Well that was messy and long winded to get sorted. Remind me not to do this again in a hurry. At least I am safe and nearly sorted for the next three years.
I had been meaning to get new hosting for my website so I could use PLUGINS, SEO and GOOGLE ANALYTICS… and YAY I have finally done it, though it was a journey and a half of hair pulling frustration on various days. Actually most of the week, In fact it is a brand new learning curve for me to get things done.
A big thank you to Courtney Cannon for her help and advice and a special thanks to all the staff who help at InMotion Hosting. They are fabulous on chat and email. Quick to respond and happy to help. If it wasn’t for them, I doubt I would’ve sorted this transferring of my website out. It was a lot messier than it should’ve been. Why? you may ask.
TRANSFERING A FREE WORDPRESS WEBSITE
All I can say is DON’T EVEN TRY UNLESS YOU ARE A TECH PERSON. Obviously I’m not, though I am good with a fair amount of technology, the behind the scenes and the HTML is way beyond my knowledge. To this day I wish I had been allowed to do computer studies at high school. It wasn’t a FAD after all, like my mother thought.
The back up you can download on the FREE WORDPRESS is an XML File and you can also download an MEDIA File. This is where it can get cranky depending on who you use as for hosting your website. I have no idea if it is the same, though I’m sure it must be similar. I have seen behind the scenes before on a CPANEL, just not for about five years, so things have changed. The advances in technology continue to grow and leave many of us behind.
Once you have the files you can upload them to your FILE MANAGER… I’m not sure what happens from there. However you can INSTALL your website yourself if you know how. My problem came when they asked for a FTP Path. I had no idea what it was, let alone where to find it. A lovely person on InMotion chat helped me through this. Meanwhile I had emailed WORDPRESS (you can’t get CHAT on a FREE SITE) and they good over 48 hours to reply. Which is when the frustration hit. When I did get a reply… The information was something I’d already thought of two days prior, however the tech said don’t do it not worth…etc. I couldn’t anyway because I’d already transferred my DOMAIN NAME and I couldn’t get into my WORDPRESS ACCOUNT. More frustration.
At one stage, I had uploaded the XML Files over my WORDPRESS SITE instead of the new one, which doubled up all the pages. It took me 24 hours to work out how to get rid of it.
I did ask InMotion Hosting to do the Transfer, apparently, you need a SQL File to do so and FREE WORDPRESS BACKUP doesn’t have one. Meanwhile, my new website looked a mess, wrong colours, only had two pages, the FRONT PAGE was not my HOME PAGE and once again InMotion Chat came to the rescue and he redirected to my HOME PAGE and we got rid of the FRONT PAGE for something in Sweden. It was weird. He also assisted me by deleting my website which was horrible and I finally set in motion my Transfer with the Transfer People. I was to scared to do it by this stage.
WHAT I HAD TO DO
Once WordPress has sorted my website out and gave it a FREE Domain name, I sign in and did what I should’ve done a few days previous, which was buy a MONTLY BUSINESS PLAN with WORDPRESS…
Yeah I hear you… BUT YOU’RE MOVING YOUR WEBSITE…
First of all I didn’t know they did MONTHLY PAYMENTS… It was always for a year and all the searches I did a few days prior all said NO MONTLY… etc. After talking to wordpress via email (waiting another two days) it seems they do and you can get a REFUND if you need. I paid the $33 odd dollars and refreshed my website looking for the back up details I needed. HURRAY, they were there and NO WAY was I touching it. The guy on chat at InMotion had sorted out my website there and deleted the stuffed up pages and I went to the guys who do the TRANSFERS filling in the request form and hoping for the best.
WHOOP. IT WORKED … I HAVE A WEBSITE
All I have to do now is learn how to use the darn thing… With a CPanel and the WordPress Admin, it’s all different. I can do an AMP Edit or and WordPress Edit. Watch this space for an update… Hopefully this part won’t be to frustrating. I love computers… Now to learn how to use the Plugins.
If you aren’t overly tech savvy it can be hard to work out how to do things. Even though WordPress have tutorial, lessons and can help you to do what you need, sometimes it is easier to find a blog post to read which shows you how to do something. Personally I am a visual person and love to look at images and text to work out what I need to do.
This blog post is about adding an admin to your WordPress website. After having to re-learn how to use WordPress due to their update (which I’m still not fond of) I found out many of my clients didn’t know how to make a website, were having issues posting items and needed me to check things out…This is when we found out for some it was difficult to work out how to add an Administrator.
Here is hoping this works for you. Good Luck.
Open the main page of your website. It should have a similar set up as the one below. At the top left of the image you will see ‘MY SITE’ circled in RED. Click on it and you will open another page.
The next image shows the page you will open. It shows a list on the left hand side. You will need to scroll down the list for the next part. It also hows you how to enroll for WordPress Courses… if the need arises.
