Building your web home

I'm still deciding on the niche of this blog, but in the meantime I'll focus on helping you build your own websites.  I'm a big fan of lists, so I'll stick to that format.

1.  Choose your platform.  Some people prefer wordpress to blogger, but there are extra expenses associated with having your own domain, customizing your design or self-hosting.  My rule of thumb is that a clean, well-designed b;pg is more important than your platform.

2.  Buy your domain.  Both wordpress and blogger will give you a free address, but if you are serious about writing, you should own your own domain.  Preferably it should be yourname.com or the name you will be publishing under.  It's worth the investment.

3.  Get a custom design or header.  With a little time you can learn to make your own basic graphics using a free program like Gimp.  If you want someone else to do it, try places like etsy or check out this list of blog designers.

4.  Make it easy to connect with you through social media.  There are hundreds of cute, FREE icons that you can use to link to your twitter, facebook, and rss feeds.  Here's some to get you started.

5.  Build a blog roll.  When you stumble on other writer's blogs add them to your list and make it a daily activity to visit and comment on those blogs.  This builds your writing community and draws others to your site.

6.  When in doubt, less is more.  Readers want an easy to navigate website that doesn't hurt the eyes.  Use easy to read fonts and don't let graphics overwhelm your sidebars.