There's something special about publishing to your own website. The satisfaction of putting something out there without asking for permission. What a great way to control your digital destiny. Your platform, your rules.
Anyway, here are some thoughts or reasons:
- To control the pathway to your online presence
- To own your content
- To control what you can talk about
- To be part of the real web
To control the pathway to your online presence
When you have your own website people can go directly to your content. They just have to enter your site's domain name into their browser and boom... your are automagically reachable. There's no middleman.
To own your content
It's highly likely that you don't have control/ownership over the content you post online. For example, if one of the social-media platforms files for bankruptcy or disappears, your content might be gone. What if the platform decides that you are no longer creating value for them? They can just terminate your account and delete your stuff.
To control what you can talk about
Have something interesting to say? Post it on your website and use other platforms (like twitter) to bring people back to you. When you post to your own website you have the final word on what to write about.
To be part of the real web
Facebook, Instagram, etc, are not the real web. They are just platforms that try to wall their users inside their ecosystem just to extract value. The web is bigger than that. Having your own website helps expand and keep the real web alive: the Open Web.
Having your own website is an act of protest in a way. What do you think?