OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Your website is one of the most important things to get sorted if you're taking your career as an author seriously.
It's your home on the internet and the hub for your books.
It's how readers, agents, publishers, journalists, bloggers and podcasters judge how professional you are.
It's where you can start to build an email list of readers.
A free site is not good enough if you want to take your author career onwards and upwards.
But your own site doesn't have to be a big deal. It's not expensive and it won't take long to set up.
In this video, I take you through why having your own site is important, how to get a hosting account and set up your wordpress site, as well as using an example theme and how to start your email list.
You can watch the video below or here on YouTube. There are also step-by-step notes after the video.
[Please note: The links in the text and the video are affiliate links, which means I receive a small percentage of the sale but at no extra cost to you. With the hosting, you even get a discount if you use my link. I hope you find the video tutorial useful enough that you will consider using my links so I can continue to provide free information. Thank you!]
How to set up your own author website video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVgnSICF4s
Step by step guide to setting up your own author website
Follow this step-by-step guide and you'll have your own author site set up in no time 🙂
(1) Why go self-hosted? [1:40 on video]
Plenty of authors use free websites. There are a lot of choices and you don't pay a thing. But here's why I believe you should have a self-hosted site.
- Control. If you own your site, no one can take it away from you. Free sites are built on the goodwill (and marketing) of companies who own the real estate from which you are promoting yourself and your books. What if that company decides not to continue the service anymore? Also, if you're an indie author, you understand that control of our own assets is one of the reasons we're indie in the first place. So why wouldn't you want control of your own site?
- More functionality. If you use a free website service, you don't have access to all the cool functionality you would if you self-hosted. For WordPress sites, this means you get to use awesome plugins which enable you to do so much more than the free sites.
- More professional. Just as a book IS judged by its cover, so are you judged by your website. Readers, agents, publishers, journalists, TV producers, bloggers and podcasters will all visit your website – and they can tell a free site instantly. How seriously do you take this author career if you don't invest in a pro looking site?
The good news: It doesn't have to cost you much anymore to have a professional looking website that you control with all the functionality you need. Let's get into it!
(2) Get a domain name and a hosting account [4:01 on video]
A domain is your address on the internet – usually your author name or business name e.g. JFPenn.com or TheCreativePenn.com. You can get domain names at lots of places (I use GoDaddy.com) but you can also use the hosting site as I go through below as part of the setup which is the super easy option.
Hosting is basically a way to store and run your website on the computers of a specialized hosting company. You essentially rent space so people can access your website from all over the world.
There are lots of options for hosting but I recommend Bluehost for my author clients and I've even built my parents' sites on it, so I can vouch for it personally.
Why choose Bluehost? [5:14 on video]
- Great 24×7 support by email, online chat or phone
- Reliability – up time average of 99.9%
- Ease of use – so no tech headaches
- WordPress officially recommends 3 services and BlueHost is one of them
- No limits – unlimited disk space, bandwidth, domains, email accounts – so your site can grow
- Affordability – a few $ a month depending on which plan you pick – and you can get a discount off the advertised price through the link I share in a minute
- Plus 30 day money back guarantee, so if you change your mind, no worries.
How to set up your account on Bluehost, claim your domain and install WordPress [7:44 on video]
Click here to go to the Bluehost site, so you can get your reduced hosting plan.
The first page will give you an option – either you have a domain or you need to get one. In my example client setup, I chose to get the domain from Bluehost.
Then set up an account. It doesn't matter which country you're in.
Next, choose your account plan. The page will show a reduction if you use my affiliate link, TheCreativePenn.com/bluehost. I recommend the Plus plan, mainly because you are likely to want to build other sites and have a scalable account. But of course, you can start small and upgrade later. Once you choose the plan, you will need to enter your payment details.
If it all goes through, you'll get a confirmation email saying your account has been created and your domain has been assigned if you bought one through the site. You can now set up a password for your account on Bluehost. This is your administration password so keep it secure.
Now you can install WordPress software and Bluehost makes this super easy. You will either get a pop-up which says Install WordPress or you can click the icon on the Control Panel. Seriously, you just click the button 🙂
Once it is installed, you will be given your login details. Keep this safe as it is the Administration access to your new website.
