Review of author websites

 themes  No Responses »
Mar 012012
 

Chris Ball is a christian fiction author whose website mainly promotes the books he has written (with comments open and rate this / share this plugins used – not sure which ones they are).  There is no blog to speak of.  His first website I viewed was on the Andreas09 platform.  I read an article he had written for Polka Dot Banner entitled “marketing ideas for Indie authors“.  He changed themes to Pilcrow and uses alot of features.  He has a 3 column layout, with the sidebars giving much useful information to authors:  listing authors, message boards, review / promotional sites, and self publishing links.  He also has a contact page, which some authors do not have.  I am assuming with the extra features, website is hosted by wordpress.com and author pays a monthly fee.

Girlswithpens uses a recently added theme:  iTheme2 - a very colorful theme.  I did not see it on wordpress.org – not for selfhosting.  I believe with the domain name, owners (Marcy Kennedy and Lisa Hall-Wilson) must pay a monthly fee for hosting.  Theme is 2 column with a fixed width and very uniform in structure.  Posts deal more with writing and publishing, which is why I find the blog interesting and am sure authors will feel the same.  Website uses a facebook-like plugin and a “Connect with Us” text wiget (icon) box in lower sidebar (don’t quote me on that).  Thumbs up for a well done website.

Aly Hughes is an unpublished author that talks about writing.  I saw her website a week ago and her post on “first person vs second person vs third person PoV” interested me.  She posts many thoughts on different aspects of writing.  She uses the zBench theme and has an additional navigation bar that lists her categories (what she calls genres in sidebar).  I believe she has the free wordpress.com hosting.  I am reviewing her website because her posts would make an author think.

zBench …. my review of theme

 themes, wp tips  8 Responses »
Feb 132012
 

zBench is a good starter theme for a new author to experiment and begin to understand wordpress and the various themes and features (layout, plugins, fixed or fluid width, columns, etc). This theme is a two column – which is what I wanted.  It has ample widgets but I had to upload a few, which is a somewhat easy process.  I don’t care for the comment plugin that came with the theme – too much spam gets thru.  I visited this page on 5 essential comments and chose GASP.  I go to dashboard – plugins – add new – search – gasp – install – and activate the plugin. I installed 4 other plugins:  enhanced text widget, fast secure contact form, image widget and sidebar login.  For my purpose, I don’t like the bold type in the text widget, would rather it be plain type.  If anyone knows how to change it in the css or php files, please comment and let me know what to edit.  Sidebar login replaced the default meta widget.  Many don’t know about the image wiget for photos in the sidebar with this theme.  This codex page will help if you are having trouble figuring out how to add categories like I did.  In this theme its in the posts dropdown menu.  I changed the default title tagline in the theme to WP themes (settings / general).  Otherwise people googling would see on your site “just another wordpress blog”.  I downloaded the background file from Subtle Patterns, hopfully bringing about a soft relaxing tone to site.  Same zBench theme, Cat Taylor delivers a different tone.

A few google plugins to consider would be google analytics (free traffic report) or an advanced wordpress plugin analyticator (wp directory), connects to your registered analytics account.  Another may be a sitemap generator to aid google indexing your blog – automatically generates code of new or updated post.  A third may be google webmaster tools.

Jason Cordova is an example of a feature rich zBench theme website.  He uses a 3 column layout, with a visitor stat count, calendar, twits and a few other plugins.