Tools I Use to Run My Author Blog

I SPEND A LOT OF TIME talking about the tools of writing. As a full time writer, author, memoir coach, memoir editor and teacher of online memoir classes, it’s what I do. But these days, I think I spend as much time answering questions about my author blog tools as I do talking about dialogue, drama, three-act structures and the rest. Lots of writers want to start a website, but they aren’t sure how. Here is a list of the basic tools I use.

Do you like the way my website looks? That is because it is being presented to you on a content management system that is designed to present it in a clean, readable, attractive way. The name of that system is WordPress. It’s word publishing software. Specifically, it is a free and open-source content management system whose features include plug-in architecture and a template system. Too much information, right? Right. I know. And I give it all to you to make the point that you don’t need to know all of that to have a website on which you house a blog. What you do need to know is that if you want to publish online you need a place to do so, and for that, I strongly recommend WordPress. It is foremost among my author blog tools. I would not use anything else. It’s flexible. The layout designs – called themes — from which you design the look of your site, are beautiful and easy to use.

Next, you’ll need a hosting provider. This is the company who keeps you online. Specifically, they power websites. For this, I recommend Bluehost. They have a strong partnership with WordPress, by the way, so the two fit together beautifully.

You will then want to start an email list. This is easy. You begin with the people you know, after securing from them their permission to do so. Once you have something to say to those people, you want to send them those pearls of wisdom. For me, that’s my weekly newsletter that alerts you to my online memoir classes, as well as to my new blog content. For this, I use ConvertKit, whose simplicity and efficiency is a delight.

Now, how do you get new readers to sign up for that newsletter? You collect their emails, after they agree to give them to you. For me, this is done using Sumo, a company that optimizes my site growth by connecting those emails directly to Convertkit and letting me concentrate on my writing and teaching and not, instead, on spending my time copying and pasting emails from one platform to another.

Then you need a fine group of people to whom you can turn to update your site, maintain your site, who take your plaintive emails when something is broken and who will fix it and set you back on your way. For this, I use Maintainn. They do perfect work every time.

What Else?

Yes, yes, I have lots of other help when it comes to my job. If you’ve read my book on how to write memoir, or my post on this, you know that I live surrounded by reference books. I consider them author blog tools, as well. So please do not think that writers live by their online wits alone. We do not, of course. But what we do is free up our time as much as possible utilizing the tools of the trade as they are available to us in this time and place. And that’s my advice to you: If you want to have a blog, do not build one on a mediocre platform that requires the reader to work too hard to read you. Make it easy for me to get your newsletter. Allow me access to you and I will spread the word, and on you will go being read out there in the eager world of readers.

The online world is all about sharing. Make is easy for us to find you, reach you, read you and share you.

*Disclaimer: If you decide to purchase any of these tools, I’ll get a small cut (affiliate links) but you won’t be paying anything extra.

Speaking of sharing, I’d love to share what I know about writing memoir with you. Please come along and take a class with me. They begin again in September and are currently filling up.  The entry-level class, Memoirama, is a one-night, 90-minute class that is taught twice a month, every month but July and August. Follow that with Memoirama 2, and get yourself all set to enroll in the next session The Master Class. Can’t wait to hear about your work in one – or all – of these online memoir classes.

Photo credit: hine on Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-ND