Since I am working with the budget of an unpublished author, I decided to build my own website. Fortunately, it was not as difficult as I feared (though there are some things that I’m still trying to figure out). This page, called “How to Build the Ultimate Author Website in 1 Hour,” from a group called Out:think was very helpful, though it did take me more than an hour. I found that much of the process was quick and easy, but sometimes I would get stuck on a seemingly small problem that would take me half an hour to solve in itself. The trick, I discovered, is to first figure out the correct terminology for what I wanted, then find a Youtube video with screen shots to show me how to do it. I found Youtube to be much more helpful than simply reading about how to solve my problems. For example, here is one helpful video that shows many aspects of WordPress website creation:
How To Make a WordPress Website – AMAZING! by Tyler Moore
I also found this book helpful: WordPress for Beginners by Dr. Andy Williams. It gives step-by-step, visual instructions to making a basic WordPress site. I can’t say that I understand every single part of what I did (at times I was just blindly following the instructions), but I ended up with what I think is a decent-looking website.
And if you’re interested, here is what it’s cost (so far):
Domain name= $15/year
Web hosting= $48/year (this was a special “sign up” deal, so it’s scheduled to go up to $108 next year)
Akismet “name your price” contribution for spam blocking plugin= $12/year (Yes, Akismet, I’m cheap, but I promise to contribute more if I make money off of my writing!)
WordPress book= $13.50
Total cost of website for a year= $88.50
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