It is Your Home Base 

Your website is the place where your audience can find you. It is where your future readers, friends, family, and followers will go to get to know you. It is where you start to build their trust. 

It Will Make You Credible 

A website makes you credible. It is your real estate and, on your land, no one can tell you what to do or say. Facebook can shut you down. Here, you are in control.  

You can contact people directly and it is more likely that they will see your email than a social media post. 

Online marketing expert Amy Porterfield says that with her huge email list, all she has to do if she needs money for something is send an email to sell something in the morning, and by that evening she has created income. 

To build that list, you will need to create a Lead Magnet. We will talk more about that next month. 

What is a Website? 

A website is “a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Notable examples are wikipedia.org, google.com, and amazon.com.” en.m.wikipedia.org 

Example: www.cindyfolkauthor.com

Cost: $19/month (Squarespace Business Plan) (subject to change, of course)

The Pros and Cons of a Website 

Pros: 

-          A website is professional; people will take you more seriously 

-          Google searches will easily find you (through the use of SEO, tags, and categories) 

Cons: 

-          More expensive 

-          Can be complicated to set up

If you choose to create a website, I recommend Squarespace for your website platform and hosting company. You may wish to search for other website platforms or website hosting services for small businesses to find other competing services that suit you.

With Squarespace: 

-          Security is built in 

-          It is much easier to use than other options 

-          They have good training documentation 

You will need to complete the following: 

-          Claim your domain name (ie. cindyfolkauthor.com)* 

-          Select your website template (ie. Bergen) 

-          Set up your email (ie. cindy@cindyfolkauthor.com) 

-          Create content 

-          Press publish and promote 

 *Click here to see what your domain name could be!

Another option . . .

. . . is to use the Landing Page in a tool such as MailerLite to create a website-like page.  

Technically, a landing page is a page on your website that is accessed by clicking a hyperlink from a social media post or another web page (often the Home page), and is used as a lead capture or sales page. 

However, in order to avoid the cost of a website, you could use the Landing Page feature on MailerLite to create a website-like page. 

To test this out, I simply copied much of the content on www.cindyfolkauthor.com to a new landing page in MailerLite. 

This is how it turned out. Example: https://www.subscribepage.com/cindyfolkauthor

While not as dynamic as a website, it is still visually appealing, contains all the important content, and can be used as a home base for your audience, just like a website. 

Cost: Free

The Pros and Cons of a Landing Page

Pros:  

-          It is FREE 

-          It is simple to set up 

-          You can copy your landing page link to your social media accounts or emails 

Cons: 

-          Harder to find (it will not be in a Google search) 

-          Not as professional looking 

-          May indicate that you are not “in it” for the long run. 

If you choose to go with a landing page, I recommend MailerLite. 

With MailerLite: 

-          It is very easy to use 

-          You will be able to use it for your email distribution as well 

You will need to do the following: 

-          Set up an account 

-          Set up your email (ie. a personal email) 

-          Create content 

-          Press publish and promote 

Please note: I have no affiliate ties with either Squarespace or MailerLite. They are simply two of the many tools I have come across that I know and like.