--- original_url: "https://jace.pro/blog/own-your-content/" format: markdown ai_optimized: true --- Own Your Content- # Own Your Content June 15, 2020 [thoughts](/tags/thoughts/) Enable AI AnimationHave you ever had a something you made and loved? Then did you ever look for it later and find it gone? I have. It’s a terrible, terrible feeling. For me it was my Geocities site. Thinking back on it now, it was my ten year old me writing my thoughts and feelings. But it was mine. I know their was a project to save geocities content somehow, but for me, that site is long gone. There’s other things like this. A lot of my early work on ServiceNow also is gone. Not because the code is gone. I assume those solutions are still on those instances. But, my access to those are gone, my reasons for those solutions are gone. If I’ve learned anything about other peoples platforms, it’s that you can’t trust they will be there forever. If you want that level of security, you need to **always own your platform**. ## [](#why-should-you-own-your-own-content)[Why should you own your own content](https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/#why-should-you-own-your-own-content) Simple. When it’s yours, you have ultimate control of it’s distribution. If you post it on Facebook, you are conceding to the fact that users have to also be on Facebook. If you post it on ServiceNow’s community, you’re giving up things like; [canonical URL](https://yoast.com/what-is-a-canonical-url/) - [social media image control](https://css-tricks.com/essential-meta-tags-social-media/) - the ability to see traffic via [Google Analytics](https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=analytics), [Plausible](https://plausible.io/), or [Clicky](https://clicky.com/) Don’t get me wrong. ServiceNow isn’t going away anytime soon. Since I’ve worked with them their community has had at least three versions. With each one, some things were never saved when they moved. If you blog about whatever, you should host it yourself. The easiest way to do that is with the [JAMStack](https://jamstack.org/). ## [](#how-do-i-get-started)[How do I get started](https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/#how-do-i-get-started) Ok Jace, I’m in, how do I get started? - Short answer: [click this](https://app.netlify.com/start/deploy?repository=https://github.com/philhawksworth/eleventyone) link to deploy a site to Netlify for free. Longer answer; So there is some set up, however if you’ve been doing any scoped app development, it’s literally a click away. No joke. I’m a big fan of [Netlify](https://www.netlify.com/). They have a site with templates and everything to get started. This site, as it is now uses [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/). I’m working on moving to [11ty](https://www.11ty.dev/). If you’re getting started, I’d go to Phil Hawksorth’s github repository for [eventyone](https://github.com/philhawksworth/eleventyone), and click --> ### [](#jace-i-dont-like-javascript)[Jace, I don’t like Javascript!](https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/#jace-i-dont-like-javascript) Okay, okay there’s tons of generators. - [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) uses Go. - [Gatsby](https://www.gatsbyjs.org/) uses React. - [11ty](https://www.11ty.dev/) uses javascript. Each one has it’s pros and cons. I’ve used all of these. Effectively they are the same. ## [](#what-else-can-i-do-with-one-of-these-sites)[What else can I do with one of these sites](https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/#what-else-can-i-do-with-one-of-these-sites) Lots of things. You know that [news.jace.pro](https://news.jace.pro/) site I have. Yep, that is actually built daily using this stuff. The code feels ugly but it works. I plan to move it around a bit, but that’s a more complicated thing you can do. Phil Hawksworth has a site showing the same kinda of stuff called [vlolly.net](https://vlolly.net/) working the same kind of stuff. ## [](#this-post-was-inspired-by-sean-blanda)[This post was inspired by Sean Blanda](https://jace.pro/post/2020-06-15-own-your-content/#this-post-was-inspired-by-sean-blanda) Thank you Sean Blanda for [www.alwaysownyourplatform.com](https://www.alwaysownyourplatform.com/) --- [View this page on GitHub](https://github.com/jacebenson/jace.pro/tree/main/./src/posts/2020/2020-06-15-own-your-content.md). [Own Your Content](https://jace.pro/blog/own-your-content/) [Jace Benson](https://jace.pro) ![Jace Benson](https://jace.pro/icon-512x512.png) --- *This content is from Jace Benson's ServiceNow and tech blog at jace.pro* *Original post: https://jace.pro/blog/own-your-content/*