It’s no secret Threads is my favorite place to hang out on social media. What’s that meme about being funny instead of pretty? Anyway, I see a lot of authors asking the same kind of questions. It’s why I wrote my guide to indie audiobook production.

Today we’re going to talk about author websites.

As usual, this is not an ad. There are no services being offered here. I don’t do websites for other people unless you’re my best friend or my former employer. If you want to hire a web designer, go talk to Red Fox Creative. There are affiliate links, however. I have dog treats to buy, but I’m not selling anything. I genuinely just like to help.

I’m also not big on reinventing the wheel, so occasionally I link to articles by other websites rather than trying to explain something that someone else has already done an amazing job of. This is not a guide to build a website step by step. This is a guide to getting started. It feels like a big, expensive, and overwhelming task if you’ve never done it before, and I’m here to make that easier. And cheaper!

Years before I started publishing fiction, I ran a theme park blog. I was never an influencer or invited to events or anything, but I wrote guides to things to do in Orlando and I like to think I helped people plan their vacations. More importantly, I picked up a lot of valuable skills. It’s actually how I first learned about Later, the social media scheduling app I use, and how to build a newsletter. I’ve been coding since the days of Neopets, but I didn’t want to learn to code a whole blog.

Enter WordPress.

It’s the number one website software for a reason. It’s easy to work with, simple to install, and very hard to mess up. There are hundreds of guides to it on the internet to teach you what you need to know. I highly recommend WPBeginner. It taught me basically everything I know over five years, but I’m going to break down the basics for you.

There are lots of website options out there besides WordPress. I see Canva websites, Wix, and SquareSpace recommended a lot. Wix and SquareSpace are both aimed at people who aren’t as comfortable with computers, so they carry higher price tags for their “ease” to use. (Having messed with them to write this, I’m not convinced there’s anything easy about them.) However, I did a ton of research back in 2017, which led me to going with WordPress and deciding against the others. I don’t know if Canva websites were available back then, but I know Wix and SquareSpace were, and while I don’t remember the exacts of why I made that decision, I do know it wasn’t one I made lightly.

There are two kinds of WordPress websites: self-hosted and WordPress.

What does that mean?

Basically, you can install WordPress onto any website like downloading software onto your computer, or you can run directly through WordPress. As a general rule, self-hosted is the way you want to go. There are severe limitations if you run directly through WordPress and I do not recommend it, so we’re just going to talk about self-hosting. I just wanted to cover that there, technically, is another option. Elementor does a good job of breaking down the differences if you really care.

In order to run a self-hosted WordPress website, you need two things: a hosting platform and a domain name.

A hosting platform is basically the home for your website on the internet. The domain name is the address.

From 2017 to earlier this year, I used BlueHost because they came highly recommended when I was first starting out and they had a great special for new users. However, it doubled the first time I renewed, and then it was going to almost triple when my renewal came up in March. It went from around $300 to over $800.

No, thank you.

I started looking through my other options. WPBeginner does a great breakdown of this. I wound up going with Hostinger, and I could not be happier. I paid $129.17 for a 48-month contract with a referral discount, and I got a bonus of two extra months. It’ll go up to almost $400 in 2029, but as Mr. Summers would say, that’s a problem for the opener.

It’s also worth noting that I run multiple websites off that hosting, because I run a website for my friend Pink and the dog grooming place I used to work for. So not only am I keeping my business online, but I’m helping theirs. Hostinger was the cheapest option to run multiple websites. There may be another one that works better for you. However, it also had the longest contract. I looked at SiteGround and I was better off paying for four years of Hostinger up front.

Their interface is also ten times easier to work with than BlueHost’s was, and the email setup is fantastic. My only complaint is that I didn’t switch sooner. Like good grief. They also have a killer referral program.

Use my referral link, and you will get a discount on Hostinger in addition to helping me spoil my dogs. It’s also worth noting that if you have Rakuten (used to be Ebates) you can get cashback on your sign up at time of publication. But it’s about $20 less if you go through my link.

In the simplest terms, a domain name is the url for your website. Mine is KatyaSummers.com. You can purchase your domain name directly through your hosting platform, or you can buy them elsewhere and then link them together. It’s a lot simpler to buy everything in the same place, but you might find domains cheaper elsewhere.

Domain names are the main reason I don’t like most of the other website builders. I personally do not like the look of generic URLs. There’s a reason I set direct links up through my website, even for Google Forms. I think KatyaSummers.com/Link just looks better, and that Name@Website.com reads more professionally than a Gmail. Obviously, it’s an expense and as someone who is barely in the black most months, I get not wanting to spend money you don’t have to. But some things are worth investing in and I think this is one of them.

I originally bought my domains through BlueHost. It cost me significantly more than I wish it had to move my domains to Hostinger from BlueHost. It would have been more cost effective to leave them where they were and just link them together, but I really didn’t want to give BlueHost another dime. (Their amount of new user specials while continuing to raise prices on me left me highly irritated.) The transfer fee at least took care of my renewals as well, so I don’t have to pay for any of my domains again until 2026.

You also get a free one-year domain name with a purchase of a Hostinger package, or at least the level I bought. So, your first year of the domain name may not cost you anything. But domains are usually around $20 or so a year. Since I already owned the domains I needed, this wasn’t helpful in my case.

