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What to Make an Author Website Free of Charge [The Ultimate Guide 2023] -

Jan 27, 2023

Since writing books is thought as the most difficult part of writing, many authors give up there. Yet, marketing books is an essential aspect of publishing and is perhaps the most important. An author's website is an essential component of your book's marketing strategy. Most authors find the process overwhelming. But don't worry, we offer a step-by step guide to help you create an expert-grade website for your author without spending a dime. It is not necessary to code or design skills necessary!

Here are the links to an entire resource guide for creating a website to publish your work:

The benefits of establishing the author's website

Here are some of the benefits of building your own author site.

1. Ability to build meaningful relationships with your clients and

Author websites allow the author to create an author site that lets you interact in a meaningful way with readers and fans. Furthermore, it could be used to develop an email database that keeps your customers informed about events coming up and forthcoming releases of your book titles.

2. The ability to directly sell directly to your customers (cut off the middleman)

Directly selling books to customers on your author's web site offers numerous benefits. These include:

  • Higher profit margin. It's not necessary to be paying hefty royalties. Platforms like only charge a five percent commission per sale (up to $99 per month). Comparatively, platforms such as Amazon generally charge 30%-35 percent of their royalties.
  • Instant payouts. Don't have to wait for your earnings to hit a certain threshold or even having to wait until a particular day of the month. The selling of your own site lets you be paid immediately after orders come in, resulting in a boost to your cash flow, making it easily available for other tasks like book marketing.
  • More control of order fulfillment. Your readers' buying experience is totally under the control of your. Provide your clients with memorabilia, or trinkets such as the book's autographed copy along with coffee mugs and more. Furthermore, you'll be in a position to respond quickly to any feedback received from your clients and provide personalized customer service. This can help build lasting relationships with your clients and boost your book sales over time.

The service is completely free it is also free for life. You can make use of the platform to market your book and you don't have to pay any fees until you've begun to make sales.

3. The ability to create additional streams of income

If someone bought the books you've written, then there's a good chance that they'll be curious about other similar products you have to sell. These include products such as:

  • Online courses
  • Services of coaching
  • Memberships (paid memberships, in exchange in exchange for content you provide to your members)
  • The physical products like merchandise

One excellent illustration is such as if you've written an ebook that is titled How to Begin your own PHOTOGRAPHY Business You can make use of your website author for selling classes and seminars online as well as one-on-one training on business and entrepreneurial photography.

How to Create an Author Website at No Cost in Just 4 Steps

1. Choose Your Website Builder Platform

One of the first things to think about when designing author websites is choosing a website builder platform. There are some inquiries you can ask yourself in order to assist you select the best platform for your author website:

  1. What is the amount I want to spend on my site for author? Spoiler alert! It is feasible to build professional sites for authors even with an unimaginative budget of $0. The amount you spend will be determined by the stage in your profession you're at. If you're a newbie to the field, then it's an excellent idea to choose a free or low-cost platform. It is free for life pricing. This means it costs you nothing to build your author website with built-in the capability to sell on-line.
  2. What kind of web building or design expertise can I count on? If you have no or limited prior experience developing or creating websites, then you need to choose a platform for your website that makes it easy to build your own website. Take a look at the templates and samples available to customers. Find simple drag and drop web design tools that don't require the use of any computer programming expertise.
  3. Do I need any particular features? We suggest that writers that you choose an online platform which has eCommerce built-in (i.e. the ability to take payments) so you can make sales directly on your site.

We highly recommend it, as it's a totally free website building platform and comes with many important features for authors, such as:

  • It is a generous plan  The forever-free program provides unlimited access to all of the tools available on the website. The plan charges only 5% fee for every order that exceeds $99/month (i.e. there is no cost if you don't get any book sales , which is great for new authors.)
  • Drag and drop site creator
  • Domain and hosting are free (you can also sign up for with a domain you have created)
  • The ability to market various product types such as physical products (e.g. books, as well as other things e.g. bookmarks, tshirts, etc), digital downloads (e.g. audiobooks or ebooks) Training, coaching, and online in addition to the possibility of being a part of
  • Automatically managing UK & EU VAT so it is possible to sell your goods internationally without fear
  • Integration of BookFunnel and Zapier
  • Integration with Google Analytics
  • Payouts instantaneous and safe via Paypal and Stripe
  • Marketing tools like discount codes for affiliate marketing, referral systems, cross-sells as well as upsells, among others.

2. Add Your Books and other lists of products.

When you've selected the best platform for you Start uploading your product list, which includes books, ebooks and everything else you'd like to put up for sale.

The description for every product must include an estimated price, a corresponding image, and a brief description of the item.

Images of books make up your book's covers, and the text should match your book's back page description. The description should be brief, interesting description of the main points of your book. The length should not be more than 300 words.

Additionally, you can make the option of linking to items which are comparable to the ones you have in case you own similar courses for example linking to the book on your page.

3. Create Your Own Website Design

The design of your site to accomplish two things help you promote your brand, and promote your business.

If you're starting out, you must take time to consider your branding prior to building your website to attract authors. It is important to think about the kind of audience you want to appeal to in addition to what they should be aware of when they land on your page. People who are brand new to your website should be aware of the content of your work from the moment they step onto your site. (If you're a fanfiction creator For instance, your writing is supposed to be distinguished by fantasy-inspired colours and images. If you write not non-fiction and you write for informational purposes, then you want to communicate a professional tone.)

