Your author website is the central hub of your work, the landing page to draw in new readers and welcome back old ones. It’s a must-have for authors, and while maintaining one can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be.
By the end of this article, you will be equipped to make informed decisions on where to create your website, and you will know exactly how much you should expect to pay.
Why does an author website cost money?
- Purchasing a web domain. To have a website URL like
calebarobinson.cominstead ofcalebarobinson.wixsite.com, you’ll have to rent a domain from a registrar like GoDaddy or Google Domains. - Building the website. Unless you want to create your website from scratch (and know how to), you’ll need to use a website builder. While free ones exist, they are often limited or don’t let you use your own domain.
- Hosting the website. Ever wondered where a website “lives”? The simple answer: on a web server, which someone has to maintain.
These costs are often bundled together. Let’s look at the individual price points before we get into some bundling options (including the one I chose).
Buying a Domain
Here’s the breakdown for purchasing tommy-robinson.com from some of the most popular sellers. Some have special offers for the first year, so we’ll look at the 5-year cost.
- Google Domains
— $12/year ($60 over 5 years) - IONOS
— $1 for the first year then $15/year ($61 over 5 years) - GoDaddy
— $0.01 for the first year then $19.99/year ($79.97 over 5 years) - SquareSpace
— $20/year ($100 over 5 years)
Winner: Google Domains
Note: prices may change. Use this as a baseline.
Carefully consider what you want your website URL to be. You can change this later on, but that would break any links on the internet pointing to your old URL (unless you want to pay for both domains).
Building and Hosting a Website
This step is more complex than buying a domain as there is more than just a flat fee to consider. For my personal research, I spent hours navigating each platform (where you manage your site) and using their editors (what you use to build your site).
The pricing models are a bit complicated, so we’ll use the monthly cost for each as a baseline.
Wix
Cost: $16/month
Pros
— Plenty of modern templates specifically for authors
— Good built-in elements such as a newsletter signup or testimonial block
— Decent editor that produces attractive websites
Cons
—Editor/platform load slowly
— Can be hard to find your way around the platform
— Expensive
SquareSpace
Cost: $16/month
Pros
— Great user interface throughout
— Plenty of modern templates
—Excellent editor that produces solid websites
Cons
—Can’t search templates, though there is filtering
— Expensive
Weebly
Cost: $9/month
Pros
— User-friendly editor
— Good user interface throughout
— Cheap
Cons
— Not as many quality templates
— Editor is somewhat limited and produces sites that feel less modern
WordPress
Cost: $9.99/month (with BlueHost)
Pros
—Essentially unlimited templates
— Tons of support/tutorials online
— Endless customization
Cons
— Steep learning curve for the editor
— Requires more manual work in editing, customizing, etc.
Note: WordPress is technically free. However, hosting and setup is not included. For that piece, I used BlueHost as the baseline since it’s listed first in WordPress’s recommendations. Here’s the full list.
Who Wins?
- Choose SquareSpace if you don’t mind the extra costs and want a very modern website that is relatively easy to create.
- Choose Weebly if you don’t want to spend much and don’t need anything overly complex or modern.
- Choose WordPress if you’d like a cheap option that gives you tons of customization in exchange for more upfront effort.
My Choice
I chose WordPress because I’ve seen a ton of really nice sites built with it, and with BlueHost, I pay a lot less over a 5-year period.
Of all the editors I used, WordPress did take the longest to learn. That’s partially because I’m a perfectionist, and it gives you so many options, from template selection and page types to blog preferences and more. The online community for WordPress is massive and very helpful, so any time I was stuck, a quick Google search yielded the answer.
Overall, I actually really enjoyed making my site on WordPress!
Cut Costs With Bundles
If you are able to, pay annually for whatever platform you decide to use. It’s usually about 30% cheaper. Wix and Weebly offer even bigger discounts if you pay for 2+ years upfront.
The bundle I chose is from BlueHost. They host my site for $2.95/month and installed WordPress for free. While the link below is an affiliate link, I reached out to BlueHost after conducting my research and choosing their platform for my own site.
Build and Host your site for $2.95/month with BlueHost and WordPress.
I hope that my research saves you some time and money. If you do end up going with WordPress and BlueHost, I’ll be posting a step-by-step guide on how to set everything up.
