Why you should self-host a website

Everyone who is on the Internet should have their own website. I do not mean a social media account or a blog on a site managed by some corporation. I mean a real, self-hosted, self-built website--preferably in the old-fashioned static style.

I have a few good reasons for this:

It is truly your own space

The classic example is a medeival serf compared to a lord. A serf is allotted a small strip of land (your social media profile) in exchange for taxes (your attention and personal information). A lord owns his land and can do with it what he pleases. He still has to pay taxes to the king (your hosting provider, your domain server), but these are almost insignificant for light-weight, personal, self-built sites.

You will learn how websites work

At least from a basic standpoint, you will learn how to spell "VPS" and get a feeling for Linux. You can take this endeavor as far as you want, learning SysAdmin skills, coding, mark-up language, etc. You can even host your site from an old laptop in your basement if you want to be more of a marquis instead of just a baron (a topic for another post). Or you can keep it basic. It all depends on your interests and needs.

It is professional

There is a certain prestige that comes from having a your_name.com. Career sites and social media profiles have their place. They make it easier to connect with people one-on-one. But what if someone is not on that platform? What if you have work you want to showcase that cannot be uploaded there? Or what if you want to keep a separation between your personal and professional life on the Internet? The self-hosted website is the answer.

It has never been easier

I will not fault anyone for downloading one of the many turn-key solutions available now. Some people just want a website, and that is still lightyears away from just having a social media account. But even in terms of old fashioned sites built on HTML and grit, anyone can set one up in less than an hour. These sites load quickly, use less electricity, and offer more flexibility. There are also static site generators that let you write in markup language as opposed to HTML, making the process faster. I plan on experimenting with this option in due time.

Where to start

Now, I admit that some self-hosted types also enjoy a certain nostalgia factor in creating old-fashioned websites (check out neocities for a trip down memory lane). But Web 1.0-style sites are more than just a niche hobby in 2022. As I mentioned above, static site generators exist today that allow your pages to have a modern feel, while still keeping all the benefits of a static site. As huge, javascript-bloated edifices bog down the byways of the Internet, your pages will load quickly and easily—not a bad feature for a professional portfilio!

In a subsequent post, I will outline the method I used to setup this site. In the meantime, I will point you to my primary resource: landchad.net. They have a ton of tutorials for self-hosting as simple or as complex of a site as you could want. So get started. Happy self-hosting!