If you’ve been following me here or on social media for a while, you’ll know that I believe every content creator should have their own website. I thought it was about time I actually wrote about this in a bit more detail to explain why I think this is so important, and if I can persuade more people to pick up their blog again, then it’s a total win for me!
I’m sure you’ve spent ages editing photos for an IG post and writing that caption so carefully, or you took the time to learn how to edit video and post a Reel or whatever only for it all to flop spectacularly. My own experience of this recently wasn’t great. I tried everything Instagram was pushing – the collage feature, trial Reels, every tip they shared – and got 100 views in a week. Gotta be honest, it was totally off-putting, especially since I’m not usually great at trying out video trends anyway.
That’s pretty much what caused me to sit down and start writing this post. We’re all spending so much time creating content for platforms that we have no control or ownership over, and it can all be for nothing. Spending hours to create content for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube is fine but if they go away tomorrow, what do you have left? If your account gets banned, or the platform closes down, where did your hard work go?
I’m not saying to completely ditch all social media – in fact, I’ve been using social media to keep this blog a little more updated than it was before I set up a plugin! – but I do think that influencers should be looking to build up their home base and use their blog as a content hub to point people to, so if someone doesn’t follow you on TikTok, they’re not going to miss out on anything you’ve created.
“Does anyone even read blogs any more?”
Hmm.
I think they do, just not as much as they used to, because it’s less convenient now. Remember back when we used to all use Bloglovin (and before that Google Reader – RIP, forever in our hearts) to subscribe to each others blogs? It made it so easy to keep up to date. When those platforms shut down or faded away, everyone was starting to move over to Instagram, and the combination meant that a lot of people stopped updating their sites.
But now, more than ever, blogs are useful. Most of the time when you’re googling for a recipe, or best clear bags to take to a hockey game, or where’s the best roast dinner in Seattle, Instagram and Tiktok results might show up in those results, but most of the time you’re going to end up on a blog post.
I’ve been blogging for 25 years, so yes, I’m probably biased on how good blogs are. Maybe it’s an elder millennial thing, but I find it easier to read long IG captions on my laptop rather than my phone (but I’ll happily catch up on blog posts and even read my Kindle on my phone. I didn’t say it made sense.)
Last year I downloaded my entire Instagram archive – all the way back to 2009 when I first opened my account! – and after a bit of faffing, I uploaded it all into WordPress. I don’t want to lose all of my old posts (even the ones with the dodgy old filters and frames we loved!) but I did want to clean up my Instagram feed so I went through and archived a ton of posts.
Now I use a plugin to import any new Instagram posts over here – it’s not perfect, and I usually end up tidying things up afterwards but it’s better than nothing. (WordPress will actually send new posts from the blog over to Instagram as a new feed post, which is a little annoying because then you end up with duplicates!). One benefit of this though is that if I share an outfit on Instagram, having the post automatically import into WordPress means I can add widgets or affiliate links to everything mentioned so it’s all in one place. If someone’s googling something from that post, everythings right there for them to click without having to open up another app.
I’ve seen some of my blogging friends move to newsletters, which is still better than long captions on Instagram, but it’s still someone elses platform. You can’t control the content that appears next to yours – which is a big reason why I don’t recommend Substack. (If you’d like to learn more about why Substack isn’t the best choice for your online home, I really recommend visiting LeaveSubstack.com, which has all the details going back years)
You can set up WordPress (or whatever platform you choose) to email subscribers when new posts go up, or you could sign up to something like beehiiv – which is what I use for my rarely updated newsletter – and share links to your latest posts every week or so.
If you’ve read this far, I hope I’ve convinced you to at least consider blogging again – I just think it’s important that if you’re relying on creating content to make money that you should have a space you fully own to keep your content safe and accessible.. The platforms will keep changing, but your blog can stay your cosy home on the internet if you want it to. If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and if you already have a blog, then share the link in the comments!
