144 Tools and Resources for Building Your Author Website and/or Blog

Author websites and blogs are important components to building an author platform. With that in mind, here is a list of resources that can help you set up and optimize your site.

Setting Up Your Website

1. NameBounce
2. Find Available Domain Names on Namestation
3. “+300 Awesome Free Things for Entrepreneurs & Startups” on Growth Supply
4. “11 Essential Elements of an Author Website” on How to Blog a Book
5. “5 Things You Need On Your Author Website” on Book Marketing Tools
6. “9 Author Website Trends You Need to Know About” on BookBub
7. “An Author Website Checklist” on Digital Book World
8. “Author & Book Websites: What to Include?” on Outbox Outline
9. “Before You Launch Your Author Website: How to Avoid Long-Term Mistakes” on Jane Friedman
10. “Building an Author Website on WordPress: How to Start Smart” on Jane Friedman
11. “Building Your Professional Author Website: WordPress vs Squarespace” on Jane Friedman
12. “Creating Author Websites: The Definitive Guide” on Write to Done
13. “Do You Need to Rethink Your Website’s Key Elements?” on Jane Friedman
14. “Does Your Author Website Have The Essentials To Attract Readers And Sell Your Books?” on The Creative Penn
15. “Step By Step Tutorial: How To Build Your Own Self-Hosted Author Website In 30 Minutes” on The Creative Penn
16. “How to Create Your Author Website Using Self-Hosted WordPress” on PressBooks
17. “How to Make the Most of Your Website” on BookWorks
18. “How to Take Charge of Your Author Blog” on Social Media Just for Writers
19. “Let’s Address a Common Misunderstanding About Author Websites” on Writer Unboxed
20. “A Writer Gets All Techie About Her Website” on Gail Gauthier
21. “Self-Hosting Your Author Website: Why and How to Do It” on Jane Friedman
22. “How To Start A Money-Making Blog In Less Than 5 Minutes (Step-By-Step Guide)” on Dukeo
23. “Developing an Author Website – A Marketing and Communication Checklist Study” on The eBook Author’s Corner
24. “The Ultimate Guide to What Every Author Website Needs, Part 1” on Patrick Samphire
25. “The Ultimate Guide to What Every Author Website Needs, Part 2” on Patrick Samphire
26. “Web Hosting Review: So Just Who is the Best?” on wpmudev
27. “Your Blog Might Need a Makeover” on Rafflecopter
28. Fat Cow Hosting Review
29. Chocolate Hosting
30. “The Truth About Thesis.com” on Pearsonified
31. “How to Make a Website” on WebsiteSetup

Website Content

32. “14 Strategies for Curating Great Content” on Social Media Just for Writers
33. “7 Tips for Designing Awesome Animated GIFS” on Invision
34. “Blogging: Fundamentals” on Blogging University
35. “Download: Optimize Templates for Keyword Glossary & Editorial Plan” on Optimize Book
36. “How To Write A Click-Worthy Blog Title” on Molly Greene
37. “Six Ways To Create Great Content In Just 15 Minutes A Day” on Small Business Newz
38. “How to Optimize Your Content for Social Media” on Sarke Media

Website Design

39. Essential Grid
40. Pixelwars website themes
41. Genesis WordPress
42. “Animated Content Tabs with CSS3” on Codrops

Website Maintenance

43. “10 Essential Website Housekeeping Tasks” on Molly Greene
44. “10 Simple Ways to Make Your WordPress Site Faster” on Sugar Rae
45. “Why Trying to Get 95+ on Google PageSpeed Insights for Your WordPress Site Will Drive You Mad!” on wpmudev
46. Browser Compatibility Test
47. “HowTo: Configure WordPress To Use A Content Delivery Network (CDN)” on nixCraft
48. “My Website is Slow” on Hostmonster
49. “Performance of the Best WordPress Hosting Companies Compared” on WP Site Care
50. “How I Cut My Page Load Speed by 90% Using Jetpack, CDN, Dedicated Hosting, and More” on SDavis Media
51. “How to Make WordPress Sites Load 72.7% Faster” on CopyBlogger
52. “How to Use Google Webmaster Tools to Diagnose and Improve WordPress Page Speed” on wpmudev
53. “W3 Total Cache Plugin  : Speed Up Your Website” on WP Widgets
54. WP Super Cache
55. “Improve Your Website’s Health With These 20 Simple Actions.” on Blogging Love

