Starting an author website: The Basics

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Marketing Yourself

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Having your own website is very important for anyone published (novels, short stories, illustrations, etc). Here are a few things you will need to make a professional website. In other articles, I’ll be discussing the use and functions of various softwares.

What is there?

There are two types of websites that can be created: static or dynamic.

Static is the old way of creating websites. It can be useful but only if you need little to no interaction with your website and your customers.

For static websites, you will need a little knowledge of HTML coding to be able to update it. HTML is generally used as the content, where CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) define the colours, sizes, fonts and borders. If you want to change the look of your site, you might need to do a complete overhaul and start again.

Now dynamic websites separate the content from the page itself. A CMS (content management system) makes it so a non-technical person can submit and create content without having to learn and understand any coding at all. You will not be able to make dynamic pages with Geocities or usually any free host. You will need to purchase a host server and domain name.

Static websites can be made by hand coding (this takes a long time. I’ve tried it) or by using software such a Dreamweaver.

Dynamic websites already have packages put together that you can upload straight onto your host and it runs you through a wizard to install it. Example content is almost always already put in for you and for good programs, there are many tutorials on how to use it.

The Basics

• Web Space – In all probability, you will not need much unless your website is heavily focused on images and videos. For my site, I use about 500 MB – and that’s including 2-3 backups as well.
• Web Bandwidth (sometimes called data transfer) – This again is pretty unpredictable. I have 1GB, and I get over a thousand visitors viewing fifty thousand pages and used only up to 200 MB so far. Remember, you can always upgrade!
• Server countries – It is usually recommended that if you have a choice, you pick a server closer to your country. In Australia, you can occasionally get Australian servers, but Singapore is more likely
• Domains/Subdomains – You will really only need one domain. A domain is www.aboygoesonajourney .com and a subdomain is www.chat.aboygoesonajourney.com. Subdomains are useful if you intend on having different people in different parts of the website – say www.uk.authorname.com for your UK releases but www.au.authorname.com for your Australian releases.
• Email accounts – You will likely only need two emails. One for yourself and one for your website support, so any technical problems reported go straight to them.
• Databases – I would recommend that you get at least 2 databases, depending on what you are setting up. For me, I use three different programs, and I have a separate database for each of them to make backup and restoration easier.
• Also check the money back guarantee!

The most common components you will need is PHP, MYSQL and Apache to run the majority of interactive websites. Make sure you check the programs requirements before purchasing.

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