Happy to do my part, I went to the grocery store. But finding just the right ingredients proved to be harder than I expected. The recipe called for fresh Thai basil, because apparently “regular” basil wouldn’t do. They also wanted fresh rice noodles, which were only sold at the Asian market.

I dutifully went to three separate stores to gather all the necessary ingredients. It took me almost two hours.

But when I got home, I was satisfied. I’d done my part, and now I could relax while my daughters made us dinner.

Except that wasn’t what they had in mind.

“But we need you to help us!” my older daughter exclaimed, when I mentioned I was going to leave the next stage to them.

Many authors experience the same deflating feeling when they discover they are expected to participate in the marketing phase of their book journey.

Your Job Isn’t Finished After Writing Your Book

Most children’s writers understand the days when authors could focus just on writing are a thing of the past.

Whether you are a published children’s book author or working toward that goal, you need to embrace promoting your book as well.

You may not aspire to be a bestselling author. That’s fine. But if you want to make writing for children your career, you’ll also need to help sell your book.

Not only will book sales potentially help increase your income, they are important for building your writing career. Authors that sell books are authors that publishers want to work with.

Remember, publishing is a business. All the publishing houses need to make a profit to survive. And where does that profit come from? Selling books.

So what can you, as a children’s writer with no marketing experience, do to help maximize book sales?

One piece you can focus on is building a robust author platform.

What is a Platform?

An author platform refers to the strategies an author is using to raise their visibility toward the ultimate goal of selling books.

Platform is often used in the technology space to refer to the system for different kinds of software. In a blog post I wrote about websites, I reference website platforms. In this case, I’m talking about the system you use to build your site.

That’s not what we are talking about here.

Think of an author platform as a figurative stage where you wave to your potential fans, trying to get their attention.

Today, an author platform usually means having an online presence. This includes your website, having an email list, being seen on other websites and online publications. It often means being active on social media.

Some authors are not very comfortable with the online space. In that case, you could build visibility by becoming known in your community through school and library visits, and speaking at conferences.

Do You Have to Have an Author Platform?

It depends.

What are your goals when it comes to your children’s books?

There are many children’s book authors who have successfully published books and have a nice career who haven’t prioritized building an author platform.

But are you are interested in raising your visibility so writing for children can be your full-time job?

Then yes, you need to have an author platform.

The biggest hurdle to constructing an author platform (sorry, but I can’t help but make use of this “building” theme!) is time.

Just like everything else on the journey to becoming a children’s book author, it takes time to pull together all the necessary pieces.

I know, I know, I’m sorry.

But that’s why the best time to start building your platform is before your book is even published. The sooner you lay the groundwork, the more prepared you will be when your book is ready to launch.

In my next post, I break down the different parts of an author platform, and how you can get started building one.

A good first step is to take advantage of my free author platform checklist.

It should help streamline the process so much, you might even have time to make a multi-course meal for your family.  

The post What is an Author Platform? appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

She jumped up and left the room, returning moments later, triumphantly holding a box with a 1,500 piece puzzle inside.

Dumping the tiny pieces on the dining room table, the four young women quickly began turning them over, sorting them by color.

“Find the edge pieces!” someone ordered.

In less than an hour, the outer edges of the puzzle had been constructed, and various sections of the puzzle had begun to take shape.

It was a masterful execution of jigsaw puzzle construction strategy. And a great metaphor for building an author platform.

Starting from absolute chaos, the group of four had quickly built a clear framework that allowed them to work efficiently and systematically, with great results.

A Framework Helps Counter Overwhelm

After putting in long hours and grappling with physical and emotional struggles involved in writing a book, many authors are disappointed to learn they had just completed the first stage.

The next phase is giving your book a chance to be read and enjoyed by others.

And this means you need to participate in marketing your book.

So you start exploring what you need to do.

And become completely overwhelmed. It’s just like confronting a jigsaw puzzle, with a million different pieces needing to be assigned their place.

You need to add structure to the chaos and overwhelm. This is where an author platform can help. (If you want more background information about author platforms, my blog post on What is an Author Platform? should help).

It will provide you with a framework so you can systematically tackle each category of book marketing that needs to be done.

The Five Parts of an Author Platform

There are several components to a platform. The main ones are:

• Brand
• Website
• Mailing list
• Social Media
• In-Person Events

I know that looks like a lot to build—but don’t worry! When you are just starting out, focus on the first three (or even just the first two). You can work on the others later, after you’ve taken care of the foundation.

Let’s explore each piece.

Brand

As writers, a helpful way to think about branding is to think of it as akin to voice.

We all understand the importance of voice. It’s what makes a story stand out and gives it a distinct personality.  It’s the secret sauce that elevates your writing so that it resonates deeply with readers.

