Hi, my name is Nicki Howe, the Dark Webmistress of the Sith for www.linworkman.com, www.comicwhore.com, www.memphisfanforce.com and www.midsouthcartoonists.com. I’m the person responsible for developing the websites,  and keeping them up and operational.

Almost a year ago, Lin mentioned that he’d love to have a website of his own.  I asked him why he didn’t have one, and he informed me that technology exceeding email, Photoshop or Microsoft Word made his head hurt.  He didn’t have a clue where to start.

I’m a tech geek at heart and have worked in or with IT departments most of my professional career.  My current employer is an e-commerce company, and our product is our website.  This means my paycheck (and my ability to pay my mortgage) is dependent upon our website.  Needless to say, my co-workers and I take that very seriously, and I knew that I could help Lin by applying some of the knowledge I have accumulated over the years.  So, I volunteered to build him a website, and the result is www.linworkman.com.  This site followed a few months later.

From time to time, I’ll offer tips, suggestions and tools to help you promote yourself and your work online.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, I’ll start off with providing general guidelines for developing your online presence.

The Plan Can (and Probably Will) Change, But Have a Plan

I’m a planner by nature and by profession.  I drive people nuts with my insistence upon having a plan, but a well-developed plan can save you a lot of headaches in the long run.

Before you starting building websites, sit down and determine what you are looking for in a website.  What should the website look like?  Would you like to be able to post new sketches?  Would you like to sell your work online?  How much can you spend on creating and maintaining your website?

I had several conversations with Lin, who was the Vice-President, and Kevin Williams, the current President, before building the new Mid-South Cartoonists Association website to determine what they were looking for and what goals were they trying to achieve.  Kevin provided sketches of what he’d like the website to look like and a list of features he would like to see.  These conversations gave me the outline to work from in creating the website and saved me from re-work later.

Plans are wonderful things, but you also need to be flexible and adaptable.  Things will happen, some happy and some not-so-much, that will lead you down different paths.

You Don’t Have to Be a Tech Geek to Have a Website

There are a plethora of tools, many of them free, that makes building and running websites easier than ever before.  I’ll highlight many of these tools in future articles.

Websites Don’t Have to Be Expensive

What are the costs associated with running a website?  Well, that’s going to vary, based on your service providers.  I’m currently spending approximately $100/year to run Lin’s two websites and the Memphis FanForce site.  What comprises that cost?

• Domain Name – Your own, unique domain name (or web address) is crucial.  Keep it simple by purchasing www.yourname.com or www.yourcomicbookname.com.  Make it easy for people to remember the web address and associate it with you.  This is going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $10/year.

• Hosting Provider – I’m currently paying $6.99/month with GoDaddy, but that allows me to host multiple domains on one account.

You do not have to purchase your domain name from your hosting provider, but you often receive discounts by purchasing the domain and hosting in a bundled package.

For one domain and single site hosting, plan to spend approximately $70/year.  Again, your mileage will vary.  Please note, I’m assuming that you already are paying an Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as AOL, Comcast, AT& T, etc, for your Internet access.  Otherwise, how are you reading this and how do you expect to update a website regularly?

There are free blog alternatives available, such as WordPress.com, Blogger.com, etc.  There are also companies that offer free hosting of your website; however, these providers pay for offering you the hosting for free by placing ads on your site.  The free alternatives also lack the ability to heavily customize your site and install software.

Remember, you often get what you pay for.

Have questions?  Have a specific topic you’d like to see addressed in future articles?  Drop me a line at webmaster@linworkman.com.

- Nicki

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 9:30 AM and is filed under Web Wednesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.