Some would say author websites are no longer a necessity but I couldn’t disagree more. Having a single central repository where readers can come to learn everything about an author’s past, present, and future is highly beneficial…especially for self-published authors. If you plan to make anything resembling a career as a self-published author I highly recommend you get one for yourself, pronto.
I’ve been meaning to get around to updating my author website for years. It's bothered me for years. The visual theme was too dark, the content was too wordy and dated, and it just didn’t reflect the person I am now.
I rarely delve into the murky depths of my website’s configurator but I did yesterday. I was clicking around trying out different visual themes. My goal was something visually lighter, less stuffy, something that more accurately reflects who I really am. I mean, I don’t just write books anymore..I take photographs, travel, blog, have a fledgling YouTube channel.
In the course of my clicking I accidentally made the new theme “live”. Now, this used to be no problem. My web host used to let you switch back and forth between live themes and it would automatically pull in your current website content.
I found out yesterday that’s no longer the case and immediately broke out into cold sweats. Long story short, I completely bricked my website.
As the title says, sometimes change is forced upon us. Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be tasked with rebuilding my author website.
After I stopped cursing like a madman and my cold sweats subsided I came to the realization that this was actually a good thing. I now have all kinds of ideas about how I want to rebuild it that might have never surfaced before. I plan on integrating my photography (I’ve been dabbling in this) and blogging directly into the website…if I can figure out how to pull in my Hive content. I may even have a merch page with t-shirts and other things emblazoned with poetry, art, and quotes.
It’s crazy how one simple mistake can eventually bring about so much excitement and anticipation of what could me. This feels like the beginning of a new era of my career. I’m beginning to feel “unstuck” and this is exactly what I hoped 2024 would be.
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Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
Pick up a copy of Ephemera today on Amazon.
Most of us have experienced a moment of perfect peace at least once in our lives. In these moments we lose ourselves and feel connected to everything. I call these mindful moments. Words can’t describe how complete they make us feel.
These moments are usually fragile, evaporating in seconds. What if there was a way to train your mind to experience more of them? It’s deceptively easy and requires nothing more than a subtle shift in mindset. My new book, Mindful Moments, will teach you to be much more content despite the chaos and imperfect circumstances continuing to unfold around you. Upgrade your life experience today for only $15.99 on Amazon.com.
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And sometimes the forced change can be good too. The local circumstances and the rules forced me to move in the spring of 2023. First I flew to Tenerife, then back to Hungary, then to Barcelona, then again back to Hungary, and then again to Tenerife. My life is now on track.
Currently I live in a cave/tent living community in the rocky semi-desert on South Tenerife, where even the winter is pleasant. I can even save money. And I already have money for the falcon.
Now I only have to wait. The falcon chicks will born probably in April or in May, so I have to wait a few months, and then I will have a bird (and true love and true happiness) again.
Have a nice day. All the best. Greetings and much love from Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
I'm glad you're back on track. It really seems like you're enjoying your life there. I think when we find our true "home" we know it. Best of luck to you this year and I wish you a wonderful weekend!
Thank you. I also wish you the best of luck and many successes in the new year. Have a nice day and have a nice weekend. All the best. Greetings and much love from Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
This is a great example of how disruption, especially unplanned disruption, can generate opportunity. Never despair when things go wrong, allow new ideas and paths into your head.
Although that really should not happen. Good thing you are unstuck. I love your unstuckness, it's one of your superpowers.
The recovery time from despair to enthusiasm is getting quicker, I must say. That old website was who I used to be when I was making my first serious attempts at breaking free from my job (2010-2014). I feel like I've been reborn now, or am in the midst of being reborn anyway. Hoping your '24 is working out well so far!
Reborn, yes. I feel the same. I hope so many of us feel reborn that the others have no choice but to be reborn too. So much of what enslaves us would be dismantled, those old websites of our imaginations dissolved, and brand new ones made.
the first step?
deactivate the website
of your imagined self
2024: so far, so good! I'm happy, healthy and free.
