The website is dead. Long live the website!
I strongly dislike websites. This is almost confusing even to me - after all, my technology career started just before Netscape 1.0 came around, I learned HTML very early on and started creating sites left and right, complete with blinking text and rotating little spheres with highlights. If you care to experience the world through the 1995 lens, check this out - it’s a simulator that lets you pick your operating system and the browser version to try out. Windows 95 with Navigator 4.0? Hello, nostalgia!
I’ve come to believe that for most companies’ needs, websites provide very little actual benefit but take a TON of work. Yes, it can be considered “cost of doing business”, and that’s a valid point, but is it a truly necessary cost, anymore? Not every business is required to have a brick-and-mortar storefront these days, and there’s more to online presence than a “website.”
All the reasons for not having a website aside, for now let’s just say that I’ve been considering alternative approaches to a website while achieving the following goals:
Being findable/discoverable through search
Having flexible online presence
Promoting my messages and sharing information
Connecting with potential and current customers
Exploring online commerce
Spending the absolute minimum of non-productive time to make it all work
Keeping costs close to $0
Discovering new ways of projecting my presence into new areas
Using new technologies such as AI and automation
One of these alternatives is Substack, which provides a fantastic way of achieving many of my goals, all without any hassle associated with any website publishing platform. It’s not a complete replacement of all the functionality that a “good” website will deliver, but it’s a lot, and when augmented by other tools (such as linktr.ee), has the potential to replace the traditional website.
What do you think about company sites? Have you had similar thoughts and experiences?