But it is very challenging to define.

An author brand is the same. It’s the personality and essence of your image. It’s what draws certain readers in, and gives them a feeling of what to expect from you.

Cultivating your brand involves a combination of building a consistent look around everything you put out into the world, and infusing your personality into your all of your writing.

You can start with the visual elements:

Colors

Select from 3 to 5 colors that you feel reflect your personality and writing style. Pastels work well for writers of “quiet” book. Bold colors are better for a more rambunctious style.

Fonts

A good rule of thumb is to choose one font for headlines, titles, and other attention-grabbing text. This font can be a serif font (those with a bit of embellishment at the end of the letter stroke. They can be paired with a san serif font for longer blocks of text.

Author Image

Select one image of yourself to use for the majority of your promotional materials. Try to choose one that conveys a bit of your personality, so your audience immediately forms a (hopefully positive!) impression of you from it.

Here’s a great example from author Tim McCanna. Notice how his colors, his font, and his profile picture all convey Tim’s personality and style.

Above all, as you decide how to develop your brand, be yourself.

Don’t look at what other authors are doing and try to emulate the successful ones. The purpose here is not to try to create a brand you think will appeal to everyone.

The purpose is to present your authentic self to the world, and focus on what makes you unique. You want to attract your audience, not someone else’s.

Website

If You Don’t Have One, Create One!

If you haven’t already created an author website, you need to do so right away. If you need help getting started, check out my beginner’s website building series at MakeaLivinginKidlit.com/——. Your website can serve as the central command center for establishing and promoting your author platform.

What to include

While it is essential that you create a website, the good news is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. Once you get it up and running, you don’t need to spend a lot of time updating it or adding new content to it. It simply needs to exist! You can always change it and grow it later.

It should include the following pages:

• Home
• About
• Books
• Contact Me
• Headshot (preferably with some personality!)

Some optional elements that are a good idea to include are:

• Blog
• Social media links

Mailing List

Although we talk about building an author platform so it can help you sell books, that’s not really the key. A better way to think about a platform’s purpose is around cultivating connections with your audience.

When someone willingly shares their email with you, they are signaling an interest in you and your work. They are essentially telling you, “Okay, you can write directly to me.”

It’s your chance to talk to them, ask them questions, and develop a relationship.

It’s what we ultimately hope to develop with our audience. A connection around a shared interest in your stories.

Who Should be on my Email List?

One of the biggest challenges writers for children face in trying to connect with readers is that our audience is a bunch of kids. We can’t connect with kids directly online (unless you write YA books, in which case it may be possible). But we can connect with the parents of our readers.

Other children’s writers provide content that is geared toward other writers. While their email list may not be the target audience of their books, this isn’t a bad strategy. The community of children’s book writers and illustrators is one of the most supportive groups of people on the planet. Writers are always promoting other writers, and buy each other’s books.

Another valuable group to connect with are teachers and librarians. Like parents, they are looking for books for their students. Many teachers and librarians love connecting with authors. They are also a tremendous resource for children’s book writers. They are tuned into what kids are interested in, they encourage their students to read, and are happy to share their knowledge and expertise.

Make sure you include link on your website for people to sign up for your email list. You can also include links to your website on any social media profiles or posts.

I’ve Got Some Emails, Now What?

Once you’ve got people on your email list (even if it’s just one person!), make sure you engage with them. You need to do this consistently—once a week is ideal, but even twice a month is good. Less than that, and you are likely to be forgotten.

It’s best to take care of your list with an email service provider. In other words, sign up with a company that specializes in helping you collect names and send out messages. Some well-known and reputable providers include:

• MailerLite (free for up to 1,000 subscribers)
• MailChimp (free for up to 2,000 subscribers)
• ConvertKit (more expensive but good for larger lists)
• ActiveCampaign (also good for larger lists)
• FloDesk (newer platform that is highly recommended)

In-Person Events

It may seem inefficient, but one of the best ways to sell books is to do it in-person, one book at a time. Making use of this old-fashioned technique is still the best way to directly connect with your audience.

Start With the Fundamentals: Schools, Libraries, and Bookstores

Include information about your availability for events on your website. If you charge a fee for school visits, make sure you mention it. (You don’t have to include the actual fees you charge). Have instructions about how people should contact you if they want to schedule an event.

In each case, make sure you ask about selling books. Sometimes schools will arrange for kids to order your book in advance of your visit, so you can sign them after your talk. Bookstores have their own policies about selling books after a presentation. Some stores will provide the book, while others will have you bring in your own supply, and the bookstore will receive a percentage of your sales.

Podcasts

If you feel like suddenly everyone has a podcast now, well…you’d be right! Or at least it feels that way.

