Guest Post: At Home with Homestead by Tracy Crump

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Tracy Crump is a writer, speaker, workshop leader, and co-editor of The Write Life, a monthly e-mail newsletter. Her work has been published online and in numerous print periodicals. She also team-teaches workshops on writing for the Chicken Soup compilation books. Subscribe to The Write Life here.

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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

Blogging: Measuring Success

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Are you thinking of starting a blog? Are you already blogging, wondering how it will benefit your writing career? The reason most writers blog is to showcase their writing and make themselves known to potential readers—who eventually will buy their work.

How can you know whether your blog is accomplishing what you want it to? How do you measure success? First, you must come up with your own definition of success for your blog. Decide on your reason for blogging. Then devise a way to measure your progress.

  • Making money: This one is easy. If you’re not making money, you’re not succeeding. However, sometimes it takes a while to build clientele. Expect income to start small and increase over time.
  • Traffic: If you’re blogging to find readers, you need to know how many you have. Visitors are those who land on your blog and read it at random. Subscribers are regular readers who sign up to get your material regularly. You can track those subscribers by using a service like Feedburner. See my previous post on Feedburner here. Then, read my previous post about how I follow traffic stats with Google Analytics.
  • Participation: You can have traffic and subscribers, but you don’t know whether anyone is reading your material unless your visitors comment on your posts or participate in your surveys. One way to increase comments on your blog is to find other writers’ blogs and comment on theirs. They’ll be willing to help you if you help them.

So—don’t be discouraged. Create your blog, and decide what you want from it. You are the CEO of your blog, so you get to set the goals and define success.

More Information:

Measure Blog Progress

Announcement: The winner of drawing for Max Lucado’s Cast of Characters has not responded to my e-mail. If your e-mail address begins with “kbruins,” please e-mail me at [email protected] and provide your name and mailing address so that I can send you your book.

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Next week’s post will be a guest article by writer, speaker, and workshop leader, Tracy Crump. She’ll share her adventures setting up her own website using Homestead.

Announcement: The winner of drawing for Max Lucado’s Cast of Characters has not responded to my e-mail. If your e-mail address begins with “kbruins,” please e-mail me at [email protected] and provide your name and mailing address so that I can send you your book.

Blogging: Choosing Your Tools

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The recent Blog4Writers survey indicated that Blog4writers readers most want marketing articles. A couple of commenters wanted to know more about blogging. Since promotion is a component of marketing, and blogging is a method of promotion, I’m sharing my blogging joys and frustrations today.

First, you must decide on your blogging tool. There are plenty of options, but WordPress is my favorite. I started by first blog on Blogger, but after experimenting with both, I chose WordPress. Back in 2008, I shared my evaluation of the two. Both have offered many upgrades since then.

Both Blogger and WordPress are free. I recommend that you look at this “Pros and Cons” article on RemindBlog.com. For those of you who don’t mind a little technical language, here’s an analysis comparing the two on Pulsed.com.

Whether you’re thinking of starting a blog or re-thinking an existing one, you need to ask yourself these questions.

Which is easier to use/learn? Well, that’s like asking how big your doghouse needs to be. It depends whether dog is a Chihuahua or a St. Bernard. If you are proficient with word processors and have some Web expertise, you should be OK with either. However, if you’re shaky on your skills, I think Blogger is easier to learn. There are number of tutorials onlne. Here’s a good one. However, if you are more confident with your Web skills, WordPress offers more design options and a few other features that give your blog a more professional look.

Do you want a unique design? I think many new bloggers get too concerned about the design. It’s the content that matters. Whatever design you choose, it should not be so busy or elaborate that it detracts from the purpose of the blog, which is—your writing. Blogger and WordPress both offer design variety and customization, although WordPress offers many more options than Blogger. To get a unique custom design, you will have to hire a designer on either platform.

Do you plan to upgrade to a self-hosted (paid) blog in the future? If you’re committed to blogging for the long term, I say, “Start with WordPress.” The same skills you learn for your free WordPress site on WordPress.com will transfer to the paid version that can be downloaded from WordPress.org. Transferring your content from WordPress.com to a self-hosted site is much easier. You can also keep your design if you want.

