Comments on: Hosting Your Web Site

By: Gerhi (under review) Janse van Vuuren

Gerhi (under review) Janse van Vuuren — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:00:45 +0000

1. I wish I was getting the critique. But maybe not yet. I’m only 310 words into my first novel.

2. That’s the clearest, non geeky explanation I ever heard for explaining how the internet works. I think I’m understanding it for the first time myself.

By: Charlotte Babb

Charlotte Babb — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:04:15 +0000

I manage a number of small websites. I have used Godaddy for buying domain names, and recently bought a hosting package where I have several domain names and a blog. I find Godaddy’s site cluttered and hard to navigate, but their phone tech support is wonderful. The help desk people can often give you a discount if you call in rather than ordering online.

Another alternative is 1and1.com which has a half-price anniversary sale going on now for both domain names and hosting. I have used their hosting and it is somewhat less hard-sell than Godaddy. I have not used their tech support.

I also have used ACSite.net which is about the cheapest hosting out there: $10 a year for a 100MB site with lots of good, easy to install free software. But there is no phone support, and while they promise to deal with support tickets in six hours, the ticket software is down right now, and right now is when I need support.

It’s worth it to pay a little more (not $20 a month!!!) for phone support when there are problems.

By: Carrie Neuman

Carrie Neuman — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:15:53 +0000

Domain name, check.
Site design, not even sure how.
Content, not ready yet.

Oh Randy, I hope you’re right about this.

By: Karla Akins

Karla Akins — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:09:26 +0000

I have a domain name and a website (which I’m rebuilding right now) hosted by google. It’s free. All I had to pay for was my domain name and it’s $10.00 a year. Now, I have a question. Google and Blogger are partners. If you have a google account and you want to post on your blog, if you’re signed in for g-mail, you click on blogger in the menu and begin to blog.

My question is, what if you have a website and provide a link to your blog but your blog isn’t actually “on” the site? Would that be OK for us starving artists just starting out? Blogger is so easy to use. I also have blogs other places, and blogger seems to be the most user-friendly. (Homeschoolblogger.com is, too. But that limits your audience pretty much to homeschoolers.)

And what should go on our website? I think you’ve written about this in the past. I know that I should have a place for people to sign up for a monthly newsletter (or weekly, however you want to do it). I know it should include a short bio, market your books, and have the blog. Anything else?

By: Kristi Holl

Kristi Holl — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:27:50 +0000

I will be eager to hear about the blogging software. I want to move my blog to my website, but I don’t want to lose lots of it in the process–or lose lots of the features. Thank you so much for discussing this!

By: Pamela Cosel

Pamela Cosel — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:59:05 +0000

To reply to Karla: I have a web site and then a separate blog as you seem to have, with Blogspot.com. The person who does my web site for me has put a link on my web site home page, and yes, when a reader clicks on “Read Pam’s Blog” they go directly to my blog hosted on Blogspot. So yes, it’s possible, as you ask, to do it that way. Good luck to you.

By: Pam Halter

Pam Halter — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 13:16:45 +0000

I never thought I would want to have my own blog. But I’m rethinking.

I have a website with Safe Pages and I’ve been satisfied with it. It was easy to build, since I did it myself with a little help from my DH, and I’ve been able to maintain it. The one time we called for help, we got it. It’s $14.95 a month and worth it.

I’m thinking ahead to WHEN (see, I’m hopeful) my middle grade fantasy gets published, and I think a blog on the site for that would be a good thing.

Thanks for ’splaining all this techno stuff to us wannabe geeks.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:54:30 +0000

Randy,
I have a website and a separate blog through WordPress. How difficult is it to host my blog with my website w/ a consistant design like your site?

By: Vivienne

Vivienne — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:57:27 +0000

I just launched my second writing blog and learned from my mistakes with the first one. As you say, buying a domain is important. I did this straight away with my new blog and avoided the hassel of transferring subscribers to a new domain, a pain indeed. I went with GoDaddy, too.

By: Paul D

Paul D — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:34:33 +0000

DreamHost, if paid 10 years in advance, is $5.95 a month. You can use Wordpress blogging software on your site that’s hosted with them. See http://wordpress.org/hosting/ for lots of places that use WordPress software.

I had 1and1.com a couple years ago when I was moving away from GoDaddy, and their web email was absolutely awful. It was the slowest I’d ever seen and their email tech support response was slow too. I quickly moved to another host.