Blog creation service designed for writers

Anyone who has been following this blog knows how much I enjoy it but also how important it is these days for an author to have a web presence… whether traditionally-published, self-published or neither.

So, I have created http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com.

I recommend WordPress and for £50 (US$75 / AS$75) I can create your blog (providing the http://____.wordpress.com name is available) for you to then do with as you wish. Alternatively, for a reasonable fee, I can maintain it with the content of your choosing using your photographs (or photographs you have permission to use) to promote your writing, books and other writing-related products. This is ideal for anyone uncomfortable with technology but most importantly frees up your time to do what you really love… to write.

For the initial £50 / $75 fee your blog can have your starter (front) ‘home’ introduction page with an introduction posting, up to four menus (e.g. home, about the author, books, contact). You can have more but there would be an additional charge.

Contact information on the blog would be yours (i.e. pointing to your email) but if you choose that I maintain the blog, all comments would come to me and I would forward them to you free of charge. Unless you take over the blog once it is live, updates that you wish made to it will be charged at an hourly rate of £10 / $15, agreed in advance and paid once they are implemented. No payments are due until your agreed initial blog design is live and you’re happy with it.

So, what you get for your £50 (US $75 / AS $75) is thus…

• A dedicated WordPress blog domain (e.g. http://frankjsmith.wordpress.com) provided it is available (you can tell by typing it in your internet browser, as you would any other website address, and seeing what WordPress tells you or I can check this for you).
• A theme of your choice (examples shown on the Design page).
• Four pages (e.g. home, author, books, contact) to include your chosen content e.g. text you send me or text used from existing pages that you’ve provided me, for example your Amazon author page etc.
• Anything or everything you see here on the right-hand side bar.
• An introduction or summary posting which will appear at the top of your home page and listed in as many categories as you wish (e.g. writing, horror, crime, western, blogging etc) and keywords (e.g. writing, horror, crime, western, blogging, Frank Smith, Frank J Smith etc).
• Advice of any comments that are left on the blog, simply emailed to you for you to reply directly on to the blog or via email. I do not reply to comments on your blog as it is your site and I’m just a ghost in the background of it. 🙂
• Twice-daily announcements of your new blog on my Twitter feed (currently 2,450+ followers) for the first week and intermittent promotion thereafter.

My WordPress Writing Blog has been compiled using free options and your blog would be based on this format (though its design will be to your specification), this ensures costs are kept to a minimum. You are therefore only paying for my time. My blog regularly attracts over 200 visitors per day (on a ratio of US2:UK1 plus many other countries worldwide) with 474 visits on the busiest day to-date (24th March 2012). I post 2-3 times per day with a variety of content and many visits are due to keyword searches because of that high level of content, over 50,000 visits since inception on 31st March 2011.

I have been a writer for seven years and like this writing blog, am consumed by creative writing. This blog creation service is therefore aimed at, but not limited, fellow writers so if you, or someone you know, would like a blog setting up for them do let me know.

I also welcome manuscripts for critiquing / editing, and being based in the East Midlands area of the UK, am available as a speaker, workshop organiser etc.

My email is morgen@morgenbailey.com and I look forward to hearing from you about any service I may be able to provide you with and / or I’m happy to talk about anything writing-related.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with Anishinaabe culture and fantasy YA author V R Janis – the three hundred and fifty-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) 🙂 on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.