Website Software and Hosting
OK, so you’ve got your domain registered and you’re ready for the next big step in building your website. Now it’s time to figure out software options and hook up with a Web Host (aka server).
Several people here have spoken out in favor of iMac, and I’ve used FrontPage before with decent results. But after much research and discussion with other writers, I opted to go with WordPress.
If you’re not familiar with WordPress, I’d recommend checking it out; it’s open-source (free—I like free!) software that has an amazingly supportive community behind it. I liked the possibilities for growing my site from the blog you see here into the full-fledged online community I’m moving toward. The best part is, you really don’t need to know website coding to use it—it’s really intuitive. WordPress files are also XML, which is, I’m told by new media pros, the way of the future.
There are two options if you do decide to use WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
In retrospect, it would have been much easier for me to go with WordPress.com, which is self-hosted so you avoid all of the hassles of paying a Web Host and uploading files. But I went with the more labor intensive WordPress.org. The kicker was, I wanted a unique URL (instead of editorunleashed.wordpress.com). Well, I found out after the fact that I could have bought that option with WordPress.com hosting for a mere $12 a year, and it would have provided most of what I needed (at least starting out).
And when it comes to hosting, there’s another important thing to know: When you register a new domain, there’s a two-month waiting period for transferring that domain to another server. So if you register with GoDaddy, like I did, and want to get your website up right away, you’re stuck with GoDaddy as a Web Host, at least for two months.
GoDaddy makes an OK Web Host, they have decent monthly rates, a wide range of services and good phone support. The turnoff, for me anyway, is that it’s so overtly sales-y—loads of banner ads, tacky visuals and up selling—in short, everything I dislike about being online. So I’ll probably look into switching hosts when the 2-month waiting period is up.
I’d love to hear any recommendations you have for Web Hosts, or if you want to recommend an alternative website software. Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions in the comments. I’m no computer genius—I’m just another writer figuring it all out with you.
-Maria Schneider
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Maria,
I followed you over from Writer’s Digest and thought I’d comment here for the first time. I’m a web designer by day (work in an agency, primary client is Nissan) and writer by night. I just wanted to say to everyone else that this is all good advice and that it’s very important to have an online headquarters from which to launch your various branches of promotion as well as a place for reader interaction. Thanks for all your tips, Maria, and thanks for sharing what you learn. Technology is always changing. Even those of us who think we know what we’re doing because we’ve done it before are often surprised how different things become as time passes. And even though I can design a webpage from the ground up with no problem (sans the time involved), I also have made use of the “quick-start” blog. My Zooming Thru Life blog (http://zoomingthrulife.blogspot.com) might be something of worth to you and your readers.
Hi Maria – I’m enjoying your series. There must be a way around that Godaddy-two-month-hosting thing because we’ve registered many of our clients’ URLs through them and I’ve never heard of a transfer wait. Maybe because we’re resellers…I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my techno-geek husband about that; I just pay the bills. :)
Another point to consider in hosting is your email account. If you have a website “brand” your email address should advertise it, as well. Stay away from @yahoo.com or @gmail.com, etc.
Peace,
Cindy.
Followed you over from WD and just wanted to let you know that so far I’m glad I did! I’ve got a quick question that I’ve never seen addressed anywhere: how much time per week/month should a writer expect to spend on their website?
If I’d have known you were setting up with GoDaddy, I would have warned you off them. I highly recommend Bluehost.com. I use them for Spindle and loudpoet. They’re affordable, have an extensive range of services and are relatively user-friendly.
Hi Maria,
I hosted my site with Doteasy.com. They have a $0 hosting charge if you register the domain name with them. Works out to about $25 for 2 years.
I got my template from freecsstemplates.org and edited it myself with some help from Nvu.com.
Getting my own site was one of the best investments I’ve made for my writing career.
Chryselle
I’ve been has my website with godaddy for a couple of years now, and I’ve been happy with them consistently. The biggest plusses about godaddy for me are (1) they’re easy: I’m someone who has no internet savvy, but have been able to build my website, maintain it, and make ongoing revisions and updates to it, with very little stress; and (2) their live telephone customer support, in the rare cases that I have needed it, has been very helpful and effective. I’d recommend it.
I’m another who followed you here from your WD website, Maria. Good luck!
“I’ve been has.”
Are you impressed with my artful prose, or what?
Maria,
When deciding on your hosting service make sure you sign up for one that does daily backups. I learned the hard way how essential that is. My site is just for my bookclub, and I worked hard to get people in the club to actually use it (not just read the newsletter). When the web host server crashed all was lost. My users were not happy campers, and usage (forums, image galleries, etc.) has never completely recovered. Now I use a host that does daily backups. (hostforweb.com by the way).
~jon
Check out ANHosting.com. Good prices. Unlike many other hosts they do not limit the number of Mysql databases and the size of the database is only limited by your overall disk size on the server. This is important for Wordpress blogs and a forum.
Dear Maria:
Great discussion. I encourage everyone to do a copy and paste backup plus a print-out of every blog post.
I had a friend lose 6 months of work because her hosting firm had a problem while doing a “routine backup” and they couldn’t restore her lost blogs.
Since she was, basically, writing a book as a series of daily blog posts, she lost a lot of valuable content.
BTW, she is my partner on http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com. I really love working with WordPress, especially for multi-page blogs.
Roger
Hello Maria,
I’m late to this conversation but I use Wordpress too (at GoDaddy!) and I’ve found that using WordPress Database Backup is painless insurance in case of catastrophic failure. It is a free plugin that you can pick up in the wordpress.org plugin directory. I set it to backup once a week and e-mail the package to a gmail account which has lots of room to store multiple backups in case I need them.
Secondly, I always keep a .txt copy of every post I write on my blogs. I have a special flash drive I use to store the posts and I keep it in orderly — well mostly orderly — files and I back those files up on my hard drive at least once a week.
Thirdly, I make an export copy of all posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. You do that by clicking on the manage tab, clicking on export and selecting all-authors — download the XML file to your computer and save it in case you need it. If you lost posts but WordPress itself is undamaged or replaced, importing all of your work is easy with the XML file.
Also if you have multiple authors and one wants to leave the nest, you can create an XML file with just their posts, comments etc., for them to take to another WordPress or WordPress.com home.
I hope this helps,
–Greg “The Undead Rat” Fisher
Dear Maria,
Thank you for leading me to WordPress! I needed an easy way to showcase my online work in one place, and the price is unbeatable. It’s only Day 2, but I think this solution will keep me happy for a long time.
All the best,
Susan
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