Instead of a Web Site

[writegirl1949]

I'm hoping to get some advice from folks regarding a stumbling block I've had.

My website has been "down" for a long, long time. I'm planning on creating a new one but that is going to take some time.

I was wondering if creating a blog specific to my book would be an "interim" solution.

Currently, I do have three blogs at blogspot and my inclination is to create one for the book there.

My questions:

Is this a good solution?

If so, are there other sites out there that do it any better?

Thanks in advance.

Blessings, Francine

[Tarin]

Quite a few authors maintain a blog instead of a website. However, I'm not sure what you mean when you say "create a blog for my book." What will you blog about?

[michaelsnyder]

Francine...great question...and I'll be interested to see the answers, as I'm in a bit of a similar position. I do have a blog that I update sporadicly, but that's it so far.

My website goes live later this month and will include a blog as part of the overall design.

I too wanted to create a pathway to my website that is 'book specific'. In other words, I want my marketing material to have 'russellfink.com' on it. It's easy to remember and book-specific. However, that domain name will simply point to what I call the 'parent site'. (As you can tell, I don't 'speak the language'). My web designer assures he can do this easily enough. So that when my next book comes out later this year, I can do create a domain name specific to that book (to use on t-shirts and giveaways and such) then have that point to my official website as well.

Anyway, I'm listening in too for any advice folks have...

[Knight of Christ]

Well in my opinion at least it depends on the content of which you plan to put into it.

If it is form merely for advertisement and maybe an interdiction of you're work, using snippets of the novel and such, then it dose sound like I good idea. At least until you can get the site itself up and running.

If you plan to put the hole book up there to be read then I would say to wait till you get the site it self up and running, because most bloging sites don't have any write protects, nether do they come with the option of being to disable right click and ctrl C making it very easy for someone to just take it and stamp there name on it. Publish it and since it was on the net there being no way for you to prove that it was you're work to begin with.

Maybe I am getting the wrong idea in what you are saying here, if so sorry for the misunderstanding but this

[wgjones3]

I think Brandilyn Collins had a great idea with one of her blogs, which featured characters from the book, written by fans of hers, some of whom I believe drop in here quite often.

[Merry]

This makes me think I have to, or more like, ought to, do something with my website(which, I don't even know how to keep up) and then my character blog...I'm hardly there...definitely need to re-organize.

[writegirl1949]

Thanks for the input.

I was thinking of this as a place where my book would have a presence on the internet. It does at my publisher's site but I wanted it to have it's own showcase. And, if I had other books published, I could certainly include them. But that hasn't happened yet.

Because of the issue my book relates to (within the parameters of a suspense novel) -- illegal immigrants and it's title, "Death in the Desert," I just thought I might generate some interest.

I'm allowed, via my contract with my publisher, to put up one chapter of the book. And, of course, I could add reviews. But other than that, it would be rather static.

Any other ideas or thoughts out there.

Merry ... I know exactly how you feel but with my MAC and iWeb I should be able to put up and maintain a fairly simple web site soon.

WG ... if I had the publishing credits that Brandilyn has, I'd love to start something like that. There are several characters in my novel that everyone seems to just love and I think that would be fun.

And Michael ... my blogs have the cover of my book with a link to my former web site ... I'm going to change that to either link to the publisher or to whatever it is that I come up with as an interim internet presence until I get my web site back up.

The other reason I want to do this is I'm planning on a re-energized marketing campaign locally ... book signings and getting the book in a few bookstores so I want to have that internet presence people can visit if they don't actually buy the book in the stores.

Maybe that makes what I want to do a little more clear.

Blessings, Francine

[wowreallylongid]

Websites (if you're a writer) is not just a hobby...it's free advertising for you, your books, your career, etc. But the only way to make it work for you, to have web-surfers return to your site again and again, is to post new content on the site on a regular basis. A blog is the really way to go. A forum would be even better, but that's a lot of work to maintain not to mention difficult to gain a following. You should check out some of the posts at problogger.net. I subscribe to their RSS feed, and I've got to say they have a lot of great advice on this subject.
On another note, Coach (the system admin for Relief) as we speak is working on a blog that talks about different website/blogging tools available. I'll have to get him to hurry up with that post. I'm a big fan of textpattern (check out their site: http://textpattern.com/); it's a complete CMS (content management system) that is very user friendly. Coach knows more about other tools to use though. I'll let you know when he's done with his blog on this subject.

With that in mind, I'd recommend both. Have a blog for you and have a blog (a different site url...like the name of the book) for your book. You should check out what J. Mark Bertrand has...
http://www.jmarkbertrand.com/ that's his personal blog.
http://www.rethinkingworldview.com/ that's his book's blog.

[Tarin]

I'm allowed, via my contract with my publisher, to put up one chapter of the book. And, of course, I could add reviews. But other than that, it would be rather static.

As wowreallylongid pointed out, blogs are all about continual updates. Any web presence is better than no web presence, but unless you can think of a constant stream of new material, I think you'd be better off getting a "real" web-site up and running. Perhaps you could just post about your book on your existing blogs?

