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Free Publishing Platforms Can't Beat Self-Hosted Sites for Professional Creatives

We’re entering the age of the platform. Everything is a platform, from Twitter to Medium, which should raise some questions in the mind of career-oriented creative professionals. What is a platform and is it good for me?

Let’s start with the upside of publishing platforms. Take Medium as an example: it’s beautiful — pitch-perfect typography and full bleed images to die for, all without any design effort from its users. The writing interface is a thing to behold — simple but functional — it’s all about the writing and the images.

For writers and photographers, it’s tempting to jump in with both feet. Publishing platforms offer a seamless environment and remove all the hassle of setting up your own site. It is even easier than a minimally complex content management system like WordPress.

So, what’s not to like?

Who Are You Writing For?

Unless you control the platform, you’re working for someone else. It’s a great pitch: we’ll give you an awesome publishing platform and all you have to do is to fill it with content; we won’t charge you a dime.

Except, if you’re a professional creative, the content you create is your living. If you write for a free platform, you’re no longer writing for yourself: you’re working to build an audience for the platform’s owners.

It’s No Longer Your Audience

If you self-host a site, you have access to a huge amount of information about your audience. That information is valuable. Even if you don’t intend to monetize your blog with advertising, knowing where your audience comes from, what they are reading, what they love, what they hate, and what they think are all valuable for a creative looking to carve out a niche and establish themselves as a professional.

With a self-hosted site, you own the platform. The audience and the community you build is the pay-off for the work that you put in.

Limited Monetization Potential

“Free” platforms will have to make money somehow. In the short-term they can coast on VC cash and good will, but platforms are incredibly expensive to build. Eventually most platforms are going to start monetizing their users — the ones that your content is helping to attract. That puts the interests of the platforms and its content creators at odds. If there’s value in a platform, it’s going to be extracted by the owners of the platform, which leaves content creators with an audience but not much else.

Your Brand Is Not Under Your Control

Personal branding is an infelicitous term, but the truth that lies behind it is that to be heard, creatives have to craft a voice that speaks to an audience. There are a huge number of factors that can contribute to shaping that voice, including design, dialogue, promotional opportunities, partnerships with community members, and analytics data.

With a self-hosted site, a writer, photographer, or designer has complete control over their personal brand. A self-hosted site acts as a central hub — a personal platform — that is closely identified with the personal brand of its owner.

If you just want to throw up the occasional article or you want to gain exposure, free publishing platforms are a great way to scratch the creative itch or drive traffic to a self-hosted site, but, relying on those platforms exclusively prevents content creators from building the dedicated audiences they need to make the most of their work.

graemeAbout the Author

Graeme Caldwell works as an inbound marketer for Nexcess, a leading provider of Magento and WordPress hosting. Follow Nexcess on Twitter at @nexcess, Like them on Facebook and check out their tech/hosting blog, https://blog.nexcess.net/.

Source: TheWHIR