Podcasts have exploded in the last few years. According to a January 2020 post by Podcast Insights, there are currently over 900,000 podcasts.

What’s great about this growth is that podcasts are always in need of people to interview. So if you have just released a book, or have something useful to share to the kidlit community, you can reach out to podcasts to see if they’d be interested in having you on their show.

Some examples of podcasts in the children’s writing space are:

• The Children’s Book Podcast
• Literaticast
• Write or Die
• Picturebooking

Once you’ve managed to land a guest spot on a podcast, tell the world about it! Include a post linking to it on your website, and share it on social media.

Social Media

For some writers, given the choice between diving into social media or diving into a sea of sharks, they would pick the sharks every time.

I don’t blame them!

Social media can be unpleasant. It can be a huge time suck, feel too self-promotional, and put yourself at risk of trolls. (The kind that say mean things about you online, not the kind that hide under bridges).

It can feel like an inauthentic way to connect with people. Scrolling through someone’s social media posts and seeing images of their perfect life can make you feel horribly inadequate even as you know in your heart they are only showing the glossy side of their life.

And yet social media can be a very useful tool for building up a following, raising awareness about you and your books, and connecting with your audience.

How to Dip Your Toe Into Social Media

First, don’t try to become involved in everything. You will quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated. Just pick one or two to focus on, and explore and experiment with them. Don’t worry about “missing out” on opportunities with platforms you are ignoring.

Once you get comfortable with one or two, you can branch out and tackle another. But don’t feel you have to. Many authors just stick with one or two and stay away from the rest. 

The main social media platforms to consider are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest

Here are some quick tips for each one:

Facebook

One of the best ways I have found Facebook to be helpful is by joining groups. It is a way to immediately find people who are interested in the same topic as you are.

There are many groups dedicated to the craft of writing for children. Start by exploring a few, such as:

• KIDLIT 411
• Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators
• Your local SCBWI chapter

You can learn a great deal by just reading posts and observing what other writers are discussing. Try to be helpful by offering solid advice or information whenever you can. Ask questions and always be appreciative.

Twitter

You will find writers of all genres on Twitter, including children’s writers. Some agents and editors are also quite active here.

One advantage of Twitter is you can just write your short missive (you only have 280 characters), post it, and see what happens. If you are disciplined, just spending a few minutes a day can help you build a following rather quickly.

Follow people in the kidlit space, and chances are, they will follow you back. Just be careful about trying to do too much too soon, or Twitter will put a hold on your account.

Instagram

Because it originated as a platform for showcasing photos and videos, Instagram is a very visual platform.

Like Twitter, the writing community is huge on Instagram. It is easy to get plugged into groups that share your interests.

Again, the key to getting started is to start paying attention to what is being posted in the kidlit community. Try to engage with helpful information and advice. Be supportive and promote others’ work.

Pinterest

The most important thing you need to understand about Pinterest is that it is not a social media platform.

You read that right. This is a huge misconception about Pinterest. It’s actually a search engine.

What does that mean? Like Google, people actually use Pinterest for finding information or answers to something they are interested in or need to know about.

Pinterest can also be quite useful when you are ready to start driving traffic to your website. Pin about posts on your blog, or anything that may be helpful to your audience, and include your website. If people are intrigued, they might decide to check out what else you have to share.

You Are in This For the Long Run

It’s a lot of work to build an author platform. But after you get one up and running, much of it will start to take care of itself, with just some maintenance on your part.

Again, the best way to tackle it is one small step at a time.

If you devoted 30 minutes or an hour a day to your author platform, just think how much progress you will have made by the end of one month? You may be surprised.

You can use my free checklist to help you get through each of the steps.

At that point, maybe you finally can sit back and relax.

And maybe tackle a 3,000 piece puzzle this time.

The post How to Start Building a Children’s Author Platform appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

Um, do you want to exist?

If you are at all serious about making your life as a children’s book author more than a hobby, then you absolutely need to have an author website.

Think about it–if you want information about a product, service, or person, then what do you do? You search on the internet! If someone wants to explore your books or wants to know more about you as an author, and they can’t find your website, what happens?

Let’s just say it looks bad.

It’s almost as if you’re not a real person.

“What, no website? What kind of charlatan is this person, anyway??”

This applies to any children’s writer, whether they are published or unpublished.

Why?

Because, as I said before, if you are serious about being a children’s author, you need to act like a professional every step of the way.

A Website Makes You Legitimate 

When you put up your author website, you are making a statement:

“I am writer, see me roar!”

Instead of hiding under the covers, waiting for a certain level of success before going public, you need to step out now.

Putting up an author website is how you can accomplish this.

You don’t need to wait for someone to give you permission to call yourself a writer. If you want to be a children’s author, I’m going to assume you are writing something.