Scroll down through the list on the left until you get to PEOPLE and click on it. This will take you to another new page where you can invite people.
Once you click on PEOPLE the new page will look like the one below. It shows who you have invited to your site and where you can invite others.
As you can see above, there are two red circles on INVITES. Click on the lower red circles INVITE one and it takes you to the final page as shown below.
Once again I have highlighted the area you need. In the box put in the persons email address who you are inviting to your website. There is a list below the box. You need to pick one of them so the person you are inviting can work on your blog with and for you. The list is – Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Follower. If you are working with me, I’d need ADMINISTRATOR or EDITOR.
Last but not least…is the final TAB/BUTTON called SEND INVITATION – circled in RED. Click on this and you are all done. The person you have invited will get and email which they can accept or decline. Depending on which type of Invite you sent, they will have access to your website…
There was a bit of confusion on my first post. I’d like to say, this series of posts is aimed at writers who wish to be Authors and make an income of some kind or another. As an Author, you run a business. In business, NOTHING is FREE, most certainly not your TIME.
You’ve made your choice. You’ve written a few short stories and sent it out to friends and maybe family. The replies you get back are positive. ‘We Want More’ (Yes I know this doesn’t happen to all of us). Strangely enough, this is what happened to me, however, I also had a lot to learn about writing in the English of today. There are many changes since I was at school. A lot of stuff I didn’t understand, though with examples (like Cathy who write Word Wars) a lot was instantly understandable.
“You should write a book.” and this is when you start your research. Most writers don’t have a clue where to look, how to research, who to trust. However, it had improved in recent year with Facebook Groups, with saying this, there are still plenty of Scammers and Spammers in those groups. Many get removed and blocked when they are found. The first question I asked myself was “how do I connect to agents and publishers?’ I had no clue and I’d never heard of Independent Publishing back in 2012. It was a bit of a nightmare. Once I found an Agent, I found out they didn’t understand my genre. I still laugh about it. As for publishers…or editors, well they wanted things set out in a certain way or your email would go straight into a bin never to be seen by anyone.
What’s this got to do with Websites and Social Media you ask. Well as you learn how technology works, your start to realise there is more to writing a book than you thought. I’d never heard of AUTHOR BRAND back then, it wasn’t something I was even aware of. SALES and MARKETING can be done via your WEBSITE and SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS, though you need to have the knowledge to do this. You need to learn or find a tutor. A traditional publisher won’t touch you if you can’t format a document how they wish you to. They also prefer you .to have a following which helps to add up to SALES.
Where and how do I find or make a website?
A great question. We started our first one way back in about 2012/13 and it was a complete disaster. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing, though we were pretty good with technology, even with continual frustration. Where was our first website? WORDPRESS.
In 2014, we tried WIX, it was easier to use with a few learning curves to find out how to design and use templates. It was enjoyable to use. In fact, we still have an Author Website there, which needs updating. The thing with WIX we didn’t like was not been able to download our website content to take elsewhere if we found a better deal. By this stage we had a few author friends on Facebook and they suggested trying WORDPRESS again. One friend, Markie, helped us through the process until we knew what we was doing. It was great. WORDPRESS had lots of tutorial if you needed them. These days we’re happy helping others with WORDPRESS, however this year they’ve updated and though the basics are the same, the editing isn’t. It’s still annoying and post take a lot longer to produce.
Your Website on WORDPRESS
Due to knowing how to use WordPress better than any other I’m going to show you the ropes. Some simple steps. I’ve included images for those who have a hard time with technology. I know we all learn differently. The will also be a description for those with sight impairments or who are blind.
Below is a view of the page which opens up to create the first step of your website.
The first thing you need to do for you WEBSITE is pick a name for your Business or Author website. In the image below it will show you what is available. My advice…is to start with the FREE WEBSITE as indicated by the tabs circled in the image. You can always buy later if and when you can afford.
This next image looks a bit scary, though it really isn’t. It shows the pricing for the different types of websites you can have. However, right above those panels it says ‘Start with a FREE Site’ You need to click on this. I have drawn a circle around it so you can find it.
Now it’s time to build your website. You have a name and if you look at the image below…
As you can see it is straight forward. There is a bright pink tab saying GET STARTED in the middle of the page and on the RIGHT there is a list of things you need to do. As each one is done, they will get a GREEN TICK.
Also note you can go back and change your website at any stage if you find you don’t like something. It’s a good learning curve to be able to do this because you get to find your way around.
You’ve hit the GET STARTED tab and it takes you to a page to NAME YOUR SITE! Something you seriously need to think about. Remember this is part of your marketing and AUTHOR BRAND.
