Building this website hasn’t been too difficult. A bit confusing to understand the layout and tools, but all new programs are. I’m thankful for the visual editor; if not for that, I would have most likely gone with Squarespace.
I used Namecheap to search and purchase the domain name. The purchasing process wasn’t too bad- I decided to pay for a single year and see how much use the site got before paying for more.
WordPress is something I’ve been looking at for a while. I had a Squarespace page before this but I wasn’t able to make it do what I wanted to cover the variety of topics, pages, and products that I want.
I wanted to do the site as cheaply as possible, and WordPress does offer a free tier, but that would mean the website would be ‘www.example.wordpress.com’ instead of ‘www.example.com’. I ended up paying $50 for the second tier for one year (it’s on a subscription model, of course) so that it would just be champipen.com. It strikes me as more professional and again, if it’s not used by the end of the year, I won’t renew it.
My priorities in making the website were as follows:
A- Have a place to sell my books, comics, and short stories.
B- A place where anybody following any of my socials can go to get more information on upcoming projects and sign up for a newsletter.
C- Presentation of a professional presence on the internet.
D- A place to leave notes and resources.
A- The selling of books, comics, and short stories.
I spent a long time deciding whether or not to try for traditional publishing vs independent. After a lot of thought and some frank discussions with myself on what was important, I figured that independently publishing would work better for me for several reasons. I’ve already posted tons of content on other websites; being required to do my own marketing while traditionally published would be annoying; I’d like to retain creative control of things like my covers and whether or not I want to do weird, experimental things with my books. My research has led me to the stance that not only is indie publishing viable, but it’s desirable comparatively, both fiscally and professionally. At this point in time in the current environment it seems the best move. And, should it all fall through, I can write another book and shop that around, pointing back at all my self published work. My only point against it is the lack of a vetted and professional editor/copyeditor.
B- Social media is complex, and it helps to have a hub. Patreon was that for me for a while and I plan to maintain it, but every single ‘how to’ I’ve ever seen for authors champions how important the newsletter is. Once I have a solid cycle of books being written, edited, and published, I can only assume it will help.
C- I’ve been to several conventions, signings, vendor pop-ups, and write ins with authors. Those who have websites and make things easy for their fans strike me as more professional than those who don’t. Being able to simply search someone’s name and have a proper website pop up adds legitimacy, shows they’re organized and serious about the process.
D- I have a terrible memory, and having a blog to leave notes and resources in appeals to me. If it helps others, it’s a bonus.
Reasons for making the website aside, here are links to conversations and resources I’ve been using to assist in my website-building process:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/guides/
To note, I am currently planning to use Payhip or Woocommerce to sell digital files (pdfs, etc) and somehow hook up ingramspark to sell direct to print. I will most likely have links to amazon, but would prefer people buy elsewhere.
As of the writing of this post, I consider myself about 50% finished with the website design/detailing.
Nolan Christensen 
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