This means that the platform you’re using is not yours, you’re borrowing it for all intents and purposes. And in such case, you are bound to their terms of service, and beyond that, you’re pretty much stuck with whatever they decide. It could involve shadowbanning you as you can see in this video, or it could mean your channel just gets deleted.

The only fix for that is to take consideration of tip number 2.

Do not build your work on leased ground. You’re stuck in the position that if you don’t use Youtube, your videos won’t get much watch time or viewers, the community in Youtube, the search power and sheer reach of the site makes it easy to reach an audience. 

At the same time, you’re also subject to Youtube’s ever-widening attempts to censor speech and restrict dissenting opinions. You’re walking a tight rope.

You can use Youtube as you have been, but don’t rely on it exclusively. Instead, leverage it to build your true center of communications on your own website. I’ll get to how you do that in a minute, but first, let me give you a bit more advice.

Some tips about social media & mirroring your videos

Mirror your own videos in a second channel, and if possible, get a paid service separate from Youtube and use that as your backup or mirror. I recommend Vimeo. Vimeo is a paid service, but it can work as a backup and or mirror. Vimeo can handle the traffic if one of your videos goes viral and you can control your videos a little more if you need to.

For example, you can add a link at the end of your video to have people visit your GoFundme, or your Patreon. You can allow people to download the video, or restrict it to specific parties. By the way, that link to Vimeo will get you 25% off and I’ll get a kickback. If you don’t want to use it, their direct website is vimeo.com

You can and should also mirror your videos to other sites, these three are free: Dailymotion.com, LiveLeak, Minds.com. In fact, Minds is a great place to have an account because it is an alternative to Facebook, in case your account or page gets shut down in Facebook. By the way, speaking of Facebook, you know you should have a proper facebook “fan page” instead of just your personal profile, right?

There’s one more that I should mention, the cutting edge, blockchain based D-Tube which works somewhat in conjunction with Steemit, another platform you should check out. You actually get paid for posting content, it’s in their own cryptocurrency but it’s starting to get steam, yeah pun intended. If you’re familiar with Adam Kokesh, his videos are often at the top on that site.

Ok but back to your website

So what does a website do that you can’t get from those other platforms and how would that work if you decide to get one?

Hopefully, I’ve made it clear how important it is to have your own website, where you are in control of your content, where you can speak freely. A website lets you share whatever information you are legally allowed to share, don’t violate copyright laws, don’t defame anybody and you’re good. The first thing you get is freedom.

Something to consider too, for all of the channels out there naming themselves as News, you should have a website. That not only gives you some more legitimacy in the eyes of the general population, but it also lets you really go in depth about your reporting, your stories and more. You can also get a proper email address, like joe@example.com except it would be your name or your username and your own domain. That’s pro!. So something else you get is legitimacy. Not that you have to have “legitimate credentials,” but it can help in a lot of cases.

I know 99% of you are not out there to make money. We all have in common the notion that we are free people and we have rights that are getting eroded and we have to flex them if we want to keep them. But I also know that 4K cameras, batteries, storage, and gas take real money, not to mention all the time you spend doing this. A website can provide you with a side income, or even full-time income. If you work it right you can make a living off of it. There are dozens of ways to make some money that would at least cover your expenses, maybe more. Forget about the chump change that Youtube gives you (when they aren’t demonetizing your videos) and consider ways to make money with your website, there are tons and I’ll talk about that in another post soon if any of you are interested.

Hopefully, I have convinced you that you need a website, or at least gave you enough information to seriously consider it. If that’s not the case, then head on out of here, I don’t think the rest of this will benefit you much, but thanks for reading so far and I hope you found some of this information valuable.

If you want to read more, head on over to the next page…

Ok so now that you want to know more, let’s talk about it and also at the end of this I invite you to take advantage of my knowledge and let me build your website for free if you’re interested.

So where do you start?

First, you need a domain name. This will be your URL, the address of your website. Like on this website that is “instigativejournalist.com” you can get your name for free for the first year, I’ll tell you how in a moment.

The name is up to you, but it needs to be available for you to get it, in other words, it has to be unique globally. Nobody else can have it.

To get it, come up with the name you want, write down several ideas, probably you want the same name as you have on your channel or soemthing similar but it doesn’t have to be. You have to register the domain name with a company known as a domain registrar. Examples of these companies are: Godaddy or Namecheap.

How do I pick a name?

One option is to pick the same name as you are using already. If that’s available, then you can use it, however, I would consider these criteria first:

• Easy to pronounce when you speak the name.
• Easy to understand when someone hears the name so they don’t confuse the spelling.
• Avoid characters that can be misread, for example, one (1) and the letter L (l) can easily be confused with different fonts. With this in mind, avoid the letters: L, S, O, I, and the numbers: 1, and 0 unless it is absolutely impossible to mistake their meaning in the domain name.
• A shorter domain is better than a longer domain.
• If you can get “.com” that’s the best, then it is “.net,” then “.org” and then all the rest, like .tv, or .video or .blog or .club or whatever.
• Avoid using a different extension (like .tv) for a domain that already has a big name in another extension. For example, if you want newsnowactivist.com but that’s taken, don’t get newsnowactivist.tv because it is available. Not only do you risk some legal issues in some cases, but you’ll be competing with the more recognized domain extension and an established name.

Give it some thought, brainstorm a little and write down your ideas.

Next, you need Web Hosting

Web hosting is the space where your website is going to live, to put it on layman’s terms. You don’t need to know everything about web hosting. You’re going to pay for this, but it’s inexpensive.

Your web hosting is where you will install your website (don’t worry it’s easier than uploading a Youtube video actually). Web Hosting varies in price and quality, I’ll give you a few options and the reasons why I recommend them.