Is this site for a BOOK SERIES or for you as a writer? Is it for an anthology of multi-authors? The ideas for your website are endless though it is worth playing with different names until you find what is right for you, be it your actual name, pen name or book series name. Remember once you know what you’re doing you don’t have to stop at one website, however you do need to publish posts to each one at least once a week.
This image shows you where you fill in the blanks…Again…with your business name. As you can see on this sample, I am building a website for Jenny Raven Gifts, who has recently started an online business with recycled items and upcycled then into new items. Under her business name it asks for a TAGLINE. (something under discussion still for Jenny). This is another important part of your marketing. My own TAGLINE is – Building Books One Step at a Time. This shows that the Author Services we offer will help our client turn their manuscript into an professional book file for online distribution websites or local printers to where the client lives.
You have your website name and tagline, so what’s next? Continue to follow the list until you are ready to launch your website to the world. Play around and learn how it works. There is still plenty of work to do. MENUS, CUSTOMIZING, WEBSITE TEMPLATES…
The list includes, Updating your HOME PAGE, CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL FOR THE SITE AND CREATING A MENU (this is where your pages show and in what order). After you are happy with your website set up you can LAUNCH your website. This is great, you’ve done it. One last thing to remember BEFORE SHARING YOUR LINK…ASK A FEW TRUSTED FRIENDS TO HELP YOU PROOFREAD THE CONTENTS AND MAKE SURE ALL THE PAGES WORK.
The last few images are to help guide you around your website to make changes. You need to know about WP ADMIN. This takes you do a new page where all the things you need are listed in a black panel down the left-hand side of the website. Have a look through the list to see what you can do. The following two images are to help you customize and choose a theme. Once you open customize as shown on the image to the right of your screen, you will be able to change COLOURS, FONTS, BACKGROUNDS. You can add WIDGETS, SOCIAL MEDIA, PAGES and sort out your MENU and what order you’d like your PAGES in.
First you need to look for APPEARANCE, which opens a new list and you then click on CUSTOMIZE. The best way to learn is through PLAY, just don’t play for to long or you’ll get totally frustrated and none of us want that. If you still need ASSISTANCE, then ASK!!!
We know we haven’t shown you the CUSTOMIZE PAGE, we thought it would be fun for any of you making a website to have a look around on your own. LEARN BY PLAYING.
This image shows you how to find THEMES. It will take you to a page of TEMPLATES you can use for your website. There are a lot to try out. You can choose to PREVIEW them before you pick the one you wish to use. Take your time and find something that suits you, your genre and or book series.
Below is a screen shot of the TEMPLATES. You can do a SEARCH for what you want. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT NOT ALL THE TEMPLATES ARE FREE. MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON THE FREE TAB ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THE IMAGE.
Once again, choose wisely. We have updated my websites a few times of the years and we always use a template which shows WIDGETS down the right hand side of the screen. We also prefer the smaller Header Photos. This is of course a preference for YOU TO THINK ABOUT.
HOPING THIS HELPS YOU WITH YOUR WEBSITE AND BUILDING YOUR AUTHOR BRAND. PLEASE SHARE WITH THOSE WHO NEED A HAND WITH RESEARCH. THERE IS SO MUCH MIS-INFORMATION OUT THERE ALONG WITH SCAMMERS AND SO MANY STILL GET CAUGHT OUT.
PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH IF YOU WISH TO BE AN AUTHOR, AFTER ALL YOU CAN’T BE A CERTIFIED PLUMBER WITHOUT THE CORRECT TRAINING!!
Our next post will be about SOCIAL MEDIA SITES and how they work
Who likes Nike, Adidas? Who’s your favourite Movie Star, Poet, Author? The first two are BRANDS which people love. The Second are people who can be turned into BRANDS and generally are. So, how do they do this? What does it mean to have a BRAND?
If you get a big enough BRAND you can sponsor others, the same way Nike and Adidas do. They are MARKETING MACHINES, but how did they do it? How did they get so big and noticeable? It’s a bit of give and take. The big businesses sponsor the big names in sports and movies. If a movie star loves the shoes, clothes, drink…whatever the business sell, then the public will buy and support the person being sponsored which in itself supports the MARKETING MACHINE. It continually circles around, making money.
As authors and publishers we need to do something similar. The trouble is getting your foot in the door. How is this achieved. Well it’s time to ask some of the Independent Authors who’ve made a success of their books. There is one lady I know you’d all love to chat with. Sadly she is busy heading for a deadline right now though Jami Albright has given me permission to share how she went about her first book launch, which also shows how she used her BRAND to her advantage.
Find Jami’s Podcast HERE. Other details are below. This Podcast is mainly about a Book Launch, though it shows the process she went through to get SALES and REVIEWS, both an important part of how we use our AUTHOR BRAND.
This article was written by Jami Albright in 2017. Jami has since released another three books in her series.
