Every day, I bump into numerous young people who either want to build a career in digital marketing or start an entrepreneurial journey. So naturally, they ask me what’s the first step of beginning it all. While I should honestly admit that I’m no expert at anything, I can still guide young people to make the right decision because I’ve been there and done that. 

Anyways, the first thing I’d suggest to everyone is to own a website. Why? I’ll provide a detailed explanation about it in the article and share my experience with you about how investing nothing but my time on my website has helped me navigate in the right direction.   

This article is for those who haven’t still owned a website. So allow me to begin with my mistakes so you won’t repeat them. 

It was at the beginning of 2015 when I thought maybe I should have my own website. Well, I can’t justify what made me want to own a website then. So perhaps it was just a thought triggered by my desire to look cool in front of my friends or whatever because I had no idea of the benefits of a website back then, other than a false feeling that having a website will make you superior to your peers.  

Back then, I was a traditional marketer, still with zero knowledge of digital marketing and the digital world as a whole. But I had a very active social life; I was always available in my circle and had a solid social media presence. Therefore, I needed a website to show people that I had my place on the internet. So I owned a website. And that’s it. Nothing more, nothing less! 

Guess what? I wasn’t the only person in my circle who had thought about owning a website at that time. A photographer friend of mine also wanted a website for himself, and he created one. The only difference was that he didn’t want a website to make him look cool. Instead, he had created the website to document his work or maybe sell the world his skills. 

My life took a different turn in the next few years, where I learned many things from my failures. I learned to listen to people, learned to become honest and admit I wasn’t always right, and most importantly, I learned to learn more and respect people who suggested the right thing.

Fast forward to 2019 — I wasn’t as social as I used to be a few years ago, I wasn’t active on social media, I wouldn’t care if I looked cool in front of my circle anymore, and I was married for two years. I had become more humble with failures and mounting responsibilities. And most importantly, I had joined the digital marketing world. That was when I realized I could have done so many things and benefited in so many ways with my website had I only done anything more than just paying for the domain and hosting every year. 

I was a hundred percent sure my photographer friend hadn’t achieved anything better than me. So I decided to connect with him after a few years, just to know how he had been all those times. I was more curious to see if he had made any progress with his website. After all, I was in digital marketing; he wasn’t. In fact, he never had any idea how marketing works. 

But to my surprise, he had managed to establish an online business out of his website in four years. Also, he had been living a much more comfortable life since quitting his job. Everything he had achieved had everything to do with his website and his hard, continuous work on it. While my website had only me as the visitor, his website had more than three thousand visitors every month. He was making thousands of dollars through Google ads and his photography services. That was in early 2019. I don’t need to mention where he is now since his business boomed during the pandemic.

I had been a marketer for most of my life, but my failure to learn and lack of energy to take action had kept me from achieving my only goal — to be independent by all means. So was I jealous of my photographer friend? I certainly was. But it wasn’t the time to regret it; as a famous saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” 

So I began taking action. Though I was busier than ever and had more responsibilities than before, I somehow managed to allocate a few hours for my website every day. It had been a while since I was helping my clients out with their digital marketing stuff. So I used my knowledge to build my own house. I wasn’t a master of anything, but I decorated my website with my experience because I needed content to move it ahead. And it’s been working fine since. 

Today, my website is my portfolio, my passive source of income, and the best tool to connect with creative people and clients. I’m now planning to give it more attention because it has become one of my most valuable assets.   

I don’t think you’ll need to know anything more to understand why you need a website. 

Final words

You may argue you’re not an expert on anything, so you can’t basically make money from a website. You’re outright wrong! There are people in the world who want to hear your story and learn from your experiences. Your experiences are exclusive to you, and many people in the world will find them valuable if you only shared them out there. It’s great if you’re in the process of learning a skill, such as designing, coding, or digital marketing, which sells more than anything else right now. With these skills, you can benefit more from your website than your client’s website. All you need to do is be consistent, disciplined, and patient. 

So what’s holding you back? Build your website now. You can create a website for a yearly fee that costs less than a pair of jeans. Visit Bluehost and build your world as per your budget.