(This was originally published on 13 October 2022.)
I started this website two decades ago. The first time the Internet Archive captured the site was back in April 2004. I registered the domain in 2003.
Back then I was hand-crafting HTML pages in a text editor, and managing all of the links by hand. I had found a website template that gave me the sidebar, and worked from there. I composed the pages on my computer and then transferred them to a webhost via FTP to “publish” them.
Not the most difficult thing in the world to do, but certainly not the easiest.
Then I found WordPress
In mid-2005, after being on blogger.com for only a couple of weeks, I found out about WordPress, and my content creation at the time shot through the roof.
Why? Because it made publishing a post or a page almost as easy as writing an email. I just logged into my dashboard, clicked on New Post, typed in a title, wrote the post, chose a category or two, and clicked Publish.
And, literally, that was it. I was hooked!
Back then I had to update things manually by uploading the new version. (No more.) Even back then it was surprisingly easy. I recall messages after a successful installation something like: “Were you expecting more steps? Sorry to disappoint!”
That was version 1.5 of WordPress. As of 2024, we're at Version 6 and counting. WordPress has evolved into a world-class content management system that powers millions of the top websites across the Internet.
Oh … and it's free!
More than ever, it's within the grasp of just about anyone with something to say to publish on the web, and have complete control over the presentation and content — all for the cost of a fancy dinner for two per year.
Why you might want to create somewhere else to start
Publishing on your own website, with your own domain, is straightforward, and is getting easier all of the time. (More on that below.)
Over the past twenty years that I've been putting stuff online, though, things have changed in several key ways.
1. There are many more websites out there.
When I started blogging, there just weren't a whole lot of people doing it, and once a few people got hold of where the website was, I was getting comments on my posts and good engagement. That was prefaced by a good amount of traffic.
Today — actually for some time now — it's gotten a lot more competitive because of the sheer number of very good creators out there. There's a level of technical expertise needed that wasn't nearly as necessary before to position the content to bring the clicks and conversions.
In short, it's more work to get people engaging with the content. There isn't an easily-accessible audience.
2. Other platforms have come up that encourage quicker engagement.
I'm re-publishing some other content of mine on Medium.com now. I publish it on a website with my own domain first, but then it goes up on Medium.
Why? Because it has its own ecosystem of writers and readers (often the same people!) who like the written word. I put a few tags on the articles I've written and it will show up when people search for those tags.
Bringing visitors in from Google is more challenging, and takes longer in general. Medium, if done correctly, is a faster track to an audience than setting up a website and working it that way.
3. Blogging, I'm finding out, is showing its age.
I was on dial-up when I started publishing on the web.
Now I have a one-gig connection that's up most of the time.
People in general don't read as much; they watch videos, listen to podcasts, stream from Twitch, or chat on Discord. Plentiful, cheap bandwidth drove this.
So bloggers are a little more dinosaur than they are cool kid. (Which is what it is; I'm not a cool kid anymore, haha!)
4. To sum up, it's much harder to get noticed.
All of the ownership benefits of having your own web space, your own domain, and your own email list are still as true now as they were in 2004.
But other things being equal, it's far tougher now to get noticed with a website than it used to be.
Which is why I'm seeing the benefit of going to a platform with a ready-made audience, even though it's someone else's house and you have to play by their rules and deal with their changes.
How I'd start up a website in 2024
So … assuming that I didn't scare you off of creating your own website (!), here's how I create my websites today.
There are three basic components for starting up a website: web hosting, a domain name, and an email list manager. I'll give my recommendations for each.
Web hosting: Where your website lives
In simple terms, a web host lets you rent computers that are hooked up to the Internet. They “serve” your website to people when they browse to it.
Good web hosts give you access to reliable, fast computers that have a lot of redundancy and failover.
Good web hosts take on the headache of maintaining the server software and architecture so that you don't have to worry about downtime, or about bad guys trying to attack your site.
Good web hosts will make things easy for you to manage, whether you're a beginner or a power user.
Good web hosts will be there for you if something does go wrong and will help you get things back up and running.
A great web host is worth its weight in gold.
I've been with SiteGround for years now and they're fantastic on all counts.
I'm currently running their GoGeek package but since I've started with them they now offer WordPress hosting, which likely would be simpler for most purposes. Regular web hosting is only really necessary if you want to use different software to run your site.
Domain name: A user-friendly address that fits your brand
If you get web hosting from SiteGround and set up your website, you'll be able to see what's there from a web browser.
The address that you type into the browser bar, though, is a little … raw. It's like describing the location of where you live with latitude and longitude. It's accurate and can get you there, but otherwise it's a bit non-descriptive.
That's why choosing and getting a domain name is important. It says a bit more about your site and is easier to remember than a string of numbers.
The commercial .com domain is still the most recognizable top-level domain, but there are now many others.
To choose a good domain name, consider what your site is going to be about. If it's a gardening site, having “garden” in the domain name would be very reasonable.
Then you check for the availability of the domain at a site like NameCheap.com (the domain registrar I use). If it's not available then you can try something else. (Also, if they come back with “Make Offer” then someone else has registered it and they want to sell it to you.)
Once you find one that's available and has a nice ring to it, then you can reserve the domain for a year for about $15. This allows you to point the domain at wherever you like. You'll be pointing it to your webhost so that your website comes up.
Keep your domain name and hosting separate!
When you sign up for hosting at SiteGround, the first thing they ask about is your domain name. They'll give you the opportunity to register your domain with them.
Please don't do this. Get your domain from somewhere else.
When I first got web hosting, the web hosting company offered me a free domain for the first year. Not knowing any better, I took them up on this.
What this did, though, was to put all access to my website into one company. If the site went down (which it did for quite a while) I was stuck, because I couldn't control where the domain name pointed to. I had to work with them and wait while they got things back up again.
That's why I make the point of keeping my web hosting at SiteGround and my domain name hosting at NameCheap.
Email list manager: For control over reaching your tribe
The third essential piece of a website isn't web content. It's an email list manager.
Simply put, an email list manager is software that manages email communications with your “list”: the people who say that they want to receive messages from you.
Why is this important?
Other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc., control how many of your messages people see based on some algorithm that makes them the most money.
Facebook regularly gives me the opportunity to “boost” my posts for a fee. They're offering to place my post in front of more eyeballs. Some of those people might even be people who already follow my page! In essence, they're making me pay for better access to my followers.
With an email list, your message will be sent to (almost) all of the email addresses, every time. As long as someone stays opted-in to receive your emails, they'll receive them whenever you send them.
Your email list is a place where you can develop trust with your subscribers. Once you have this trust, they'll be delighted to do things you ask, like buy things from you, share your posts, like you on Instagram, whatever.
I currently use ConvertKit. It has a free starter plan that can be used to send emails to up to hundreds of subscribers.
Those are the three components to start!
These are the three pieces that make up the foundation of a solid online presence: web hosting, domain name, and email list.
One that you own! Your very own slice of the Internet!
