| | The CyberWorld Aspect of Promotion and Marketing I "own" (lease is probably a better descriptor) my personal author web site domain (johnmtaylor.com), and several others for other purposes, to include domains for each of my books and a separate one for my business. There are many services that will sell you domain names and even throw in a free site hosting package and emails. Domain names are relatively cheap - sign up and reserve your personal or business name now. I messed around and didn't sign up for "jmtaylor," the name I use on all my books, until I realized the ".com" version was already taken by - in their words - a "respected mechanical contractor" in Maryland. So I had to settle for other alternatives since I don't do plumbing or A/C work. - I create and edit my own pages using Microsoft's FrontPage templates. Custom art and design work would be wonderful, but I am not a graphic artist. If you don't think the design quality of what you see on this site is adequate for your own use or if you don't want to take the time to do it yourself, then hire someone to design a unique site. Be prepared to pay a substantial fee for a custom site design, and you must still spend substantial time (and money) refreshing content. Fancy is nice, but I'm not convinced fancy sells any more books.
- I originally paid to have my site hosted on a local ISP (Internet Service Provider), but the server was wiped out by a worm in September 2001. After a week or so without service, I moved one domain to a "free" site on Tripod, and have used them for many years. The downsides are a size limitation (20MG), and banner ads across the top of the pages, and occasional FrontPage issues, things like the navigation tabs go blank, usually resolved over a couple of days. The 20 Megs will accommodate about 50 web pages with a lot of graphics, and many surfers have learned to scan the ads most of the time without them interfering with the web site content. I'm not complaining, Tripod's ad revenue supports my free site. For an example, go to The Taylor's of Robeson County, NC where you can see if the ads bug you or not. Tripod has changed over the many years I have used them, and now show a sidebar along the left side with a search bar, but it is easily closed.
I exceeded Tripod's "free" storage limit on my author's site and after a temporary stop at a less-than-satisfactory host, moved it to a several new hosting services. I discovered the "you get what you pay for" adage to be true. Reliability was an issue, plus a help desk that always denied they had a problem, even when I knew they were down. So a couple of the hosts are long gone. (May 2004 Update - recently received a message that the original owner of one of the hosting sites had regained control of WebSytz.com - I have returned to them and, so far - fingers crossed - have been very pleased with them.) Lesson here - sign up only with a site that has short term (e.g., monthly ) rates and/or a guarantee for refund if unsatisfied. - I register my domain names with GoDaddy,com at very competitive rates and have also used them to host several sites. Recently Go Daddy also began offering free web forwarding and email forwarding for domains that are registered with them - another good bargain. Once you register with a hosting service it takes two-three days for the DNS (the technical name that tells every other computer where you site is on the network) to propagate. So make sure your site is up several days before you start promoting it.
- Another interesting trick I have recently mastered - subdomains. I have set up my book web domains (like http://flashofemerald.com for Flash of Emerald) so they are actually subdomains of my main site (in this example http://flashofemerald.jmtaylor.us/). The forwarding function sends anyone who actually types in http://flashofemerald.com to the subdomain. Saves me the expense of separately hosted sites for each book.
- For hosting and registration, companies, names, quality and prices seem to change overnight, so do a careful search before you commit to anything that costs real money. (For me, anything over a buck!) Even though I have used the mentioned services, we all know how businesses come and go, and even the best seem to fall under bad management - people get too greedy, it seems. So carefully check before you use any of the services and make sure you understand their terms and policies. And if you are stiffed by any of the services I mention, let me know!
All this work and you really want people to find your site, so promote your web site by getting it on as many search engines and indices as possible. A new (in the last couple of years) are the sites such as MySpace.com, with the added complexity of blogs (whcih GoDaddy offers). More to keep up, but you find they work for you. Lots of complex stuff buried in on this page. Contact me if you have any questions and I'll try to help you avoid my many mistakes.
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