This post is to request the following:
help

Right now I have no name on the internet, and as I look around I seem to be getting the message that it is fairly critical to success as an author (a career into which I am looking) without at least running a blog. Trouble is, I have no idea where to start, or really any of the in's and out's of the business. This thread is for recommendations from those with experience to those of us newbies at this sort of Heralds' Hall business.
help anybody?

The first thing I would do is determine what you want to be called, and if you want that to be the name of your website (recommended). You said in the pen name thread that you want to go by your real name. I recommend http://www.godaddy.com for purchasing your domain name, and going with the .com because that is the standard, and if you have it on another format like .net or .org, then people might forget when they are searching for you that it isn't .com. I would wait to search availability of the domain you want until you are ready to purchase it. Go (HERE) to check out coupons for GoDaddy.

Be thinking about what you want to put on your website as well.

Once you get that bought, then you can look for a hosting service. I've heard great things about http://www.hostgator.com. An author I like has a hosting service (HERE) and can help you figure out what package works for you. It will probably cost only $5/month.

You can use Wordpress or Blogger to build your site, and use one of thousands of free themes. Just search for free Wordpress theme and you'll find a ton.

After that I'd get a Twitter account that you set up to post a notification every time you post on your website.

Set your website up, or choose a theme that has an rss subscription button, and/or subscribe by email. Feedburner is a cool place to organize your subscriptions and they offer a code to put on your website so you can put a subscribe by email button.

There's a start. We've got lots of people here who could probably explain the ins and outs of my advice, and of course their own.

If you just want a blog, then I would recommend Blogger, since it's easy and good for newbies. If you go through Blogger, I also highly recommend getting your domain through them, since that just makes it all the easier to tie in with Blogger

That's my two bits.

eru

I'll also throw in the idea of Weebly. It's basically a drag and drop website builder that is very easy to use. There are quite a few templates, and you can do some more advanced editing with the HTML/CSS editor. I've used Weebly for all three of my sites. I'd love to have a really cool, professionally designed website, but I just don't have the time to learn all the HTML or the money to hire anyone. So Weebly is perfect for me because it's simple and quick. Also, the best part, it's completely free for basic hosting, and there are no ads. I might do something different someday, but for now I'm glad not to have any monthly fees. It's also fun to just play around with and get an idea of what you might want to do. And it does have a built in blog.

To get going, I recommend www.freewebs.com as a web site builder. Then, later, you can purchase your domain or whatnot, and retire your FreeWebs as a type of info about you or something similar. Be careful with putting your work online, as it CAN be copy/pasted/sold as someone else's work.

I agree with Huey. You might want to start out with just a blog hosted on Blogger or WordPress. It's simple and easy to start out on. When you start needing more from your site, you can look into investing in a domain name, web hosting, and what have you. (I like Blogger personally because it is very user-friendly.)

Twitter is a great way to get your name out there, but I'd offer a word of caution. If all you're going to do is tweet when you put up a new blog post, you probably won't get a lot of followers from Twitter. Twitter is a social networking site just like Facebook and Buzz, and success thereon requires a commitment to knowing the rules of the community and interacting with fellow Twitterers. If all you're going to do on Twitter is talk about yourself, well... once you're famous people will follow you anyway, but until then, you might get marked as spammy.

Of course, your mileage may vary, but as an avid Twitterer that uses Twitter for both promotion and socializing, that is my well-meaning caution. If you're willing to put effort into Twitter, go for it.

One thing I'd like to add is that both Twitter and blogging are a great way to boost your ranking in search engines, because the content is fresh. If you search for my pen name "Aubrey Hansen," many of the hits are me - and they're often things like recent blog posts, recent tweets, and recent comments on other blogs. I don't know much about SEO, but from casual observation, tweeting and blogging have definitely put my pen name out there.

What kind of content do you want to have on your site? Do you want to blog about writing? Post excerpts? Keep the populace updated on the progress of your books? The type of content you want to feature will determine what kind of sites and social networking devices you employ.