And finally, a confession: The main reason I chose to use WordPress and graduated to a self-hosted WordPress site was that I wanted to model my blog/site on that of Jim Watkins, one of my favorite Christian authors. I’ve learned and lot, but I still feel borderline incompetent sometimes. It’s a lot like walking a tightrope without a net.

Whatever you decide about your methods, concentrate on content. It’s easy to get engrossed design and structure, wasting time that could be spent writing.

Next week’s post will be “Blogging: Measuring Success.”

Survey Results and Book Giveaway

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Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate in my one-question survey over the past week. Check last week’s post in case you missed the survey.

Drum roll! The winner is—-Marketing. Asked what topics they prefer to see in future posts, 43% of Blog4writers readers chose Marketing. Websites and Blogs garnered 23% of the votes, while Writing Craft got 19%. Getting Organized was last-place with 14%. Since I’m leaving the survey out there, the results might change, but I got the direction I needed to plan future posts for my blog.

For blog newcomers and for old-timers wanting to review, I already have a number of posts on these subjects in the archives. Here’s a summary for your convenience.

For the next three weeks, I had planned a series on Websites and Blogs. Next week’s post will be on free websites with MS Office Live Small Business.

Book Giveaway: Enter the drawing for a chance to win Max Lucado’s Cast of Characters: Common People in the Hands of and Uncommon God. Current e-mail subscribers are automatically entered. Others may enter by commenting on any post on Blog4writers or by becoming a new subscriber. Current subscribers may earn a second entry by commenting on any post. Deadline is Monday, October 18, 2010, 7:00 a.m. If you need help with the comment or subscription process, e-mail me at [email protected]. Winner will be announced in the October 25th post. I will also e-mail the winner if I have an address. Book will be sent by USPS media mail to mailing address provided by the winner ASAP after close of contest.

Reader Survey with PollDaddy

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Do you sometimes wonder what direction you should take with your blog content or your writing projects? I’m wondering that right now. For October, I’ve planned a series of posts for the Websites and Blogs category. Book reviews for the Writers Resources category are on tap for November. But, I’d really like to know what my subscribers would like to hear about.

In order to get your opinion, I’ve included a one-question survey in this post. Please take a minute to answer the question to help me plan future content for Blog4writers.

This site is designed with WordPress (see WordPress.org), so I searched for a survey tool that would work within WordPress. Of the available plugins, PollDaddy was the highest rated. I’ll post an evaluation after I’ve had a chance to run a few surveys. So, help me out and participate in this one.

Results will be reported in next week’s post which will consist of my evaluation of Microsoft Office Live Small Business website tools.

Guest Post Invitation: If you are a writer/blogger who has experience using another method of conducting surveys, consider submitting an article for a guest post on Blog4writers. Articles should be about 500 words and will be edited for grammar, style, and length. If accepted, your article will be posted at my discretion. Query [email protected].

 

Additional Resources: Other methods of conducting surveys are available. Here’s a fairly exhaustive list.

Learn to LOVE Marketing

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Writers love their craft, but most of them have no training or interest in marketing. Most of them heave a big sigh or make a face when marketing is mentioned. To be successfully published, writers need to learn to LOVE marketing.

If you need to improve your knowledge and appreciation of marketing, follow my guide: Learn, Organize, Venture, Evaluate (LOVE). If you don’t love it by the time you’re done, at least you will know more about it.

  • Learn what others are doing to market their work. Soak up all the information you can find on marketing for writers. Read books, subscribe to blogs, join online writers’ groups, attend conferences, take online classes. Do all of this and more. This blog is a resource for writers attempting to get their work published. If you haven’t done so already, take the grand tour on my home page now.
  • Organize everything: your workspace, writing topics, submissions, business files, communications. See my previous post on organizing for writers here.
  • Venture forth! All the learning and organizing in the world won’t help you get published unless you submit your work. For Christian writers, the best place to find publishers for your work is Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide, published annually. It’s possible to locate publishers online if you know the name of the publisher. Many of them have their writers’ guidelines online now. For example, Upper Room has all their guidelines online here. Pick a publisher. Write something that meets their guidelines. Send it in!