The minute you decide to sell your book it stops being your baby and becomes a product. A product that needs to be launched into the world. Which, frankly, is a dubious task when you consider that there are millions of books on Amazon alone, not to mention the other platforms such as, Kobo, Apple iBooks, Google Play, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.
Did you hear me, people? Millions!
So how do you launch your book so it will sell, but also stay sticky in the Amazon rankings and therefore, continue to sell? We have to have a plan. A launch plan.
On April 11, 2017, I released the first book in my Brides on the Run series into the top 3000 in the Amazon paid store and had 50 reviews within the first three days. Eleven weeks later (as of this writing) my book is still ranked in the top 5000 and has over 200 reviews. It’s sold 1100 copies, and has 700K pages read in Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited.
My little book has made over $5000, y’all! (I’m a Texan. We’re excitable.)
When I was asked to write this article about my book launch, my first thought was, Surely, there’s someone more qualified than me to talk about this subject? Because, while I’ve done well, other indie authors are knocking it out of the park with their numbers. But like most of you, I’m a part-time writer with family responsibilities, and a day job, who’s doing everything I can to figure out this indie publishing thing. What I’m trying to say: If I can do it, you can do it.
My launch plan began months before I put my book on Amazon. I started by understanding my genre and making sure my book met the expectations and conventions of that category. How did I do that? I read books like the ones I wanted to write. I familiarized myself with the tried and true tropes that readers want, and then worked very hard to make sure I delivered on those expectations. You can choose to write outside of the parameters of a genre, but know that you are going out on a limb to do it. And you might find yourself alone on that limb with your determination to be unique and no audience. Readers come to a genre knowing what they want. If you disappoint them because you decide to break convention, they will not be happy. They’ll then share their displeasure by leaving a nasty review.
The same is true of covers. When choosing a cover for your book, check out the top one-hundred best sellers in your genre. Are there themes, colors, and fonts that are used to signal that the book is a YA fantasy or a cozy mystery? I’m not telling you to copy those covers, but you should use them as guidelines for your own design.
I write romantic comedy. In the rom-com sub-genre there are three camps as far as covers go. One camp is full of sexy, shirtless guys. The second is illustrated covers with quirky characters, and third features women in flirty skirts, that only show their legs. My book didn’t fall neatly into any of those styles. It’s kind of a combination of all of them. It took several iterations, but I came up with a compromise that I think works. It’s flirty, quirky and sexy, just like my book.
A reader should be able to look at your cover and tell immediately what kind of book it is. If your cover and your content don’t match, then you’ve confused the reader. And a confused reader is one that moves on to the next book by another author.
In addition to a great cover, you also want a blurb or book description that hooks the reader. If you don’t know how to write good copy, learn, or pay someone to do that task for you. Bryan Cohen’s How to Write a Sizzling Synopsis is an excellent resource on the subject. If done well your cover and blurb can sell your book for you.
Before we move on, one more quick word about covers. Put down the mouse and step away from Photoshop. Now! You should not be making your own covers unless you have an extensive background in graphic design.There, I said it. Someone had to.
Hire a professional cover artist. A good cover can cost as little as $25 for a pre-made all the way up to $3000 for an artist commissioned cover. Mine cost me $200, it would’ve been less, but much to my designer’s annoyance, I kept changing my mind. The two most important things you will spend money on are the cover and editing. You should have someone other than your mother or your high school English teacher edit your books. You need a professional editor. Period.
I know these things cost a lot of money, and if you’re like me, that money isn’t in your budget. But it’s important, so important that I worked odd jobs to make extra cash and, ultimately, sold plasma to pay for it all. Was it hard to travel thirty minutes to an unfamiliar part of town, sit for hours in a small room filled with people I didn’t know, and get stuck with a needle twice a week? Yes. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. I have a book I’m proud of. A book that looks professional on the inside and out. A book I paid for with actual blood, sweat, and tears. Damn right, I’d do it again.
Now that I’m off my do whatever you have to do soapbox, I should say that you can sometimes barter with an editor to get the services you need. Or find a graphic design student that has experience and wants to build their portfolio.Or just wait and save up until you have the money.
I know you want your book out yesterday, but we’re playing the long game. Smart, professional authors don’t rush something to market that isn’t ready because it will hurt them in the long run.
To re-cap, we need to know our genre expectations, have a fantastic cover that we don’t make ourselves, a well-written blurb that hooks readers, and professional editing and formatting.
Finally, I can’t encourage you enough to get involved with the indie community. Once I realized that indie publishing was the route I wanted to take, I immersed myself in learning everything I could about the business of self-publishing. I listened to podcasts, I got involved with Facebook groups geared toward publishing and marketing, I went to the Smarter Artists Summit, and I tried my best to be a good community member and make meaningful connections with other indie authors. Little did I know how those connections would be a driving forces behind my successful launch.
