I started Isaac Hunter the Writer back in 2012.
I’ve had only one theme and one look for the website since then, and while it was a much needed update from the free site I had before that, it has grown old and stale in the proceeding years. In addition, there are some major developments happening for the Isaac Hunter brand, particularly I have begun work on printing all of my books in paperback and hardcover, as well as wanting to do several other expansions. I will also be releasing several new books in the next few years, so, I thought it was necessary to put a fresh face on the website from the start.
And this has been done. So, jump in with me as I describe what has been done, and what we are planning to do in the future. As a reminder, you can find all of my course assignments for my uThM program here.
Let’s get started….
The Website
Let me break the update and expansion down into major sections as I go through each one. The first one was the much needed facelift on the website itself. This was a daunting task at first. A little scary, if honest. When I first jumped in, I quickly realized it had been several years since I did any major html or css coding and I was very rusty. I even spent a little time exploring the option of having someone build out the website for me instead of me trying to do it.
But, at the other end of that, the conclusion was it would cost between $5000 and $20,000 to build a site with a storefront, a classroom for online classes, a community area for a membership group, and other back-end marketing capabilities. That was sufficient motivation for me to explore my own DIY capabilities again just to make sure it wasn’t something I could do for myself.
I did discover that my hosting company has multi-daily backups and rollbacks. Any time I made a mistake, I was able to just roll back to the day before and start over again. Add to that, I was able to clone my existing site with all my existing content into a staging site so I could work on it and not have it be live. These two capabilities were incredibly stress-reducing for me during the process.
The first major change I made on the website was switching to a more updated theme. I finally settled on JENN, by Automatic (the people who make WordPress). It was much more modern, had a sectional look on the homepage, a simplistic architecture underneath, and I could, at least for the most part, understand it and could make it do what I wanted.
The one major failure I sustained in choosing this theme is that it is not responsive or mobile friendly (though it does say that it is). On mobile, the site looks less than optimal in some respects but fine in others. It is still a work in progress.
Other than this, surprisingly, the transition to the new theme went quite well. I was able to get some updated mockups for the three books we have in print and I am currently working on editing other titles for 2nd and 3rd editions when I will be updating covers for them at that time. Hopefully soon (aiming at the end of 2026) we will have updated covers and all of my existing titles in print.
One thing I did recognize a little ways into the revamping is, while I was rusty on my html and css, technology and web design has become quite easy in the 13 years since IsaacHuntertheWriter.com was first launched. I use WordPress.com as my website host and, I have to say, they are by far the best hosting service I’ve used to-date. I upgraded to the Commerce plan, which is $45/month, but I got a discount purchasing three years in advance. While I recognize this company gets its fair share of flak for not allowing plugins or custom code in its lower plans, I have found their customer service and technical support to be a dream come true. Over the years I’ve had several major issues when working on the website, and their “Happiness Engineers” are beyond helpful. I also recognize that they are more expensive than other website hosts, but I wanted less stress in maintaining the site so I could devote more time to writing.
It worked.
As I went through the site transformation on the staging site, most everything was cookie-cutter easy to change. Buttons are easy to add. Pages, adjustments, images, videos – everything is a click this, tap that, and it just does what you want it to do.
Now, this is not to say there were no issues. It did take some time getting the homepage the way I wanted it. But, then I was able to move quickly through making just a few adjustments on templates so it would accommodate the existing formatting of the blog posts and pages. I have over 600 posts currently. I do not want to have to go through and manually change each one. But, at the end of the day, that is what I will have to do. While I did get most of it to work together and play nice, a few items require going into each post, converting to blocks, and changing attributes on the top image. This I intend to farm out to my 11 year old son. He loves working on websites and it is a great learning experience and skill to develop, and he loves it because he can poke around my website while he’s supposed to be doing schoolwork.
Win win, right?
I did have a little trouble making the header work right. But, again, customer service was right there to help. They just went onto the site and did what was needed for me, then they made a video of them going through the steps and sent that to me so I could learn how. It was great.
I thought about adding a carousel on the home page, but decided not to. For the moment, the main splash image is sufficient. I might add this in the future but it will depend on the complexity of it.