If you're not an expert on technology , or do not have any coding skills can help you build an online shop in a matter of minutes using no-cost themes. There is no need for a professional web designer. The built-in tutorials will help you with every aspect of creating a store, as well as a wealth of ideas on how you can personalize your site for authors. It is recommended that taking the time to look over your account in order to assess the possibilities.

This tutorial video teaches the fundamentals of how to get your website up and running.


  If you've got a background in coding and wish to personalize your site, it is available in the store builders.

4. Advertise Your Author's Website

Once your site is up and running and you've added your book and other items, the next thing to do is ensure that visitors are visiting your author site. Here are some simple ideas for how to boost the number of visitors to your website and continue on your site.

  • Be sure to add your link to your site on your various social media pages.
  • Add a blog to your website where you discuss the current projects you are working on, future and upcoming events, as well as other topics which are relevant to the content you publish. Add links to your most recently published or popular blog articles on your social media accounts to increase new and repeat traffic. Blog content can also allow authors to improve their chances to be ranked in Google Search Results, resulting in more visitors to your author website.
  • Form a author's community by publishing reviews and recommendations for the work of other authors. Connect the profile of an author to websites they're using on social media. The concept is that the author you've mentioned is likely to link your work to their followers.

5. (Optional) Create a custom Domain Name

If you're using a website builder platform like , by default you will get a free fully-hosted domain name with the following format: .com/[yourwebsitenamehere] or an example would be .com/janesmithauthor. This means you won't have to pay for domain names.

You also have the option of joining an individual domain that you like e.g. www.janesmithauthor.com. A personalized domain is your individual website address, which can be accessed via the internet which makes your website appear more professional. You can buy your preferred domain names from any of the domain hosting services (e.g. GoDaddy), and you can quickly connect the domain you've purchased to your website.

Here are some tips about how to select the most appropriate domain name.

  • Your name is the most effective shot. If you're already on the market and you want to add something more simple in the middle the name such as tomjoneswriter.com
  • Make it as easy as is possible. It's not required to use the use of complicated spelling. Users should be able examine the domain name and figure out the significance without thinking too hard. Additional points if it's simple to learn
  • If possible, don't include numbers or punctuation marks since it can make it difficult to communicate the details of your domain's owner to customers.
  • Create your domain's name but not be the title of your publication. Your domain name must be suitable for the years to come as well as when you have new publications

The Things You Need to Add To Your Author Website

Websites for successful authors should contain crucial elements like:

  • The author bio page iswhere people who visit your site will be familiar with the name and image you portray. The page must include an introduction to yourself in addition to highlighting your publications, your credentials as well as any awards that have been presented to your achievements. Include the photo of your author.
  • Shop section of your site must list all products you're selling on your website as an creator.
  • Product page (i.e. your own product listing page) should include a brief description of the title of your book as well as the book's cover as well as other information such as an FAQ. You may also like and reviews from clients.
  • Contact Page with an option for registering your email newsletter. If it is appropriate, think about including your publicist's or agency's details on your Contact Page. Make sure you include hyperlinks to social media so that your readers know where they can find you via social media.
  • Blog is an excellent method to ensure that visitors keep coming back to your author website as well as have your website showcased in search engines like Google. Make use of your blog to provide up-to-date information on your upcoming publication as well as forthcoming activities. Blogs can also be used to write post with review of books, tips and links to other authors blogs within this category.

FAQs - Create Author Websites

Do I require to purchase domain names?

It is a good option to purchase a domain to help your site look more professional. This is not a requirement. There are domain names for free on the website building platform of your choice. provides a free domain name with the following format .com/[yourcustomnamehere]. It is also possible to buy and join a custom domain name , too.

Are ebooks available for sale on your site?

Yes! makes it easy to sell ebooks on your website. You can upload the PDF document for the book and then complete details about the item, such as the descriptions, prices, images and much many more.

Does an author's website have to be created?

It is recommended you own a website for your author, this is the reason the majority of authors have one. Author websites give you greater control over how you wish to convey to your reader. It allows people to be involved with and your business in addition to help to boost your book marketing campaigns. If you are able to drive more website traffic toward your product page, then you'll see an increase in book sales. A simple website could be worthwhile.

How much does it cost to create a site for authors?

In the short term, there is nothing to worry about. It is possible to build an expert author website with built-in E-commerce capabilities at little or zero upfront costs.

The list of things that you must pay for can be summarized the following:

  • Have an author website with an integrated ecommerce function
        Cost: $0. (if you are employing platforms, such as )
  • Create marketing campaigns to attract clients to your website
       Cost: Nothing (there are many options to get traffic to your site with no budget Check out our suggestions in the previous paragraph)
  • Create a domain with a unique name
       Cost: Free when you're using the web builder's no-cost domain names. But you can also buy domain names of your own for various prices ranging from just $0.99 to thousands of dollars depending on the domain that you want to use.

Additionally, to the price Beyond the cost, you may be contemplating the amount of time and effort required to begin and manage your own author website. If you follow the steps that we've outlined in previous sections, you'll be able to finish setting the site up in a matter of days (but make sure you keep in mind that building the website and growing your visitors will take longer and depend on the efforts of your marketing).

Final Reflections

The development of an author's website can seem like a daunting step in your journey to be at the top of your field. However, it's an essential element in developing an author website which is interactive and assists users connect to your site. There is a way to create a professional author website at free, with no need to employ an expert web developer by following the step-by-step directions we've provided in previous paragraphs. It's possible that your site's marketing potential your website to authors is worth the time and effort.

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