Why All Artists Should Make Their Own Corner of the Internet
Social media has put us, and the internet itself, in a vulnerable position. We can change that by using tools from the early days of the internet.
Social media platforms and the shameless megalomaniacs who run them are not our friends.
With the spread of misinformation, censorship targeting queer and trans people, theft of our art and writing to train generative AI, and selling out our data to advertisers, there is a growing disillusionment with Meta, X, and the other big platforms out there. It seems like every few years something comes up that reminds us that the terrible people who run these platforms are, well, terrible, and a new platform arises to pose itself as The Solution. Be it Cara, Cohost, Mastodon, and now, Bluesky. Then one of two things happens.
Due to lack of use, the platform fizzles because in a sort of self-fulfilling cycle.
In a couple years time, we find out that the new platform is also run by someone terrible.
When it comes to discontinuing use of these larger platforms, the main obstacle I hear again and again is that we need them for our work as artists. They are the primary way we connect to our audience. Without them, we would be cut adrift from the people who enjoy and support our work, and with no way to export that contact data, we remain beholden to the platforms. We are forced to support them and allow them to siphon off our data, creativity, time, and energy.
This is a fact I’ve been particularly present with ever since a poem of mine went viral on Instagram. That virality led to multiple reports on my Instagram account, which led to a constant warning message on my account’s status page that I was on thin ice for being a filthy transsexual (or something like that). Since then, I have been working on trying to build an online presence that is not beholden to any space that I do not own or that obfuscates my access to my audience with algorithms. I still use these platforms, but I approach them as a renter who can be evicted at any time. I try not to get too comfortable.
There are some digital spaces in which I do get to feel comfortable though — my websites! I have two. There’s nicowilkinson.com, a professional portfolio and store through Squarespace with a bunch of built in marketing and commerce tools, and my Neocities website, nicois.gay, an indie web page that I built using HTML, CSS, and whimsy. These feel like my own little plots of digital earth, where I can tend the soil, knowing they won’t be taken away from me at a moment’s notice.
In this post, I will share the following:
The case for why you should make your own website and mailing list
How to do it, and the different platforms available
How to build community online with other artists without using social media (using retro tools from the days of the 90’s-00’s internet)
The Case For Making Your Own Online Space
1. It will provide a running log of your work and accomplishments
Most social media and content-sharing platforms are feed-based. What we post on them might be visible for a short amount of time before it gets buried beneath the unending waterfall of new content. Then, engagement will slow to a trickle, with perhaps the occasional repost if someone was trawling through a tag. These platforms render our work ephemeral, and if we post something and it doesn’t do well due to us not making an adequate sacrifice to the algorithm gods, then it can be pretty disheartening.
Plus, if you have a goldfish’s memory, like I do, it can be easy to forget all the cool stuff you do. That’s where a website comes in. A gallery page can display your art from over the years. You can aggregate all the places you’ve been published in one place, allowing fans to binge your poems. You can make an awards page, a CV, your own links page, rather than a Linktree.
Your website can be a space that is an affirmation of who you are and what you do, and making one can be a real confidence boost. This is THE spot to brag about yourself. Plus, if bragging on yourself doesn’t come easy to you, you can write everything in third person and pretend that you are a publicist that you hired to write about you! (It works.)
2. A website and mailing list will provide a secure means to grow and maintain your audience.
When your main way of connecting with your fans is through social media, you are put in a very vulnerable position in which you can lose your entire audience at the whim of an ever-changing terms of service agreement. That’s where email (and SMS, if you’re up for a little extra financial investment) comes in. Your website can include a mailing list sign up, a contact form, a store, a blog, all of which are places in which your fans can opt to give you the gift of their contact information. This is a gift to treat with respect, and it will allow you to stay in touch with people with ease. A mailing list is included with some platforms – Squarespace, for an added cost, or services like Mailchimp and Substack.*
A Side Note About Substack: One might argue that Substack is also a social media platform. However, I’d argue that its functionality as a blog and an email newsletter differentiates it, as you still have direct access to your audience via their inboxes. It also includes the added bonus of being a blog and a newsletter, creating a place where your work is aggregated, which gives it a bit of a leg up on most newsletter services. That said, you should still make a website that is not subject to another platform’s TOS, and you can embed your Substack feed onto a page on your site. Plus, you can export your subscriber list, so if you ever want to switch newsletter services, you won’t lose your audience. Just remember to back up your list!
3. You can design your website how you want. No one can tell you what to do.
Beyond the obvious censorship through both explicit and implicit means (outright censorship, shadowbanning, etc.), social media has contributed to the overall homogenization of the internet. Gone are the days of platforms like Myspace, on which you could customize your online space to reflect your personality and interests. Now our social media profiles are minimized into easily aggregatable data to narrow you down as an audience for advertisers. However, a quick romp through the Neocities explore page reminds us — things don’t have to be this way.
