Why and How do people get personal Websites?

Online Presence and a Personal website

Today, everybody has the opportunity and tools to have a presence online. Why not personal websites?

Many of us already have a presence in multiple Social Media platforms. Its just the way the world connects these days.

These platforms consume a lot of our attention and we nurture our identity on a daily basis.

We make lots of connections with people who can range from close family and  friends, distant friends, business associates and acquaintances of all types.

Many of us have added pages in apps like Facebook where we run Shops, take business orders, run niche blogs, social groups and the list goes on.

What would we do without it? It is such a great tool.

Well that is till it all comes crashing down.

God forbid it should ever happen to you or me - but it does happen to people and on a regular basis.

There are many things that can cause such a catastrophe, there are also many unexplained causes also.

If you have been on Facebook for a while, I am sure you have heard of people losing access to their account.

People hacking their Identity, Facebook locking them out for no apparent reason or alternately because they broke a rule unwittingly.

They may have intentionally transgressed also.

Simple thing is, that it does happen.

You may be able to appeal to Facebook and get back up and running - you may not.

You may have to create a new "you" and build it from scratch.

This scenario can play out in a similar way on any social media platform simply because you have no control over it.

You are a guest and can lose access at any whim of the platform owners.

There is an option.

Use your own platform as a solid home for your identity.

Build a personal website on a CMS (Content Management System) where you can do so many things.

And is also capable of posting to the various social media platforms.

Post your personal website links to all your social media.

If any of the social media sites lock you out, your followers can still find you on your website.

Many people toy with the idea but lack the knowledge to make it happen. When in fact it is so easy and great fun too.

You have seen Advertisements for Wix, SquareSpace, WordPress.COM and a number of other options where it is 'All done for you".

But also know there are many functions you want, but these platforms restrict your freedom in these areas.

They got you in the door with FREE but now you find you have to buy critical functionality with purchases and annual subscriptions.

Again the platform is controlled by someone else.

Very quickly people can find themselves paying more than self hosted WordPress.ORG personal websites with a regular hosting company.

WordPress is an Open Source CMS software.

Open source means it is free to install, change and even re-distribute if you choose. 

The software package comes in TWO flavours.

Where we install/host it is the difference.

WordPress.Org is the free open source organisation where we can download the software package from then load it on the hosting server of our choice.  Click here for the official definition.

With WordPress .com, they load an controlled instance of the software on their servers.

They give us the use of a Domain Name (still belongs to them) and we don't have full control or freedom. It has commercial goals.

It is much like the companies in the previous paragraph.

We want the .org flavour.

We take the software and host it ourselves with our choice of hosting company. It gives us the freedoms we are searching for.

So what does it take?

• A domain name – this is the name of your website
• such as google.com
• WordPress hosting – this is where your website files are stored.
• 45 minutes of your undivided attention to get  your site live.

Want to know more? It is not hard to do. It just requires that you follow a series of steps in a logical order.

Most of it entails entering selections or text in form fields. You will find yourself wondering why you were so apprehensive.

Click here to go to the walk through

In these articles you will see reference to Bluehost. I understand much of getting a website is new ground and it is hard to know what to choose. This hosting provider has consistently been on the WordPress recommended list of hosting companies as giving a full and solid experience for users.

NOTE: I believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money). I would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but I only recommend products that I believe will add value to my readers. It also helps offset some of the costs of improving my service to my readers.

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