HELP!!!
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I am a professional editor who is helping many people take their books from inception to completion. They want a website to promote their books, plus a blog to write articles and content. But they all start with WordPress and just the basics are confusing to people who have never done this before. So they stop and get very frustrated.
It’s the chicken and the egg thing: Do you build a site that has a blog click-through link? What’s the best way to have a site that promotes your products? I know you have to have shopping cart capabilities, etc. I’ve suggested that they start with a basic website, with the side menus including a blog where the visitor can click through to read the content. Then a page About the Book and Buy Now click-through from there to take them to a shopping cart.
Is there anywhere someone who’s a total neophyte can learn what’s the best way to go — website first/blog second — to use their site for information and selling product. You guys know what you’re doing, but the majority of us without experience are floundering in the ethernet.
Your suggestions will be greatly appreciated (and yes, I’ve spent hours on your tutorials, websites, blog posts, etc. trying to figure this out. But they all tend to say different things, and jump into the technical jargon that flies over my head. I have about 30 clients who are wanting help, so …. HELP!)
Thanks much.
MJo
The Write MoJo Literary ServicesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Lets see if I can help a bit
A blog is a web site – just a bit specialized but a “blog” should work fine for an author
There are limits on selling things on WordPress.COM – but an author can sell their own book (but not mine) or link to where their book is for sale
No shopping carts – but you can link to a site where their book is for sale – or they can do something with PayPal to sell their book
They would want a custom domain name – my suggestion is for one that works on their name – then you can have more than one book on the same site – bigger and older help search engines
Several ways to put a short excerpt from a book here – either a Post or a Page – pdf document (a couple of ways with the pdf)
They can have their tour schedule if they want (book signings, events, guest on etc.)
An About or Meet the Author Page is dirt easy to do
Easy to add content – no need to learn about html and such – the editor has some limits – but unless you want to make some sort of multi-collumn Post or Page you should not run into any issues – I find the editor easy to use – especially if you just want to do plain writting
If you paste from Word or another Word Processing program there are certain ways to do that so the text will format correctly – you can also get off line editors such as Windows Live Writer (free for Windows) – there are also some for the Mac if you want
Blog or Web Site – bit of a technical difference – I personally don’t worry much about those points and just tell people that I have a Web Site and leave it at that. Web sites are more Page oriented I guess – but you get both Pages and Posts with any WordPress blog –
I hope this helps a bit
Other questions or concerns?
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They could take my Blogging for Writers workshop. If you want an offline solution, the WordPress for Beginners is overkill but will do it. It is comprehensive. If you want to learn to use WordPress.com for selling, I’m not aware of a single course or workshop in all the world (except mine). Almost all of them are geared to marketers on WordPress.org.
As someone who spends 18 hours a day online, I can tell you that no actual reader gives a rat’s ass whether you have a website AND a blog. They won’t go to both. They only want one site, with everything in one place.
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Thanks much to both auxclass and raincoaster for your valuable input. You’ve succinctly stated what I’ve been telling people: That it’s a matter of semantics. But again, for the neophyte who’s never done any of this before it’s completely daunting. Your advice is much appreciated and well-taken!
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