I enlisted the help of a FIVERR contractor to make the updated book mockups. For $5 (actually $8), I was able to get 20 images that were very nice and worked well on the site. I then tried to enlist another individual to do the logo and two images for the classroom cards. Big mistake! She was not clear on the price, and tried to renegotiate after I paid. Instead of the $5 she wanted between $50-$80. I told her to just keep the $5 and I would go somewhere else. But, she insisted that she needed to do something since I had already paid and provided me three logos for the site. While they were well done, I did not ultimately use any of them. Instead, I used a logo maker online. While the image we finally went with is just a place-holder for now, I thought it turned out nice. There were a few to choose from and I was surprised that my wife like this one the best.
The blog formatting was the biggest hurdle when it came to transitioning from my current theme to JENN. In the older theme, the blog post archive page pulled the content itself from the post to display on cards, with the title, the first image, and the text to the <MORE> tag, which sets the “More” excerpt function. The new theme did not function like this, but instead pulled the featured image, then the title, then the text but no images for the excerpt. This looked terrible and I had no featured image set for any of the 600+ posts. I did not want to go in and add images to every post, so I went back to the “Happiness Engineers” and I discussed the issue with one of them. They did not have an immediate solution, but said they would research it and get back to me. It took a few days, and he emailed me back, providing a few options. I went with changing the homepage template so it did not show as an excerpt but as a full post, since I already had the <MORE> tag in every one. This worked wonderfully, and now it is seamless.
The process was surprisingly headache free. There were no major dead ends I went down, save for at the very beginning, and I ended up with a nice looking website.
The Isaac Hunter Storefront
I was a bit intimidated by the idea of setting up a storefront. I was admittedly out of my depth never having done a shop before. But, this was one of the reasons I opted for the Commerce plan at WordPress.com, in hopes that it would be done for me. And, surprisingly, it was. It just worked out of box. When I installed the new theme, the storefront was just there, with the admin icon and cart icon at the top right. I was able to go in and add products, and find the actual store page, link it in the menu, and it works quite well and has a great many features that I like. I will need to enlist FIVERR again and get some uniform book and product images so it all looks uniform across the board. Other than that, it was well worth the money for the no-headache rollout.
As soon as I activate the gateway, the storefront will go live. I will also need to make some arrangements to get some inventory (which my wife and I have been already discussing). It will be nice to have the ability to sell directly to customers and cut out the middle man (Amazon, etc). While I do love Amazon, they do take a big chunk. The storefront will also be able to sell my upcoming courses, which I am very excited about.
Isaac Hunter Courses
Courses by Isaac Hunter has been a dream that I never thought would come to fruition. I’ve always been an avid self-learner, but my stint in academia, even short-lived as it was, taught me that I really do not have what it takes to teach in that space. But, like the philosophers of ancient times, I longed to go out into the public square and teach the masses, gather together a group of loyal disciples and patrons who are willing to pay for my needs so that they might learn. This has been adapted to our modern online world these days, and I am excited about the prospect of being able to teach what I’ve learned to others and without the extra layer of gatekeeping or censorship that academia insists upon.
So, my novels deal with a lot of dark stuff. You know this if you have read anything I’ve written. I work with death, theology, the problem of evil, and some quantum physics problems as well like alternative universes, reality, perception, etc. To write realistic characters and stories, I’ve had to do a lot of research over the years, and online classes are a great way to share what I know with people who are genuinely interested. That being said, I plan to roll out in the future courses on the above topics, with all classes centering around topics covered in the novels. It is my hope that there will be workbooks as well to go along with the courses. Each will be sold individually, but there will be courses in rotation in the Isaac Hunter Community, so individuals who are subscribed will get free access each quarter to new classes they can take. All courses will offer direct interaction with me and others in the class, but the content will remain asynchronous, save for the weekly discussion class on video chat.
It has come together nicely. After a little searching and a deep-dive into LMS’s (Learning Management Systems), I settled on Sensei Pro, which is an LMS made by, again, Automatic. I admittedly had a little trouble in the very beginning, but the tech support was able to provide solutions, even though they say they do not technically provide support for the plugin. The classes integrate well with the community space and work well in woocommerce which is the engine for my storefront.
Can’t wait to launch!
