Gone are the days where you can easily build your website and you can easily be seen and heard.

Now the competition is so great that you literally have to pass through the eye of a needle to get some traffic to your website

Having a website can greatly affect your business and it still does, that's for those that started maybe few years ago

there are over 1.4 billion websites in the world right now and each and every single one of those is struggling for the first page of google

Which leaves beginners no choice than to start investing in seo and other strategies which might also take a long while to start showing results

And to make things even difficult for website creators, platforms like quora, nairaland,craigslist and the rest have made it easier to own your own page and add content to it and also get good amount of views without even having to own a website.

I have had thousands of views to the content I share all because of nairaland but it would have been a great challenge if I had to do this for my personal website or blog.

This that I am doing for free might have taken my money time and effort if I was to transfer it to a blog or site.

So is it still profitable to own a website now without having to wait for months if not forever before you start getting the traffic or should one just stick to social sites like Nairaland, Quora and the rest

What's your take on this?

I think it's not worth it

Front page material.

Having a website makes it very easy for people to find you, read up about your company, discover what you do, and trade with you...

But

The most powerful gift you can get your self is to register an account with the most common SOCIAL Media Platform...

Instagram will give you all the pace you need while waiting for SEO expert to put your website up there.

Still reading

Naija my dear country

lol. owning a website for your brand inspires confidence and gives a professional outlook to your brand. It also gives a brief description about your brand and it's location.

most clients will first Google your brand before patronizing you. when this happens and you are not found you don't expect them to take you seriously.

Besides, website has gone beyond a static content that litters the web space. Modern websites are dynamic and is geared towards automation. Many businesses has moved away from the traditional buying and selling offline to e-commerce platforms. Businesses like paystack and others relies on their websites to run. Even big brands like mtn, glo , shell, Chevron and government agencies have websites.

Job interviews and lots more are conducted on websites. A website is more than just hosting a landing page on whogohost or Qservers

hi, I am Clinton, a fullstack web developer. If you need custom website that can send emails and SMS to your customers, integrate payment gateway like paystack etc chat me up on 0 80 .79 .41 :37:.38 or email me. Contact details on my profile

this kind of thing is if u put your mind to it..

Yes

Ode

We are in the 21st century... So. Yes it is still advisable

Following

I just wanna make FP

Depends on the business.

Some businesses need websites while some do not need.

But offline and online tactics should be used to get traffic for any business you do.

For instance, A blog need a site but getting traffic is all about using all available seo tactics on ground plus ads if you have the money.

A phone seller in my opinion do not need a website, advertising on Facebook, nairaland and other social media might bring the needed sales.

The way things are set up is that google get most revenue from ads, so the system is more favorable to those who have ad money than for those getting wanting to get free traffic from Google.

With the right knowledge in Expired domain, back linking, Money for SEO and a versatile team, you can rank #1 for thousands of keywords in a few months.

Yes yes

I cant say jareh

Omo

sacca

tits depends on what your business is all about and your goal.. for instance I can sell stuffed off my instagram account or sell on other e-commerce website e.g julia or konga but if I want to take the business to the next level I will have to build my own e-commerce website.
privacy is another issue to consider let's say u business is into collecting of sensitive information such as credit card details it will be best to own ur own web site...

pheelhip:
I cant say jareh

I tell you.

InvestingExpert:


Nairaland, Quora and the rest

Nairaland, Quora and the rest won't pay you a dime for the content you create for them. But if you have your own personal blog you can drive some of their traffic to your content by adding your link at the base of your content

It makes sense to own your own blog since you're not making money off these free websites

But the era of free traffic is long gone.

These days, you need to invest loads of money into your blog if you ever hope to make something out of it

Ads and SEO are expensive

Many blogs charge for guest post these days and they'll often give you no-follow backlinks or remove your do-follow backlinks after like a year unless you "renew".

PresidentAtiku:
Naija my dear country

How

If you own your own thread on nairaland,is seun going to share the traffic money with you?

Website will never be replaceable.

the issue of having a website is not mainly about been seen, but it increase credibility about your business

Yes Phishing

Depend on what you do. I have a company, and i have a website. Why?

1) To let clients know that I have a serious business.

2) To showcase what I do, and the services I render.

3) To be reached. By merely typing my company name on Google, it takes you straight to my website.

4) To show you my partners....

5) To link my professional email to my domain. You want to do a business worth $50, 000 with op@gmail.com? Your tender and proposal will be out the window.

6) Website serves as your business Resume.

No reasonable company/client wants to do business with a faceless company.

yes, it worth it, one of the advantage is, you become the admin and you have full control over it.
I have a website and i also post on nairaland.

they are some guys that will come and spoil your post on nairaland, but on you website, you control what you want people to see or read.

also try to make sure your website has more post, with that you will b seen and notice.

ictjobber:


Nairaland, Quora and the rest won't pay you a dime for the content you create for them. But if you have your own personal blog you can drive some of their traffic to your content by adding your link at the base of your content

These days sites that make money are not sites/blogsthat u create content for back to back but super sites that people enter and create content for themselves

What you just wrote there is not tenable in terms of profitability of websites or blogs. Talk about competition? It is there, but if you mean that you cannot make money through a website if you started today because of competition, that's where you are wrong. I started my last blog about 6 months ago. Has it started making money? No, but I'm sure it'll soon start because I've started monetization last week. The reason is that I have not put in as much work as I did with my first successful blog which by the way I started in 2018. That particular blog has earned me thousands of USD and counting.

What you need to understand is that blogging is like any other thing people do to earn money, even employment. Every employer knows that there are two types of worker: those that do the minimum they can go away with, hoping that the manager doesn't notice since they'll still get paid at the end of the month and those that do the full job for which they were employed. The same is applicable in blogging. There are so many people that start blogging because they want quick money, Not that they are willing to put in the effort and sleepless nights necessary to make their blogs a success.

Thank God for crawlers that are getting smarter, every thin and useless site from lazy bloggers are discarded by major search engines. But those who understand that blogging is all about giving people useful information are actually making money. Even if they started their blogs last month. Blogging demands expertise, skills and commitment to become successful. My first successful blog started earning in 6 months of intense work. In exactly 5 months I had it monetized, By the sixth month, it earned $750. The seventh month, it generated $1250 and so on.

Using high traffic sites such as Nairaland may give you views, but you're basically a tenant without control. But if you build your own site and put your content in it, your DA would appreciate over time and your income with it. There are few online businesses that would give you full time income with reduced stress over time than having your own website. But do not bother wasting time at it if you're not willing to learn until you become an authority in your field, so that even the search engines cannot help noticing you.

Someone said in a comment above that the era of free traffic is gone and that you need lots of money to create a successful blog. That is a lie. What you need is skill and a lot of work, not a ;lot of money. There's still massively untapped free traffic and profit out there. Just that many people are too lazy to work or too impatient to allow their labour yield fruit. Talking about fruit, one mistake people make is not understanding their capabilities and capacity in choosing a niche or keyword. When you start by competing with the big names, you end up losing out.