I definitely ended up with a blank slate this time! Love the haiku and it sounds like your 2024 is off to a wonderful start!
We cannot do without change even if we don't like it. I love how you choose to rebuild your website, if not for anything but for the fact that the world is evolving, which means change.
Change is the only constant, that's for sure.
Hopefully all mistakes will give us the opportunity to do things better!!! I feel you enthusiastic and full of ideas. That's a good thing. There is a saying here: every cloud has a silver lining. Sometimes we have to stop holding on to the old, to make way for the new. May this 2024 be a year of positive transformations. I know how hard it is to change, even a profile picture, for fear of not being recognized, imagine replantering your entire website.
I remember a Venezuelan author to whom I became addicted when I was a university student. Her picture, always the same, was on the back cover of her books. Once, I was in a shopping mall and I saw an old woman very similar to her, but I didn't approach her because I inferred that it couldn't be her. In the end it was, only she is an author who always puts an image of when she was young. hahaha. I imagine it's a matter of marketing and publicity. Have a great weekend. Hugs to you
That's so true, Nancy! I've heard 2024 referred to several times as the beginning of the "age of truth". Oh, how I hope that's factual. I feel like it is.
I don't have any qualms with aging. I've totally accepted it, but I can understand how some people have a hard time with it though. I wouldn't want to go back to my younger self. I feel like that younger version of me experienced/enjoyed much less than I do now. If we age with awareness life really does become better. I wish you a wonderful weekend and year ahead!
Outstanding! Changing and evolving is human nature and it sounds like you are doing it in spades! Bring on 2024 and the new website! A freshening wind has filled your sails and it's coming through in your writing aready lol!
Thank you Tamara! I'm ready, I feel like I've been in a cacoon for a while. It's time to bust out!
What you say is very true, many times a mistake can trigger many things, even being able to do something better from the mistake. I have no doubt that you will make an excellent personalized page.
I take this opportunity to wish you a great weekend.How are you dear friend @ericvancewalton good afternoon
All is good my friend, I hope you are too! Thank you and I wish you a wonderful weekend.
This happens and it's actually a good thing, as it forces one to look for new pathways and go down a different rabbit hole. I just clicked over to your website and noticed you're using Squarespace (not Wordpress - changing themes in WP is super easy). If you can rebuild your site and pimp your copywriting within the next days it won't hurt your ranking / index on Google too much. The fact that you weren't content with the previous web layout, theme, color palette etc. is normal, as it represented your old self. As you evolve and change, your perspective changes. It looks like 2024 is going to be a very powerful year 😊
After 24hrs have passed I'm actually grateful to be starting with a blank slate because I think I would've kept too much of the old site during the update when I finally got around to doing it. That's great to know about the Google index. I'm very ignorant about SEO. Thank you! I'm hoping for a powerful year.
Our everyday life is full of experiencing changes so it is an advantage to gain something without showcasing doubt.
I agree with the statement but it is also true that not all changes are good for us nor all changes are bad for us. It is totally unknown unless the subject is known and revised. There have been several situations in my life when I felt secure due to the force and when I felt devastated.
I think it's very good if you have your own website. Hopefully this year you will be more successful, Eric. God bless you.
Thanks Eliana! I wish you success as well in the coming year. Bless you my friend!
I know all about that. I mentioned my website to you in a previous reply. I started my site in 1996 at university and have kept it all this time. After joining steemit 6 years ago, I stopped updating it so often but kept. Now recently I decided I really should make the effort to keep it more up to date, so I've been expanding on Hive posts there and I've also updated some of my personal info on the website about page. Because I agree with you, it is a very useful thing to have.
But updating it is much harder.... I haven't touched the code for years so I kind of forget how to do that. My website theme is a child theme of a standard Wordpress theme. Last week I saw that that basic Wordpress theme had a new version so I updated it without thinking. Whoops. Seems like my child theme did something that doesn't agree with the new version, so it broke everything. Luckily I was able to figure out how to revert the changes in the Wordpress database, but that was a little stressful. Now I have to figure out how to update my child theme. Something to do later...