If that’s the case, then you are a writer.

And you need to hang your shingle out in public and let the world know.

Own it. Be proud of it. Have courage and tell the world.

Start Building Your Platform Now, So You’ll Be Ready Later

Once you get a book deal, or get your manuscript ready for self-publishing, a lot starts to happen. You want to share your news with the world.

You want to send people to your website.

Right away.

If you have already taken care of launching your website, there is no delay. And you can direct your energy to the millions of other tasks you suddenly find on your plate.

Plus, your website is not some piece of artwork that once completed, will remain unchanged for eternity.

You will find the need to update it, revamp it, and make adjustments as your writing career twists and turns.

This is a lot easier to do if you already have the framework set up. Then if you need to rebrand it (which could be as simple as changing the color scheme), you can do it quickly.

Should You Build Your Author Website Yourself?

Before we proceed, we should talk about whether or not you actually want to tackle this project yourself.

You could hire someone to build a website for you.

There are lot of advantages to this. You will save yourself from a lot of frustration, and will likely end up with a very nice looking website.

It will cost you a fair amount, however. It can easily cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

If you decide to have someone build your website, I highly recommend you learn how to make any changes yourself. It can be frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive to make changes when you always have to go through your designer.

I Seriously Encourage You to Try

We live in a world where change is more prevalent than ever.

In order to keep up, you need to be nimble, flexible, and ready to pivot on a dime.

If you put in the time now to learn how to create your own website, it will pay off later.  

You’ll be in a much better position to make adjustments, stay relevant, and face any fears you have about technology.

If you are willing to put up with some frustration, watch a lot of tutorial videos, and risk spending hours scrolling through hundreds of design templates, then I urge you to try.

Because after you’re done, you will have mastered a useful skill, have a functional author website, AND you can totally flex the next time you’re at a writer’s conference about your website-building skills.

How to Get Started if You Are an Absolute Newbie

Let’s start by breaking this down into the smallest steps.

(If you have even a tiny bit of basic knowledge, you may find you already know what I’m about to discuss. If that’s the case, feel free to skip to the next post).

Here are the first three things you will need to get a website up:

• Domain name
• Website Platform
• Web Hosting service

The next three posts will cover these three elements in detail. My hope is by breaking the steps down into manageable bites, it will feel as if I’m holding your hand every step of the way.

Ready? You can do this! Let’s get started with step one, the domain name.

Get a Free Website Creation 101 Beginner’s Guide

If you want a guide to walk you through each step of the website creation process, download this free Website Creation 101 Guide. It’s designed to walk the absolute beginner through each step of the process.

The post Do Children’s Writers Really Need an Author Website? appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

As an example, for my website, the domain name is MakeaLivinginKidlit.com.

In other words, it is the URL–or the name or address of your website. Many authors like to use their name as their domain name, or their name followed by an identifier, such as “author” or “writer” or “books.”

Another preference most people have when it comes to a website name is to have the extension .com at the end. The reason is simply because most websites end in .com. It’s not a requirement, and you will see websites ending in extensions like .net or even .website.

But if you want a website name that is easy to remember, it’s best to go with .com as the extension.

How Do I Get a Domain Name?

You will need to pay for a domain name. You could either go to a domain name registrar, or buy it from your web hosting company (if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry! We’ll get to that soon).

When you have an idea for a domain name, you first need to check if it’s available. You can go to any domain name registrar, such as GoDaddy.com or NameCheap.com. Type in your idea for a domain name, and it will show if the name is already taken or not.

If you have a common name, chances are, someone may have already taken it. For example, if your name is Beverly Cleary, you are out of luck. (Well, unless you are THE Beverly Clearly, children’s book author, in which case, it’s your website!).

What if the Name You Want Isn’t Available?

If we search for BeverlyCleary.com in GoDaddy, the result will show the name is already taken.

Here you have a couple of choices.

One thing you can do is add an identifier, such as author, to the end of your name. In fact, BeverlyClearlyauthor.com is available. If your name idea was something else entirely, such as SheLovesBooks.com, then you could try a different extension, such as SheLovesBooks.net.

Keep in mind, however, that because .com is the internet standard, it’s the best choice. In a case like this, it may be better to come up with a different name.

You could try BookLover.com or ABookaDay.com as two examples.

Usually, a domain name is pretty inexpensive, around $12 a year.

Sometimes the name you want is available, but for a hefty price. You can see in the example, GoDaddy offers a service to try to buy the name for you, for a price. It  could range from $50 to as much as $10,000.

I’m going to assume you’re not willing to pay $10,000 for your first choice domain name.

This usually happens for names that could be used for a business, either off or online. People buy up domain names they believe someone will want to use, and hold onto them. If someone wants the name, they can then turn around and sell it to them.

