Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 3 (Blog? Website? Both?)

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Does an author really have to have a website and/or a blog? Websites can be expensive to set up, and even more expensive to maintain. I suggest setting up a simple blog that serves as a website. I use Blogger, but WordPress is another good one (possibly better). Both are free.


If you don't want to set it up yourself, I know that there are people trained to quickly set up WordPress websites, and no doubt on Blogger as well. Once set up, you can easily maintain it on your own.


The advantage of a website/blog is that it serves as a place for all your information. It's where media will go if they want to contact you. It's were readers first go when they want to know more about you, or to email you. It's where you announce your events, post your videos, your reviews, your stuff. 


Here's an example of a WordPress Blog-style Website:

http://andyremic.wordpress.com/

The other important function of a website is that it can serve as a fan e-mail collector: the basis of a newsletter mailing list. These are your core fans, your core support.


While a website is fairly static, a blog is active. One page in the website might be a blog. If you write a blog, you should blog at least once a week. The blog written on the website can be automatically posted to your page on Amazon as well as to your Facebook Fan Page, and links to the blog can be posted on Twitter, MySpace, Tumblr.

I can see George blogging about his work in progress, or posting random paragraphs from his published work.

One important thing about blogs: they should be short, and the title should be catchy.

The only way that I have found to have blog posts automatically sent to ping.fm (and then to all your sites) is to use TwitterFeed.com. This can be tricky to set up: tech nerd recommended! You can always simply make a bit.ly link and post your blog to ping.fm yourself.


Related posts:

Net marketing for Ludites: Part 1

Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 2 (Cracking the Social Net)

How to promote your book without giving up writing

A wonderful article by Margaret Atwood on discovering the Twitterverse and other foreign realms: How I learned to Love Twitter.

Next up: Net Marketing for Luddites: Part 4 (Friends & Followers)




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