Create a Website

If you want to share your work, you will need a web site. I put off creating a web site for a long time because I wanted to be sure that I was ready for all that it involved. I wanted to make sure that I was up for the emotional and financial commitment involved in running a website before putting my toe in the water. I was also afraid of the hidden costs associated with getting it up and running well.

You can set up a site for free through WordPress but what you can do there is limited essentially to a blog and your domain name will include ‘wordpress.com’. This is fine to start. However, if you want to create a following and sell your book, and, if you want to be taken seriously, you should have a domain name of your own.

Select something simple, like cindyfolk.com or cindyfolkauthor.com, go to HostGator.com (or GoDaddy.com) and register it. You will also need to pay for hosting. I spent about $50 between the web site url and the hosting for the year.

Note: I clicked  ‘Yes, I would like help with my web site’ and ever since I have been bombarded with phone calls and emails from all over the world offering to help me design my web site. I recommend you don’t do this. There are plenty of tutorials out there and HostGator provides a monthly service if you get stuck.