The past two weeks I’ve described how to determine your author name, purchasing your domain name, finding an internet service provider, determining who will host your site, and what web-site building software you will use. You may recall I strongly recommended WordPress to build your site. One of the reasons I like WordPress for author sites is because it IS possible to Do-It-Yourself with their excellent tutorials and online forums. Even if you have never built a website before, WordPress provides a novice with the tools to create a professional site. If your goal is to keep your expenses low, then the DIY option is best though it is a trade-off between your time and the bottom line. If you would prefer help building your website, most designers today are familiar with WordPress and can quickly set up a site that will be easy for you to administer and manage yourself. Now let’s talk about design. But before picking out tiles and swatches for your new electronic home, look at your neighbors’ houses. Do some window shopping. Compare yourself to the Joneses by scouting out other authors’ websites. And get to know your author-neighbors. First, make a list of the authors who have written books in your subject area or genre. Add to this list some authors whose work you enjoy. Then search online for their websites and click through every page. Look. Read. Browse. Pay attention to where your eyes wander. Find at least three examples of author sites…
If you are recreational web surfer and gadget users like me, it’s unlikely you know what metadata, meta-tags and meta-descriptions are. You could get a SEO or web guru to explain it, using fancy tech jargon and complex, detailed explanations. Or you could opt for human speak and read this post, in which I will endeavor to guide you through the world of “meta” (no,… [Read More]
Filed Under: Elmo, filter, generate traffic, how-to guide, HTML, HubSpot, Katy Perry, meta-descriptions, meta-tags, metadata, relevance, relevant searches, search engine optimization, secondary data, SEO improvement, site traffic, webpage optimization, website upgrade, WordPress
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Retired teacher and native son of Homer, New York, Martin Sweeney has written a captivating account of three other native sons who played pivotal roles in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the United States’ history. Just released from McFarland & Company is Lincoln’s Gift from Homer, New York: A Painter, an Editor and a Detective. The painter, Francis Carpenter, brushed “The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation… [Read More]
Filed Under: assassination, Auburn, Civil War, Eli Devoe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emancipation Proclamation, Finger Lakes, Francis Carpenter, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Homer, Lincoln, Lincoln's Gift from Homer New York, Martin Sweeney, New York, Underground Railroad, upstate New York, William Seward, William Stoddard
Until I picked up Eleanor Henderson’s Ten Thousand Saints, I had never heard the term “straight-edge,” much less anything about a movement of it. At first, I thought the world Henderson created was 100% fiction. I could not have been more wrong. This is understandable, as I was born at the tail-end of all the action and, to add salt to the wound, I grew… [Read More]
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of work on websites. I spend my days playing with and installing widgets, writing meta tags and descriptions, cleaning up content, adding links, and overall trying to improve search engine optimization, also known as SEO. It takes time and focus… and sometimes a quick search for clarification and explanation. For the most part I avoid touching HTML code. It’s… [Read More]
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water,” W.H. Auden, First Things First. Emotions run high in the issues involving ‘hydrofracking’ in the southern tier of New York State. The Marcellus Shale deposits of natural gas are extracted using the force of water and sand mixed with a secret toxic mix of chemicals to fracture the shale and release the gas. Greed, jealousy, betrayal,… [Read More]
Filed Under: Bill McKibben, Cayuga Lake, chemicals, climate change, Eaarth, End of Country, Finger Lakes, freshwater, gas industry, groundwater contamination, Having Faith, hydrofracking, Living Downstream, Love, Marcellus Shale, Maude Barlow, natural gas, Nature, New York, oil, passion, Pennsylvania, pollution, Rachel Carson, Raising Elijiah, Seamus McGraw, Susan Steingraber, vandana Shiva, W.H. Auden, water, Water Wars