Make Your Own Website (And Why it Matters)

• Written: 10 April 2025 • • Last updated: 18 April 2025 • • •

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Click here to skip the preamble.

Why Making Your Own Website Matters

I could wax poetic about the virtues of the so-called "Indie Web," or deliver a scathing sermon about the moral and social ills begotten by the crutch of modern western society that is better known as "social media." But any phrase I utter on this topic, whether sweet or smoldering, has already been iterated, usually more eloquently, by someone else with far more experience and expertise on the topic than do I.

So instead of repeating what's already been said, let me summarize the most compelling points, borrowing examples from some of the resources that I've gathered through my exploration of this topic. I once again stress that many, many people have explained these ideas well; I'm just linking to the ones that seemed the most cut and pointed.

• What you create is truly yours. Anywhere else, you're subject to a certain platform's Terms of Service, which may or may not be fair (or fairly enforced). You can be banned. You can lose your account password. You're trapped in the platform's preset user interface and layout. Platforms can train AI on your hard work without your consent or even knowledge. And if the whole company goes down, then yourname.medium.com or you.substack.com is gone, and all of the links you sent friends, family, and LinkedIn recruiters are gone with them.
  But with a personal website, you can say what you want, post what you want, and design your site layout to look however you want. If your hosting provider goes down, you can simply migrate your site files to a new server and reassign DNS records, as long as you have a custom domain. And yes, there are still constraints (like the law) and challenges (like preventing AI from scraping your site). But they do not, and should not negate the great wealth born from creating your own personal website.
  With a personal website, you, not Twitter (now "X"), own what you write. You, not Instagram or "Meta," own what photos you post. You, not anyone else, are in charge of what you let define your presence online.
  (Inspired by jvt.me).
• You can be as personal (or impersonal) as you like. Unlike on social media, or even to an extent, in real life, where trends, cliques, and social pressure run rife, a personal website doesn't compel you to put up a false front to the world. You are the arbiter of what parts, and how much of yourself you show, and it's better that way.
  (Inspired by manuelmoreale.com).
• Building your own website stimulates learning and creativity. For one, the distractions of social media just aren't there. Instead of being inundated with dopamine hits, crushing news, and attention-sapping sensory overload, creating a personal website and browsing the personal websites of others is an active, thoughtful process.
  The social element isn't lost though; the desire to share your own work and to improve your own website for the consideration of others is fertile ground for personal learning—not just about CSS, HTML, and maybe JavaScript (though it's optional), but also new skills or about new topics, and even new people. With enough exploration, there comes a certain, healthy compulsion born out of the desire to connect with others who have personal sites, and to do so by continuing to learning and grow yourself.
(Inspired by 47nil.com).
• The "Indie Web" doesn't just replicate social networking—it improves upon it. With backlinks, webrings, and "jump-to-a-random-website" directories like theforest.link being the primary modes of navigation through the "Indie Web" and the sea of personal websites that it encapsulates, there's always something to explore; something unexpected to expect; some new and enthralling rabbit hole, just waiting to be stumbled upon. It's often in reaching out across all of these personal bubbles, adrift on the sea of the internet, where the deepest connections are born.
(Inspired by theforest.link).

Now, with all this in mind, where to begin?

Necessary Bits

You can make a website just like this with following:

• A text editor, to create and edit files.
• HTML and CSS, to create the function and form of your website.
• A webserver, to host your site and serve its files.
• Something for the webserver to run on, such as a virtual private server (VPS) or shared hosting.

Optional Stuff

Though not required for the most barebones productions, I also recommend incorporating the following into your website:

• A custom domain (e.g., "yourname.com").
• A custom email address.
• A guestbook.

The Tools I Use

For the necessary bits:

• My text editor is VSCodium, an open source distribution of VSCode text editor.
• I learned HTML and CSS from w3schools, as well as various other online resources and forums, such as StackOverflow.
• I serve this website with DirectAdmin, a paid control panel. The install configuration I use defaults to the LiteSpeed webserver, but Apache and Nginx are also common. For a free and open source alternative to DirectAdmin, I recommend HestiaCP, another great control panel that defaults to the Apache webserver during installation.
• I host this website on a shared hosting plan from IncogNET, a small and independent internet service provider (ISP). They also sell VPSes and domain names.

And for the optional stuff:

• I keep my domains at Netim.
• I used Tuta to make my custom email address.
• My guestbook is powered by Atabook.

Conflicts of Interest

None of the URLs on this page are affiliate links; I do not earn a commission or kickback if you sign up for any services or purchase any goods through them. I'm sharing these resources because I genuinely appreciate them for what they are and what they do.

The Tutorial

1. Part 1: Domains and Webservers
2. Part 2: HTML and CSS
3. Part 3: Email Address and Guestbook
4. Part 4: Getting Social (COMING SOON)