Introduction
Ask 10 web designers what is the best solution for your author website and you’ll get 11 different answers. And that’s just from those using WordPress! There is so much choice on how to build an online author platform that it can lead to analysis paralysis.
The truth is the technology doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter if you drank coke or pepsi, used a Mac or a PC, or made your stand for Ravenclaw over the other three Hogwarts houses. All those arguments were just noise and distraction from enjoying what you enjoyed while appreciating others felt the same way about their choices.
It’s the same with websites.
In this course I show you how to build an author website using the tools that I use but you don’t have to.
I’m not evangelical about these things. I use what I use because they fit my workflow, regularly innovate their space and make building websites a better experience.
Throughout the course I’ll try to make the lesson about the results rather than the technology. If you have a preferred alternative to the tools I use you should be able to get the same results albeit with a different method as long as the features are the same.
Keep it simple
WordPress has a reputation of being difficult to set up, manage and use.
It’s not. At least it doesn’t have to be.
The secret to an easy life with WordPress is to keep it simple.
Here’s what I use for the author website build in this course.
- The Twenty Twenty-Four Block Theme
- The Block Visibility Plugin to show / hide content based on conditions
- FluentSMTP plugin for sending emails from the website
- Fluent Forms plugin for contact and subscription forms
- ACPT Pro plugin for custom post types, custom fields and dynamic data
WordPress, the default theme, four plugins and that’s it.
WordPress
WordPress is an open source project more than twenty years old (a lifetime online), is developed by a global community of tens of thousands, and powers almost half of the websites on the internet. Twenty Twenty-Four, its current default theme, is packed with features, well updated, and just like WordPress itself is completely free.
Free Plugins
The Block Visibility, FluentSMTP, and Fluent Forms plugins are also free.
Block Visibility is another open source product developed by a leading WordPress coder with signs it will be absorbed into the core platform in the future.
Although FluentSMTP and Fluent Forms are from a commercial company they are also free. FluentSMTP is a reputation builder for the company while Fluent Forms has enough features to get you started while introducing new users to the opportunities of the paid version for surveys, quizzes and more advanced forms. The free version is more than enough for this author website build.
ACPT Pro
WordPress offers users pages and posts to publish content. Pages are static “one-off” type of content like your About page, privacy policy, and contact page. Posts are for Blogs. That’s it, that’s all WordPress posts should be used for. For everything else, including sharing books on our website we’ll use Custom Post Types, custom fields and dynamic data.
You may not have heard these terms before but this course has an entire module dedicated to setting up a dedicated post type and template for books using the ACPT Pro plugin. Don’t be put off by the ‘Custom’ part of custom post types. They are easy to set up and they will revolutionise how you build websites.
ACPT Pro is a paid plugin costing from $29 for an annual licence or from $99 for a lifetime licence. I struggled with including any paid software in this author website build but it adds powerful functionality that will save you so much time and take your site to the next level.
Summary
That’s my build. WordPress, one theme and four plugins. These tools have the ideal mix of features, positive user experience, and price. With fewer moving parts the site is lightweight, fast, easy to manage and update.
But you don’t have to use what I use.
Watch the lessons for the principles and use what works for you. The execution will be different on other platforms, themes and plugins but the results will be the same.
Just keep your setup as simple as possible and you’ll be fine.