Isaac Hunter Community
I’ve gone back and forth on setting up a community with a membership fee for people to pay. But, in the end, I thought it would be a good way to build a readership, and it is lacking in most author brands I see in the genre. I struggle as it is to engage on social media, but if I’m going to do it, I think I would be more comfortable in a more academic environment anyway. So, the Isaac Hunter Community is about to be birthed!
I looked at the landscape of community plugins or service providers from Mighty Networks to Memberpress, Buddyboss to Paid Membership Pro. They all had a relatively moderate learning curve, some more than others, but in the end, they seemed to be bloated and ran sites down in speed and caused a lot of glitches and conflict and tech failure. Then I found FluentCommunity, and this was a bare bones solution that I liked.
While it offered a central activity feed, options to host groups, spaces, an surprisingly had a built in LMS of its own. I took the Courses feature for a test drive and found it less that what I was looking for. So, I scrapped that part of the plugin and focused instead on integrating FluentCommunity with Sensei Pro. It works relatively well. The major architecture on the back end has been finished, but there is some fine-tuning to finish and the membership program will not be launched until the storefront is finished and live. I also still have to design enough courses to put in rotation, and I need to build out the content structure for the community, i.e. what kind of book clubs will I be hosting, how often will we meet online, what will be included in the membership. I do want to have an ongoing Book Club that select a new book (mine or someone else’s) each month to discuss at an end-of-month online video call. I hope to gather together a good group of avid readers and fans of my novels, where we can read together and encourage each other to read more.
I am thinking I will want to have several book clubs segmented into Fiction, Theological & Philosophical Non-Fiction, Regular Non-Fiction, etc. But, I’m still playing around with ideas like that.
I do know the community will have a main Activity Feed, and then segmented “groups” for breakout discussion. I will also be using a video chat platform to do live discussion sessions with members and fans.
I have high hopes and I’m closer today than I’ve ever been on reaching people with my novels and my characters. We will see what God does with them.
Isaac Hunter Podcast
This is a work in progress as well. If you are a subscriber or reader of this blog, you know that I have already dabbled a little in the podcasting arena with the Isaac Hunter Podcast. That ran for a total of 10 episodes until I called it quits. I just did not like the sound of my own voice and found it uncomfortable to produce. But, like many things in my life, I’m at a difference place now than I was back then. I now have a wife and several children, and we are active in the Isaac Hunter brand together. So, I’m toying with the idea of launching a new podcast with my family in the near future.
This podcast will cover favorite books of mine and my children and my wife, favorite tv shows and movies, and favorite courses we are taking (my kids take many courses for homeschooling and I am just a rabid learner). These will be discussions with different members of my family or the whole family as we read books together and talk about them.
I also want to do deep-dives on characters from my books, as well as discuss stories from the underworld, from the darkness, of the macabre, spend some time analyzing my books themselves, maybe talking with my kids about what they think of my books (our 12 year old daughter has read two of my books at this point, though she is having to wait to read In the Meadow until she is a little older). I also would like to undertake some serious philosophical and theological discussions with them, especially with our four-year-old, who has just begun conversing with us. She has some insights that will blow your mind!
In the end, I really hope the podcast can be something that is informative, informational, and long-lasting. We will see how it all turns out.
In-Person Appearances
Lastly, the website will be a place where you can find information about upcoming events that I will be doing in the future. While this is very difficult for me, as I am very much an introvert and do not like large crowds or putting myself out in the public eye, I recognize that I must interact with people in order to build my audience. So I will be doing major marketing and promotional campaigns in the future, and will be posting those events on the site and especially under the Events tab.
Conclusion
So, come take a look at the new digs. Tell me what you think in the comments below and I hope you enjoy Isaac Hunter’s new online home as much as I did building it.
I will be doing my very first ever community event at the Experience Lakeside Event on June 13-14th, 2025 as a way of getting my proverbial feet wet. I will have an “off event” booth one block away from the festivities (at 115 N 8th St, Lakeside, OR 97449. Look for the large banner signs and the table in the doorway at that location). I will be selling books and doing book signings. If you are in the area, why not come out and introduce yourself and I’ll introduce you to a world you never thought imaginable.
Hope to see you there and I hope to see you on the new website soon!
