The Big Move – Of An Author Website

http://aurorajeanalexander.com/

I have had my website www.aurorajeanalexander.com for as long as I have my blog. And we all know that blog celebrated its 8^th anniversary, and has been growing steadily.

Now I decided on a really tough challenge. I will move my website.

My current website provider has been excellent with customer service… (I figured, that might have been because they don’t have that many customers anymore, but I’m not entirely sure about this.)

Also, it was extremely easy to work with their Website Builder, which translated everything into HTML code. Despite that anything special you wanted to do had to go via the editing of the existing HTML code, it was no big thing to make changes or add things quickly.

Other than that, unfortunately, the entire way of working, tutorials, explanations, forums, etc., are completely overaged. SEO ranking was a possibility they took into consideration, but linked that problem to other, outsourced providers. 8 – 10 years ago, this might have been sufficient, nowadays, unfortunately it isn’t anymore.

When you Google A.J. Alexander, which is the name I publish ‘The Council of Twelve’ series with, you’ll be provided with ‘The Other A.J. Alexander’, namely Angela Joy Alexander, who writes steamy romance novels. She’s a great author, I admire her creativity and talent! But then, she’s not me, and currently she occupies the first 28 positions on Google.com search results, only occasionally interrupted by some Baseball player with the same name – I’m nowhere in sight.

This has to change – and I’m not going on with a website provider who is completely unable to help me with my SEO, ranking, optimization and so on…

Currently WordPress is among the best Website Providers globally, which, of course, also gives me the possibility to include my blog in my website.

So, yes… that’s what’s currently happening!

It will take another moment, until everything is finalized. So far the ‘movers’ are doing phenomenal work! The domain name still will have to be moved, and also, it seems, this WordPress blog is going to be integrated into my domain website soon, and then will be promoted from there.

I look forward to changing all links to my blog. HAHA

That will, once more, be some kind of extra-work. But I’m convinced, it will bring many advantages that go with the work!

And I have AMAZING people doing this for me: Thank you, Scott Coatsworth from Otherworldsink.com! A huge shoutout to you and your great work!

Keep writing, authors!

Picture courtesy of Aaron Burden on Unsplash

A New Home For The Writer Beware Blog

I got the news this week that the ‘Writer Beware’ blog, which I keep re-posting here, on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’, moved to WordPress.

Victoria Strauss, who does so much for us writers by warning us from scams, foul play, screw-overs, phonies, and more, took the Writer’s Beware blog from Blogspot to WordPress, which is going to make re-blogging a lot easier. I’m sure, she’ll feel home here quite quickly!

Good Luck to Victoria, and we’re looking forward to her very helpful posts! Way to go!

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Welcome to the new home of the Writer Beware blog!

After many years on the Blogger platform, we have finally transitioned to WordPress, which offers much greater flexibility in terms of design, control, and ease of use.

We also have a new, easy to remember web address: writerbeware.blog.

I’ve been dissatisfied with Blogger for a while now. I’m not a web developer, but I’m not helpless, either; I maintain the Writer Beware website on the SFWA site, and I built and maintain two additional websites, my own and another for an organization my husband is part of. But every time I thought about moving to a new platform, the size of the challenge just seemed too daunting. How would I transfer hundreds of posts, not to mention the thousands of comments and images that go with them? What about all the non-working inbound links the move would create? Links wouldn’t be a problem if I just started fresh on a brand-new WordPress site–but then the blog would exist on two platforms, with two different web addresses. And what about WB’s thousands of followers and subscribers?

CONTINUE READING HERE

How To Set Up A Smashword Widget On Your Blog

I was asked lately how to set up a Smashword Widget on your WordPress blog. It’s not very hard to do that. Basically, your computer does most of the work for you. Just let it happen.

Let’s start with creating the ‘Smashwords’ ‘button that you see here on the right side.

Go to Smashwords, open your account, your dashboard, and then click the book you would like to create the ‘button’ of. This example will be the first book in my ‘The Council Of Twelve’ series, ‘Soul Taker.’

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The page opens, and on the right side, you will find ‘Create Widget’. Click it.

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You will see the ‘button’ as it will look like. Below you can see the entire HTML code that you need to enter into the widget. On the left side, you can adjust the size, font, Background, Button color, Ribbon text, Ribbon Color (There is a possibility to remove the ribbon). Play around a bit. The HTML code will be automatically adjusted.)

As an extra possibility: You can make it easy: Play around as much as you want, you will see every change in the ‘button’ when you make the changes. Instead of copying the HTML code to paste it into the widget, you can also just take a screenshot from the ‘button.’

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Now, let’s go over to our WordPress Dashboard and pick ‘Appearance’.

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As soon as you chose Appearance, now, pick ‘Widgets.’

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The Widgets on my blog ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’ are on the Sidebar, that’s what I’m going to click:

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Now, click the ‘+’ to add a new Widget. It will appear BELOW all other existing Widgets, you will have to scroll down.

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Now, you can search for the widget you are looking for, in this case, ‘Custom HTML’ – OR, if you picked the ‘extra possibility,’ you can search for ‘image.’

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You can now either paste the HTML code from the ‘Smashwords’ site or upload the screenshot you took from the Smashwords button.

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Now you can enter a Widget title, caption, and, if you pasted the screenshot, you could hyperlink it to the Smashwords site, where your readers can buy the book.

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At the very end, if you have adjusted and set up your new Widget the way you want it, you can move it. I told you earlier, it will be at the very bottom of your already existing widgets. With the arrow, you can move it up or down.

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Good Luck with your new Smashwords Widget. Have fun!

The Evolution of Blogging – Written By Nicholas Rossis

Nicholas C. Rossis informs us in his latest blog post about the evolution of blogging and what and how it had developed since he joined the great group of bloggers, a long, long time ago! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us, Nicholas!

