Can an author build a website for free?
Every author / book / publisher needs to have a website. If you’re flush with money, you can certainly find folks to help you create one. Some companies specialize in author websites but even their minimalist website will set you back $2,500. If you have all the PR and advertising money you need and still have some left over, that’s a great solution and I’m sure you’ll get a nice 4-page website. But what if you need to change it? Or what if you don’t want to spend that much money on your website?
Here’s a possible solution. Check out this post from Abhijit Nadgouda (yes, THAT Abhijit Nadgouda.) It’s a terrific article on how the free WordPress blogging software (I use it for this blog) can serve as a very comprehensive toolkit that enables you to build a complete website. Of course, it may not fit everyone’s needs but from what I’ve seen, I bet it would work for about 99% of the book related websites out there.
In addition to the software being free, it usually comes ready to install on most website hosting accounts (I have two accounts – www.BlueHost.com and www.LunarPages.com and both offer an automatic installation of the WordPress software via the Fantastico software library.) Check with your hosting company to see if they offer Fantastico.
I don’t want to repeat all of the points in Adhijit’s excellent article but in addition to being free and readliy available on hosting accounts, the really good news is that WordPress has a very friendly user interface that lets you directly update the content at your site (so you don’t have to call a programmer to just make a simple word change.) That capability alone makes the WordPress software something you should seriously consider.
Now be warned, the article assumes you know a little bit about blogs and webpages but I think if you are going to able to create and maintain your own website, you’ll be able to follow along well enough to get a good idea if this would work for you. If you decide to use it, trust me, there will be a learning curve but in a week or two, you’ll probably be fairly comfortable with the software. It’s just that good.
If you missed the earlier link, click here to read the article.
If you want to know more about WordPress, click here.
Gary Ward
Topics: Marketing, Technology | No Comments »
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.