How To Build Your Own Online Space
There’s a few ways to go about it, and the tools that will fit you best really depends on your goals. I’ll outline the two platforms I have experience with and their functionality below, as I think they are at two opposite ends of the spectrum of site builders. Know that these are just two options, and there are many options in between.
Squarespace
Increased Functionality, Limited Customization
Expensive
Easy to use drag-and-drop builder with no coding experience
Largely individualistic, little emphasis on community (I’ll share how you can change that, though.)
Built-in E-commerce solutions
Inherently mobile-friendly/responsive
Neocities
Fewer Built-in Functions, Unlimited Style and Customization
Free, with some optional upgrades available for the low cost of $5/month
Requires learning some HTML and CSS
Very community oriented. Neocities culture includes linking to each other via affiliates pages and webrings. You can also “follow” other sites and be notified when they are updated.
No built-in e-commerce.
Can be made mobile-friendly/responsive.
.
If I seem biased toward Neocities, it’s because I am. For the first few years of starting to take my online presence more seriously, I really focused in on my Squarespace site. It felt professional, like a Linkedin page. That said, I feel more excited working on my Neocities than my Squarespace, and in recent weeks I started reinvesting in my Neocities page for a few reasons.
Reason 1— The new Squarespace 7.1 editor doesn’t allow you to pick a template. Every website has the same base template, making every website more homogenous.
Reason 2—Neocities’ culture is so about community and sharing resources in a way that Squarespace is not (but we can change that).
Reason 3 —
That said, I know that taking on learning HTML and CSS can feel intimidating at first, but I need you to know that if I could do it, you absolutely can as well. There are many guides on how to get started, but I will share one of the ultimate resources, 32 Bit Cafe, as a good starting point.
Whether you use Squarespace, Neocities, Weebly, Wix, or anything other site builder, there are a couple ways to start building community and connections with other artists you love through your personal site, which you can start doing today.
How To Build a Community and Audience Online Without Social Media
1. Mailing Lists
I spoke about this earlier, so I won’t belabor this too much. I’ll just say that when you make your site, you should provide a way for your visitors to volunteer their contact information. Be transparent. Let it be on an opt-in basis. However, this will help build a more sustainable relationship with your audience that can’t be taken away if you are deplatformed.
2. Buttons and Affiliates Pages
A lot of Neocities users make buttons to represent their webpages, typically 88x31 pixels, which they use to link to one another. Some call these affiliates, internet neighbors, friends. I tend to link to sites I enjoy or have found inspiration from.
This trend has not made its way to Squarespace and other platforms like it, but there’s no reason it couldn’t. Anywhere you can embed a code, you can embed a button. You can also make a button using a variety of tools like Canva and Photoshop, or this little 88x31 button maker. You can then add it to your website, alongside a <textarea> code, so others can copy it to their site.
So why not give making an affiliates page a try? Here’s my button code to help get you started. ;)
<a href="https://nicois.gay" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://nicothepoet.neocities.org/images/buttons/nicospoolparty.gif" alt="Nico's Pool Party Button" style="width:88px;height:31px;"></a>3. Webrings
Webrings are like little internet neighborhoods, usually gathered around a certain topic or identity. They usually involve a widget, with buttons for next/previous, allowing visitors to surf the web, jumping from site to site. Brisray.com has assembled a webrings masterlist if you’re curious about what topics people make webrings about. Joining webrings is easy. You usually just email the webring manager, add the widget to your site, and presto!
In writing this post, I was inspired to make my own webring, which you are welcome to join! It’s called A.M.I.G.A. - Artists Making the Internet Gay Again. Instructions for joining are on the website.
4. Chatrooms and Guestbooks
You can add chatrooms and guestbooks to your website so people dropping by can say hello, compliment you and your site, and share their site as well. cbox is a popular chatroom option, and Virtual Observer has made a handy little comment widget that I use on my Neocities.
While all of the above are mainstays for Neocities, there is no reason they can’t be used with site builders such as Squarespace. It’s simply about working together to create a cultural shift in which our websites can be more than just one-dimensional expositions of our work, but rather a place in which our visitors can stop by, admire our creations, and say hello.
So, if you read this far, I want to know — are you going to build your own corner of the internet? And if you do have your own space, drop the link in the comments! Let’s be internet neighbors, waving to one another as we tend to our digital gardens.
P.S. Don’t forget to save-the-date for the release of my book, The Weeds Grow Anyway, on June 27th at GOCA at UCCS in Colorado Springs!
practical, timely, astute advice :)) thx Nico