You’ve heard it a million times already: writers must promote their own work and therefore need their own blog and/or website. Setting up a blog or website has become truly easy. Here are two more options for you to consider, one of which is especially easy to set up yet can be upgraded for more power; and another, which is a premium Word Press theme allowing extensive control over its design.
NOTE: if you are already blogging, scroll down to the notice about the 31-Day Challenge for Bloggers.
WEBS.COM
Webs.com offers a powerful array of tools to create a distinctive online presence. Its most unusual feature allows one to create a “static” home page, with a blog available in a tab — OR a more traditional blog, with most recent posts presented on the home page. There are very good reasons for either approach, but I think the static front page will appeal to many writers who do not want to undertake the obligation to write new blog posts at least once a week. [For those of you who don't know, here's a video explanation of a static home page, which can also be created within a Word Press blog. You can also see another tutorial in our VIDEO FOR WRITERS collection.]
One of the best ways to understand this facility is to look at the various sample websites/blogs that use the system. The variety is quite astonishing. I was particularly struck by the sample website Book Mania, which uses the service’s entirely free platform. The free service requires that the site name appears as a “sub-domain.” The URL follows this structure: http://sub-domain.webs.com. This is perfectly acceptable, but many visitors will catch on that it’s a free site. And sub-domains usually do not rank high in search engines such as Google. Webs.com customers, however, can easily upgrade in order to obtain one’s own unique hosted domain name, which is preferable for the more serious writer.
I’m impressed with this solution for writer’s seeking internet exposure who do not wish to spend a lot of time setting up and maintaining a website.
THESIS THEME FOR WORD PRESS
Of course, a writer can go to the far other extreme and set up a fully custom-designed website, but that can be a fairly expensive option. There’s another, very appealing option. Utilize a premium Word Press theme that allows a lot of control over a blog’s appearance through simple option boxes. Premium themes cost less than $100, but can provide a writer with a “one-of-a-kind” appearance.
One of the best of such themes is named Thesis. Some of the most highly regarded bloggers have built their blogs using this premium theme. I suggest that you visit the astonishing showcase of websites/blogs customized under the Thesis platform.
A Thesis-based blog, hosted by Hostgator, would be easily managable by any writer who has developed basic computer skills.
There’s a full review of this theme at Yaro Starak’s blog Entrepreneurs-Journey. Even if you are not considering a premium theme, a read through this review will be none-the-less very informative in pointing out many of the options available in blog design.
FREE WORD PRESS THEMES
I personally considered the Thesis theme when looking into redesign of this blog. But I thought before making that decision that I should look through some of the free themes available. I guess I looked at about 200 of them, finding about 10 that I thought would work for Becoming A Writer Seriously.
I finally came across a free theme that met all of my criteria, and that’s the one you see here now. It’s free — and yes you may come across this theme on other blogs. But it answers my needs. The only cost of this theme is the time it has taken to customize it the way I wish with Word Press plug-ins.
31-DAY CHALLENGE FOR NEW BLOGGERS
Darren Rowse runs the highly-regarded ProBlogger blog, which has a huge following. His blog, by the way, utilizes the Thesis premium theme. Rouse also authored the book pictured above, considered a blogger’s bible by many.
Starting next Monday, April 6, Darren will begin his 31-Day Challenger for bloggers. Each day he will send an email to everyone who signs up for the challenge with a nugget of information about successful blogging, often accompanied by a ‘home-work” assignment. As one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet about the task of blogging, Darren will undoubtedly have a lot of valuable information to share. He’s run similar challenges in 2007 and 2005. This year he expects about 8000 participants. It’s free — so why not join in. While aimed at newer bloggers, he promised to include information for the more experienced as well.
This time around Dan is also setting up a forum for participants. In fact, if you do intend to participate, leave a note in the comments below. If there are enough of us, I may be able to set up a special section of the forum just for us. That would be turly useful, as we will all share the perspective of being working and aspiring writers.
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- Thesis: The Best Professional WordPress Theme (cutewriting.blogspot.com)
- Rise Of The Blogging Service Industry (problogger.net)
- The Thesis Theme Compared To FlexSqueeze (loadofbullshit.com)
- Beginner Blogging: A Guide to Getting Started (mfinch.ca)
- How to Start a Web Site in Six Easy Steps (poynter.org)
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Sorry, comments are closed.
Comment by
Lindsay
2 Apr 2009
I’ve just signed up for the challenge and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been blogging for about nine months and certainly think there’s a lot I could do to improve. I’m glad you posted about this. I don’t know if I would have heard of it otherwise.
Lindsay’s last blog post..Tiny freak out
Comment by
mika
2 Apr 2009
good article Tom, i find it quite useful. Is there a problem if this site, Book Mania, uses the service’s entirely free platform?
Comment by
Tom Colvin
3 Apr 2009
Do NOT confuse webs.com [with an "s"] with web.com, which is a totally different system. I’m not sure that I like the later one, but the first one appears to be really good.
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