The best advice I received as a new blogger
When thinking about starting a blog, you have so many questions. I remember when I wanted to start a blog I had so much to learn. I researched questions like, How do I get started? What is a blog? Do I have the skills to start a blog? I’m not tech-savvy, can I still blog? What niche will I explore? There are so many questions and topics to explore when starting your blogging journey. Now five years into my own journey blogging I find myself still learning something new every day. Considering recent events with a major social media platform going down, it made me remember the best advice I received as a new blogger.
Can you guess the best piece of advice I received? You may be surprised by the answer.
Pin Me!
Social Media
If you are like me and are a blogger or a person with a social media account, you are familiar with social platforms Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp. I know there are several other platforms including Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and the list goes on and on.
Honestly, I can barely keep up with all the names of the latest platforms. As a Generation X kid, I grew up with Myspace. Do you remember that one? Anyway, as I grew up and entered adulthood working multiple jobs and going to school, I did not have the interest or extra time to dedicate a lot of time to social media. I had my head buried in homework and if I did have extra time to play, I would attempt to battle my sister playing Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo. Remember that one?!
Nowadays, the idea of spending time on social media can be fun for some and a chore for others. Quite frankly many people depend on social media for different things including everything from connecting with family to promoting their brand and their livelihood.
However, this begs the question, “What if something happens to that platform? Well, if you have not already heard the news, this past week billions of monthly users of the platform Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp got a glimpse of what an outage or shutdown looks like. According to Google.com, there are billions of active users monthly on these platforms.
I did not see this coming…
On Monday, October 4th, 2021, I was minding my own business and scrolling through my smartphone during a brief break on my day job to check for messages and notifications. When attempting to log into my Facebook and Instagram accounts I was unable to access my home screen. I tried once more and the page did not fully load, so I backed out and signed out. “Oh well. It must be maintenance or something.” I thought. So, I went on about my day as usual.
It was not until the end of the day when I saw a headline on the news that social media giant Facebook was down for about 6-7 hours before being restored. This outage also included its sub-companies Instagram and WhatsApp. All these platforms are major avenues of communication, connection, and business marketing for billions of people.
Apparently, this outage coincided with the airing of an interview with a whistleblower from Facebook exposing questionable and unethical practices just 24 hours prior. If you want to see that expose, you can view the article from Time magazine here or the video clip here.
The problem with other platforms
This brings me to my main point. What this past week’s outage showed me was the gravity of which many, if not all of us, rely on social media. Even if your social media usage is modest and minimal, over 2.85 billion of us are reliant on this platform in some way or another.
Personally, this also brings to light the old saying “Never put all your eggs in one basket.” Have you heard that saying before? I have. Hence, this is why as a blogger, I share my content on multiple platforms. However, considering recent events, I am already planning on adjusting accordingly so stay tuned.
The best piece of advice
With all that said, the greatest piece of advice I ever received as a new blogger getting started was to buy your own domain/website.
Whew!! I am so glad I did this for the reasons I just laid out above. When researching about blogging dos, don’ts, and regrets, I repeatedly heard many say, “Buy your own domain.”
There are several reasons to own your own domain and website. And when I talk about the domain, I mean your URL or website name with .com, .net, .org. Excluding costs like hosting, fancy upgraded themes, and backend tech support, you can own your own website domain for a very affordable price. Websites like GoDaddy.com, Wix.com, etc. are just a few.
Reasons to own your own domain
So, aside from an outage, I’m sure you may be asking, “Why should I bother owning my own domain? Outages do not happen all the time.
This is true, however, here are a few reasons owning your own website is a good idea:
- You have the freedom to express your views in your content the way you want. Whereas, with a social media platform or other space, you may be restricted by their terms and conditions or rejected and censored unfairly.
- You have a piece of the world wide web you can call your own. It’s yours! As long as you pay your renewal bill on time every year, that little slice of heaven is yours.
- To piggyback on the first point, you have control over what ads go on your website. With a free blogger site, you do not have control of which ads may be placed on your blog. Also, the free platform you are using can shut down for whatever reason at any time.
It would be a shame to lose all your content and must start anew.
- Additionally, with your own domain and website you can control what images are featured and the overall design, look, and layout of your site.
- Having your own website is an opportunity for you to build a name or brand, establish credibility and community.
Just think about this. If all the social media platforms were wiped away tomorrow, how will your audience find you?
If you have your own website domain and mailing list to communicate with your readers and community, you don’t have to miss a beat. You can compile a newsletter and sent it out to your community to stay in touch and maintain that connection and/or retain your customer base.