Ruth Soukup, who owns a blogging business, described how she tried to get the domain name livingwellshop.com for her new online business. Someone had already purchased the domain, and offered to sell it to her for $7,000.

Instead, she chose to go with livingwellshop.co and save about $6,980.

Bottom line: try to find a simple, easy to type domain name that ends in .com.

Once you have purchased your domain name, you are ready for the next step: Deciding where to host your website. 

The post How to Build a Children’s Author Website for Beginners-Part One: Picking a Domain Name appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

Next, we covered what a domain name is. (Refresher: it’s the address of your website).

If you missed it, you can read about domain names in this blog post.

The next term we’ll cover is deciding on your website platform.

What Kind of Platform Are we Talking About?

You need to house the content of your website somewhere. All the stuff you write, pictures of you, your books, your dog, any other information—all that stuff is on your website.

Where you put it is your platform.

(Also, do not confuse a website platform with an author platform. The latter is a term referring to an author’s plan to develop a way to engage with readers and sell more books.)

There are two main choices to consider when deciding on a platform.

1. WordPress – Going with WordPress means you will need a third-party hosting company. (To be clear, we are talking about WordPress.org, NOT WordPress.com)
2. Website Builder – Create a website using tools designed to be user-friendly to those with little-to-no experience.

How do you decide which platform to use?

For many children’s book authors, the idea of creating an author website fills them with dread. It requires entering into a technology jungle, with dangers lurking in dark corners, ready to trip you up and make you want to throw your computer out the window.

Others are curious about what goes into creating a website. They feel confident about wading in, experimenting, and not worrying about making mistakes.

It’s like how buyers of Ikea furniture fall into two camps.

One group hates the process of constructing a Loggövsip console or a Gorp dresser (okay, I just made those names up). They would much prefer if it came fully constructed or asking their 12-year-old Lego-obsessed neighbor to build it for them.

 

If that’s you, then a website builder may be the way to go.

The other group relishes the challenge of figuring out which of the 628 screws is the correct one for attaching the inside shelf. They beat their chests in triumph when the last drawer glides smoothly into place.

If this is you, learning the steps toward piecing together a website with WordPress could be your jam.

Regardless of which route you take, I believe anyone who is willing to spend time in the trenches can create a nice-looking, finished product in a weekend. If you use a website builder, it may only take one day.

What It’s Like to Use WordPress

When I created my first website back in 2011, it was an exercise in frustration. Luckily, I purchased in inexpensive theme (more on that later) that came with tech support. After many failed attempts to figure out where to put words and images so they showed up where I wanted them to, I finally begged the support team for help.

I’m pretty sure the tech support guy got so fed up with me, he threw up his hands and decided to do it for me. He had me give him my log in information and the next day, ta da! My website was magically finished.

I’m happy to report that when I recently revamped my website (and created two more as well), it was a MUCH easier process.

The basic steps I recommend:

• Install WordPress on your web host site
• Choose a theme that comes with demo content
• Use a page builder (WordPress comes with Gutenberg which works fine)
• Create a home page
• Create a blog page
• Add more as needed

At this point, you will have the framework for your website completed.

What are the main advantages of using WordPress for your website?

• You have a lot more template design options. The sky’s the limit!
• It’s the most widely used platform (great community and support available)
• It can handle changing and growing with you
• Innovation is happening all the time

Bottom line:  WordPress is best if you want the highest level of flexibility and future growth potential.

Check out this post on Setting Up Your New WordPress Author Website if you want to learn about the first steps to getting things up and running with WordPress.

Using a Website Builder

For purposes of full disclosure, I should mention that I have not personally used a website builder to create a website. I’ve played around with a few of them, so I have a feel for how they work. But my recommendations are mostly based on my research.

Most website builders allow you to try things out, with no obligation, so you can decide if it works for you.

Here is what you can expect with a website builder:

• Sign up with an email
• Some will ask basic questions about your website (e.g. what kind of business you have)
• Select a theme (how you want your site to look)
• Start editing

There are several options for website builders, but these three are most well-known and commonly used and recommended:

• Wix
• Weebly
• Squarespace

Wix is very popular for its ease of use and tons of design options. I think one of the biggest drawbacks to Wix is that once you pick a theme, you can’t change it later. (Well, you could, but you have to start over from ground zero).

Weebly is good for anyone who is also interested in using their website for a blog. It doesn’t have as many options for themes and customization as Wix. But some see this as a potential bonus as it is less overwhelming for those who want the keep the process as simple as possible.

Squarespace is usually recommended for anyone who plans on using their website to blog, build an audience, and try to sell products (for example: your book!). It is not as easy to use as Wix and Weebly, but the templates are of the highest quality.