Congratulations! You now have an author website! [15:37 on video]
But it's not exactly functional yet as you need to add content and also install a Theme.
The Theme is basically the design, the look and feel, or the ‘skin' of the site. What's brilliant about WordPress is that you can change the Theme over time, but the content remains. I've changed Themes four times on The Creative Penn in 6 years and it's a perfectly normal part of developing your online presence on the internet.
This is also why I don't recommend paying someone thousands to set up a custom design, because inevitably you will change it anyway!
You can get a Premium theme with SEO (search engine optimization) and Mobile compatibility for under US$100 and you'll get a guide on how to configure your own site.
[If you're scared of techy stuff, I would really urge you to give this a go. It is incredibly empowering to get to grips with your own website and it will save you a LOT of money and time going forward.]
I use and recommend StudioPress.[18:26 on video]
I use the Author Pro theme for JFPenn.com and Beautiful Pro for TheCreativePenn.com. But there are tons to choose from – just search WordPress themes and you will come up with many 🙂
My suggestion is to spend an hour looking and then make a decision. Don't let this lead to procrastination! You will likely change it anyway, so just make a decision and get building.
But whatever Theme you choose, you download it as a .zip file onto your computer and then go to Appearance -> Themes on your WordPress dashboard and upload it. Activate the Theme and then you will need to customize it. Each Theme comes with a guide for how to make it look like you want it to.
I spent 34 minutes doing a demo on the video, which included book cover design for my example client!
Then you add your information to the site. Here's a quick overview (and in the video at 23:34 mins, I take you on a whizz-around my sites!)
Pages are the static pages like About, Contact and your Book pages. Posts are used if you are blogging or podcasting, but that isn't necessary for authors. It's only if you want to produce regular content. Widgets are used for the front page, sidebars, top and bottom area and are important for the extra links you want to show. Plugins are extra little add-ons that let you do cool stuff e.g. add social share buttons.
For more WordPress tutorials, I recommend WP101.com, which will guide you through everything you need to know.
Or you can just muddle through with trial and error, as I did, and still do to some extent! As long as you're happy to play around and you back your site up (Tools -> Backup), you'll be fine.
Book Marketing: Start building your email list [30:01 on video]
One of the most important things you can do to market your book is collect emails from people who might be interested in buying it.
You can start this as soon as you have a website, or if your book is available already, you can start now as well. It's like that old saying about ‘when's the best time to plant a tree?' It's years ago, or it's today. Every day you wait is another day that goes by when you're not collecting interested people's email!
Not starting an email list early is one of the top things that people regret, so definitely put it on your list!
There are two services that most authors use: I use and recommend Aweber. You can also use Mailchimp. Either is fine.
Each site will enable you to create a form on your website by copying and pasting some code. (It's easier than it sounds and there are plenty of tutorials at either site.) Then you can start collecting emails.
Just having a simple form on your site is a good start, but if you want to really build your list, you will need something that makes people want to sign up.
I use a free thriller on JFPenn.com and the Author 2.0 Blueprint on TheCreativePenn.com.
For your freebie, it needs to be some useful or inspirational for non-fiction and entertaining for fiction.
There are lots of options, but there are definitely ways to supercharge your email list signups.
I recommend watching the free video training series from Nick Stephenson on building your first 10,000 readers.
You can also read a case study here of how I used Nick's tips to massively increase my own email list.
So there you are.
You now have your own author website with a professional looking Theme and you can start capturing emails of interested readers.
James says
Thanks for the info Joanna. Will you be going over how to send out a newsletter? Is there special software that makes this easy? I haven’t seen the actual nuts and bolts of creating newsletters addressed by the self-publishing community.
Joanna Penn says
Hi James,
Yes, I should do a tutorial on Aweber – or you can also use Mailchimp.
I do cover newsletters in these posts:
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/09/25/how-authors-and-writers-can-build-an-email-list-for-marketing/
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/01/15/fiction-email-list-subscribers/
Jasmine Stanford says
Thank you so much for this post! I didn’t realize how easy it was to create your own website (and how quick!), when I would think of doing something like that on my own I would have nightmares about complicated html code…Thanks again!