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I have been online since 1985. I was one of the first members of the BBS (Bulletin Board) scene in Greece back when we connected to a server using landline modems. I still remember my thrill when I finally got my hands on a 9600 bps modem and could download pictures as well as texts.

In 1995, I developed my first website. Even then, I had identified a need for regularly updated content. While some pages were meant to be static, there were news and events to share. Web developers usually met this need by introducing a News page and placing there any related items. As the new millennium approached, we started placing some of these on the home page, too.

Out of these News pages came blogging. Nowadays, 25 years after I developed my first website, most of my living comes through freelance writing for company blogs.

CONTINUE READING HERE

 

Why I Stopped Questioning My Own Writing Process #writer – Written By Lucy Mitchell

Thanks for a great article about other writer’s writing process vs. our own. I think I still need to learn how to do what you did already.

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I love experiencing what I call a writing epiphany. They’re not regular occurrences and I think this is what makes them so wonderful. Mine always seem to occur while I am in my little car on my way to work at around seven in the morning. This is the time of the day when my brain will be chewing over an aspect of my WIP or a writing issue and then it will make a shocking revelation. I will then whisper, ‘OMG’, squeal with delight as everything has suddenly made sense, babble about the epiphany to myself for a mile or so and then turn up my 80’s hits for a celebratory sing-song. My day at work will then be a breeze. As I said above these are NOT regular occurrences.

Well, I had one of these moments a few weeks ago. I realized it was time to stop…

Continue Reading Here

 

How To Survive Being Married To A Writer #WritingCommunity – Written By Lucy Mitchell

Lucy Mitchell published a very helpful post on her ‘Blonde Write More’ blog. The post is mainly helpful to a writer’s better half and I think she gets a few points that not only made me smile but nodding enthusiastically. See for yourself. Thanks so much, Lucy!

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It’s not easy being married to a writer. We are strange creatures.

Here are some useful tips on how to survive being married to a writer:

1. Accept the fact that you will spend a lot of your marriage talking about people, events and locations that don’t actually exist.

2. When your writer wakes you in the small hours with an amazing new idea for their next story you need to wake up, switch on the light and let them talk it through. Moaning about what time it is, how tired you are and what you have on at work is not going to help your writer. This is a big moment for them, it’s the birth of something wonderful. Your support is needed 24-7.

3. Marital relations and their writing ‘ups and downs’ will become interlinked. When their writing is going well you can expect good times, kisses and smiles. When their writing is not going so well you can expect tension, tears and tantrums.

Continue Reading Here

Be smart, and avoid my mistake

Jean M. Cogdell recommends to make sure which WordPress plan is good for us and our work. Thank God I can re-blog her post now. Thanks a lot for the advice Jean!

Jean's Writing

Just before I went on a three-week holiday, I thought I’d change my plan with WordPress.

Big mistake.

With three weeks of sporadic internet service, I was unable to check-in with my blog on a regular basis. But on one of the few days I was able to connect, my favorite ape let me know the Reblog & Press This buttons had vanished from my blog. Thanks Chris!

Holy crap!

Now that I’m back home and done a little research, I discovered those buttons aren’t part of the plan I’d selected. Seems that WP assumes if you are a business blog, readers will not be interested in sharing your posts.

How to know which WordPress plan is right for you

When the new GDPR requirements came out, I thought upgrading to Business Plan would avail me of more automated information for my readers. Wrong!

I don’t know about you, but complying to…

View original post 208 more words

How To Survive Admitting You Cannot Commit To A Genre Because You Want To Explore Other Things #MondayBlogs #Writer

Lucy Mitchell of Blonde Write More provides us with an interesting post about not committing to a genre. Thank you Lucy.

 

1000 Posts On WordPress

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Last month WordPress told me that I had published my 1,000th blog post on ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest.’ 

Another achievement in my blogging life has been accomplished.

I don’t deny I’m quite proud of this one. 1,000 blog posts over roughly three years are something. But then, I have to say:

Part of these blog posts aren’t mine – they are YOURS!

I built ‘Writer’s Treasure Chest’ as a writer’s blog, and that’s how it grew. With your help, it became what it is now, and I hope, of course, it will further grow. But without your help, this wouldn’t have been working out.

The Author Spotlights, the re-blogs, the guest posts, the blog tours, the promotions, that wasn’t my work, it was yours!

Thanks so much for your work, for permitting me to re-blog, to pingback, to promote, to interview you! Thanks for making my blog a wonderful experience. Thank you for your help!

Akismet – Or the Secret Infiltration Of Our Blogs

A few weeks back I was going through my comments, since I had to approve a few of them, and was informed that I had something like 70 spam comments. You can see the spam file here, just when you’re in your comments:

Once again curiosity-driven I went through the spam file and scrolled through the different attempts. And I realized something: while a few months ago, these ‘cyber-impostors” were simply commenting on our blog posts, they had found out they might be more successful replying to one of the comments on our posts.

While a year ago, sales companies for mattresses, online drug stores, and internet Viagra were trying to use our blogs as a sales platform, this time I found that Russian sex sites tried the same thing.

I saw the statistics and realized that the number of spam comments was almost as high as my regular blog comments. Can you imagine if Akismet didn’t exist? We would be drowned in mattresses, bad internet Viagra and Russian whores.

 

I admit at this point I’m grateful for Akismet and WordPress protecting us from the worst. Some trigger words might make them turn a regular comment into a spam comment, but by going through our spam file regularly, we can still catch them.

Without Akismet our blogs were unreadable, and we would have to give them up.
I recommend you keep track of your spam folder to help them improve their service.

Happy blogging!

picture courtesy of http://www.twitter.com