It can be hard to choose between the three, as each has strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, if you stick with one of these three, you will probably be satisfied with your choice.

Here are some in-depth comparisons I found on the web:

Comparing Wix vs Weebly

https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/comparisons/wix-vs-weebly-comparison-chart/

https://hosting.review/comparison/wix-vs-weebly/

Comparing Wix vs Squarespace

https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/comparisons/wix-vs-squarespace/

https://www.sitebuilderreport.com/wix-vs-squarespace

Comparing Weebly vs Squarespace

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=weebly+vs+squarespace&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Comparing Wix vs Weebly vs Squarespace

https://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders/comparisons/wix-vs-weebly-vs-squarespace/

What are my next steps?

If you want to explore setting up an author website with WordPress, I’ve created a step-by-step walk-through to getting a website framework started. You can check it out here.

If you think you would prefer to use a website builder, I would start by reading the comparisons I provided above. Or, you can simply try out each platform. Build a rudimentary website using the free option, and see which one appeals to you the most.

One final word: price. A website builder will cost you more up front. For example, hosting for one year with a reputable company can be found in the $3 – $5 a month range. Using a website builder (without ads, which is highly recommended) will set you back around $12 a month.

Once you’ve made your decision, you’ll be ready to dive into the next step. (See what I did there? “Dive in”—get it?)

You can read Part Three here: Picking a Web Host.

The post How to Build a Children’s Author Website for Beginners-Part Two: Choosing a Platform appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

What is a Web Hosting Service?

Now that you understand what a domain name is (and if you don’t, check out this post here), you are ready to find a home for your website.

That’s where a web host comes in.

This is where all the files for your website live. Think of it as the home where your address (your domain name) is resides.

You usually have the option to buy your domain name from your web hosting company. If you are just getting started, it can simplify things for you. But if you buy your domain name from another company, it is very easy to bring it over to your host.

How Much Does it Cost?

Web hosting companies usually charge a monthly fee, but most of the time you will pay for at least a year in one lump sum. Many companies will offer you the lowest rates if you buy two or three years up front.

Costs can vary widely. The range can be as low as $2.95 a month (usually this requires a three year commitment) to $15 a month for the lowest level of hosting.

For more sophisticated needs, fees can run about $35 a month. If you need the highest level of services and power, then fees can start running much higher.

But if that’s you, this is not the post for you.

The ground level of web hosting is called shared hosting. This means your website will be sharing a server with a bunch of other websites. Many compare the idea to an office building where a bunch of individual business all use the resources of the building.

Unless you are getting a lot of traffic to your site (meaning lots of people are coming to look at it), or you need lots of features, shared hosting should work fine for your author website.

Which Hosting Company is Best?

Most children’s book authors are trying not to invest a lot of money into creating a website. And the truth is, you could invest in very little and have a perfectly adequate website up and running pretty quickly.

There are completely free options available. But unless you are on a severely tight budget, most experts don’t recommend going with a completely free site. Even though you only need a simple website so you can be visible in the online world, you still want your website to look professional. Most free options have restrictions on design options, and they basically scream “Economy Version!” to the world.

As a children’s book author, you are in a creative space. You want your website to be able to reflect your creative talents. To do that, you will need to invest at least some money.

If you have done some exploring, you may have run across others recommending BlueHost. Some of those recommending it are highly respected experts in the online space. BlueHost offers an attractive low entry fee of only $2.95 a month (in early 2020) for their lowest-priced plan– with a three-year commitment. After your contract is up, the monthly fee goes up to $7.99 a month.

But I need to inject a word of caution.

In the last year or so, stories started to emerge about people having problems with BlueHost. Experts in the website arena began announcing they were no longer able to recommend the hosting company.

I don’t personally have any experience with BlueHost. But my research indicates the problems now stem from BlueHost being owned by parent company EIG. The same company also owns HostGator, Fat Cow, and a slew of other popular web hosting companies.

Problems started popping up because it seems EIG began cramming as many websites as they could under one server. This is a great cost-saving measure, and is a big reason why they companies could charge such competitive prices.

But low cost can also mean poor performance. After years of being the number one recommended web hosting company, more and more folks in the industry are abandoning the BlueHost ship.

Another factor to keep in mind is that BlueHost is widely promoted because they offer an attractive affiliate program. With an affiliate program, if you recommend a product or service that results in a sale, you get a commission. So far awhile, many people recommended BlueHost because they did a good job, and they gave out nice commissions. It was a win-win situation.

But if you search for BlueHost recommendations now, you will run across articles by people saying they are choosing to no longer promote BlueHost.

