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Website/blog on tumblr. Good idea?
Need some advice here. I'm in contact with a seller from fiverr who is assisting me in setting up my social media sites properly. I currently have a website with Yell web design company. Ongoing costs to that, but all set up now with images texts etc.
According to this seller, it would be better to combine my website and blog posts on tumblr? Not knowing about hese things, I need to know are there any ongoing costs to this and just how effective would a combined website and blog, on tumblr, be in Google's search engines?
Would they show up higher because I would be regularly using my blog posts, at least once a week, and linking all my ongoing activity on my social media sites directly onto tumblr.
Would that prove more effective, than say a website with a external link to my blog on tumblr, as currently would be, and no capacity for a landing page or equivalent which would have to be placed on tumblr with Chimpmail to enable a subscriber's list(neither of which Yell company's website can provide, directly onto my website's pages...). Any advice here?
Comments
I do know that if you want to go in for competitions as a blog the platform can't be on Tumblr - the A-Z Challenge, for example.
I was recently advised to get advice from Fiverr, but they can't be experts in everything, is the person you are using an expert in author websites and needs, for example?
I believe the seller on fiverr is an expert, but not when considering authors, and as she is not a writer, and uses 'technical words(to me..??', then there are some misunderstandings at times.
Just seems that with my web team, although it is all set up, there are things you cannot do with the website, like have a landing page and Chimpmail..
Do you think it is worth just having a website,for its own sake, with a tumblr or Wordpress blog and its posts, linked to that? I've simply no idea,so need advice.
The images and text etc is all well done, and most of it conforms to the requirements of a website for search engines. Thinking it might cost a bit to hire this seller to do tumblr or something, instead?
Not sure that is the way to go, tumblr for just a blog, alone. No idea on these things.. Help!
WordPress, Weebly, Blogger (sometimes known as blogspot), Tumblr...I won't list them all because there are hundreds.
To be honest, I'd scrap the "designer" - honestly - most of these platforms are as easy as joining and posting on this site! Can't believe people are charging - unless they're offering coding and graphics (done from scratch). You can ask around (us included) and get a pretty decent blog set up in about five minutes.
Start with a blog (for free), you don't really need to pay for a separate site (not for now anyway). You can have pages on your blog anyway, so you could have Home, About, Published Work, and the Blog page on one site...for free!
And not knowing a bean on anything on the technicalities of computers etc, I would have to hire someone to set up another blog/website, which would be more money, and for what advancement..? Linking a Wordpress blog and tumblr one too, to my website, to appeal to a different more wider audience, is essential to, I believe..
I set up two websites using Wix (don't know what br thinks about that one!), but it was as easy as pie. There is an option to run a blog with them, but as I already had a separate Wordpress one, I didn't include that bit.
I don't know if that's of any use to you, or not.
Why would you have to pay anyone else? They're all free...if you're paying anything more than a tenner to have a tumblr account set up, it's a waste of cash in my opinion.
It is tempting that, though, but would a new website warrant all the images and texts plus technical complications needed to pass mustard, in order to get high rankings should a writer have anything of worth to sell and say..etc..
The term is pass muster.
(Well, this is a writing forum )
Just wondering how much it would cost someone to set up a new website. My current web team designed this website and there appears to be all sorts of technical stuff involved in that in order to make it run more efficiently on Google search engines.
Apologies, heather. Gaps in education, leaves me up a creek without a paddle at times... And right now that roast beef dinner is sounding quite appetitising. Famished. Past the mustard, someone...
I am also famished now.
I'm obviosuly flagged up somewhere as I get a lot of emails and phone calls about SEO help, as does my dad as he runs his own business. We do enjoy showing up their lack of expertise by 'out-knowledging' them :P
But the truth is they can't do half as much as they say. If it were truly possible to make someone top of the ranking then EVERYONE would be No.1.
You can even download SEO helpers that let you know each time you post what you should change to make it more visible - all free of course
It's just that Fiverr is literally anyone who says they have a skill charging whatever they want, and so are a lot of others. I have to say anyone suggesting you use Tumblr as a blog is not that professional :S (I used to do this for a living).
tumblr might even be a way to target potential readers from off Wattpad, and the likes. A different audience, maybe, but if I can pare down my language, and adapt my original story into an additional one for that readership, then there is potentially more sales to be made from there? Are you allowed to adapt one story into another, two for the price of one, so to speak...