Here are the options I would recommend for you:

Inmotion Hosting – Professional, reliable and built in the USA, hosted all in the US and all the employees are local so you’re supporting a local business. Their headquarters are in Los Angeles near LAX. I recommend it because I’ve used them for over 7 years now for my most important websites. The few issues I’ve had with my websites were quickly resolved, their customer support is great on the phone or over email or chat.

GreenGeeks – This is solid web hosting, with a presence in Canada and the US, in Los Angeles specifically. They focus on using over 100% renewable resources to power their servers and network. They offer really good chat support and their service is pretty solid.

iPage – iPage is a great standard web hosting, a little bit on the budget side. This is good for your wallet, but keep in mind you may see a slight reflection on this if you have a serious support issue. I mean, their support is good, but their strength is in providing you with web hosting space and all the tools you need.

WP Engine – This is not for the budget conscious. This is an ideal service if you have a good budget and want them to pretty much take care of everything for you. With these guys, you pay a hefty price but your site is ALWAYS incredibly fast, always backed up (they have hourly backups) and fort-knox security. If you can afford it, no question about it, go with them.

Which Web Hosting should I get?

Any of these web hosting companies can host your website, even if you went viral. It comes down to your preference, if you were to ask me which one I would go with, I would say to use Inmotion Hosting or WP Engine if you can afford it. You’re going to run into issues here and there, these two have been the best at helping me fix issues.

I would not necessarily recommend Bluehost, you’ll see them a lot but they really advertise a lot to get you to buy. The nightmare stories I hear every week are terrible, I also know a lot of people that have had great luck with them, but to be on the safe side, maybe stick to one of the ones I mentioned above.

Which web hosting plan should I buy?

To start, no matter which one of the companies you pick, you just need to get their base plan. You don’t need anything fancy, or extra services, or addons. Please note that the links I used above are special, they’re assigned to me and if there is a deal going on, my link will actually give you a discount, notice that Inmotion Hosting for example gives you 47% off your first bill.

Because of the 47% discount with Inmotion, I recommend you get your service for 3 years, instead of 1 or 2 because you’ll get the most savings on your first bill, the downside is that you’re paying up front for 3 years. But If you’re dedicated to this, you’ll need them and you’ll be glad you got the deal. In comparison, WP Engine for example, on the other hand hardly ever gives discounts.

What about the Free domain that I mentioned?

I mentioned before that you could get your domain for free. This is how you do it, if you use Inmotion Hosting, or GreenGeeks, when you buy their plans they give you a domain for free for the first year. After that, it goes to the standard rate which is about $10 per month.

Just make sure you have your ideas ready before you go buy it and try a few until it tells you that the name is available, if yours is available right away then that’s great!

Ok, I bought the Web Hosting plan and have my domain, now what?

The next part is easy, you can log into your dashboard and install WordPress, it takes 5 minutes or less and there are links all over your dashboard to get WordPress installed. WordPress is the software that will power your website. I recommend it because it is easy to use, it’s widely adopted all over the world, you can find lots of addons and “apps” for it to help you do whatever you need.

But at the core of your need for a website, WordPress is your best option. You’ll be able to post your first blog post or page within a few minutes.

To add one of your videos, you just have to copy the URL of your video, paste it into a new blog post and publish it, WordPress will automatically embed your video and make it playable so you can just write a little bit of text next to it. Or you could write a whole story, up to you.

What about the offer I said before?

If you want, if you’re interested on this but don’t want to go through the trouble of installing and configuring your website, then I can do it for you.

Here’s how that would work.

You get your domain and your hosting as I mentioned above, you have to get your hosting from one of the companies I mentioned above, and you have to use the links I provided. When you buy a hosting plan through my link, the companies will send me a small commission, and in exchange, I’ll set your, stuff up.

Then you can take it from there.

FAQ

How much is Web Hosting?

Prices range from about $2.00/month up to $30/month depending on the company and the plan. To start I recommend you consider a $5-$6 per month budget.

How much is WordPress?

WordPress is free, it’s available for download and you can use it right now. You could even install it on your computer to try it out, but that won’t help you with what I mentioned here. But yeah, WordPress.org is free to download and use.

What about getting a free website from WordPress.com?

WordPress.com is very different from having your own WordPress self-hosted website. Basically, if you use the free WordPress.com service, you are in the same position as before where you don’t have your own website. You would be at the mercy of someone else’s rules, terms of service and you are dependent on whether they are in business or not. With WordPress.org, the self-hosted version you can always move it around, download it, save it, export it and whatever you want because it’s all your data.

The same goes for Blogspot or Blogger, Medium, Tumblr, etcetera, don’t use a “free” website hosting because it’s “free.” In this case, Free as in freedom is better than free as in free of charge.

What if I want my own website but I don’t want to use WordPress?

That’s an option too, all the hosting companies I listed with the exception of WP Engine let you install other types of websites, like Joomla, Magento, Concrete5, and all the hosts I mentioned also let you build regular websites by using their built-in website builder.

Having about 15 years of experience with websites and online stuff, I highly recommend you go with WordPress.

But can’t my web host shut down my website?

It’s really unlikely. Technically, Yes. They can but the process is a lot fairer than it is with social media platforms. Generally, you’ll get a warning, a phone call or a letter letting you know of the issue and they’ll give you time to save your data. Only really extreme cases end up in this situation. You’re a paying customer and if you’re not blatantly violating the law, or their terms of service, the web hosting company will probably side with you vs a complainant.

What could I do if I get my website shutdown?

Take your backup, and move to another web host. But it’s really unlikely to be something you’ll need to do.