Since I’m a writer and no techno-wiz, I’ve just gotten past a steep learning curve to build my website from scratch, and I wanted to share what I learned in a weeklong series here on Editor Unleashed.
I’m going to start from the very beginning, because I wished several weeks ago for one reliable resource to take me through all of the steps in a very basic way.
There are many ways to go about the process of building a website, including paying a website designer a load of cash to do it for you. That may not be a bad way to go if you’re techno-phobic and you have some extra cash to throw around. But you can create what you need a site to accomplish—brand building, contact with your readers, links to find your writing and books—without spending much money, even if you don’t know HTML or Java.
Part 1: Mastering Your Domain
Choosing and securing a URL (your domain name, e.g. editorunleashed.com), is a fundamental element in building your site. It’s the part I spent the most time and anxiety on, because it gets to the very heart of what you want your website to do for you. And, much like the name of a book or a magazine, your URL is the foundation of building your brand.
First—this is important—you need to secure the URL for your name if it’s available.
There are many sites that specialize in registering domains. I used godaddy.com, which is probably the most popular registration site. register.com is another popular domain registration service.
Even if you’re not going to use your name as a URL right away, you should buy the rights to it now. My name happens to be a relatively common one so mariaschneider.com and mariaschneider.net were already in use. But mariaschneider.org was available so I bought the rights to it. Although I have no immediate plans to use that URL, I want it available to me in the future because I believe writers are primarily searched for by name.
As a writer, your name is your brand and it makes sense to make that your URL. If you do decide to go with a different URL than your name—the title of your book, for example—if you own the URL for your name (e.g. mariaschneider.com) you can still pay a nominal fee to a web host to have that URL forwarded.
But if you want to extend your brand beyond just your name or pen name, think about what you want to accomplish with your site, both now and in the future.
I wanted to build a community site for writers with all kinds of resources. editorunleashed.com wasn’t the first or second or even tenth name I came up with for this site. In fact, it took me weeks to secure a URL that communicated what I wanted to do with my site–so many of the obvious ones are already owned even if they aren’t in use.
Another problem you might run into involves the maddening variety of dots. There are the original domains we all know: .com, .net, .org, etc., plus a confusing array of domain choices available, including: info, .name, .biz. The best route, if you can, is to at least buy rights to all of the top-level domains associated with your URL (.com, .net and .org are all good options and not restricted).
Buying two-year rights to one domain (editorunleashed.com) cost me $10. But you’ll also be offered the chance to scoop up all similar domains when you buy the rights. By the time I purchased rights to everything that felt too close for comfort, I’d rung up a bill of $100. Buying similar domains certainly isn’t necessary, but it’s an important factor to consider in safeguarding your domain and your brand as a writer.
Tomorrow’s topic: Choosing a host and uploading files to your site.
I welcome your comments, questions and suggestions and will be addressing questions in the comments section.
-Maria Schneider
{ 1 trackback }
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Maria,
I’m loving the name of this site. When I first read about it, I was ecstatic. The name really struck me as perfect! I could just picture an editor unleashed, soaring high and accomplishing and sharing awesome things – and continuing to grow a writing community that is simply fantabulous. ;-)
I look forward to all the great things to come!
*smiles*
Michele
Thank you, Maria! I’m going to be teaching a prof dev workshop for writers here in Seattle, and this post will be invaluable, since we’ll be talking about building websites to showcase work. Write Habit, my site, is a labor of love to support new and emerging writers. Check it out.
And thanks for all you’re doing now that you’ve been unleashed. Would love to see some posts on the following topics: behind the scenes of a writers mag, alternative ways to get work into print, making baby steps toward getting an agent.
All good wishes for you and your blog,
Angela
Great advice on parking Your Brand Name. Main thing to remember in setting up web pages and blogs is that it is to support your writing not take it over.
Hi Maria. That is great advice and I took it. I went and registered my name and got it for a few years. You never know when I might strike the big time. ; ) Anyway, just wanted to let readers know there are promo codes out there for big daddy. I got almost $50 off my order. I went and did a search for bigdaddy promo codes and they had a bunch to choose from.
That’s great to know. Thanks Melissa!
Maria
I had a blast making my website this past summer, but it was also very intimidating for someone who hadn’t worked with anyting resembling computer code since my class in BASIC in high school.
I used iWeb on my Mac and found it pretty idiot proof, a necessity for me.
I’ll look forward to reading your insights.
Lisa
Isn’t that the toughest learning curve? Drove me absolutely mad. But that which does not kill us gives us something to talk about. :))
Maria, thanks so much for doing this series of posts on building websites — and for taking us through every step from the beginning. This is going to be so helpful.
And fyi, I added your link to my blog this weekend :)
Location, location, location. And with the internet, the location is search engines and a great rememberable name.-DavidG
Maria, what do you think about blogger, livejournal, etc. as places to build your presence online? Thanks.
Also, what do you think about social networking sites as a way to build your presence online. For instance, I have a facebook profile and a myspace profile, and I’ve been thinking of getting rid of the myspace profile because I rarely use it.
Hi there Mattw. I think Blogger, Livejournal, etc. are great places to start building your web presence without a big initial buy-in. Ditto for FaceBook and MySpace. I do think, however, it’s important to dedicate yourself to keeping up with any blogs and social networking sites you commit to.
I’m going to be writing in-depth on social networking in the next few weeks so stay tuned.
Just got word of your new venture and wish you nothing but success. And I’m looking forward to reading this particular series of blog entries after my own adventures on my non-blog site, which is still not anything like what I want it to be.
They’re getting crazier with domains these days. Travel.travel launched a few months ago and their tagline is “Our last name ends in .travel. Does yours?”
“My name happens to be a relatively common one so mariaschneider.com and mariaschneider.net were already in use.”
Don’t forget you can use your initials to nail down a solid domain name. m_schneider.com or .net might be just the ticket (where _ would be your middle initial.) M. R. Sellars’ domain is mrsellars.com, for example.
~jon
Good point about securing domains that you think you might use. I have done the same. Also, it is good to know that if you are not planning to use the domain right away you can do a redirect to your other site. For example, you could set up mariaschneider.org to redirect to editorunleashed.com automatically.