Introduction
Hello! My name is Preston Shamblen, the only Preston Shamblen in existence I believe. This is my website, which is intended to be a sort of aggregation of all the content I care to have online. I could and may still write a bio here but for now I’d rather talk about something more important to us all, regarding the state of the internet, this website and why you need your own. At the end of this article I will even show you how to make your own website like this one or a similar one for next to nothing.
The State Of The Internet And Social Media
These days most people give away their content for free to our tech overlords, which they sell and control. If they decide they don’t like you or your content, you’re gone, it’s gone. They get to decide what you get to say and when you get to say it. They decide what you get to see, when you get to see it and who gets to see what you say and how it looks. They track everything you do that they can get away with. They reduce the quality of your images and videos. Some of the night sky lapses and pictures I post here wouldn’t even be worth looking at on a platform like Instagram etc. Personally I want my site and content to be beautiful in a sea of ugliness. The way many people use these social networks and the internet in general is exactly opposite of the initial ideals and purposes we’d hoped the internet would serve. These days are the worst. We give away our content, our privacy and often our peace of mind in hopes to find old friends , new friends, both of which along with the likes and attention we get seems to trigger a dopamine release in our brain. Often we do not get even that. Often times we get anger, despair or loneliness. You likely have old friends you knew in person who have created in their head a new image of you that wasn’t worth having around based on the views they perceived you had and they’ve hit that “unfollow”, “unfriend” or “block” button. We all have. Often you aren’t gaining quality new friends and relationships, you’re losing old ones. Is that worth selling yourself short for?
Your Worth Online
Your content is worth something, which is why those companies are worth something. As a matter of fact, at this moment Facebook’s market cap is around 800 Billion dollars and with 2.7 billion users that makes each user worth about $300. That is without considering how many fake accounts, bot accounts, and the multiple accounts people have. That’s an average and likely if you’re viewing this page you’re worth far more than that to them. This also doesn’t account for all your other social media accounts and internet activity in general. Our image, our content and our internet livelihood is essentially auctioned off as cattle, sheep, or old items you no longer need on eBay. Without trying to be too “wholesome” … Your are worth something! You’re worth quite a bit, even just your internet activity. It costs a lot less than $300 to create a website like this. This is a WordPress based website which is a free platform, beyond that you only have to pay for your domain and your hosting both of which I will explain for you. You can also do it all possibly for free which I will explain as well.
Should We Delete Our Social Media?
I am not advocating completely getting rid of all social networks. Rather I think you should own your own site, your own content and post those links to your site on those platforms to draw them away. You can make your site look however you want, control what is on it, serve ads if you want and make money off your own content, your business or both however you want. These social media networks have gotten used to not serving us but rather herding us, so why have any allegiance? A little pressure and soon they would try and serve us better, but for now… we are just cattle to them.
Summary
I have owned this domain for a pretty long time, over a decade and these are some of the reasons why. I have also just wanted to own my name dot com as not everyone is able to do so. If someone googles me, I’d like to have more say and control of what comes up. I’d like to represent myself and my content how I want instead of trusting these tech giants and any opportunistic person online to do it for me. I want to show the great things in life on here, the beauty, and decide for myself what it’s worth selling for if anything.
Lets make a website!
It’s clear you need your own website to secure the value and image of you and your content, but how do you do make one? Have no fear I am going to show you exactly how to start a website just like this one, I will even try to guide you in doing it for free. I will also be here to answer your questions and help you along the way and whatever goals you have if you decide to make one. Simply leave me a comment on this page or email me at preston@prestonshamblen.com . Click here or the image below to get started!
