How to build an effective author website
Website design, layout and branding: Designing and building your website
On this page:- Designing your website
- Building your website
- DIY or a professional?
- How much does DIY cost?
- What you will need if you engage a professional
- How much does a professional cost?
The design of your website will be dictated by your brand identity, but keep the following in mind:
- It should be attractive to your target demographic
Your cover is unlikely to break this rule, but don't use hot pink for your website if you wrote a gothic horror novel aimed at teenage boys - It should be clean and easy to read
Ensure that enough "white space" is used on your site design so that it doesn't feel cluttered. Fonts should be clear and easy to read. - It should be scalable
When designing your website remember that you may want to add new features so allow space in the navigation to add these without needing a full redesign - Different screen resolutions
Consider how your website design will look on an 800*600 CRT monitor. How will it look on a widescreen LCD?
In this day and age it is essential that you have a web presence of some sort and critical that your website adheres to your branding style guide.
That is not to say that you need a $20,000 cutting edge website with all the bells and whistles, websites don't necessarily need to cost a lot to set up but you will need to consider your website's objectives carefully.
When setting up a website you need to determine what the look of the site will be; how it will be laid out; what content you have and what functionality should be included (both now and in the future).
Whether you choose to build your website yourself will depend on your objectives, your skills, and the amount of time and money you have available.
Your website should present a professional face to your online marketing activities, however if you have the skills (and time) to build a quality website you do not necessarily need to engage a professional.
If you decide to build your own site you will need:
- A domain name - www.intaserve.com has inexpensive domain names
- A website hosting account
- A graphics editor of some description
- Either HTML knowledge or HTML editor of some description
- An FTP program to upload your website
- A website hosting account
- A clearly defined plan for the build of your website
- Website content
- A plan to keep your website up to date
- Time to invest in designing, building and updating your website.
Don't underestimate the amount of time required to build and maintain a website. Most professional website designs take at least 10 hours to conceive, layout and then build in HTML, and that's just for your basic template.
A good rule of thumb is to allow 3 hours to purchase your domain name and hosting account and to set everything up and 1 hour per page of website content to build it in HTML and upload.
So, a 5 page website will take approximately 17 hours, assuming that you have already written your content!
Assuming that you want the cheapest flat website possible that you build yourself? It could be as little as $500 for two years:
Domain - $27.95 (.com.au from Intaserve.com)Hosting - $238.80 (Budget hosting plan from eWebCircle.com, $9.95 per month)HTML Software - $0.00 (Nvu - a free open-source editor)Graphics Software - $250.00 (PaintShopPro from eStore.com.au)FTP Software - $0.00 (there are a lot of freeware FTP clients available)
If you decide to engage a professional to build your site you will need:
- A domain name
- A website hosting account
- A clearly defined brief
- Website content
- A plan to keep your website up to date
When shopping around for a web designer or developer, ask to see their portfolio of work to ensure that you like the look and quality of the websites they have built in the past. Once you have found someone you think you can work with, provide them with a copy of your brief (this may simply be the completed questionnaire provided) to quote on.
Questions to ask:
- Is the quote flat rate or per hour?
- If flat rate, are any rounds of changes included?
- At what point is a change considered to be a variation?
- Is a development guarantee included?
- Are any maintenance plans available?
- What hosting will be required for the quoted on solution?
Be very aware of variations when building websites. What you may consider to be a minor change - for example adding an extra navigation item - may actually constitute hours and hours of work for your website team. If variations are clearly defined - and quoted on - as you progress then you are unlikely to be surprised by the invoice.
Be sure to ask for a development guarantee. No reputable web professional will baulk at this as it can take time for bugs to become apparent. Also ask about maintenance options and what you will need to maintain your own website - remember that your site will need to be kept up to date so you should budget for any software or retainers when considering whether to accept the quote.
A website is an investment and engaging a professional to design and build your site will ensure that your site is scalable, professional and easy to manage moving forward.
Speculate's author website packages start from $1100 AUD for a professional design and basic content management system.
A content management system (CMS) allows you to update your own website content via a web-interface that looks a lot like word.
Our rate card allows you to compare the cost of various modules and packages. Contact us to discuss your options or take a look at working samples of the modules available.