Being “Everywhere” Online

If I were to list out all of the websites that I own or am a part of, it would probably span several pages. But is that a good thing, being in so many places, or is it too much? What websites are best to be a part of? Do you really need a different website for everything you do?

I think being “everywhere” online has its advantages and disadvantages, just like anything else. In my experience, it’s better to have or be a part of more than one website, simply because you can connect with more people that way. But I have also experienced the downside of this idea, where one is a part of so many things that it becomes extremely difficult to keep track of everything.

When I first began creating accounts on websites, I had every intention of being active, of perhaps uploading art and graphics, of roleplaying and being a part of conversations, of giving advice and accepting it too. But I came to use some sites more than others, eventually forgetting about certain sites altogether. I didn’t learn my lesson though! I joined multiple forums with those same intentions, and now visit only a handful of all those that I joined. I did the same thing again with my own website…s, and again with my blogs. (Thank goodness I’ve only made one Twitter!)

When it finally dawned on me that I had way too many accounts and websites, I was in a bit of a predicament. With content scattered around cyberspace, there was no single site that had all of my stuff. I also ran into a problem with YouTube once Google bought it. When I made multiple YouTube accounts, I unknowingly made Google accounts. Now the one Google+ account that I use is attached to a YT account that I don’t use at all. Oops.

Perhaps I have finally learned my lesson! But how do I clean up the mess I made? ^^;

Merging accounts and/or their content is a great way for me to downsize the amount of sites I maintain by combining the related material and purging them of unnecessary pages. For example, by moving posts from a stale blog to an archive in an active blog, I can delete the stale blog to free up that space, and then I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

That being said, is it bad to have more than one blog? Not at all. I honestly wouldn’t have more than two or three, though, because then it can get out of hand. (I’m still working on this myself. XD) I have seen many cases where an artist has a sketch blog, a personal blog, and another blog for finished art or photography. In my case, however, I use this blog as a catch-all and post art, photos, and text “journal” posts, while my Tumblr is mainly for art. It depends on you and what you want to dedicate each blog for.

What websites are best to be a part of?
There are several websites that are commonplace, used widely by all sorts of people, and if you have an account on each (or some) of these, you’ll be reaching a lot more people than if you remained on only one site.
Wikipedia has a list of social networking websites here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
I will review some of them; most of the ones I review I have used personally.

*Twitter – Twitter is great for sharing small bits of information quickly. In terms of linking, if your blog is linked to Twitter, when you post it will show a link to your post in your timeline, which all of your followers will see in their feed.

*Blog – Having a blog somewhere is basically the norm nowadays; the real question is where do you host your blog? You could have it integrated into your website, or have a free or paid account somewhere…but where?
+WordPress
I think WordPress really is one of the most widely used blogging platforms, period. It can be used to build a website, and because it’s fundamentally a blog, your blog is built right in. For those who don’t want to do that or don’t have a website, it can also be used by simply creating an account for free on WordPress.com. (In case you haven’t noticed, that’s where this blog is hosted! XD) I really like WP and I would definitely recommend it!
+Tumblr
Tumblr is another widely-used blogging service that I also really like. It might take a few minutes to a half-hour to get used to how you edit your blog’s appearance, but once you get that down, everything else is super easy.
+Blogger (Blogspot)
Blogger is connected to Google, so you’ll end up having a Google account as well. I signed up more than a year ago to connect with some Hello!Project fans and translators, but I’ve never liked the interface (though thanks to the recent updates, that has improved) and the text I post tends to get messed up in one way or another. If you want to use only one service (where all of your content is in one place–Google provides YT, mail, Documents, Maps, etc.), then Blogger is a good choice for you.
+Google+
I suppose Google+ is similar to Facebook in how it operates, though I’ve never used Facebook; only viewed some pages. I like it. I would use it a lot more if it were connected to the Youtube account that I actually use. >.> Again, this is integrated into Google (obviously), so with this you could have Blogger and Google+ in one place. I will say that Google+ is easier to use than Blogger. However, your posts aren’t in a typical blog/journal format…it looks a bit more like Twitter in the way it displays them.
+Facebook
Again, I’ve never used Facebook and I don’t want to. But this is obviously a popular social networking site that a lot of people use. Many people have both a Facebook and a blog.

How can I integrate content/sites?
Pretty much all of the sites I listed can be used in combination with each other, or at least used alongside each other. Twitter can be embedded in WordPress and Tumblr, for example, and people who follow you can get updates when you post. Twitter can also be embedded in your personal website.

As for your own content (as in, not third-party), you can choose to have different things on different domains or subdomains, or put everything in one place. I think it is a lot easier if you keep everything in one place; I have several subdomains (a site on each subdomain) and it unfortunately discourages me from working with them. ^^;

One thing you could do is make or commission a new layout that will allow all of your content to be displayed properly on that one site. The content width (meaning the area where the content will go) needs to be wide enough to allow a good amount of text to fit, as well as pictures and video, but small enough so that the user doesn’t have to scroll side to side when they view your page.

In the end, of course, it all comes down to your personal choice! Choose the platforms, layouts, and applications that will work for you. c:

So where am I online?
Well, I did say a list of websites I own or am a part of would span several pages, so you can visit the “About” page of this blog to see the short version. It includes Twitter, Tumblr, my website, and DeviantART. ^^

Do you have websites you would recommend to be a part of? Have you experienced that overload of using and maintaining too many websites? Leave a comment and let me know!

*Prompt: “What are your online presences?” – Brandi

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