Conclusion
With the uncertainty of daily life, it is important to take steps to prepare as best you can and help give you the best advantage as a creator, blogger or entrepreneur.
Owning your own website ensures you have a dedicated space you can call your own for you and your community in the event of a platform outage or all social media platforms disappear.
You can continue to grow your brand and evolve your business and content sharing without the hassle of having to start from scratch from nothing. Owning your own website domain gives you more freedom to focus on what you love versus living in fear of the next social media outage.
Share your thoughts
Do you have your website or blog? Did you experience problems when Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp shutdown? What was your reaction to the outage? How did you cope? What did you learn from that experience? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Don’t forget to join my mailing and get informed of new content every week! Sign up here or in the sidebar.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my other popular posts below for more blogging tips!
11 Lessons I have learned after 5 years of blogging
16 Comments
Ronald
Very good content. I always enjoy reading your blog. You always have new and fresh inspirational content. I am not a huge fan of social media websites so this did not impact me at all, but since a lot of people are so obsessed with social media I would imagine a huge impact on the vast majority.
Admin
Thank you! And yes, you are so right!
Michelle & The Paw Pack
Very good tip! I was lucky in that I started my blog with a bit of website knowledge already behind my belt, and a very tech savvy then boyfriend to help me along the way. I started off with my own domain/website and would never have it any other way. To be honest the Facebook et al downtime didn’t really impact me at all. I noticed it was down, but I figured it’d be back up eventually. I try not to spend too much time on social media. I don’t think spending a lot of time on social media is a very healthy habit, and would much rather spend my free time pursuing my hobbies or with my family (pets included, of course!)
Admin
Michelle,
Well said! Same here. I couldn’t say it any better. Thanks for sharing your insight!
jana rade
Good advice, indeed. I was using a free domain for years but purchased my own domain a couple of years ago.
Admin
Jana,
That’s great and thank you for sharing your insight!
Terri
Terrific tips! I’m definitely glad I started with my own website and domain name. I agree that’s great advice. I haven’t taken the Facebook plunge with my blog. I’m just not sure that the benefits out weigh the work of having to manage it. I did sort of start Instagram with my blog last week, but I’ve yet to post anything. It seems I need to be able to take great pictures, which is not in my wheelhouse.
I’m really looking forward to hearing about how you’re going to adjust to social media in the future.
Admin
Terri,
Thank you and I can totally relate to what you mean about Instagram. I too am not that girl! I’m not perfect and have no interest in portraying “highlight” reels only. Life ebbs and flows as well as grief so people should be comfortable showing the good, bad and everything in between. I wish you the best on your IG journey.
Britt K
Now that we have experienced a couple of big Facebook outages recently, I think we are being reminded more than ever that the social media platforms we are using can go away overnight. Imagine putting all of your time and effort specifically into just building one platform only to lose it all and be left with nothing by no fault of your own. That’s why it’s SO important to invest in our own domain. If everything else disappears, you will still have that.
Admin
Britt,
Exactly! Well said.
Nikki
This is so true – having your own “home base” is so important. I feel like it provides some security especially since social can be a bit all over the place. It does make me think a bit about my “email list” though. Should we be downloading that on a regular basis as well just to make sure it doesn’t get lost in an “outage” too?
Admin
Nikki,
Good point! Saving a backup of your list sounds like a smart idea. I use Mailchimp so you are able to export your list if need be. I would think other email marketing tools would have a similar feature.
Cathy Armato
These are such important points! I was unaffected by the Facebook/IG outage because I don’t rely on it much & I’m on several other channels; Twitter, Pinterest & YouTube. You’re so right, you cannot rely too much on any 1 or 2 channels. You never when or why they might shut down, or shut you down for no obvious reason! I use Blogger & I own my Google Domain name, Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them. I regularly copy & save my Blogger content just in case.
Admin
Cathy,
Well said and sounds like you have a good plan to save your content along the way. Thanks for sharing your insight.
Marjoie Dawson
There are a lot of things people can tell you but there are just a few you NEED to know. Your domain is vital, it’s YOU and I suggest building your email list as you start on social media is critical. As you ay Facebook going down (guess who missed that one!) means you need to rely on no-one but yourself and learn about everything else as you go along.
It’s a fun journey and one people can spend time exploring without stressing about hits, Google analytics or platforms. I have friends who have cat blogs and they never go near Google Analytics they do it for love and fun.
Admin
Marjorie,
Well said! Bravo! Thanks for sharing your insight. So much of what you said resonated with me. I’ve made some observations in recent months and will share my thoughts this week. Stay tuned!