If you’re not sure exactly what you want to achieve with your website, start with a free one. There is nothing wrong with a free website. Using providers like WordPress.com, you can create professional sites with little effort, without it costing you the earth.

Free websites from providers like WordPress.com, Weebly, and Wix all have a few things in common.

All of them have no contracts or fees when starting out. They will allow you to choose a domain name, but they will give you a subdomain URL in the form of chosenname.provider.com This is not a bad thing, because at least you are building your brand recognition with your chosen name.

They often use user-friendly page builder tools, though some are more user-friendly than others. And there are often a number of themes that you can choose from for your websites. No technical skills are required to get your website up and going—you just need the content.

However, the free options also possess similar cons too.

The options and resources available for your websites will be limited. For example, Wix and Weebly don’t allow you to embed signup forms on your website to external providers. On WordPress.com, you might not be able to have an embedded form, but you can use a popup signup form to common email list providers.

The free sites also tend to offer limited technical support, and they might require you to pay for add-ons or upgrades to become fully usable sites. They will restrict how much customization you have access to, limiting how much of your branding you can incorporate into your site.

And the biggest con: the cost of a free website is the advertising that providers put on your website. Sometimes, you can influence what ads are shown, but more often than not, you can’t.

I know I’m sounding a little negative about free sites here, but seriously, they are a good option for newer and emerging writers. I started out on a free website from WordPress.com with a custom domain mapped onto it. If it wasn’t for business decisions that I made years ago, I would likely still be using that free website, nearly a decade after it was first created.

There are so many things that a writer needs to think about as they navigate the publishing industry, and the internet has added a whole other layer of complexity to the equation. There’s social media and the headaches about building a fan base there. There’s the email list and the management of a newsletter.

But if there is only one thing that you do on the internet for your online platform, create a website.

All writers seeking publication, traditionally or self-published, NEED a website. No exception. Your website is your online home. It’s the place where readers will go to get the latest information about your various projects, both old and new. You will likely have a list of all your published books, links to where they can be purchased, and links to interviews and other goodies. Yes, your social media will likely have information about the latest happenings too; however, any older material is quickly buried.

Seriously, folks, the moment you decide that you ultimately want to be published, start thinking about that website. And you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg on fancy website designs either. No need to stress yourself about learning HTML or CSS. Just focus on the page content and get it out there.

In today’s post, we’re going to explore the bare-minimum website for writers.