You know, it wasn't that long ago.

There was RSS.

There were blogs.

There were sub-groups and communities. The weirdos found each other. The non-weirdos found each other. It wasn't perfect. But it was distributed. It was ours.

It was yours.

Now? The original dream of the web is dying. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Medium, and YouTube entice us to give them our creative work.

They control what gets amplified and what gets monetized. A few conference rooms in Silicon Valley dictate our online culture.

It's time to take it back.

Stop giving away your work to people who don't care about it. Host it yourself. Distribute it via methods you control. Build your audience deliberately and on your own terms.

Be in charge of the relationship with your audience.

Deliver value and then ask for money. Avoid unnecessary middlemen.

Always. Own. Your platform.

Do you see someone in the wild, not owning their platform? Let them know:



(•_•)

<) )╯Always

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( (> Own

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(•_•)

<) )> Your Platform

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A tiny, tiny, not-at-all-complete list of reasons you should own your platform:

This is a Sean Blanda creation on behalf of the internet. There are probably typos.