I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for a while, and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense: every person should have a website. Not just every company, organization, company, entrepreneur, politician, athlete, or superstar: Every. Person.
Why should you, and everyone else for that matter, have a website? Read on to find out.
Stake Your Claim
It doesn’t matter whether you’re wanting to sell a product or service, building your own personal brand, or just want a place to write a short bio about yourself. In the ever-growing realm of the Internet, it’s best to stake your claim to a piece of real estate on it. The way to do that is to have your own website. From your own website, you can then branch out and link to every other instance of your online presence (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, etc.) where others can find you.
Take Control & Independence
With a personal website, a person can control their story and how they want to tell it. This removes the opportunity for someone else to tell that person’s story instead, which will eventually happen. Before I get too far into this: do not think that only having a Facebook page will work. It may be easy to get one and maintain, but that is not a website. A person fully control a Facebook page and who may be able to see it if the page is updated. Facebook’s algorithms take care of that - and charges if a person wants to “boost” their post in order to reach more people. This is basically just living in an apartment rent-free on Facebook’s lot, but Facebook has the control over who goes into the complex and who can go up to any person’s particular floor or room. If someone wants prime real estate, that’s out on the Internet with a personal website. With a personal website, both can be had - a Facebook page to help build community and a website where the person can put anything else. The key concept here is having independence so a person is not tied down to one platform.
I want to hit more on the control aspect: someone with their own website can control how public or private they want to be. I play on the more public side with my website, linking just about any social network account I have at the bottom of my page, and taking blog posts and pictures about as personal as I want. However, people can also have a more private view with their websites by putting as little personal information or thoughts as they wish. Please do not confuse my insistence on people owning their own website with people also needing to constantly market their website or freely share their personal lives - I’m not advocating for that. I’m advocating that just like people need to have a place to physically live in the real world, they also need a place to live on the Internet.
Building is Easy & Cheap to Start
It has not been easier to make your own website. Unless you have absolutely no access to the Internet (in which case, how are you reading this post?) there are few reasons to not have a website. There are plenty of services and tools available online that let you build and maintain your own website with no little or no experience. Hosting services are available for free - like Wordpress, Wix, or About.me - or very little cost depending on the types of features or capabilities you want. No website design or previous coding experience is required to build your site, either. Some services, like Squarespace or Wix, provide simple and easy to use templates that you can choose from to get your website up and running quickly. These services also use a drag-and-drop “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) interface, where you can further customize your site. The tools will only get better from here.
What Are You Waiting For?
Are you still contemplating on starting a website? Why? Judgement from others? Insecurities in your technical ability to design and build a website or afraid you may not be creative (or interesting) enough to fill that site with content? Who cares! Just go do and stake your claim. You can work out the rest with time.
Still have questions or need some motivation? Feel free to post them in the comments down below or send me a DM or reply on any of the social media sites linked at the bottom of this page and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.