In the beginning, I had very little to offer other writers other than encouragement. I could share posts, give moral support and be a friend. So can you. It requires a little effort, imagination, and courage, all things you have because you’re a writer.
How do you feel? Do you think you’re ready to release your baby… um… product into the world?
Please continue to read our blogs for the processes about Author Brand and Book Launches, and please remember the first step to building your book is RESEARCH
Our next article will cover Social Media and Website Building. What to expect, what you need to do and learn. Much of this also depends on your budget. Can you afford it or are you willing to LEARN what’s needed to get your BRAND working for YOU.
Image shows a young woman on a fuzzy screen…the screen is glitching…
Photo by Darksouls1 from Pixabay
I’m not sure how many have noticed or become irritated due to the REBLOG button not working. Well thanks to Chris Graham mentioning something to him when I messaged him about having to continually follow his blog, it all sort of fell into place.
Then a client mentioned to me the tonight that she couldn’t reblog. Now this time it is a bit different because Patty uses a Screen Reader and I wasn’t sure if my idea would work… IT DID…YAY
If you wish to share via REBLOG and the REBLOG button is there, but not working…this is what you need to do.
RE-FOLLOW THE BLOG AND REFRESH THE PAGE EVERY TIME THE REBLOG BUTTON DOESN’T WORK!
Meanwhile, we all hope that WORDPRESS will sort this irritating glitch out.
Until now, I had never used a website builder before…
Having developed websites for a while, I’d rather dive straight into coding HTML, CSS and PHP. And avoid those drag-and-drop functions that website builders have.
I was pretty sceptical.
However, I was positively surprised by the ease-of-use and customization options that some of these website builders have.
Especially for the cost. Unfortunately, I also ended up trying website builders that were just outdated or used sketchy billing strategies (hint: #10).
Website builders vs. hiring a web developer?
A good custom website could easily cost $2000 (on the low end). Making changes could still require a freelance designer and developer to help you continually update your site (additional $$$).
Yet, for only a few dollars each month, some of these website builders below could give you almost everything you’d ever want at less than 1% of the cost.
Not to mention, you can easily login yourself and change copy, upload images, or add new pages within seconds (all without calling for tech support).
Website builders for Who?
Website builders are the perfect solution for individuals or small businesses with low budgets. Just to name few of them:
small business owners
writers
musicians
artists
photographers
wedding planners
and so on…
Here’s What I Did To Uncover Website Builders:
Unlike many other blogs you might read on this same topic, I really spent some money and signed up with each one – so you’ll be able to see the “test sites” I made.
My goal is to provide a review, by actually going through each product in detail, to help you make the best decision.
Here’s the process I took:
1. I signed up with the top 10 website builders (I paid for them).
I searched on Google until I had a list of 10 most popular website builders on the market.
2. Setup a simple ‘5-minute’ test website.
After signing up with them, I decided to make a quick ‘5-minute’ website on my own domain name, like websitesetup-wix.com and websitesetup-yola.com etc.
3. Monitored each site’s uptime and page load times (1-12 months, ongoing).
Over a period of 1 to 12 months (still ongoing), I monitored my websites uptime and page load times via Pingdom.com. Some of my sites had more than 24 hours of downtime…(!)
4. Uncovered the TRUE cost of each website builder.
Many of these website builders trick you with their low introductory prices, like letting you set up a website for free. But once you want to launch it, you’ll need to pay. That’s why it’s VERY important to check the pricing before you set up a website with them.
This last point is especially important because most website builders will claim to be ‘free’ even though you’re gonna be forced to take out that credit card at some point.
So before we dive into the detailed review of the top ten website builders, here are the gory pricing details. Read why…
Best Website Builders 2019 (Review)
Keep in mind that the usability is the most important factor of a website builder. Second is uptime, third is speed, and the least important factor (for me) is the price.
Full disclosure: I earn a commission if you end up purchasing a SiteBuilder, Site123 or Wix through my referral links in this review. This is how I keep WebsiteSetup.org up and running and there are no extra costs to you at all. Regardless, I only recommend website builders that I’ve personally used and found reliable and simple.
Without further ado, let’s dive into a detailed review of each website builder. Starting with the best, narrowing it down until we reach the ones to avoid.
#1. Emails cost extra at $5/monthly through Google’s GSuite. (You’ll notice that this is a pretty common tactic across nearly every website builder on this list.)
#2. E-commerce plans are only available on the most expensive plan. HOWEVER, that plan is currently only priced at $9.22/month. It’s promotional for the first year (about 50% what it usually is), but it’s easily the cheapest e-commerce option available here.
PROS of SiteBuilder Website Builder
#1.SiteBuilder is a very reputable option with over 200,000 users.
