The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a breakdown of 16 different personality types based on Carl Jung's theories. It's actually a test your supposed to take to determine your own personality type, but it is also something authors use to determine their character's personality types. This site had a nice breakdown of what the different types are:

     Area of study based on ‘Myers-Briggs’ personality type

I also liked looking through this chart:

     THE 49 PERSONALITY ARCHETYPES

It's the same kind of idea - to get you thinking about different personalities and really narrow down the differences between different characters.  If you can put them into different general categories, then you can start narrowing down the differences and developing more diverse and complex characters.

Every good character needs a flaw, and quirks make them interesting. Thinking about their quirks or flaws is like thinking about what makes them different from others.  Through Pinterest I found a really nice list of character flaws and it even has definitions for each:

     123 Ideas for Character Flaws

Reading through this list I got to thinking about what flaws sounded interesting, and what characters I could make fit with some of those flaws. 

Do your characters all look the same?  Cause they probably shouldn't.  Give them different hair colors, different styles and see what happens. 

Pinterest is also a great tool for thinking about character appearances.  My board, Character Inspiration, I have ideas for outfits, poses and faces. She's Novel has lots of different boards devoted to different types of character inspiration. 

Yay worksheets! There's lots of different worksheets out there to try to help you get to know your characters.  I've compiled a few myself, that's kind of a mishmash of all the different ones I've found (see below).

Here are some of the sources for my worksheets, and they have some good ones too:

     Blank Character Cheat Sheet
     What do you know about your characters?
     Gotham Character Questionnaire

She's Novel has loads of great worksheets for writers but here's one in particular on characters:
    33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters


And here are a few I have compiled after looking through all of those and more:

General Overview

Appearance

History

Personality - 2 Pages

Any one else have trouble creating unique protagonists?  Any tips to share?

Help the cause by donating here!

The first time I looked at the Blogger interface I had never seen a blog from the inside before. It seemed so confusing and difficult to navigate and I was so turned off by the experience that I went and got a WordPress account. However, what I found was that it was just the same and possibly even more confusing. The only thing I liked about WordPress was what seemed to be the immense customization that they offered. Something that, I thought, Blogger had nothing to compare to.

I think it was probably through WordPress that I figured out the inner workings of a blog and blog design, though I never actually used that account for anything. So, when I decided to give Blogger another try, it made much more sense and is actually pretty easy to navigate when you know what your looking for. 

1. Free. I'll be the first to admit that I am super cheap. So anytime I can find something at a low price - or free, even better - then I will at least try it and see if you get anything of value for it.
2. Convenient. Everything I use is google. Using Blogger puts everything in once place and it is quite nice to only have to sign into one account for everything.
3. Easy. Google really knows how to make a great user experience and make things easy for you to accomplish. If you don't know how to do something, they probably have a how-to page to walk you through it. Try a google search, and it's usually a google help page that pops up first.
4. Custom Templates. So I thought that one of the downsides to Blogger was the very limited template options that you had. Not true at all. The amount of templates that are available is just unbelievable. And lots of them look like they could rival those provided by WordPress.
5. Custom Domain Name. The fact that Blogger is free and they let you use a custom domain for free really is the best part. WordPress wanted to charge me $18 just to use my domain name that I already purchased. And purchasing a name through them was just way too much.

After spending several days attempting to customize one of the standard Blogger templates into something a bit more elegant (and less obviously Blogger), I discovered that there are loads more options available.

I purchased my domain name through Google Domains for $12. After lots of research I decided this was the best option. Check out my post on Web Hosting for more on this.

When you buy a domain through Google Domains there is the option right away to connect it to your Blogger account. I don't remember the exact specifics, but I remember it was a relatively easy walk through. I remember being amazed that it could be so simple.

The Trade-Offs

Useful links:

     THE EPIC GUIDE TO START A (LOVELY) BLOG ON THE CHEAP - Design Your Own Lovely Blog

 Anyone have thoughts on why WordPress is better than Blogger, or vice versa?

But you're not really a tech person, or you never really got what all the internet jargon meant. Even more than that, there are so many options out there, how do you know if you're getting ripped off?

There are two really important components to consider when starting a website and those are a domain name and a web host.

What is a domain name and what is a web host and do you need both? The answer is yes, but there are some relatively inexpensive ways to get there.

This is what most people think of when they think of building their own website. The domain name is your unique web address, it's what you type into the bar at the top of the web browser to take you to a web page.
But that's all it is - a name. You purchase the right to use this name, usually for a year at a time. Some places offer discounts if you purchase more than one year, so if you plan to be around for a while, it's probably the best way to go.

What about free?

You see lots of places advertise for free domains, $.99, $.01... But what they really mean is that it's free or discounted if you purchase a hosting package from them (more about that later). And even then, it's usually only free for the first year, and after that the rates go up to, in some cases, around $30 a year. Where they get you is on the renewal fees.

Privacy

Privacy means that your personal information will not be listed in the domain registry where everyone can find it.
You need to look if the site where you are purchasing your domain name from offers privacy for free or if it is an additional charge. Usually these sites where they offer free or discounted domains do not offer privacy and will charge $9.99 or more a year to keep your information private.

So you get a domain name, now what do you do with it? Having a domain is only having the name, you need a host to put your website out there where people can find it. 

Using a hosting service is like renting an apartment, or a storage unit. They are storing your website (domain name)  somewhere where others are able to view it. So, of course, to do this, they have to charge you a monthly fee.

