Emily M. Akin » Web Sites

Working on New Look

emilyakin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:33:54 +0000

The New Year is the time to make changes, right? Well, I decided I wanted to drastically change my Web site. I had been using Microsoft’s Front Page 2000 to design the site, but I was not very skillful with it. In order to make my site look up-to-date, I either needed to learn more about the software or buy another. So—I decided to check out hosting companies that offered sitebuilder software along with their hosting plans.

Making the decision was a slow process, since I am not a technical genius. I looked at Godaddy, EZ Christian Hosting, Hostgator, SquareSpace, and Webs.com. All offer free trials, and I did experiment with all of them. I won’t get into all the pros and cons of the different companies. I’ll just tell you what I decided.

Since I wanted to have a hosted WordPress site to house all my blogs, I ruled out all of the sitebuilders. However, I seriously considered Squarespace because the look and function of their designs is very much like WordPress. When I checked into pricing, though, I decided against Squarespace. I found that, if I wanted to have my own domain name (which I already have and want to continue to use), I would have to go with the Pro plan at $14 a month rather than the $8-a-month basic plan. See pricing here.

I chose to go with Hostgator with WordPress, and here is the result: www.emilyakin.com. Hosting cost is about half what it would have been with Squarespace, and the WordPress theme was free on WordPress.org.

I’m not done yet, but I will be transferring some of this free blog’s content to my new site. If you are a subscriber, I may be able to change the feed and save you the trouble of re-subscribing. More on that later. Meanwhile, feel free to comment on my new site here on this post.

Article Roundup

emilyakin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:17:26 +0000

I’ve found so many good items of interest to Wired Writers that I’m sharing them with you rather than writing a new post myself.

Specifically for Writers

Web site for Newbie Writers (appears to be based in UK, but About link is not working for me today.

20 Hi-Tech Tools and Resources for Writers

Web Sites and Blogging

Author Tech Tips: The Top 5 Author Website Mistakes

New Rule for Book Review Bloggers

Online Security

5 Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

Publishing Industry

Options in the Price War Over Books

If you have articles or Web site URLs to share, please post a comment. Next week, I hope to be done with my evaluation of the free brainstorming software, Personal Brain 5. If you have used this software, please contact me at akinemily(a)gmail.com.

Free Web Site Offerings: Part Two

emilyakin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:06:00 +0000

I had more to say than on this subject that I originally thought, so I divided the free site evaluations into two posts. See last post.

Blinkweb: Visit http://business.blinkweb.com/ and try out the Demo first. You’ll get to set up a trial site without setting up username and password. However, if you want to publish your trial site to the Web, you’ll have to set up the username and password at the end of the process. It’s free, and you can set up as many sites as you want. I love the design of the site I created. Check it out at . There’s a blog feature, also free, explained on this page, http://blog.blinkweb.com/. There are NO ads, if you noticed when you visited my Blinkweb site.

EZ-Christian Hosting/Highpowersites.com: I’ve mentioned this company in previous posts, but I’m repeating myself because I was so impressed with it. There is no free plan with this company, but they do offer a free 10-day trial of the website builder. No obligation, no credit card required, no setup fee. The designs are very professional, and the web-builder is easy to use, although there are layout limitations that come with any online web-design package. The deal-breaker for most people will be the cost of this plan, about $17 a month. It does, however, offer many features that the free sites (and cheaper plans) don’t offer.

Decision Time

I think a writer who wants to be taken seriously by publishers should have a well-designed site with NO ads. The content of your site depends on what you want to do with your writing, but the design and appearance of your site is what comprises that critical first impression. You have about 20 seconds to catch your visitor’s attention and make him/her want to stay around to find out what you have to say. A gaggle of ads and an amateurish design will announce that you don’t take your work seriously enough to invest in a professional-looking site.

Blinkweb is the only free plan that does not mention upgrades to a paid plan. That means you’ll always be limited to what they offer for free, or you’ll have to go to another company. The upgrades on Tripod and Freewebs are very affordable. I suggest you try one or more for yourself. Only you can decide what’s best for you.

Bonus link:
Tiffany Amber Miller offers three articles on websites for writers on the Christian Authors Network blog:

http://canblog.typepad.com/canbookmarketing/tiffany_amber_miller_stockton/

Websites for Writers: Web-site Builders

emilyakin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Most writers wanting to be published need to have some type of site or blog to establish their online presence. Most also want to minimize the cost. I wanted to research what’s available either free or at minimal cost, so I started by analyzing my own situation and looking for what’s best for me. I learned a lot along the way, and I’ll share what I learned in the next couple of posts.

To do your own site, you need hosting and you need software to design your site. I have been designing and updating my own site for several years using Microsoft Front Page 2000. My initial cost for the software was substantial at the time, but I have not updated it since…well…2000, and it still does what I need. I use http://www.ezchristianhosting.com/ at $4.95 a month, and I have never had a problem with the site being down or with their support. Most of the time, support gets my problem solved within a couple of hours. The only times that it has taken longer than that were when there was a wait time for the servers to update certain processes.

I’ve been envious of some other writers, though, who have their sites professionally designed. Examples: Mary Yerkes, Ginny Smith, Cecil Murphey.

So, I decided to check out the website builder offered by EZ Christian Hosting. They offer a 10- day free trial, so I took them up on the offer. The designs they offer are awesome, just what I thought I wanted, but I had trouble finding a theme I thought would be good for a writer-editor. Also, I realized I wouldn’t have as much flexibility with my layout with the site-builder. If I chose to convert my site to their web-builder plan, I would be paying $17 a month rather than $4.95. I do highly recommend taking a free trial, though. And, if you don’t have design software on your computer, you will have to use a web-builder or buy software.

I also tried the new website service offered by Vistaprint. Here’s what my trial site looks like:

http://www.emilyakin.vpweb.com/

With Vistaprint, you can start out at $4.95 a month for a 3-page site and upgrade to higher-priced plans depending on your needs.

My trial at Vistaprint is good for 30 days, so I’ll have to take it down by September 10th, because I’ve decided to stick with my current arrangement and learn how to better utilize my software. I’ve redesigned my site from the ground up. It’s not finished, but take a look: http://www.emilyakin.com/.

Next post: I’ll list the free website services that I tried and provide a short evaluation of each. Subscribe so you won’t miss it.