Joanna Penn says
I’m glad you found it useful – no complicated HTML needed at all!
Kitty says
How soon should you start building your website? If you’re working on a book but don’t plan on having it done for some time, should you wait till you’re closer to the release date to start a website? Otherwise (unless you plan on starting a blog), I can’t think of what you could really put on there besides basic author information, since you would have no books.
Joanna Penn says
Hi Kitty,
If non-fiction, then you could use it to post chapters or do interviews or other kinds of content marketing http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/02/09/content-marketing-for-authors-and-writers/
In this way you will start building an audience for your book. You can also use a free giveaway to start building an email list.
If fiction, then I would say leave it because it will take a while to find your voice and fiction marketing is more about the book.
Kitty says
Thanks Joanna!
Joel Friedlander says
Joanna, thanks for putting this all in one place. It’s a one-stop-shop for any author trying to figure out how to get online, and a great service to the community of authors. Since you know and use all these services yourself, you are in an ideal position to recommend them to newcomers.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks Joel – I’ve been meaning to get a tutorial done for years 🙂
Kelli McCracken says
I am considering changing the theme on my website and found this information useful. I was on a webinar hosted by Joan Stewart and Joel Friedlander yesterday and both mentioned your website. I had to visit and see it for myself. Glad I did. Thank you.
Elle says
Hi, thanks for this article. I am finding it very useful. I am about to try this now, so I will let you know how I get on!!
All the best,
Elle (L)
Adreanne says
Thanks for breaking the process down for us. What advice do you have for authors that write in multiple generas and for different age groups? One site that splits to different pages? I think different sites for each genera would get tedious and difficult to maintain. Any advice is appreciated!
Thank you,
Adreanne
Joanna Penn says
Basically, if your audience is substantially different, it’s worth having multiple sites. I do 🙂 details here: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/01/26/a-tale-of-two-author-brands/
Lisa says
As ever – super useful and many thanks for putting it together!
I’m a little confused over wordpress.org vs wordpress.com. Are you talking about the .org, paid version in your tutorial?
Also, I have a paid website with Moonfruit that I want to move to wordpress – or rather, it looks like I would move it to bluehost, and then follow the steps to install wordpress – is that correct?
Joanna Penn says
Yes, wordpress.org is the software that you run on your own hosted site – wordpress.com is the free site that you don’t own. I’ve never used Moonfruit but the database is the container with the content in – the hosting company just looks after the database. If it’s wordpress based, you’d be able to import the content. If it’s not, you’d have to rebuild.
Lisa Mills says
Great, thanks Joanna.
I don’t think Moonfruit is compatible with wordpress (unless you want to embed your wordpress blog on your Moonfruit site), so I’d have to transfer the domain name to the new host – in this case, Bluehost – and then install wordpress.org, and manually transfer content across from Monfruit to my new site.
Jeremy says
I have published one book and I’m about to publish a second – both fiction – and I think it’s time I had a website. You have certainly made this sound simple – thank you. My concern is that I wish to remain anonamous, using only my pen-name (Douglas Renwick), but and I am not sure I can do this. Any advice?
Joanna Penn says
You can just build a site using the pen-name – not a problem 🙂 Many authors do this.
Sarah says
This is great! I’m almost up and running. But be careful. While you are installing WordPress thru Bluehost, Mojo marketplace will try to sell you a theme. The prices look like they are one-time, but are in fact a monthly feel. And if you buy, it’s very hard to get a refund. This glitch cost me a lot of precious time and a little money as well.
Joanna Penn says
Thanks for letting me know about that – I recommend buying the basic setup and ignoring the upsells along the way!
Rachel says
Hi Joanna, how often do you recommend updating themes and plugins (I’ve heard that’s important for security)? And is there additional cost to get the update, or does that come with the theme?
This post has been so helpful to me while setting up my website–thank you!
Joanna Penn says
You should update themes and plugins as soon as the updates come out, especially if they are critical updates. That’s usually just part of the plugin cost (if it’s premium), although sometimes you need to buy an annual license, and sometimes they are free.