[wowreallylongid]

Yeah, if you have trouble coming up with consistently good material...well...hopefully that's not a problem as a writer. If you are having problems coming up with material, then a great thing to have on your blog/website is a "bookshelf" page describing stuff you've recently read...almost like a book review, only shorter. My husband has one on his website: www.alanackmann.com/www2
The bookshelf page is great for a variety of reasons though, the best one being is that the books and writer's names you drop on your blog makes your blog more google-able, which draws in new web traffic.

Also, I don't know if any of you have heard of librarything...but they have code that you can put on your website to display pictures of books that you have on your website. It's pretty cool, though I've been having trouble getting the code to play nice with my textpattern template. Oh well, check out library thing too while you're at it: http://www.librarything.com/

Wow...I guess I have a lot to say and recommend on this subject...:D

[Merry]

Hey, Heather, you just go ahead and share anything that occurs to you! Some of us barely -there-web-presence-types need all the advice we can get!

[Tommie Lyn]

If you start a blog, you may want to mirror it on your AD site. My AD blog entries get more hits than my domain website and other blogs put together.

[Merry]

AD Site? Er...what's that?

[Tommie Lyn]

AD Site? Er...what's that?

AuthorsDen.

http://www.authorsden.com/

You can sign up for a free "den," or, for a very nominal fee, you can have a "den" with upgraded features. I have 14 stories posted on my den and have had almost 4,500 hits on them. I've had just over 2,000 hits on my blog and a number of hits on my announcements, for a total of over 9,800 hits combined. I realize those are not impressive stats for some folks, but they are to me.

They also will advertise and sell autographed copies of your book for you (they take the orders, email you, you ship the book and they put the payment into your account). I plan to use that service in the future.

[Merry]

Yeah, that sounds pretty good. I'll check that out. Thanks , Tommie!

[Tommie Lyn]

You're welcome. There are several other members here at CW who have dens on AD.

[writegirl1949]

You guys are great. Thanks for all the ideas.!thumbsup!

And, Tommie Lyn ... thanks for the reminder about Authors Den. I'd totally forgotten about that.

Blessings, Francine

[Keith Wallis]

A blog dedicated to a single work has got to be a reasonable advertising tool. I don't think it would need too much updating as you don't really want folk to visit the blog more than once/twice - you want them to buy the book !

[tneeley]

You might want to check out Lynn's post (posted yesterday) about the writer's website for promoting your book, too. It looks like a good resource.

[kriswrite]

As others have said, blogs must not be static. However, if you're willing to put in some time, I'd think a blog with news about the illegal alien issue might work. You could also have info about your book, of course.

Kristina

[writegirl1949]

Kris ... thanks so much. I was sorta thinking about something like this but you put it into words for me. I think it might generate some hits.

I'll keep the group posted on when it's up and what kind of luck I'm having.

Blessings, Francine

[Louchiere]

I'm hoping to get some advice from folks regarding a stumbling block I've had.

My website has been "down" for a long, long time. I'm planning on creating a new one but that is going to take some time.

I was wondering if creating a blog specific to my book would be an "interim" solution.

Currently, I do have three blogs at blogspot and my inclination is to create one for the book there.

My questions:

Is this a good solution?

If so, are there other sites out there that do it any better?

Thanks in advance.

Blessings, Francine

I would say you need a website...It's like your online portfolio, and makes life alot easier...Plus keeping things all in one place is a plus! Are you familiar with wordpress? You can get a domain, and put up a wordpress site to begin. They have alot of nice templates as well. :)

[Tommie Lyn]

Francine, I came across an interesting blog today and thought the information on it might help you. It seems to address your question:

http://storysensei.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-make-blog-your-website_13.html

[writegirl1949]

Thanks,Tommie Lyn. I've been hearing a lot about Cami Tang and it's nice to now have her web site saved. I downloaded the pdf file. That may be the best interim solution for now since I want to design my own website and that's going to take some time.

Blessings, Francine

[christianbkworm]

Francine,

My hubby is a web design/SEO guru and has numerous sites. What he has done on most of them is use a blog format. Because blogs are updated frequently (very important), the search engines see the content changing and that is a big thing that they look for. My website is a good example.

I'm sure he can give you some other tips also, if you want to contact me.

[writegirl1949]

This may be a simple question but most of you know I'm "technologically challenged," :cool:

Can you use PayPal in a blog? I'll have a link to my publisher but I also would like to give folks the opportunity to order directly from me via Pay Pal.

I'm not asking HOW to do it, just is it possible.

Thanks for all the help, guys.

Blessings, Francine

[wowreallylongid]

Setting up a secure e-commerce solution can be not only difficult but dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. I think you'd be better off outsourcing that. Hire a professional to set up a secure shopping cart.

Or if you want to get your hands dirty there are some solutions. ZenCart ( http://www.zencart.com/ ) comes to mind...let me think of some others and I'll get back to you.

But yes, it is possible.

[writegirl1949]

Thanks, wow...

I am so un-knowledgeable about things like this.

Blessings, Frncine