Author Topic: Starting a Website Basics  (Read 2871 times)

Chris Pascale

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Starting a Website Basics
« on: May 17, 2022, 09:22:42 PM »
I have been dragging my feet on starting a website for my current book project - a biography about Charles Curtis.

Why the site:
  • I think it may take another 3 years, and I'd like to have some stuff out there
  • Lots of material I'm finding is fascinating, but doesn't belong in the book, so I'd like to blog about it; this means the site will also contain potentially unrelated US History
  • Plenty of history lovers would love to publish posts about topics they are knowledgeable about, and the site could be a place for that
  • I can pre-sell copies of the book and other merch
  • I want to pitch the book to publishers and agents noting my terms, as opposed to me inquiring to them about if they'd let me send them the first chapter to review

For those who've started sites that look good, what do I do, and how much should I expect to spend?

SeattleCPA

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2022, 05:46:53 AM »
I have been dragging my feet on starting a website for my current book project - a biography about Charles Curtis.

Why the site:
  • I think it may take another 3 years, and I'd like to have some stuff out there
  • Lots of material I'm finding is fascinating, but doesn't belong in the book, so I'd like to blog about it; this means the site will also contain potentially unrelated US History
  • Plenty of history lovers would love to publish posts about topics they are knowledgeable about, and the site could be a place for that
  • I can pre-sell copies of the book and other merch
  • I want to pitch the book to publishers and agents noting my terms, as opposed to me inquiring to them about if they'd let me send them the first chapter to review

For those who've started sites that look good, what do I do, and how much should I expect to spend?

You can do good looking sites now for (relatively speaking) a pretty reasonable cost.

I'd think you want to get a good domain name you own and control. Then use something like WordPress. And then splurge for a WordPress theme (aka design).

The expensive part, really, is your content. That'll take hours. But if you're writing a book, ironically, that'll probably be the easiest part.

I don't remember what my new CPA website cost. But though the domain was pretty expensive (the dot CPA domain) the rest of the site was, gosh, a few hundred bucks? Link: https://nelson.cpa/blog/

P.S. One other thing to think about if you want the site to really look professional--and maybe you don't care yet--is buying images. We have a subscription to Getty where we can within reason use as many copyrighted images as we want. And they've got a huge library. (You can click the link in my sig to see the blog and thumb through some of the images. BTW that's another WordPress site. And we've had it for years, but it was also a few hundred bucks to set up. Er, then hundreds or thousands of hours of time.)


travel2020

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2022, 05:03:17 PM »
Second the suggestion to use something like Wordpress+ a theme to get started.

You can buy the domain name pretty cheaply and host a Wordpress blog using a hoster such as bluehost, inmotion, hostgator, pressable, etc. typically the hoster will throw in the domain name for free if you setup a hosting account.

You can do Wordpress on your own if you are technically inclined but much simpler to hire a freelancer to set it up for you. Fiverr, upwork typically have lots of people willing to do that for you. Look for someone with good ratings and some earned money.

As for images, pixabay.com is a good option for public domain images if you don’t want to minimize costs.

Askel

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2022, 05:27:49 PM »
If you can find yourself a local web design shop to hand it off to, that can save a lot of time and often deliver better results. 

I can do most web stuff (I've been using pair.com for like a million years, they offer lots of canned services that are easy to deploy), but I hate it.  And I have no graphic design or UI skills to speak of.   

So I love when I'm working on a project that already has a web guy and I can just fire off an "Can you do...." email. 


Smokystache

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2022, 07:02:17 PM »
I've had several solopreneur projects that needed website. Started by learning about WordPress and buying a theme, etc. Even though I am familiar with computers and created 2-3 websites like that, I just couldn't keep up with all the plug-ins and it was getting hit all the time with people trying to hack my website (even non-commerce sites). It took me days to figure out and my alternative was an acquaintance would have built me one for $3000 + plus monthly hosting fees.

I finally switched to Squarespace. I put up a website within in a day, learned a few more things and added a commerce section later and sell my products there. Right now, you'll pay $14/month for them to host it -- but they take care of things like updates, security, etc. People who make websites for a living will tell you that WordPress is easy (I'm sure it is easy, for them) and that sites like Squarespace and Wix don't load as fast or they don't help your SEO as much ... and all of those things may be true. But you're looking for a website for a book that won't be done for 3 years - so what you want is fast, reasonably cheap, and looks pretty good. For me, it is the perfect middle path between paying someone to make it (way more than the site is worth to me) and going fully on my own and trying to figure out and stay on top of WP.

cool7hand

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2022, 06:06:34 AM »
I have been dragging my feet on starting a website for my current book project - a biography about Charles Curtis.

Why the site:
  • I think it may take another 3 years, and I'd like to have some stuff out there
  • Lots of material I'm finding is fascinating, but doesn't belong in the book, so I'd like to blog about it; this means the site will also contain potentially unrelated US History
  • Plenty of history lovers would love to publish posts about topics they are knowledgeable about, and the site could be a place for that
  • I can pre-sell copies of the book and other merch
  • I want to pitch the book to publishers and agents noting my terms, as opposed to me inquiring to them about if they'd let me send them the first chapter to review

For those who've started sites that look good, what do I do, and how much should I expect to spend?

I think a blog or the like about your project would generate much more interest. Your passion for something is a better pitch than the pitch itself.

Chris Pascale

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2022, 09:35:46 AM »
Thanks so much, everyone. I really appreciate the feedback.

I am very familiar with how to use WordPress as a blogger from having had publishing permissions for other sites, but if SquareSpace helps with security, I'll have to at least look into them. Especially if you can add a commerce section easily when I have a some stuff.

Will keep you guys updated.

JupiterGreen

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Re: Starting a Website Basics
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2022, 06:56:22 AM »
Squarespace is good if you don't have a lot of digital skills, it's very intuitive. I dislike GoDaddy. I've used others but I think Squarespace is my favorite so far so that would be my recommendation. I buy my domains separately though, right now I have them with google and have no complaints with that.