I’m glad you found the tutorial useful!
Glis says
I see that you recommend Bluehost, which is one of the many subsidiaries of Endurance International Group. They have a reputation for buying up web hosts and reducing costs and quality. There’s a lot of information around on the internet.
I have some long-standing sites with a more recently acquired subsidiary (Asmallorange); quality and support used to be superb (better than Bluehost – I had an account with them many years ago), but no longer is. I wouldn’t put any new sites with them even though it would cost me nothing, financially that is.
Things may be fine while they are running smoothly, but when there are problems the support may not be there.
Lon says
Joanna–Thanks for all the helpful tips. For my first novel I did a template website, but later had it overhauled by a pro because I wanted it a bit fancier, with a book trailer, etc. Now, I realize I should have done an author website to add the sequel and a children’s picture book, which will be published later this year. Since my website pro has retired, I’m back to creating my author website myself. Using your information, will it be hard to transfer material from my old website, e.g., photos, book trailer, newspaper reviews?
Joanna Penn says
You can export from an existing wordpress site and import into a new one – so it can definitely be done 🙂 You could also pay a professional if you need help – I recommend Nate Hoffelder https://the-digital-reader.com/wordpress-support-design/
Kenny Negaard says
Hey Joanna,
Thank you for the video, very helpful.
I am a published author of one book, but my publisher closed their doors Jan 2017 and I am going at it alone now.
My plan is to market my first book, the first in a series of twenty four, using a webpage and Facebook page for connecting with readers and also directing them to Kindle/Amazon for purchase.
I also, plan on up to eight outposts that strictly direct readers to my Webpage, Facebook and Kindle/Amazon directly, if they are just looking to purchase immediately my work on eBook or Softcover.
I am also going to take your advice and use an email collector.
If you have any other tips based on the plan I have outlined above, your advice or encouragement is welcome.
I was directed to this video through Chris Syme author of:
The Newbies Guide to Sell More Books with Less Marketing
Thank you again,
Kenny
(aka) KW Negaard II
Author of:
Clarence-Adventures in the Great Wood
Daniel Thomas MacInnes says
30 minutes?! I’ll be lucky to wrap my head around building a website in 30 days. Mind you, I signed up with InMotion, so perhaps they are just more complicated than Bluehost. In any case, putting together a website is horribly over-complicated and a total mess. I might have to pay to have somebody else put everything together for me. What’s especially frustrating is that I am experienced in web design, and have created my own arts website 15 years ago. Perhaps I just became too lazy with Blogger and expected things to be simple. But it’s not. Far from it. Oh, well.
Should I just hire someone to build and maintain the website? How much does that cost? What options are available for that?
Joanna Penn says
If you need help for wordpress (which I recommend), then check out https://the-digital-reader.com/wordpress-support-design/
Elise Stone says
“My suggestion is to spend an hour looking and then make a decision. Don’t let this lead to procrastination! You will likely change it anyway, so just make a decision and get building.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I bookmarked this post ages ago but forgot about it until you mentioned it on the Novel Marketing podcast recently. I’ve finally bitten the bullet on starting a WordPress site, but I got lost for several days in trying out themes, some of which turned out to be so complicated I was ready to give up. Even asking for help on a WordPress Facebook group got a response of spending the time to learn how to use a complicated theme. (Geeks tend to think this way. I know. I used to be one.)
I even know an author who has used the Beautiful theme for multiple websites. Somehow I discarded that idea without even weighing it.
Thanks to re-reading this post and watching the video again, I think sanity has returned. I’ll let you know if I get lost in the weeds. 🙂
Joanna Penn says
Woohoo! There’s no need to get lost in the weeds 🙂
Carla Simpson says
Just wondering if there are any updates to this information? Would really appreciate it Joanna. Also, I previously had a domain which I let go (with Go Daddy). Is it possible to retrieve/reactivate that to now use? Also, question… is there a video or instructions on how to set up a link to Amazon for Kindle? Appreciate it. I’m not a techie, but not intimidated by programs, and hopefully set up has gotten a lot easier… just saying.