Getting Traffic and Visitors

56. “21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic” on MOZ
57. “21 Ways a Reader Might Find Your Author Website” on BookBaby
58. “3 New AdWords Automations You Can’t Afford To Miss” on Search Engine Land
59. “WordPress SEO Tasks: 5 Things You Always Forget” on Dukeo
60. “How to Get Traffic to Your Author Website: 30+ Tips for Discouraged Writers” on Your Writer Platform
61. “How We Increased Our Organic Search Traffic By Using HitTail” on WPBeginner
62. “RSSTop55: Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites” on Robin Good
63. “The Optimized Publisher: Author Amplification” on Digital Book World
64. “The Optimized Publisher: XML Sitemaps” on Digital Book World
65. Google Search Console
66. Yoast SEO for WordPress (tutorials)
67. Social Triggers
68. Google XML Sitemaps Generator
69. Yoast SEO

Tracking Your Website

70. “10 useful Google Analytics custom dashboards” on Econsultancy
71. “12 Awesome Custom Google Analytics Reports Created by the Experts” on Kissmetrics
72. “Google Analytics: 5 Tips for Easy Monitoring” on Dukeo
73. “7 Google Analytics Custom Dashboard Examples To Segment SEO, Social Media, Mobile, And Other Metrics” on Online Media Masters
74. “AuthorRise Shows Promise for Indie Writers” on The Book Designer
75. “Google Analytics Bounce Rate (actually) Demystified” on Analytics Ninja
76. Heap Analytics
77. “How to Improve Your Marketing with Google Analytics Data” on QuickSprout
78. Crazy Egg
79. “Reach for the Stars with Google Analytics” on The YP Publishing

Earning Money on Your Website

80. “All in One Adsense” on Linux and Open Source Blog
81. LinkVehicle
82. Riot Ad Network
83. Blog Ads
84. Ad Rotate for WordPress
85. Warrior Plus Affiliates
86. iTunes Affiliates (sign up here)
87. Kobo Affiliates
88. Audible Affiliates
89. Google Adsense
90. Mobile Theme Ads for Jetpack
91. WordPress Affiliate from Shareasale

Selling Products on Your Website

93. “How to Sell Digital Products & Services Directly from Your Website: Advice for Authors and Freelancers” on Jane Friedman
94. “Adding Ebook EPUB and MOBI Downloads to WordPress” on Ed Schipul
95. “How to Sell Books From Your Website: Top 3 E-commerce Solutions for Authors” on The Book Designer
96. “Legal: “Terms and Conditions” Protect Your Online Business” on Practical ECommerce
97. “How to Sell eBooks Directly to Readers” on Word Magic

Making Your Website Mobile Friendly

98. “5 Myths About Mobile Web Performance” on Sencha
99. “Check Out This Mobile Version of My Site (and links to how I learned how to do it)” on Idea Trash
100. “Google’s AMP: The Fun and User-Friendly Guide to Accelerated Mobile Pages” on CopyBlogger
101. “How and Why to Make Your Indie Author Website Mobile Responsive” on Self Publishing Advice Center
102. “How to edit jetpack mobile theme” on TP
103. “How to Turn Any Site Into a Responsive Site” on Vandelay Design
104. “Mobile Theme” on Jetpack
105. Onbile
106. Onswipe
107. ShoutEm API

Tools and Add-ons For Your Website

108. Vanilla Forums
109. Elementor
110. “Subscription migration tool” on Jetpack
111. “Monocle, or Something Exactly Like It, Will Change Everything About Publishing” on The Fiction Circus
112. “Transferring Followers and Subscribers” on Jetpack
113. Wishlist Member
114. Enhanced Linking
115. WP Minify
116. “Essential WordPress Plugins for Book Authors Building a Platform” on wpmudev
117. WP List Press
118. Buddy Press
119. Booktorious on Github
120. Bookflip
121. Book.ish
122. BookJS
123. Custom Google Search
124. “Display & Style Related Posts For Your WordPress Site” on Envato
125. “How to add WordPress Related Posts Without Plugins” on Hongkiat
126. EPUBJS
127. Pippity

Example Websites

128. “29 Author Websites with Stellar Designs” on BookBub
129. Andrew Hyde
130. “Ten Author Websites That Really do the Business” on The Writing Platform
131. This Book is About Travel

Additional Resources and Services

132. Amanda Abella
133. AppSumo
134. Code snippets on Bill Erickson
135. Google Webmaster Central Blog
136. RKA Ink
137. Wired Tutorials
138. “What infrastructure should I run a WordPress installation with 200.000+ posts on?” on Quora
139. Aptana Studio 3
140. John Watson
141. “WordPress themes for writers and authors: Build a website with WordPress” on Ben Zackheim
142. “How to Speed Up Your WordPress” on Website Setup
143. “A Comprehensive Guide to Building an Author Website” on The Self-Publisher
144. Business Name Generator

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared January 2017.