The fee for a web host can start around $2 a month or go as high as $100 or more. Why such a dramatic difference in price? Services they offer, I guess. Depending on what you need them for, the added services can be a benefit, but if you're just starting out, most likely you don't need any of them so then the $2-$10 per month price range is pretty standard.

You can usually find a discounted rate if you sign up for a long period of time and pay it all upfront, so from the right host that takes you to just below the $2 per month mark.

What about free?

There are free web hosts around, but free is never free.  Most of them will offer you free hosting, but you get adds on your site, which can be really unprofessional and the whole reason your purchasing a domain name is to look more professional.

Buying Domain Name from a Web Host

Places like Weebly, WordPress and all those other big name sites will offer to host your custom domain, and they will even sell you a domain name, but they will usually charge quite a bit for it. They even sometimes have additional costs if you purchased you domain name somewhere else.




I did a lot of shopping around back in December and this is what I found to be the best deal:

eHost.com*

eHost looks a bit like a sketchy site, but I have been using it since December for TheShrineOfArthis.com and I love it.

I got a hosting package for under $2 a month when I paid for 3 years upfront.

They also offer a free domain name for life. This means that for as long as I host a site with them, I will never have to pay for a domain name, only for the hosting package.

However, they do charge an additional fee for privacy, which was $9.99. It said per year, but there was only one charge of that amount on my account. Maybe they will take out another next year, but still, I feel that is a great deal.

For $80 I have a domain name and a place to put it for 3 years.

eHost also has some great features, especially if you are not familiar with websites. They have lots of custom templates and a drag-and-drop interface, similar to what you would find with Weebly or those other sites. I will post a review of my experiences soon.

*Marks affiliate Link

The Free Hosting Option

For free hosting, I am using Blogger.

Blogger offers to redirect its blogspot site to your custom domain. They even offer detailed walkthroughs to help you out:

     Change to a custom domain
     How do I use a custom domain name for my blog?

The only downside is that you are a bit limited in customization. You have to use Blogger's interface and it really treats your site as a blog. I am finding though, the more that I use it, that Blogger has a lot more options for customizing than I thought, but you have to know a little bit about html and css to make it happen. Check this post for my thoughts on Blogger.

UPDATE: I just discovered that there are lots of free templates that can be added into Blogger so you are not limited to the 5 styles they offer.  And some of the templates are comparable to the WordPress designs, and maybe even more customizable  if you know a little css. I got mine from Gooyaabi Templates.


There are other "free" hosting options as well, but they all seem rather sketchy and don't really deliver on what they promise.

Freevar. I tried freevar.com, and even though that looks like the sketchiest one out there, I was happy with it up until I tried to install WordPress, and I started getting all kinds of popup ads on my site. I blamed myself because I did do a little modifying of some files, changing permissions and such that would have just been asking to be hacked, but then I deleted that site and started over with everything. And again, as soon as I added WordPress, the popups were back. So maybe you'd be ok with it if you dont want Wordpress...?

Freevar is also not very user-friendly. I tried it because I wanted complete control over my site, right down to making my own html pages, and with freevar you really have that option. It's kind of the only option, actually, though they do say that they are working on a drag-and-drop website builder. So from a developer standpoint, it was a really exciting free option. But...disappointing.



Any better options that I missed? What budget-friendly options have you tried?

"Social Media really kicked the crap out of 'Don't Talk To Strangers'" -@RealFPJr

Remember that these are not just numbers on your account, but these are people and your ultimate goal is that you want to build a relationship with them.

Some Don'ts

A few things that I've noticed that really bugged me:

1. Automated messages thanking me for following. Sometimes it's a plug for their product, sometimes it's just a link to check out their blog, but when they end with a "via @crowdfire" or something similar it has just taken what could have been a personal message and made it impersonal. I get that not everyone will have time to personally thank all the people who follow them, but in my opinion, if you can't make it look like a personalized message then just don't.
2. Thank you for following tweet containing multiple @'s. Ex. Some one tweets "Thank you for the follow @--- @--- @--- @kt_gustafson @---- @----" Not only does my name get lost in there, but it is so impersonal.  Even tweeting to an individual and then looking back on their timeline and seeing that their last 10 tweets were the same thing just to a different person is still impersonal.
3. Message plug for products. After following someone I got a lot of private messages saying "Go check out my blog!" and "Go buy my book!" and a link. You should have the link that you want people to check out listed on your profile. If I want to visit your site, I will click on that. There is no need to send it to me personally, and it is likely an automated message anyway.  I have already followed you, which means I am already interested in you or your product, so I don't need to be bashed over the head with it.

 Some Things That Were Really Awesome

1. This guy is awesome. Go follow him, send him some #rtok because he does for everybody else and I'm sure he could use some: @TRUE_BOHEMIA  Sending perpetual Random Tweets of Kindness = #rtok
   
2. Here is something that I thought did really well at addressing the issues I listed above. It's personal and it really gets to the whole point of why I'm trying to do this in the first place which is to try to build relationships with other writers and people that would be interested in reading my work.
   

This is just my "getting started" point. Once you get a base group of followers, you should be able to keep getting followers without doing so much work. Having quality content, not just promoting yourself, and interacting with other people should keep it rolling.

Anyone else have any tips? I'd love to hear what worked for you.


Other Related Links:
4 Ways to Grow a Twitter Following That Matters
How I Went From Zero to 380,000 Twitter Followers Without Spending a Dime
9 Ways to Streamline Your Social Media Profile
5 Things For Authors To Tweet About (That Aren’t “Buy My Book!”)
The Days of the Week According to Twitter