3 reasons WHY to need to have your OWN website

Okay you might think …whoahhhh is this not too late? How am I gonna start a website now… everybody who is somebody already has one.

Or you might even feel a bit scared because …and this is a biggie… you have no idea what to put on that website of yours.

First of all…. You are not to blame.

There are a ton of people out there saying websites are dead. All you need is social. 

Well not true at all.

Even more so > social is hard. You HAVE to post daily, do reels, have your phone in hand all day  and well you are not that person. You have things to create, stuff to do. 

You really don’t want to be spinning your wheels here all the time. 

So what would you say if I said that a website would take all the pressure of.

See there are many creatives out there that are selling their work, some on platforms like Etsy… There are a ton more. I’m not even naming them all. They are all set up to make money from you.

Yes YOU are their source of income.

Now don’t get me wrong… everybody needs customers. We all do.

But it seems to me there are too many places where artists can sell their work.

Simple solution is to build your own online business, and NO this is not that hard. In fact it’s easier than ever now with all those tools helping you out.

When you want to build that online business here are the things you MUST have.

• You need to buy a domain name for your business. Make the name easy to remember if you want to have a name that is different to your own name. Seek out if the name is free with this easy tool namecheck.

• Create a website… I myself love squarespace as it is very intuitive and has easy drag and drop templates. Creating your own website may sound like a lot of work but if you know what you need to put on the website, this is super easy and even fun to do.

Even if you have no technical skills or anything. If I can do this, so can you.

• An email provider.That is an online service that will help you send emails from your business to your fans or tribe. This is a bit more advanced to set up, but most providers take you on a step by step journey. Right now I am using Aweber and love it. It’s very simple, great overview so I don’t get things messed up… I am quite chaotic and easy to create and set emails. You might also want to check out Mailchimp, they are the number one provider for creatives. I do love their whole set up but they are a bit pricey if you grow your list of subscribers above 1000 people. But if you like a low tech start, this is it.

So why do I need to own your own website, what is up with that?

Why can’t I do my sales on Instagram?

Why can’t I sell on Etsy?

It seems so much easier… well yes it seems much easier.. Because you don’t control these platforms.

You are a customer on those platforms and not the owner, to me that is a big one as I like to own my own business. I don't want to be in a marketplace where everybody is selling at the same time…

It’s like screaming on top of your lungs to get attention… that would not work for me and I know this is not what you need either.

Another thing that is highly important is that if anything happens on these platforms, for instance your accounts gets hacked, or the platform is offline for a period of time, like with IG a while ago. Your business is gone… up in smoke.. It will be out of your hands, since you don’t own your business!

This should be enough reason to build a solid online business one that you own.

Secondly, all those platforms have a million of other creatives there, all wanting attention. What do you think will happen if you send one of your customers to Etsy to buy a product you sell.. They might end up buying something from somebody else. It’s filled with competition for your creations. You don't want people to get confused and end up buying somebody else's work.

This would never happen if you have and sell your work from your website. That is, you don't send them to Etsy to buy. You sell it yourself and you don’t even have to pay Etsy for the transaction.

You get to keep your money!

Now you know why you need to own your own business online and what it will do for you.

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XO Maurille