Oh no, I'm so sorry you broke the website! Although, it's incredible that you kept it all those years. I hope you end up with something even better than what you had before.
Thankfully, Squarespace doesn't require coding but it's still pretty difficult to maneuver some of the UI just is the antithesis of intuitive. I'm just taking my time and am trying not to get too disappointed if I can't get a lot done in one sitting. I wish you luck in getting that done!
Because everything is changed in life ;)
Absolutely! When we don't change or resist it we feel stagnant or stuck.
Urgh can't be a fun task, but hey, maybe you'll discover some unexpected cool things along the way! :)
I'm trying to see how low I can set my expectations, in terms of how quickly this will get accomplished. Lol. I just spent like two hours on it and barely got one page built. I might eventually defer the job to Fiverr. I sometimes fool myself into thinking I can do it all.
I'm sure you can. The real question is, how much of your time and energy is each task worth? :)
Exactly, that's a very important thing to evaluate. I'd rather be writing, honestly.
You know what they say, every kick in the ass is a step forward. Sounds like a lot of work, but I'm sure it will be for the best. I love your attitude. Many would complain no end about the bloody disaster with their website. You immediately went into Can do/Will do mode. I think it's a good way to start the new year.
Lol. I love that quote and have never heard it before! I think getting up quickly after I'm knocked down is deeply engrained in my DNA and then being a writer just further enhanced it. I'm sure you can relate!
I think they call that serendipity right? I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I bought a domain myself a while ago and I put a redirect in it to send people right to my PeakD blog page. I haven't bothered tracking it to see if I have gotten any traffic.
They absolutely do. Sometimes it feels like a slap in the face at first. Lol. That's smart of you. I'm trying to figure out a way to feed my new Hive blogs automatically/directly into my website. At first glance there isn't a good way to do it. You can use the RSS feed function with some other blogging sites like Wordpress but I'm stumped as to how to make that work with Hive.
I feel like there was a Wordpress addition that someone built that allows you to do what you are looking at. I never played around with it myself. You might be able to find someone who knows what we are talking about in one of the Discord servers. Let me see what I can find out and I will reach out to you in messenger if I find something.
Thanks @bozz, I appreciate it. There's no rush because I'll be taking my time on this over the next couple of weeks.
It sounds like the service I was thinking about has been shuttered. They didn't get the users they hoped for and the developer might have just taken the money and bailed.
No worries at all. I appreciate you checking on it!
I'm glad that the involuntary rupture of your author's website is the break you were waiting for to reinvent yourself and start a new stage in your life. Because that is what you are telling us here. I wish you the best of success, and we will be watching your progress, well, at least I will. I can't speak for others.
Greetings.
Wishing you all the best with setting a brand new site, taking it to the next level a tedious task you will enjoy once completed to the more modern you!
Change is happening constantly, old ideas have all been swept aside with new in technology.
Thank you, Joan! Change is happening at a lightening pace now and will only get faster in the coming years. How's the new year treating you so far?
First week younger son moved, quiet celebrations within the home over the festive season, waiting for older son and whatever pans out. Will contemplate next move in selling off the big home. Markets here are in turmoil, no hurry just preparation. Have a wonderful day.
Life and rules changes so quick :)
We keep evolving and we keep changing every blessed day as that is the nature of human. As long as we keep living, we keep changing weather negatively or positively
It is a fact that human age is also passing very quickly and we have to face many things in our life which have changed and such experience has changed us a lot in our life. It has happened and we will see that within the time to come all things that are will appear to change in the same way. Time is the solution to all things and with time we have seen many things come true.
and yes we can't do anything about it, to be wearing the mask in the corona was the perfect example of this. but yes, i do accept, that change was good for us.
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