Why have a website?
A website is like an online mailing address: a way for people to find you on the internet.
You can purchase a domain like yourname.com and set it to redirect to whatever social media platform you use most. Some, like Tumblr, even let you directly link your account with a custom domain name.
The important thing is to just have your own online address.
But you have more control over the space when it's a self-hosted website. Creatives need our own websites because platforms come and go, but a domain remains stable so long as you own it.
Think of a website as your home on the internet. You can invite people into your living room and offer access to resources and knowledge. Or your website can just be a signpost that redirects people to other locations.
Having a web address that ends in .wordpress.com, .wix.com, .carrd.co, or one that starts with a service provider's domain like linktr.ee, does count as being on a "platform." If your address is a subdomain of a provider’s, you can lose your space if something happens to the platform.
To get your own domain, you will need to pay an annual fee to buy one from a registrar, such as 101Domain or Dreamhost. (These are not affiliate links, referrals, or endorsements. All the services mentioned are just providers I currently use or have used before.)
The domain is just your address. You also need storage for your space. Think of hosting as the house at your reserved address.
You can set up a blog using WordPress, but if you just need a place to put up a sign with links to your profiles and pages on various platforms, you can use one of these free launchpad themes below
These themes are meant to replicate the function of Carrd and Linktree. However, they're built with only HTML and CSS, meaning they're small, static files that don't have any tracking or any accounts you have to sign up for. You just download the file, customize it, and upload it to your host to display it online.
The cheapest hosting option for a site that you are really only using to reserve a space would probably be NearlyFreeSpeech.Net, which also offers domain registrations at about market average rates. 101Domain and Dreamhost also offer hosting services, as do many others.
Generally, since these are paid services, there will be tech support who can help you get things set up if you don’t know how.
A domain name is one of the absolute most basic business expenses for a creative, and is a good idea for anyone who has an online presence. It’s also some basic security for you: Even if you buy yourname.com and never use it, not even to put a page up, you have ensured that no one else can buy yourname.com in bad faith and impersonate or harass you.
Launchpad themes
Basic themes
Black & White – Light
Black & White – Dark
Designer themes
Pink
Thistle
Turquoise
Sticky Notes
How to customize the theme file
You will need to edit the following sections of the HTML file in a plain text editor that doesn't have any formatting, like Notepad, TextEdit (in plain text mode), or BBEdit.
Browser title
<head>
<title>Name / Title</title>
<style>Change the text between <title></title> to what you want to display in the top bar of the browser.
Header
<!-- Header -->
<header>
<h1>Name / Title</h1>
<h2>Tagline</h2>
</header>Change the text between <h1></h1> to your name or the title of the page.
Change the text between <h2></h2> to a short tagline or job title, or delete the line if you don't want to display one.
Description
<!-- Description -->
<aside>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue dictum lectus ac rhoncus. Mauris sed felis felis. In dictum est tortor, blandit ultricies quam ullamcorper sed. Fusce mattis gravida tellus, ac ultricies est feugiat in. Sed pellentesque est diam, quis venenatis orci accumsan eget. Etiam ac diam nec ipsum auctor varius. Vivamus bibendum risus sed tincidunt elementum. In in posuere nisl, non congue tellus. Aliquam gravida diam ut iaculis venenatis.</p>
</aside>Change the text between <p></p> to a description or bio, or delete the entire <aside></aside> section if you don't want to display one.
Surround paragraphs with <p></p>. To insert a line break, use <br>. Make sure all your description text remains between the <aside></aside> tags.
Links
<!-- Links -->
<nav>
<a href="#">LINK</a>
<a href="#">LINK</a>
<a href="#">LINK</a>
</nav>Replace the # placeholder text between the quotes with your link.
Change the LINK placeholder text to a label for your link.
Attribution
<!-- Attribution -->
<footer>
<p>Theme by <a href="https://s.qiouyi.lu/LaunchpadThemes">S. Qiouyi Lu</a></p>
<!-- Revised Month dd, yyyy -->
</footer>Linking back to this page is appreciated, but you may remove the attribution text if you'd like.
You can check whether there has been an update to the theme by comparing revision dates between your file and the one hosted here.
Fonts and colors
You can change the fonts and colors of the themes by editing the corresponding CSS properties between <style></style> in the head of the document.
Report an issue
If you encounter any issues or find any bugs, please feel free to report it via my Report an Issue page.
