Episode #102: All Creators Want A Website

April 23

It was a good seven or so years ago that I first heard a young man scoff and say ‘I don’t need a website’.  He was convinced the most valuable real estate was found on social media and felt that the effort involved in setting up a website unworthy of his time.

It seemed to me he was quite sure of his stand and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d feel the same way when the next wave of social media came and washed away the castle he built.

I’m not anti-social platforms. I LOVE what they make possible.

Interesting that he even used the term ‘real estate’ to describe his social presence. We don’t own anything about our social platforms. We are at best leasing space and even then, there’s no reliable contract LOL!

So in this episode I want to dig into why after twenty plus years in the content marketing space, I still believe in the power of a website – and of course, a mailing list.

To gain some understanding of my love for and healthy distrust in social platforms, know that I made my first great connections and found community in Yahoo Groups. Entire businesses were developed and grown in that space. Soon after, it was Ryze that housed several highly profitable spaces.  Forgive me, I skipped the MySpace rage although I did have a profile I ignored.

As cool at social focused websites were, quite a few smart people went the way of having a private community forum. In my niche at the time, I was working mostly for work at home moms – I found so many clients and friends on forums. Cheryl Demas offered a forum at WAHM.com. Alice Seba created one at InternetBasedMoms.com. There were quite a few but only a four or so that saw consistent use. When Alice and I started a membership site to offer internet marketing training to moms, we set up a private forum at MomMasterminds.com (retired long ago). Access to the forum was for paying members only.

I won’t go into every social platform I’ve used or stopped using over the years – there are too many LOL!  As I’ve said, I LOVE social media and am happy to leverage whatever I can. I just don’t pin all of my hopes in it and certainly don’t trust it to do tomorrow what it does today. No one who’s been around as long as me does.

I choose to view social media as a bit of an adventure so I’m prepared to shift and sidestep whatever changes pop up – and they WILL pop up!

I use social media in all the smart ways I can and always with the primary goal of inviting connections back to my website.

Find me on [Name of Social Platform]? Great – I invite you to come over to my website.

My blog. My podcast. My mailing list optin pages. My offers.

I know, I know – some social platforms do not make it easy to refer people to your websites. Some make it dang difficult as a matter of fact, but don’t let that stop you. If you’re holding the attention of your community – issue the website invitation again and again and again.

And hey, they get it! They understand as well as you do that these platforms are unreliable. If they don’t – teach them!

I’ll talk about lots of different ways to create your own website in future episodes but for if I’ve lit you up about starting one, I’ll invite you to check out my Mom Webs Hosting 🥰

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All Creators Want A Website


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