#2. With over 1,200 template options, I honestly don’t think you’ll find more design options to pick from.
#3. As mentioned, they boast an awesome (and affordable) e-commerce product to build a fully-functioning online store. Each template is extremely easy to customize as well. Just point, click and adjust.
#4. SiteBuilder gives its users a free domain name for the first year, and not forcing any ads on your site under any plan, either.
#5. My test site saw excellent uptime over the last six months, only going down for about two minutes across two outages. That’s almost as good as it gets over 99.99%.
Sitebuilder average uptime and speed (last 6 months)
#6. SiteBuilder’s friendly support rep hopped on our live chat session within seconds. They were helpful throughout, answering my (many) questions with personal detail. They didn’t just link out to a bunch of support docs and force me to manually comb through, looking for a needle in a haystack. Very positive experience!
They are also currently running a massive 50% discount. So if you purchase a 12 or 24-month plan, you’ll not only get a free domain but lock-in a lot of savings, too.
For example, I paid $143.76 for two full years. The $16 domain was free as well.
Just keep in mind that renewal prices will adjust back to the normal rate. That means you’ll often lose the initial discount.
You’ll notice below that pretty much all website builders do this. So try to lock in a longer term, if possible to save the most.
Do I recommend it? YES.
SiteBuilder is at the top of my list.
There are tons and tons and tons of theme options that can be easily modified by dragging and dropping sections.
The current promotions they’re running right now are awesome, too. You get a free domain name for the entire first year. And, the e-commerce plan is significantly less than any other website builder on this list.
All of those reasons, plus near-flawless uptime, make it an excellent place to start.
Very easy to use, professional and reliable website builder (out of 10 I’ve used).
#1. I found customer service to be a little lacking.
For example, I tried asking about how many users they have, how many template options, etc. Yet, they wouldn’t be transparent and answer anything, instead of responding with, “In our webtool support department we do not have access to information concerning how many clients we have.”
Seems more like they just didn’t feel like finding the answer for me.
And when I asked a few other standard questions, they would just give me a link to the answer.
#2. Standard pricing is pretty good, but the bigger plans get really expensive quickly.
For example, the Gold and Professional plans range from $22.80 – 28.80 per month paid annually.
PROS of Site123 Website Builder
#1. Emails are thrown in on three out of four plans. Hooray!
#3. From what I can tell (they wouldn’t confirm), there are at least a few hundred design templates to choose from. They’re both visually pleasing easy to navigate!
You can reorder pages or posts in minutes by clicking and dragging in place:
#4. Site123 is another website builder that delivers strong uptime at 99.99%, going down slightly more than SiteBuilder.
Last month Site123 performance stats
#5. Basic plan pricing is good if you only need a simple, content-driven site or blog. I only paid $129.60 for the year, which also included the domain name.
Do I recommend it? YES.
Overall, I definitely recommend it for relatively simple sites.
There are a lot of design template choices, uptime was great, and you even get a few emails without having to pay a ton extra! Customer support and the editor were a little lacking, though.
You can use it for bigger, more complicated ones. But it also gets expensive in a hurry.
So it might be a good alternative vs. getting a custom site built out. Just be ready to spend a decent amount over the course of a year if that’s the route you’re going.
#1. Wix partners with Google’s GSuite to offer email accounts for $5 each. Notice a trend, here?
#2. E-commerce and online stores are only available on more expensive plans, starting at $20/month.
PROS of Wix Website Builder
#1. Wix is legit, hosting more than 100 million users worldwide. There’s a reason so many people use it.
#2. Wix is also an excellent option for e-commerce stores. This includes everything from simple products to even bookings and registration for events.
#3. Wix has one of the biggest libraries of site templates, boasting over 500 “designer-made” options. They’re also good for any level, whether you’re a beginner or pro.
This site builder might just be my favourite. The customization options are almost endless. And you can tweak your site in a matter of seconds.
#4. You can build just about any site imaginable with Wix. That includes typical e-commerce features to handle online payments, but it also includes a customizable music player, video uploads to the media gallery, events with invitations and bookings, even online ordering for restaurants!
#5. I submitted a support ticket with a few questions for their customer service department and received this thorough reply about 12 hours later. Pretty good overall!
#6. Our Wix test site has seen decent uptime over the last nine months at 99.93% (and solid speed at ~600ms).
Wix website builder speed and uptime
#7. Wix also offers long-term discounts. The longer you prepay, the less per month it comes out.
I opted for the annual plan and got a free domain in the process, paying just $132.00 for both.
You can also purchase two or even three years plans to save as much as $216!
Do I recommend it? YES.
Yes, I do.
Wix was one of the easiest site builders I used.
