Monday 27 July 2009

CateGardner.com

Following in the footsteps of Aaron Polson, KV Taylor and so many others who have far better web skills than me, I've finally got around to picking up a (dot)com address. Behold a screen shot of the http://www.categardner.com/ website. The front page has a little too much white space but I don't think it's too bad for an amateur.

My reasons 1: Jamie knows the answer to my first and main reason :/), and 2: as it's not as cluttered as my blog, I thought it might be a more appropriate signature to lure agents too than the manic-mayhem of 'The Poisoned Apple'.

Any hints or tip to make it fabulous are welcome.

24 comments:

Anthony Rapino said...

It's looking good, Cate. I'd love to put up a web site, but I'm afraid I don't have enough published works to make it worthwhile.

Couple quick things: Check the "trailers" page. On my browser the second video is covering the text you have written there.

And you could probably add a longer author's bio on a separate page.

Looks great!

Cate Gardner said...

Thank you. I noticed on my computer at work that the trailers page only just fit (I have a wide screen at home) so I'll have a look at that.

Author's bios scare me. Or should I say, my authors bio scares me.

Katey said...

It is looking good, and as you go you'll come up with a million and one things you want to add to it. (How do I know? Gee golly!)

I wish I could help, but I really cheated and got my friend Becca to do mine for me, as you probably know. She's awesome, and I just plug in things to change the sidebar stuff since she did it in wordpress. What'd you use to construct it?

Cate Gardner said...

I used google (which is powered by godaddy.com). I considered using wordpress but I'd heard you need a lot of html knowledge to make it look good and I only know the basics.

Alan W. Davidson said...

Looks great! Very professional looking (in my humble opinion).

Katey said...

Yeah I think if you want to change your template a lot you need to know css stuff. But if you want the template mostly as it is, no big deal. Since the last wp release it's been a lot easier to deal with for me, that's for sure.

Google does good work! There's something satisfying about playing with those site builders/html and coming up with what you really wanted.

Mary Rajotte said...

There are lots of free templates for Wordpress that you can just install and go with. Check out http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ to begin with...

And if you want a custom one, I'd be happy to work with ya pro bono! I'm no guru but I do all my own websites (yes, I have more than 1).

Cate Gardner said...

I am in awe of your website Mary.

Bobbie Metevier said...

I like it!

It says: WRITER.

It's doesn't say horror writer or spec fic writer . . . it just says writer which is a good thing when trying to lure potential agents or seek writer-for-hire gigs. It looks professional.

Cate Gardner said...

Thanks, Bobbie.

Fox Lee said...

It's off-white space, which is very soothing.

Either that or my computer isn't showing colors right *lol*

Cate Gardner said...

True, it looks a little bit egg-shell.

Aaron Polson said...

Hooray for dot-commage! I like it. I'm sort of old-school (and thinking about going the way of WordPress to make my site a little more dynamic); I use an older version of Dreamweaver, and most of my stuff is static content. I just steal ideas from other people's sites. ;)

Cate Gardner said...

Ditto - yours included.

Barry Napier said...

i'm a-scared to even consider making my own website. If I ever do, it will be via a Wordpress theme and cheap hosting like HostGator.

K.C. Shaw said...

That looks great! Very impressive! It makes me want to go revamp my site, which is flat out boring in comparison.

Tuonela said...

Yep, looks good. Gonna have a games page?

First the dot-com, then the Pty Ltd. Incorporation can't be far away...

Anonymous said...

It looks great! Congrats on taking the leap! I'm looking at it, but I'm a little too daunted. I can hardly handle putting my blog together!

-Mercedes

BT said...

I quite like what you've got so far - nice, understated, professional.

I don't know if it can be done with the tools you're using, but you may want to see if you can get your blog/LiveJournal/Twitter links to open in separate windows.

Danielle Birch said...

I think it looks good so far, and I'm sure you'll enjoy updating and playing around with it. I think about getting a website.

Carrie Harris said...

You just became even more awesome. Now, I am jealous. Must resist urge to jump on website bandwagon.

Cate Gardner said...

Don't get a website, I can't stop playing with it and I'm getting nothing done. Arghh!!!! :D

jonathan pinnock said...

Looks pretty good to me!

Erik said...

cool stuff. yea on the domain!