You need to be a presence in the community (of both writers AND readers) in order for it to do any good. And that takes hard work, a long time, and perseverance.
If you want readers from all platforms then you have to be on ALL platforms. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Wattpad, Tumblr, Instagram, Skype, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Smashwords, etc...
You'll have to learn about hashtags, and DMs, and retweets, and sharing, and video blogging, and networking, and bloghopping, and validation, and brand voice, and mobile friendly layouts, and keywords, and backlinks, and optimisation, and circles, the various size pictures sites use, likes, reactions, when to dial back on advertising, how to reduce to 140 characters, autoposting, and on and on and on...*gasp*
...your writing.
Concentrate on that and damn the rest.
It takes a lot of hard work and commitment to get a following.
Interaction = time and energy. And the more you put in, the more you get out!
When I first started writing, I thought I could be a lone wolf, doing it all by myself and hiding away. No way was I going to talk to strangers on the Internet! It's taken a loooooong time to get used to different sites, and 'rules'! If you over-promote, it can get people's backs up. You have to get to 'know' everyone first before you can mention your books!
So have decided that, although the website looks quite effective, with its imagery and the wording they have provided to emphasise my credentials(none right now, as I have not established myself), it has been made clear that this website is of no good to me, at this moment, as no one is likely to seek me out on a Google search until I make some waves on social media to warrant this. So I might as well save my money for now, and break the contract and pursue other sites like Facebook etc and all the other ones that br suggested.
It will mean learning some new skills, but where I can, I will try to delegate, the setting up of these things if they become too overwhelming to comprehend. There are lots of videos and courses, some free, online to teach me how use them properly to gain a following..
Does the contract have cooling off terms from signing?
Actually fiverr costs more than that for most 'gigs'. It is normally the opening shot to their offerings.. There are bargains to be made though, but as someone pointed out, there is no guarantee of quality, but when you are on a budget, that is the highest consideration..
Two things jumped out at me, Lydia - you talk about 'my team' and 'my brand'. I guess it's not wrong, but it sounds a bit odd to me. In my experience authors tend to refer to their books as books, not brands - and I don't know any new writers who have their own team.
Much of the comments and advice already given is sound and I think you've been side-tracked by thinking in terms of 'brand' and professionally produced websites. Instead you need to get back to basics and think in terms of simply promoting your books and writing. You really don't need 'teams' or 'brands' to do that - just well-written books that people want to read.
http://erewashwriterscompetition.weebly.com/
As BR has said, there is blogger, Wordpress and more.
You can do a lot with a freebie site like this. And it won't cost you owt!
Here's our thread on TB of all websites, etc that we've created:
https://www.writers-online.co.uk/talk-back/
Meanwhile, I have to pay a visit to my local A&E unit as I have managed to get a splinter in the sole of my foot, again, and can't remove it myself.
Have ascertained with myself that I will need to buy a rug, big enough, to cover the bedroom floor, to stop this happening again. Diabetic, so could be problematic if this gets infected or whatever..
Carpet tiles might be a better solution.
Believe I have a reasonable story to relate to this world. Just need to find some peaceful moments to set it all up and running..
I love Wordpress. And it works with other things very well.
If I could write comedy, I am sure I could find a wealth of details in amongst the chaos and malpractice that go on at this practice, to come up with some classic, humorous shows... You simply can't make these things up, can you...?!
So much emphasis is placed on us, the public, to be first-aiders etc. so that we might help in some emergency. Yet the doctors and nurses at the practice were not qualified to help. Allegedly.
At the very least, I think all staff, admin included, should have basic first aid training if they are working in a medical establishment.
And the admin staff, totally unbelievable! It is almost a joke what goes on at that practice.. impossibly incompetent!!
Yeah. I need to find some peaceful, calm.moments so that I can focus my thoughts on what I need to.do to get my ideas out there onto the net, to see if I have any meaningful exchanges to offer curious types who might be interested in such things.. it's having the belief in yourself..