take care of page updates myself, but if coding is not your cup of tea there are lots of people around who know how to do HTML. Ask around. Perhaps for a free book...

[Kristin]

Through GoDaddy, I think mine is like 50$ a year plus I pay for privacy... another 7$ i think. If you have Front Page, I think there is a plan for maybe 35$ a eyar. Not sure, I would tell interested people to give them a look.

KB

[Christine]

I use bravenet.com
You can have a free website with lots of templates and free tools.
A domain name is $8.95
I pay around $100 a year for the pro site with no advertising, plus additional tools.
I created both my official website and Shadow Forest Authors websites using bravenet, I just paid the extra $8.95 for the SFA domain name.
http://www.bravenet.com/
hope that helps
CJ

[Sandy]

I've used dreamhost.com to host my sites. I got a little crazy about them––currently own maybe 50 URLs. They're nice to point at one main site so you can capture all readers interested in different phases of your business. Get this: I got in on a sale at dreamhost. I pay $19.95 a month and can host an UNLIMITED NUMBER OF URLS, with every bell and whistle you can imagine, blogs, email, everything. This is for web hosts: I could host others on this plan and charge them.

I think the basic plan at dreamhost is $5.95 a month which includes lots: Check it out.
http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html

I use my web site as a professional presence and sale site. What brings in the traffic is my blog. On it, I write about whatever's on my mind, not just selling books. The blog is linked to my website, and vice versa. If you're serious about this, I recommend getting Dreamweaver, a program for setting up web sites. I can use it as easily as Word now, what you can do with it is amazing.
Check out: http://www.sandynathan.com website
http://www.sandranathan.net blog
Good luck!
Numenon