Tracy Crump is a writer, speaker, workshop leader, and co-editor of

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My husband is a computer programmer. I am not. My husband can make a computer stand up and dance. I can check e-mail. So—in deciding to create a website, I looked for a company that would make it possible for me to set up and maintain the site by myself.

After researching several website hosting services, Homestead stood out as the logical choice for me because of its affordability, 2000-plus customizable templates, and ease in development. Knowledge of HTML or PCP was not required. Instead, pages display a tool bar similar to most word processors that is relatively easy to figure out and allows subscribers to customize as little or as much as they want.

Before settling on Homestead, I tried their free 30-day trial that includes:

• Website hosting
• Website building software
• Five web pages
• Site statistics to track visitors
• Toll-free phone support

I made the most of my thirty days by learning as much as possible about setting up the site. Their tutorials helped. The templates already contained pages with graphics, navigation and content to get me started. Not satisfied with the heading on the template I chose, I designed a banner on a free site and inserted it on my home page. I added content and pictures until I was pretty satisfied that I could really do this.

Once the trial period ended, Homestead began charging my credit card $4.99 a month. I already owned a domain name, so I declined their offer (and extra charge) for that. I also moved from SiteBuilderLite, the web building software, to the more advanced SiteBuilder (downloadable at no charge), which allowed me more options in customizing my site.

Overall, my experience with Homestead has been positive. They do not require a long-term contract and offer upgrades to two more expensive packages that provide enhanced services such as more web pages, multiple sites, domain names, e-mail addresses, blogs, web listings. Their support system is good, though sometimes they don’t seem to understand my question. A few days later, the problem will “resolve itself,” and I figure they found a bug and fixed it.

I’ve had no downtime issues. Homestead notifies subscribers ahead of time about periodic maintenance/upgrades. The downtime usually lasts only 4 hours, and merely affects subscribers’ publishing during that time. The site remains active.

The only thing I would warn about is that Homestead markets aggressively. Representatives called several times in the first few weeks I had the site but slacked off after that. Potential subscribers would be wise to study the different packages carefully to find the right fit. Homestead charges extra for many features added to the basic (starter) package.

It took many hours to set up my first site, but I’m glad I found a hosting service that allows me to maintain and update it myself.

So is my husband.

Next week, our topic will be Marketing: Developing Your Network

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/