You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig

500 email subscribers in the first year seems to be impossible – at least from my experience. For 500, I would need a big shoutout on X or from big-name authors. For organic growth, which is somewhat controllable, getting 50 subscribers in the first year might be a more realistic goal.

You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig

I’ve been using WordPress. It’s easy to set up and use. I’m not a fan of the text editor, though. It’s way too clunky and convoluted since they changed it a couple of years ago from the basic version they started with.

I still call it the most beginner-friendly CMS, though.

Just write in a word processor and then import your text into WordPress. You still have a few formatting issues to address, but it’s much less hassle than writing in WordPress directly.

You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig

I’ve been using Hostinger for my website from day 1. The price is fair, and the usability has been fine so far. I can’t complain about it.

Here is a direct link to check it out.

I thought about using a .de domain first and blogging in German, but the internet’s language is English. Since I’m already running my YouTube in English, buying a .com domain was the best option.

You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig

I decided early on to use my name. Grok agrees that this is the best idea. Call your website “Indie Publishing Secrets” or “Sci-Fi Master Stories” if you want, but your author name is what people search for once they stumble over your work.

Besides, using your author name as the domain name also lets you have a personal website rather than a corporate one. I would much rather read michaelbrig.com than indieauthorsecrets.com to see how the author and his work develop over time.

You can follow my Grok Diary in real time here: @michael_brig