What to Look for in a Web Hosting Company

I personally use Web Hosting Hub. It is a sister company to InMotion, and has been in the business longer than most. I have found it to be without any problems, my website has never gone down, and they offer 24/7 support, which I have used quite a bit with great results.

Web Hosting Hub’s pricing is $5.99 a month if you sign up for 3 years for their entry-level hosting. It goes up a dollar for every year less you sign up for. So a year will cost $7.99 a month.

Right now the reigning champion for shared hosting is SiteGround. It seems all the influencers in the online world are jumping BlueHost’s ship and climbing aboard with SiteGround.

They offer very competitive pricing starting at $3.95 a month, regardless of whether you sign up for one year or three. People seem to be happy with the company, who appear to offer good service, a free domain name, and fast loading times.

How to get started

Once you decide on a web hosting company, it’s simple to begin the process of creating your website. You choose the level of hosting you want (which will likely be the lowest, and least expensive, level), and continue.

The next step is usually a window asking if you want to purchase a domain, or if you already have one. You can type in your domain name here, and either buy it (if it’s new) or you’ll be moved to the next screen (if you own it).

Next, you will likely be asked if you want them to load WordPress for you. If you already know you are going to use WordPress, then it’s fine to select this option. If you aren’t sure, you can just say no, because it is easy to do later.

You may also be asked if you would like to purchase additional services. This might include an automatic back-up, regular scans for hacks into your site, or help with building a website. It’s up to you to decide whether the add-ons are worth it, but if you don’t sign up right away, chances are good you could do it later.

After payment, you will need to create a username and password. Once you’ve completed that step, you are ready for the next step!

At this point you will need to decide on a platform for your website. Basically that means are you going to use WordPress, or something else?

If you’re interested in exploring WordPress, check out the next post in the series here.

The post How to Build a Children’s Author Website for Beginners-Part Three: Picking a Web Host appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.

You’ve ventured into the jungle of building an author website. As a newbie, you’ve had to take it step-by-step, trying to avoid getting sucked into the quicksand of domain name possibilities.

You’ve confronted your fear of getting lost and committed to a building your website yourself.

You untangled yourself from the vines of web hosting services and selected one to use.

Give yourself a pat on the back. You’re doing a great job.

But get ready, because now we are about to head into the deepest part of the jungle.

How to Install WordPress

WordPress is the foundation of your website. It’s what you use to take it from a blank page into an attractive, functional site.

It’s not exactly difficult, but it can be easy to get confused.

Luckily, most web hosts make it easy to install WordPress. I’m going to use Siteground as an example, but the process is pretty similar no matter which hosting company you use.

Installing WordPress With Siteground

After you sign up, you’ll be asked to log in for the first time. You will then be greeted by a window that looks something like this:

Under “Please choose software to install” just select WordPress.

You will then be walked through the next steps, which includes setting up an admin email, username, and password. Make sure you write this down, because you will need it to log in whenever you work on your website.

Some hosts will also offer the use of a setup wizard. They hold your hand and do as much of the work for you as possible.

No matter which web host you use, if you run into trouble, you can usually find instructions by searching “How to install WordPress on [name of web host].”

After installing WordPress, you can look up your website by typing in your domain name. In this example, the domain name is childrensauthor.ckimwrite.com. (I know it’s a weirdly long name, but with my hosting plan, I can create subdomains without having to purchase anything. So I just tack it onto my main domain, which is CKimWrite.com).

You may see something like this:

Choosing a Theme

The theme is what determines how your website looks.

This step can be fun and exciting—it’s like starting a decorating project.

What color should the walls be? Should you use curtains or blinds? Do you prefer minimalism or shabby chic?

You can also quickly become completely overwhelmed.

Try not to be like me and spend two days scrolling through themes and trying out each one before finally settling on something.

Just pick something simple and clean, and do it quickly.

Don’t worry about picking the “wrong” theme. The nice thing about WordPress is you can change themes at any time.

Many people wonder if they should use a paid theme, or if it’s okay to use one that’s free.

Paid themes can look more professional, have more features, and often come with support.

But there are plenty of free themes that work just as well, look great, and are easy to use.

One word of caution: If you want to try a free theme, it’s best to stick to those included in the WordPress.org theme directory. All themes must be officially approved before they can be found here, and the process is somewhat rigorous.

My advice? Start with a free theme. You can always upgrade to paid later.

Install Your New Theme

Once you (finally) decide on a theme, you need to install it on your site.

To do this, you’ll need to get to your website’s dashboard. This is the behind-the-scenes control area, where you are able to make changes and add content.

To access your dashboard, simply type in your domain name, followed by /wp-admin.

For example, Authorwebsite.com/wp-admin. This will bring you to the dashboard, which will look something like this:

Under Appearance (column on left), select Themes, and a few theme suggestions will be shown. From here you can select Add New for a selection of free WordPress themes.

