Blog and/or Website

Your blog is on your website

Having been brow-beaten by my massive ego (see previous post) into building a blog and/or website, my next step was to determine whether or not I needed just a blog, or just a website, or both. It turns out that the correct answer, for me, was both, and, much to my happy surprise, I discovered that a website can also function as a blog. Eureka!

I was so green early on that I did not even know the difference between a blog and a website. This is what I learned.

The term blog is a portmanteau for web and log, combined to read blog. A blog consists of entries called “posts” written by the author of the blog. These posts appear with the latest on top, and previous posts beneath it (reverse chronological order.)

Blogs were usually the solitary efforts of individuals writing about whatever it was that interested them that day. Today, blogs are written by groups, institutions, corporations, whatever.

A website, on the other hand, is a group of pages usually organized around one central theme. The page titles are listed on a top banner, and indicate the major features of that website. For example, as a writer, I wanted to create a website dedicated to my book The Riddle of Riddles. So, I created three pages for that website: Home, About, and Contact.

My Home page contains regular postings (my blog) of assorted riddles. The About page contains a brief blurb about the book, and the Contact page enables readers to contact me by leaving their names, email addresses and whatever comments they have in mind.

I have referred many times to research in my previous blogs. The reason is that research is the only way I know to discover the information needed to move forward towards our common goal of becoming authors. Keep in mind, however, that what works for me may not necessarily refer to you.

While exploring various ideas to get my website noticed (MARKETING, MARKETING, MARKETING) I hit on the idea that two websites would be better than one. I would create one for my book, and a separate one for me as an author.

The reason for this is that I would place the emphasis on the book, The Riddle of Riddles, by periodically posting riddles on the book’s website, and posting the answers to those riddles on my author website. The idea is to generate cross-referencing, and, as a result, expose both the book and author.

This idea occurred to me after I had build the RofR website, and realized that, as an author with subsequent books in mind, I needed to also highlight the author, me, as well as my current book. If you Google major authors NONE of them do this. They have a page, or pages, listing their various titles. So, I could be wasting my efforts with this approach. As I mentioned before, what works for me (or doesn’t) may not work (or might) for you.

Upon completion of the website for my book, I hired professionals to create my author website. I did this because I am a coward. This was my first effort at creating a website, and I was so unsure of my abilities that I wanted to make sure that I got at least one site done correctly.

Guess what? I did a pretty good job on my own. I have to admit, though, that the reassurance I got comparing my work to that of the professionals, was sorely needed. Whew! I did OK.

There is much more to this and I will follow up in my next BLOG post here on my WEBSITE with the steps I took, and am continuing to take, to maintain my progress toward becoming an author.