How to Make a Blog Your Website

Captain’s Log, Supplemental

Blog book giveaway:
My Thursday book giveaway is A FAMILY FOREVER by Brenda Coulter.
My Monday book giveaway is JADE by Marilynn Griffith.
You can still enter both giveaways. Just post a comment on each of those blog posts. On Thursday, I'll draw the winner for A FAMILY FOREVER and post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Websites: As writers, we all hear about how we need an author website. But sometimes a custom-made site using website programs looks blocky. They’re also a pain to update—trust me on this one, I speak from experience.

The best way is to pay someone to make your website and update it for you. However, if you’re a control freak like me, you probably want to update your website on your own.

If you know html and have a hosting site, you can have someone design your website template, and then you can update it yourself by changing the text code.

However, if you’re not html-savvy, I wrote an article called “How to Make a Blog Your Website.” It’s instructions on how to set up a Blogger blog to look more like a website that you can update yourself.

It’s got detailed instructions for the html-challenged. Because of the html code, I have it as a .pdf file you can download here:
http://www.camytang.com/BlogYourWebsite.pdf

Here’s an example blog/website:
http://camys-blogwebsite.blogspot.com/

My friend Pam Hillman is following these instructions and working on her own website:
http://pamhillman.blogspot.com/

TMI:

Writing: Today, I posted a query letter post at my Story Sensei blog.

I also posted a book review below for SQUAT by Taylor Field.

Also below is an announcement about a new books and music website by an online friend, C.J. Darlington.

Cheryl threatened to send me "something dead" if I didn't finish my Marketing Info sheet tonight, but I'm afraid I didn't finish it. Not even half-way done. So expect a "freaking out" post in a few days to tell people what she might send me.

Diet: Exercised only 30 minutes yesterday. I've been tired and a little achey since this weekend, but it might also be because of the bad food in my system. But I went grocery shopping today and got more veggies, so hopefully I'll get back on track.

Hey, any favorite pasta sauce recipes, NON-marinara style? I'm open to something new but hopefully not too fatty.

Comments

Unknown said…

Ooh, great idea on using your blog as your website. It's so much easier.

Wed Sep 13, 08:12:00 AM 2006

LaShaunda said…

Thank Camy,

I planned on using my blog as my site since, I already have a readership and I love how easy blogging is compared to web sites. I plan on reading your article at lunch time.

Wed Sep 13, 08:44:00 AM 2006

Domino said…

You are so incredibly helpful! I'm going to spend a little time working on my blog, playing with the code to see what I can do to make it more me and less "so obviously blogger".

I can see how this could be a great way to give a novel its own site. And the novel's site is another link to the author's web site and blog.

Wed Sep 13, 08:53:00 AM 2006

Vicki said…

Hey Camy! Good post! Wanted to come over here and hug your neck. You're such a sweet online friend.
God bless you.

Wed Sep 13, 09:16:00 AM 2006

Catherine West said…

Don't you have ENOUGH to do???
At least I'll know how to pick you out of the crowd in Dallas. You'll be the whirling dirvish looking suspiciously like the Tasmanian Devil!
Slow down, girl, you're giving me a hernia.

Wed Sep 13, 10:14:00 AM 2006

Anonymous said…

Now, I don't want to sound like the voice of dissent here. I've thought about this very thing after hearing Deb Raney touting it. But ... I wuv my wee site. Yahoo made it SO positively easy to design it, which was a blast since the process resurrected my scrapbooking tendencies. And updating it is as easy as buttabingbuttaboom. Just a few clicks. Done.

I pay $11.95 a month for it, and I'm using about .01% of the space at my disposal. I also pay $4.95 a mo. for my Typepad blog, but I think it's worth it to get such nice photo galleries and no ads.

Yikes, I also don't wanna sound like a commercial, so I'll quit. Just my two bits.

Oh, and Cathy? Amen, sister! Ahh, Camy-girl, I now christen thee, Camy-Taz. But you go, girl. : )

Wed Sep 13, 10:30:00 AM 2006

Anonymous said…

Camy, I have a linguine recipe--very healthy, very easy, very yummy. Let me know if you'd like it.

Wed Sep 13, 02:48:00 PM 2006

Gina said…

I know a delicious pancetta carbonara but I'm afraid it wouldn't qualify as not too fatty.

but it's good? Let me know if you're interested.

Wed Sep 13, 08:58:00 PM 2006

Unknown said…

And then there's the whole thing of your hubby taking your lunch! LOLOLOLOL

Thu Sep 14, 08:38:00 AM 2006

Chaos-Jamie said…

This html-challenged girl needed just such a post. Thanks!

Thu Sep 14, 07:53:00 PM 2006

Heather Diane Tipton said…

man... putting me out of business...

Thu Sep 14, 10:56:00 PM 2006

Anonymous said…

Very thorough article! Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us non-techies!

Wed Sep 20, 03:45:00 PM 2006

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