Own Your Own
For newsletter writers, podcasters, coaches, authors and small nonprofits.
I was on Squarespace for ten years. This year I moved my website, my reader list and the tools I use every day onto a server of my own, and I’ve been helping other people and small organizations do the same. Here’s what that looks like, what it costs, and how I’d help you do it.
It’s like hiring a construction company to build your house. They’ll build your house, but then it’s your house. You don’t have to keep paying them after the house is built.
I can help you do it yourself, or build it for you. Either way, it’s yours.
Just want a simple website?
You don’t need a server or anything on this page to start. A friend who’s a school principal wanted a page of his own, and helping him turned into a starter anyone can use. It sets everything up in your own accounts:
- Sign up for GitHub and Cloudflare, on your own email. Both are free.
- Open Make your page: type your name, a line about you and your links, and watch it build. Then click Deploy to Cloudflare. A couple of minutes later it’s live, free, in your own accounts.
- Want your own .com? It’s about $10 a year in your own Cloudflare.
- Want more than a page? With Claude Code (it comes with Claude Pro), just ask Claude for anything. That’s how I built this site.
Cost: free to start. About $10 a year for your own .com, and Claude Pro once you want Claude building with you. Stuck? Email me and I’ll help.
What are you renting?
Tap the ones you pay for. Each one shows what owning it looks like, with a guess at what it costs from the usual plan prices, so you’ll see what you’re spending on rent each year. Slide it if yours is higher or lower. Nothing you pick here leaves this page.
Nothing picked yet.
The starting numbers are guesses from typical published plan prices, not quotes. Every plan and team is different, so the sliders are there to make them yours.
And as you grow?
Many of these charge more as your audience grows. Kit, Mailchimp and HubSpot price by the size of your list, so the bill climbs just when switching gets hardest.
Get your personal tech landscape, as a PDF
Where you are now, where you could own your own tools, and how to start: an easy first step and a complete path for each one, with how I did it.
I’ll email it to you as a PDF, and it opens right here too. Your picks and numbers go with your email only to write your report. You’ll also get my Saturday essay; unsubscribe anytime.
What I’ve built for myself
Everything here runs on one server I rent from DigitalOcean, at an address I own. No page builder, no platform. Plain files I can read, change and keep.
Off Squarespace, nothing lost
A video tour of my old site next to the new one, and how I moved twenty years of writing without breaking a single old link.
The whole setupTech Independence
My domain, server, email and reader list, step by step: when I did each one, what it costs, and how.
My own AIBuilding Sky
The AI assistant that lives on my server. I can read and change the files that shape how it thinks.
An app on your phoneDaily Gratitude
One question a day. Put it on your home screen like any app. Your answers stay on your phone.
An app for two friendsBack to the Feature
A movie picker for me and my best friend, with our own sign-ins, shared lists and phone notifications.
A writing app1000 Words
A blank page a day for anyone. No account, and the writing never leaves your browser.
Everything you rent, built to be yours
This isn’t an agency. It’s me, my advice and the work I do with you, mostly with people and organizations doing good work. Each of these replaces something people usually pay for every month.
Your newsletter
Your list in your own database, sending from your own domain, with no tier to outgrow. Mine works this way, and so does a writer’s I built.
Your website
Plain, fast pages you own, with every old link still working. My own, a writer’s with a home for the book, and a foundation’s public site.
The backend, kept running
Sign-ups, applications, sign-ins and document signing in place of DocuSign. Monitored, kept up to date, and backed up off the server every night.
Your people
Your contacts in your own database: where each one came from and what they care about. It’s how I keep track of my own readers.
Your community
A private community under your own name. I built one for a foundation’s grantees, with spaces to talk, events, chat and a way to report a problem.
Guest spots on podcasts
I pitch you to shows that fit what you have to say, and a private desk shows you every pitch, every reply and every episode.
Posts made from your own work
Carousels, short videos and scheduled posts, made from your words and your recordings. I made carousels for all 52 weeks of a client’s series, and I do the same for my essays.
What people find when they search you
Your own site first, your profiles pointing back to it, and your best reviews gathered in one place you control.
Is this for you?
Owning your own isn’t for everyone, and that’s fine. Here’s how I’d think about it.
Probably yes, if
- You have a list, a site and a pile of subscriptions that cost a little more every year.
- Your newsletter is close to the next pricing tier.
- You want your writing, your readers and your work to be yours for good, wherever the platforms go.
- You’re curious, and you don’t mind learning a little along the way.
Maybe not, if
- You want something you never have to think about. A hosted platform may suit you better, and that’s a fine choice.
- Most of your readers find you inside a platform’s own network, like Substack’s recommendations.
- Your tools cost very little and nothing about them bothers you.
If it’s not a hell yeah, it’s a no. Not sure? Write me anyway and we’ll figure it out together.
Five steps, at your pace
- Start with what you’re trying to do. Not a brief to execute: what you want your site, your list or your organization to make possible, and what’s getting in the way today.
- Look before we touch anything. We list every tool you pay for and every address your site has now. That list becomes the checklist.
- Build it with you, in the open. Your code lives in your own GitHub, on your own server. I build with Claude Code, and you can see every change.
- Move without breaking anything. Every old link forwards to its new home, your whole list comes with you, and the old service stays on until the new one works.
- Hand you the keys. The domain, the server, the code, the list, and plain notes on how it all fits together. Keep me around for upkeep, or don’t. It’s your house.
What owning costs
Owning isn’t free, but it’s much cheaper than renting, and your list has no contact limit to outgrow. These are my own numbers.
| Piece | What I use | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Your address | A .com at Cloudflare, which charges what the registry charges | $10 a year |
| A server | DigitalOcean (mine is bigger, so I pay more) | From $4 to $12 a month |
| Email at your domain | Cloudflare Email Routing into Gmail | Free |
| Sending your newsletter | Resend; the list itself stays on your server | Free for a small list (3,000 emails a month) |
| Your website | Plain web pages on the server you already rent | Free |
The real cost is a little learning. It’s a bit of a curve, but it’s not bad, and it’s the best thing to be learning right now. The step-by-step version is on Tech Independence.
A great tool. Your vision.
AI is why one person can build all of this now. I use it to think harder, not less: not “give me the answer” but “ask me the question.” What it can’t bring is the part that’s yours.
I wrote more about this in How I use AI and Handmake your life.
Let’s talk
If you’re ready to move your site or your list, or you’re just curious what it would take, send me a note. No rush and no pressure. I love this stuff.
Right now I’m doing this with a few people as a collaboration: we build it together, and with your OK I share the story and the numbers here, so the next person can learn from it.
Email me
Follow along
I’m writing about all of this, one essay every Saturday. This form saves to my own list, on my own server.