Category: WebsitesCategory: Websites

One hot summer I ran a 5K race. Afterwards, leaning against a railing and sweating buckets, a man approached.

“Good race?”

“Hah,” I panted, “yeah, a little hot.”

“Have you heard the good new of Jesus Christ?”

Now, this conversation goes differently with someone I’ve known for 20 years on a back porch after a nice dinner and beverage. That’s because of trust, something the person who approached me after that race didn’t earn.

We’ve spent so much time building trust on social media platforms, with stories, photos of our pets, our travels, our bookshelves, our weekend adventures, and then when it comes to our website, it’s just “are you ready to convert?”

The trust can’t stop on our websites, it has to get bigger. More stories, pet, travels, whatever… if we’re doing all that on social media platforms to impress strangers, what does it say when our website is just a static business card?

Comedian Anthony Jeselnik on the fragile nature of digital media.

What do you think about our Netflix specials? Things we’ve done — there’s no physical media anymore. That can all go away, and you’re left with nothing. And that’s wild to me: a corporation… who knows what you get canceled for, can just be like, “All your work is gone.” It’s gone, as if it never existed. There’s nothing. Nothing.

This is why I’m so big on having a website, and maintaining some sort of digital archive of your work. I wish I had learned this a decade ago, as most all of my early blog work and Skull Toaster metal trivia are wiped out by unpaid hosting bills, or hasitly deleting social media profiles.

Download and back up your work. Request your files and images and videos from the social media platforms. Tuck them away on an external HD and make sure that’s back up, too (I use Backblaze).

I hear this a lot from creative people – that they do several things, and they’re just not sure how to set up their website to hold everything they do!

​Before your buy another domain name, or add another section to your existing website, let’s talk about it!

​We’ll discuss homepages, navigation bars, layouts, and making things simple and joyful for your website visitors.

​Recent feedback from our Website Resurrection call:

​Zoom calls with a bunch of creative people, where I get a few good ideas or things to check out are so much more fun (and usable) than an online course! Whee!

​This ain’t a course or a lecture, but we’re seeking the collective energy from the room and each other, discovering new ways to build our corner on the internet.

Monday, August 24 at 9:00 AM EDT → https://luma.com/35ypqa0u

Thursday, August 27 at 2:00 PM EDT → https://luma.com/y3milhmu

An artist asked me to look at their website (as part of my Website Resurrection offering), and I noted two things that always seem to come up.

1. Stop sending your fans to platforms where you can’t reach them. Think about it, that one click away from your site could have been a click deeper into your site, so remove (or at least deprioritize) your Instagram links.
   
2. When posting your upcoming events and award nominations on a platform where 90% of our followers won’t even see it, add those updates to your website, too!

Remember, it’s 2026 – not everyone’s on Instagram anymore. Make sure the people who were adventurous enough to seek you out can see what you’re up to.

From “Bespoke Websites for Emergencies are an Active Thing“

“A single website URL is much easier to give to friends and family, who don’t really know how to look up the data on their own, but it’s something that can be put in a text message. “Go to this site,” is all you need to say. They’re happy.”

Look, not everyone is on social media these days, but every smart phone still ships with a web browser. (via Hacker News)