Follow the LOVE model from beginning to end when you need new ideas. Maybe you really will learn to love marketing.

Marketing: It’s About the Customer

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Image courtesy of tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my writers’ conference workshop, A Business Approach to Marketing Your Work, I started the session by asking the class to give me answers to these fill-in-the-blank questions.

Writing is a _____________.

Publishing is a ___________.

Business is about _________.

The answers I got were many and varied. Almost everyone said that writing is an art, a craft, or a ministry. No one identified writing as a communication method or as a business tool. Publishing is a business, and I got that answer from several people. Unexpected answers were as follows: job, industry, painful experience, and ordeal. Continue reading →

Do You Hate Marketing?

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Freepixels.com

 

“I hate marketing.” If you’ve ever said those words, you are probably a writer.

Writers will talk for hours about journaling, writing techniques, genres…you name it. But, if you bring up marketing, someone is sure to make a face or speak up about how much they hate it. I have more training in marketing principles than most writers, but I also get tired of doing the marketing chores that take away from my writing time. Continue reading →

Grammar and Style Link Roundup

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For the past few weeks, posts on Blog4writers have dealt with grammar and style. This week, I’ve spent some time locating online grammar and style resources and tutorials. Keeping your grammar and style skills in shape is a necessary discipline for writers wanting to publish their work.

Tutorials and Resources:

General Grammar and Style Resources

Easily Confused or Misused Words

It’s Not What It Sounds Like

Clichés: Avoid Them like the Plaque

University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) Style Handout

Free English Grammar Tutorials

Grammar, Usage, and Style Cheat Sheet

Blogs:

Blog for Writers. Kathy Ide, author of Polishing the PUGS, has a blog on her site where she posts grammar and style pointers regularly.

Daily Grammar Lessons. This one features a grammar quiz (with answers) in each post.

I recommend that you subscribe to both of these blogs. Neither offers e-mail subscriptions, but you can subscribe by RSS feed. If you need help with that process, see my article on the subject here.

Style Errors That Scream “Amateur”

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

 

Maybe a better title for this post would be “Grammar Rant.” Recently, I’ve noticed obvious grammar and style errors in both print and online publications. I wonder whether these publishers are short-handed in the editorial department or just not using editors at all. At any rate, here’s a list of grammar and style errors that are most common in the writing I’ve evaluated lately.

If you are trying to get your writing published, make sure your work is free of these marks of the amateur.

  • Plural for words ending with “st.” Is it guest or guests? It depends on whether you have one guest or more than one. Correct plural example: “We will have about 40 guests at the party.” I’ve seen publishing writing with “guest” where it should be “guests.” Remember, you must add the “s” on nouns like list, request, or mast. The rule for plurals is to add an “s” unless the word ends in “s.” See this summary.
  • Exclamation points. Use them sparingly!!!! Many beginning writers think they are adding emphasis by using exclamation points. However, overuse of emphasis defeats the purpose. Rachelle Gardner has a great blog post on the subject here.
  • All caps—avoid them altogether. The proper format for emphasis is italics or underline. All caps in a work submitted for publication will mark you as an amateur for certain. It is the typographical equivalent of shouting.
  • Spacing after periods. If you learned to type on a typewriter, you learned to space twice after periods or other ending punctuation marks. The computer age has changed that. Re-train yourself to space only once at the end of a sentence. When I point this out to the writers I mentor, they just don’t believe me. That’s because they have no experience in publishing. See the Grammar Girl’s article on this subject.
  • Its vs. it’s. The only time you’ll use an apostrophe with the word “it” is when you are using it as a contraction for “it is.” The word “it” may be the only word in the language that does not have an apostrophe in its possessive form. This error is so prevalent that it’s distressing to grammarphobes like me. For one thing, the spellchecker will not catch this error. I’ve seen it on television captions, campaign literature, and advertising signs. I even caught it on a publishing industry executive’s blog. Review the basic principles here.

Rid your writing of these marks of the amateur. It may take some effort, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Links to similar articles on the Web:

Common Grammatical Errors

Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb