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/