An Author’s Website - It's Time to Get One!    February 2016

    This is the first of a three part series on websites. This article discusses domains. Which will be followed by How to pick the Perfect Hosting Company and Transferring your Domain.

    If you’re writing a book and want to publish it someday, NOW is the time to start thinking of marketing. Having a website is a great way to start. If you're almost finished writing your manuscript, you need a rapid start marketing campaign, completing the below as quickly and professionally as you are able.

    There are some things to consider before taking the plunge.

1. Do you want this website to be an umbrella for all your writing? Or are you going to have a website for each book? It makes a difference as to which domain (www.yourname.com) you buy. Keep in mind that maintaining a website, is time consuming, even if you’ve hired someone to do the work, you will have to contribute content. Having a website for each book is a good idea if you write under several pen names. Maybe you genre hop, and you don’t want your children’s books purchasers knowing you also write erotica.

2. A domain shouldn’t cost more than twenty dollars a year. Having multiples won’t break the bank. Many people like to purchase (www.yourdomain.com, net, or org) that way no one can setup shop and pretend to be you with a similar domain.

3. Hosting - this is where your files, the ones that make up your website, live and how they become part of the web. Think of it like putting money in the bank. You can’t see it but you can still access it from everywhere. Some things to think about when it comes to choosing a hosting company are:

       A. Read the agreement - make sure there is not a charge for ‘transferring out.’ What that means is if you decide to move your website to a different hosting service your old hosting service is going to charge you for doing it. This is against the policy on domain transfers, setup by ICANN, the governing body for domains.

       B. Read the ‘terms of service.’ Some not on the up and up hosting companies put things like ‘power of attorney’ in there.

       C. Examine multi-year registration - many companies will offer you a discount if you register for more than one year. Some companies will take your money register your domain for the first year and pocket the rest. They will continue to register your domain each year, but at no savings. Then in hopes that you will leave before the number of years is up, they provide poor service. This actually makes them money. Use this to verify how many years your domain is registered.

       D. Whois fees - before you purchased your domain you searched to see if it was available. You used Whois to do that. When you register your domain, you provide information about you and your company to prove you are you and the domain is yours, this all has to remain public. So that Whois, can query it. Some companies, will charge you a fee to change your Whois info. And/or lock down your domain for sixty days. Both of these are against policy.

       E. Private Whois - Many companies will upsell you a privacy screen on your Whois. Basically they put their info in ‘hiding’ yours. In the eyes of ICANN, whoever’s info is displayed in Whois, is rightful owner of that domain.Some companies will sell your data to anyone willing to pay for it, after they sell you the privacy service.

       F. Slamming - After you register your domain, robots that roam the web looking for Whois information, will mine the Whois database, find your data and you will receive spam emails (Nubian Prince scams, etc.). One company will mine your data, then send you what looks like a renewal notice for your domain. Unsuspecting people will pay the money, not realizing they are initiating a domain transfer, slammed! Suddenly your domain and email will stop as the communications with your old host are severed. You can block the bots from mining your data with this free service.

       G. Register-Lock - Because of slamming any company should have AUTH/EPP locks on your domain so that it can’t be slammed. At some point you may want to transfer your domain to another hosting company. One that’s cheaper, offers different options, better customer service. To transfer your domain, contact the current company and get a special code, AUTH/EPP.Now you give the new company, the AUTH?EPP code granting them permission to transfer your domain.Watch out for companies that won’t allow you to have the code - because you will never be able to move to a different hosting company. “You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!" The best way to avoid this is read the terms of service. If it does happen to you there is nothing you can do. You could try contacting ICANN, but if it was in the small print…

       H. If you want to purchase the domains similar to yours (www.mydomain.com, net, biz) to make sure no one else has them, be aware of domain parking. Bad companies will use these not fully functioning domains to make money. Its called domain parking. If you’ve ever mistyped a domain and ended up on one of those annoying search page only sites with a million popups - that domain is parked and for every time someone lands on it, Bad Company is making money off your domain. If you want to park your domain, find a company that will pay you, there are several that do this.

https://sedo.com/us/park-domains/park-domains-overview/

https://www.godaddy.com/domains/cashparking

http://www.1and1.com/domain-parking

4. Decide, up front if possible, on everything you want your website to do. Prioritize your list. Try to make it scaleable and expandable to allow for major changes in the years to come.

5. Surf - check out other author’s websites. Make note of what you like, it’s OK to ‘borrow’ ideas. You will be providing your own content.

6. Hiring it out - if you are going this route, ask people for recommendations, and vet your choices. If you don’t like the work of the person recommended, look further. Three questions to ask:

       A. How much will domain and hosting cost?

       B. Umbrella site or individual sites, for each book?

       C. Recommendations from previous customers.

7. Do it yourself - If you are tech savvy and like a challenge it can be fun to do your own site. This can save money but you will spend a lot of time up front designing and building it. After its built, you will want to make changes. Updating the launch party, due date your books will arrive, etc. Once again, this will take away from your writing.

8. You could also try a hybrid system. You hire someone to get the bare bones site up and running, and then you fill in all the bells and whistles.

    Hopefully this helped clear away the confusion on author websites domains, and didn’t make your head explode. Stay tuned next month for advice on how to get the perfect hosting company.