There are so many themes to choose from. They’re all well designed, too. The extra features that Wix sites include mean you can basically use it for any purpose, from a simple blog to an advanced restaurant site or e-commerce store.
Plus, the budget-friendly pricing is perfect for even your personal or hobby site. Highly recommended.
#1. Jimdo comes with ONLY 17 themes. Yup, you need to pay $90/year to get access to ONLY 17 themes!
#2. You can easily change the colour and add text or images. Anything more sophisticated than that is difficult. Otherwise, the templates themselves are fairly rigid, making it difficult to make large-scale changes.
#3. If you’d like unlimited eCommerce product options, be prepared to pay $20/month (or $240/year).
PROS of Jimdo Website Builder:
#1. Pricing was advertised as $7.50/month and I paid exactly $90 for one year.
#2. Up-and-running in 30 minutes. Not bad!
#3. Best speed performance. Just take a look at the graph below (fast & stable loading times with over 99.96% uptime)
Do I recommend it?
Yes and no…
The initial design is very clean and neat, making it appear more contemporary than some of the ones we’ve already reviewed here.
I’m even OK with one email account and 15 eCommerce product limitation in the short-term. But it worries me that they only have 17 templates and your customization options are limited to only relatively basic changes.
Great for a one-page-website. Need something bigger? You’d be better off with SiteBuilder.
#1. Emails can get pretty expensive. And this time, they don’t integrate with Google but with Microsoft Office. So that could go either way, depending on which you prefer.
#2. I’ve previously had pretty good customer service from GoDaddy. However, this last experience was a complete nightmare.
I tried to quickly get some questions answered on their live chat. I logged on, and the estimated wait time was 35 minutes! Really? For “live” chat?
By this point in time, I had already been able to research everything on their site to be able to answer my questions. But I didn’t want to give up just yet.
So a rep finally connected, and they immediately said, “To access your account I will need your 4 digit support PIN. Please provide your PIN with this secure form I am sending you.”
But… what if I didn’t have an account? What if I was just looking to buy and had a few simple questions?
Not great, to be honest.
#3. E-commerce plans are more expensive, starting at $19.99 per month, paid annually (which means you’re looking at $239.88/year on the low end).
PROS of GoDaddy Website Builder
#1. GoDaddy offers hundreds of different design templates, all broken down into categories based on the site you want to create.
#2. All of the templates feature the same drag-and-drop interface that most website builders now offer. GoDaddy’s isn’t quite as intuitive as Wix, but it’s still decent.
#3. E-commerce is fully supported, as is a handy scheduling feature. This might be perfect for coaches who want to bill for their time and help clients schedule themselves into their calendar.
#4. GoDaddy might be one of the only site builders that offers a free month trial. That’s a good deal, allowing you to test things out before getting locked into a much bigger annual commitment.
#5. I’ve been pleasantly blown away by how solid the performance for each site builder has been. GoDaddy offers another 99.99% uptime, only going down once for two minutes.
Last 30 days uptime and speed data for GoDaddy website builder
#6. GoDaddy is slightly more expensive than the other alternatives we’ve seen so far. I paid $143.86 for the year, but no free domain is included. So that cost another $14.60. including tax.
Do I recommend it? YES.
Yes and no.
GoDaddy’s website builder isn’t terrible. But it’s not great, either.
I found the others on this list, like Wix, Gator by HostGator, and SiteBuilder, to be much stronger overall.
In addition, the e-commerce plans were expensive and I can’t overlook the half-hour live chat session, either.
Recently, my friend Pradita over at The Pradita Chronicles pointed out that I was missing a reblog button on my site. Since I often don’t notice things when I can’t see them, I hadn’t noticed this issue. On a typical WordPress.com site, this isn’t a problem, but I use a self-hosted WordPress.org site. The reblog button is simply not available to me.
As is often the case, when I searched around the net for help on this, I had to search a lot and wade through a lot of useless information. Because of that, I thought I would post something simple about it here. Here’s the WordPress blog about it all… it’s well written, but I still found it all confusing. Sometimes I’m like that.
Simply put, if someone has a WordPress.com site, you can reblog something from their blog on your WordPress site, simply by clicking their reblog button (at the end of their post). If the reblog button is unavailable, it either means they don’t want you to reblog their site or it means they are self-hosted (like I am) and as such do not have this feature available for their site.
The way around this for you (the person trying to reblog a site) is to use a feature called, “Press This.” That’s a creative name! Can you guess what you do with this feature?