If you know the name of the theme you want, you can enter it in the search bar. Or, if you have a theme you downloaded from elsewhere (such as a paid theme), select Upload Theme, and add it that way.

When you’re ready to try a theme, simply select “Install.” After it loads, it will be part of your theme library. Then click “Activate” to load it on your site.

For example, let’s try loading Spacious theme by ThemeGrill.

After you activate, your site will look like this:

Wait, what?

This doesn’t look ANYTHING like the nice image from the example!

What happened?

Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong.

But installing the theme just gives you the framework. The example shown is after a web designer has added images, selected a layout, that kind of thing.

But then, how do you get your website to look like the example?

Use Demo Templates

With my first website, I found it incredibly confusing and frustrating that I couldn’t make anything look like the examples.

Then I discovered demo templates.

Some themes will give you access to a template that you can upload into your site. It will look EXACTLY like the example shown. Then you can go in and make changes to the framework they have given you.

Not every theme offers this. The only way to find out if they do is to research different themes and see if the descriptions mentions demos. ThemeGrill offers a few themes with demos, including Neve (which I use) , OceanWP, Astra, and Hestia.

Some only provide a few free demos. Most offer more if you upgrade to the Pro version of their theme.

Okay, we’re getting close to the fun part. But first, we need to take care of a couple more things.

Installing Plugins

Here is what your dashboard looks like after activating the Spacious theme. After activating, you may get a message suggesting some plugins that will work with the theme.

What’s a plugin, you ask?

They are pieces of software you can add to your website that will add a particular function. They do things like protect your website from spam, or perform a back up your website.

Plugins are a great feature of WordPress—they are like apps. It seems like there’s one for everything. And they are usually free!

It’s usually a good idea to follow the theme’s suggestion and install their recommended plugins. You can always remove them later if necessary.

I also recommend you install a page builder. This is a plugin that makes creating and changing the look of your website easier. They are pretty intuitive to use, and allow you to make changes on the page, rather than having to go through the dashboard.

(If none of that makes sense, don’t worry about it! Just install the page builder.)

I like Elementor, and highly recommend it. WordPress now comes with Gutenberg, which also works well. There are others, but these are two I’ve actually used.

To add Elementor, click on Plugins from the left side menu. Then click Add New. You’ll see a menu of suggested plugins. Use the search function at the top right corner and type in “Elementor.”

Elementor Page Builder should show up. Select “Install Now” and then “Activate.”

A Welcome to Elementor window will pop up. It’s worth watching the “Getting Started” video to get a quick introduction to how it all works.

Creating a Home Page

Most WordPress themes will start out with showing blog posts as the first page of your website. Every time you add a new post, it will show up at the top.

But a better strategy is to create a home page that doesn’t change. This is called a static home page.

It’s easy to do. On the dashboard menu, go to “Pages” and then “Add New.” On the page that pops up, you can type in a title. Let’s just call it “Home.”

Then click “Publish” on the upper right corner.

Do the same thing again, and add a new page titled “Blog.”

Okay, almost there. . .

Click on Dashboard, and under “Welcome to WordPress” click on “Customize Your Site.”

On the left side menu, click on “Homepage Settings.”

Under “Your homepage displays” select “A static page.”

Under Homepage, click the menu for “Select” and choose “Home.” Under Posts page, select “Blog.”

Click Publish.

How to Make Your Website Look Like the Example

Okay, you are finally ready to choose a demo! On the dashboard, click on Appearance and Demo Importer. You will see a screen with several options. Anything not marked “Pro” is free. You can click “Preview” to see what it looks like on your site.

Let’s try Spacious Blog. Click “Import.”

After importing, you can simply click “Live Preview.”

Ta da! Your site, AuthorWebsite.com, now looks exactly like the example.

Congratulations!

One final bit of instruction: there are two elements of your website that can be customized. To make changes to the theme you use the “customize” option on the top menu. This is where you make changes to the header, the menu, and colors.

The best way to learn is to play around with the different options. If you make a change, see what it looks like. This is how you figure out how to change the different parts of your theme. If you want to save any changes, click “Publish.”

To make changes to the individual pages, you use “Edit with Elementor.” Here you can make changes to the text and images, to the individual blocks of content on the page. Moving your mouse around the page will reveal what elements can be changed with Elementor.

You should be proud of yourself for sticking with this process. You now have the structure of your website, and you can customize it to your liking.

Now that you have put up your website, you can start exploring the next big step–thinking about your author platform.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered there as well. Check out my post here to get started. 

The post How to Build a Children’s Author Website for Beginners-Part Four: Getting Started With WordPress appeared first on Make a Living in Kidlit.