Categorized | Domaining Tips

Domains vs. Social Media… or the Price of Convenience

Posted on 29 November 2018 by Andrei

Are there tons of “influencers” who make money without even having a website? Sure… we have Instagram celebrities, Twitter rock stars and so on. But while it definitely CAN be done, it doesn’t mean it should or that it’s a good idea.

On the one hand, we do need to understand that managing a website can be difficult.

Servers go down due to hardware failures, DDOS attacks occur and so on.

As someone who used to run hosting businesses, believe me, I know. Been there, done that, wasn’t fun!

Therefore, it should be easy to understand that “outsourcing” it all to social media platforms makes your life easier. You know Twitter/Facebook/whatever will have good uptime, you don’t care about hosting bills, it’s all sunshine and rainbows… right?

Well, yes, but only partially so.

You see, you’re surrendering a ton of *freedom* in exchange for a more hassle-free experience. Or to put it differently, you’re giving social media platforms a lot of control over your brand. Make no mistake, they can ban you tomorrow, with little to no room for recourse. It happened to others, it can most definitely happen to you as well.

Or, you might spend years building a following on a platform, only to realize that as of a certain point, that platform is charging you to have access to your followers. The Facebook approach, if you will.

Is it fair?

Well, no. But when it comes to social media platforms, you’re in their living room. Their house, their rules.

The main and only message I’m trying to get across today is this: convenience has a price. And as time passes, you might just realize that what seemed like a misleadingly low price tag ended up representing the exact opposite.

As domainers, it’s important to know what you’re selling.

And freedom is a large part of it. Perhaps today, it may seem that not enough people care. Fair enough, it’s their right to sacrifice whatever they want in exchange for whatever they please. But in my opinion, the tide will eventually turn and when it does, domainers who have always had their eyes on the prize will reap the rewards. Good luck!

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