Here’s what you do:
1. Go to WordPress.com and log in to your account. 2. Click “My Site” (top left-hand corner of the screen) 3. Scroll down to Settings on the left-hand side and click it 4. In the center of the screen, you’ll have four menu options: General; Writing; Discussion; Traffic. 5. Select the “Writing” menu and scroll down to the bottom of the screen 6. Read the little description about “Press This” and then either drag the “Press This” button up to your favorites bar and drop it there (Chrome or Internet Explorer) or add the button to your favorites (right-click in Internet Explorer)
Now, Pradita found the “Press This” button in Settings-Writing was unresponsive. I think the reason for this is because the internet is often irritating. So, she kept digging and found the solution was to head over to her dashboard and the “Press This” button could be accessed through “Tools.” So if the above steps do not work, check out “Tools” in the Dashboard.
Yes I know there are tutorial for WordPress about how to use and improve your websites & blogs (especially for beginners. The tutorials are brilliant and informative. It is a great place to start your journey. Here is a tutorial link to various things you may want to learn
However. I keep getting asked how to do various things on wordpress, or I assist where I can depending on what I know. Like everyone else I am still learning due to technology changing and updating.
This post is about Share Tabs…How I sorted mine out prior to knowing about wpbeginner.
SHARE TABS
Everything you do on your wordpress site starts with your HOME PAGE – Whatever name you call it. Mine is PACKAGES. This is also called your LANDING PAGE so it needs to be impressive.
Up on the top left hand side you can see the words MY SITES. Click on this and it will open a panel on the left side as shown below.
This is what you will find. Here you can check your Stats, look over your Site Pages, Customize and so much more.
Scroll down to the bottom of this bar and you will find WP ADMIN. Click on this and it will take you to another page. Also note on the main page you can see all my share tabs for viewers to use.
This time you will find yourself on your DASHBOARD – Behind the scenes of your website where only you and those you give permission to can visit. Once you get to this page, you can do all the different things you wish to show on your website. Trial and error is part of the learning curve.
Click on SETTINGS and a new small black box will appear.
This time we want SHARING so we can sort out the tab we wish to make available to our visitors.
The next three slides show you what is available to use and how to move the tabs so they show up where you wish them too. Drag and drop, choose the style and choose where you wish them to show
DON’T FORGET THE REBLOG TAB. THIS IS HOW YOU CAN EXTEND YOUR REACH AND GET MORE FOLLOWERS.
IF YOU WISH ANY OTHER QUICK TUTORIALS TELL ME WHICH ONES AND I’LL GIVE IT A GO.
I love technology. I had always wanted to be a computer tech, however my parents thought computers were a FAD so I wasn’t allowed to take computing at school in the 1980s. This was also prior to public internet. I loved every class and I was good. Never mind I eventually got my way over 25 yrs later when my husband went to college. Computer access was important.
Since that time I have developed some excellent skills and though I still have people help me out on odd occasions, I find I am now helping others and get called a tech expert – which I’m not. I just happen to know my way around various things and can teach others a few tricks I have learnt along the way.
Then you get those who aren’t interested in computers, those who can’t or won’t learn and those who would love to learn and should really take a course to get them on the right track.
I have a client who took a computer course – WOW she is so much more confident in what she does on her computer now. It is wonderful to see her take control and understand what I am talking about, without either of us getting frustrated. Mean while my parents still refuse to have a computer in their home, they dont’ even have cell phones. A lot of their friends do, so they actually see more about my family than my parents do. Sadly I doubt they will change. We do manage to get them on Skype on odd occasions at my sister’s house.
My sister is one of those who keeps getting computer issues and viruses. She also asks how to do certain things and makes me want to pull my hair out at times. Thank god my brother is easier to deal with. Mind I don’t see either of them very often to talk with online.
One of the technologies I have learnt along the way is building and setting up WordPress Websites. I love it. It is fun and I dont’ mind sharing my knowledge even though it is only basic – well to me. Another I have learnt a little about is JAWS – Screen Reader, which is for blind and partial sighted people. I looked into the technology due to having a couple of blind clients and friends. It was an interesting learning curve to be sure. The other type of technology I learnt was helping a client run a bed and breakfast – I had to learn how to use the booking websites where consumers book rooms. Each and everyone is different to use, different specs, different ways to enter data and places to upload photos. It is totally amazing how complicated it can get. Solving problems though is another area I can excel at – sometimes I have to wait for the lightbulb to click, other times it is working through several ideas until the right one turns up.
Over the last few years I’ve had several lightbulb scenarios. Daft ones having me saying DUH me and research ones which you win and grin with delight at your success. Then comes the question. Do I share with others or hold on to my info? Generally I share, I just can’t seem to help myself.
My next learning curve – is to work out how to use Flipboard website correctly so I can share my site with everyone. After this I really need to concentrate on those who don’t use technology and give them a gentle push in the right direction, by which I mean a computer course to a level suitable to them. Then I may go see my parents and try to set up a tablet for them to use. I will need lots of luck with this last idea. I already know my dad loves Skype from my last trip to see them.
Good luck with your technology and give me a shout, you never know I might be able to help. There again I might not.