WordPress is possibly the single most powerful web-based site builder in the world. There are fancy programs like DreamWeaver that are beyond that, but I’m talking about something that anyone can use on a web browser.

WordPress is designed to be a blog, and obviously, I use that feature or you wouldn’t be reading this. But you don’t have to. As you can see if you click around my website, only a small section is dedicated to blog posts. Everything else is pretty standard to what you would find on most author’s websites.

I don’t currently have an online shop set up, but my goal is to have one rolling next year. My favorite thing about WordPress is you don’t have to use Shopify. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that lets you sell directly on your website and it doesn’t have a subscription fee the way Shopify does. It carries some investment down the road, but it’s not as heavy. WPBeginner has a great comparison of the two, but this is just one more plus in the WordPress column.

With WordPress, you can track your traffic sources, see which links users clicked, and use plugins to improve the look of your affiliate links. (I swear by PrettyLinks for this.)

WordPress websites are completely customizable from graphics to color scheme to theme. You can also test it for how it looks on mobile vs a tablet vs a computer.

There are free themes included, or you can purchase one. I’m currently using a theme called Divi that gives me extra tools to use that I purchased back in 2020 on a Black Friday special. I could install it on multiple websites. While you’re starting out, you should absolutely stick with the free ones. I just wanted to explain why my website looks a little different, and I didn’t want anyone frustrated by not being able to figure out what theme I use.

For a great example of one of the free themes, check out Vania Rheault’s website.

If a feature you want doesn’t come built in for WordPress, there are both free and paid plugins you can use to get it. I can honestly say I’ve never paid for a plugin. I get by on free ones, except the Divi Theme/Plugin. That’s one investment I will never regret.

You can install WordPress on Hostinger (or BlueHost or most hosting platforms for that matter) for free.

I should also mention that Hostinger has its own drag-and-drop builder you can also use, also for free with your hosting subscription. It’s not nearly as powerful, but it’s quick and easy, without a huge learning process. I built Pink’s new website with it because I was on a time crunch to get her online. Someday I may go back in and redo it in WordPress. It took me maybe forty minutes? Whereas it took me probably closer to six hours to build my website in WordPress the last time I redid it.

Hostinger with WordPress upfront investment: roughly $150. Cheaper with my referral link.

Yearly Investment: $25 with tax for domain name

Cost for four years: $250. That’s $62.50 a year.

To be fully transparent, I’ve never looked at Canva’s website builder until now. I made a mock website for Carly and Ryan’s wedding (they fall in love in Hurricane Ryan and get married in Rescue Me) to see how it works. 

It is free. You do not have to have Canva Pro. You can apparently build more than one. It’s a very basic website, but it is fully functional. A website comes with a free url that ends in my.canva.site instead of .com, or you can buy a domain through Canva starting at $18.99 or import your own. 

A Canva site will not let you host an online store or forms for ARC signups, and I also don’t see a way to do newsletter signups, but I will admit this is a great way to get started just so you have a website presence. You can still use affiliate links, just make sure you mark them clearly. There’s no super obvious Canva branding except a tiny button in the bottom corner and the url if you don’t pay for a domain. 

Canva upfront investment: technically could be $0. 

Domain Name: $18.99+ a year. 

Canva Pro: $100 a year. 

I’ve also never used Wix before today, but I am nothing if not thorough. Holy cow, do I hate their interface. Like even just messing with it has me frustrated. Just trying to find their plan pricing had a lot of weird hoops to jump through. 

You can make a free website with their drag-and-drop editor, but it’s not intuitive. There are giant Wix ads all over. I did make a mockup, but it put my personal email in the URL, so we’re not sharing that. Here’s a screenshot instead. 

You have to pay for one of their subscription plans to use your own domain name on top of paying for the domain. Their plans start at $24 a month. If you do a three-year contract, it’s $12 a month, making it $432. It includes the domain for the first year. 

Wix upfront investment: technically could be $0 but assume $12-$24 per month plus domain fees yearly. 

Another website service I have never messed with before today. Like Wix, I eliminated it as an option back in 2017 and never looked back. 

Loading it up, they offer a fourteen-day free trial but no free plan. I also started to build a mockup, but it’s only giving me the option to use their AI Builder. Now, it’s not AI. Not like you write a prompt and it gives you a website. They’re trying to make it look fancy. It’s just a builder where you select your options rather than doing drag-and-drop. 

I spent less than five minutes on this just to see how it worked. It’s only going to be live for fourteen days for the trial, so here’s a screenshot. 

Squarespace’s basic plan comes with store interface’s built in. You do not need a third party like WooCommerce or Shopify, so that’s a win for them. The cheapest plan starts at $25 per month if you pay monthly, or $16 a month if you pay yearly. You get your first year of domain included, so that is a savings. However, at $16 a month and no visible discounts for a multi-year contract, that makes SquareSpace the most expensive. And like Wix, I’m having a hard time getting to the right screen to confirm that. 

SquareSpace upfront investment: Minimum of $16-$25 a month, plus domain fees yearly. 

Even now, having messed with Canva sites and it being the only other option I didn’t hate, I still recommend WordPress. It has a lot more features and customization options with room to grow, where a Canva website is rather limited. Starting out with Canva is an affordable, great plan, but it might mean more work down the line when you eventually outgrow it, so keep that in mind. If you want to start out with all the bells and whistles, I truly believe starting a self-hosted WordPress site with Hostinger is the way to go.