Until my next post…
Please consider supporting my writing, my unschooled studies, and my hermitic lifestyle by purchasing one or more of my books. I’m not supported by academia or have a lucrative corporate job – I’m just a mystical modern-day hermit trying to live out the life I believe God has called me to. So, any support you choose to provide is GREATLY appreciated.
Excerpt from Our Daughter:
“Okay, mom,” Randy said.
“You behave yourself and be nice. You’re lucky to have company while you wait for the doctors.”
The woman turned and started back the way she came.
“The nurse said it would be twenty or thirty more minutes, so we’ll eat quick and be back up here before they take you in, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Sorry for him,” the woman said to Katie as she walked by.
“He’s funny.”
Katie grinned.
As the woman left, Katie noticed the boy moving around again on the bed. Before she realized what was happening, the tiny lump disappeared and she could hear the faint sound of bare hands and feet on the tile floor.
He was low crawling under the beds toward her.
A moment later, Randy popped his head out from under the nearest hospital bed, craning his neck around to look up at her.
“Hello, there,” Katie said.
Randy disappeared back under the bed, the bed sheet draping down almost to the floor. Katie could still see three little fingers pressed to the tile.
“What are you here for?” Katie asked, readjusting her seat in the chair, trying to get the ache in her chest to lessen.
For whatever reason, the wheelchair was really uncomfortable.
“Why are – “
Randy’s voice trailed off for a moment as he looked around.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m getting my leg fixed,” Katie said. “See?”
Randy poked his head back out from under the bed and looked at the leg she was pointing to.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The doctor said it’s broken,” Katie said. “Shattered.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Ouch.”
“Can you feel it?” Randy asked, able to stay out from his hiding place.
“I can feel it, but it’s not too bad,” Katie said, then tapped the IV in her arm. “This thing is giving me medicine of some kind for the pain. At least that’s what the nurses said.”
“Why are you – “
Randy stopped mid-sentence.
He scooted out from under the bed entirely and slowly crept over to er on all fours.
“What are you, some kind of spider?” Katie asked, giggling a little.
“What are you?” Randy echoed.
He was now only about a foot away from her chair and sat there, his legs folded up under him, gawking up at her.
“What are you staring at me for?”
“I’ve never – “
Randy put out a hesitant hand and ever so gently touched her arm.
“Are you some kind of ghost?”
He looked around again.
“Are you – ”
He leaned in, talking in a whisper.
“Are you dead?”
A nurse came around the corner and stopped abruptly, spotting the empty bed in the far corner where Randy should have been.
“Randy Andrews,” the nurse said, her hands now on her hips. “You get right back into the bed and you stop playing around, please. They are ready for you in surgery.”
Katie watched as Randy scrambled on all fours under the beds and back up onto his, pulling the sheet back over top of himself again.
She started to ask him about his question, but couldn’t get the words out before his parents appeared at the door.
Katie sat there quietly, watching Randy stare back at her from under his sheet. She glanced over at his parents and the nurse, noticed Randy’s dad had no hair on the top of his head.
Are you dead?
What kind of question was that?
The snap of the wheel locks being disengaged on Randy’s hospital bed jarred Katie out of the confusion she was in.
The doctor she’d first seen was now at the door, waiting for Randy.
He was his surgeon.
They wheeled Randy out of the room, his parents following right behind, disappearing to the left, heading for his operating room.
The pre-op room was empty again.
Dead.
Are you dead?
What kind of crazy question was that?
The nurse came back through the double doors.
“It won’t be long now,” she said.
“Okay.”
Katie tried not to think about the dull ache growing just behind her sternum.
The nurse disappeared around the corner as Katie watched the double doors to the operating rooms slowly shut.
Buy my book Our Daughter and begin the adventure of a lifetime, as you uncover the mysteries behind Katie Cadora’s new life after the horrible accident that stole her mother away from her. Will she find sure footing again? Will the pain ever stop? Will she discover the secrets her new foster family are keeping from her? Is the boy’s question right? Is Katie Cadora actually dead?
Click here and grab your copy today and jump into this Witch Gnostic Heresy trilogy with both feet!
But, trust me when I tell you, there are deceivers in our midsts! Get started in this bone chilling suspense novel right away and find out why….sometimes….you’re just better off DEAD!
What do you think?