Web Site Design Tips for Writers
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Author: Lisa Maliga
Article source: http://www.articlealley.com/. Used with author's permission.
There are thousands of writers, paid and unpaid, online and offline, who are in the process of putting their works up for the audience of the World Wide Web to witness. This is a marvelous opportunity for undiscovered talent to be given a chance for literary acceptance, and it's also a way for established authors to share their stories, make their works readily available, and encourage others to develop their writing skills.
Before you build your web site, here are a few tips that will help you launch your words online.
Domain Name
Domain names run less than ten dollars a year, so they are quite affordable. What will you tell your online friends about your web site? The obvious choices would be your own name or the title of your book, magazine, newspaper, subject/area of expertise, or some combination of words that accurately represent what you do writing-wise. Make it memorable, and not just a series of numbers and letters. I spoke with a representative of a web hosting company and learned that one of their clients had a complex series of letters and numbers that, when decoded, revolved around the birthdays and anniversaries of his family and pets! If you have a common name and it's not available, think of what you would like your site to represent. Do you specialize in articles? Books? Short stories? Scholarly works? Screenplays? Children's books? This is where you will need to conjure up a dynamic and descriptive name that will be online for a long time.
Free Web Sites
Being on a tight budget might limit your ability to buy a web hosting company's services. Be warned that you might end up with a site that sends out pop up ads and displays lots of uncontrolled banner advertising, generally other free sites and possibly even porn sites. Another alarming feature is the preponderance of cookies and/or spyware that can result from these types of sites. You will be limited in what you may add, and in how many photos or graphics will be allowed, as the bandwidth is quite limited. This option is acceptable if you plan to maintain a small site or are doing it as a way to get your online start. Remember, you can always upgrade.
Fee-Based Web Sites
Whether you're adding one page to the web or thousands, you need to decide which web design program to use. Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and Adobe are three of the most popular web design software programs. However, there are many others and some of them are free when you sign up with a web host. Make sure you're comfortable using the software. While web design software programs come with books, it's advisable to purchase additional reference books, or check them out of the library. For yet more information, look for various online articles about your chosen web design software.
Hosting It
If you currently have a reliable ISP such as AOL, MSN, Earthlink, Adelphia, Yahoo, etc., your next step is to find a place where you can launch your site. These ISP's provide web hosting for various prices, but you should compare hosts. Read reviews at: http://www.webhostingratings.com
Here are eight items you should consider.
1.