Things aren't as they used to be on the Internet. When I started publishing on my previous website of the same url, I just installed Wordpress, configured a theme and started blogging.
I paid little attention, because I didn't have to, to legal and regulation issues related to having a website these days.
This time around there are numerous UK, EU and global regulations to adhere to, especially because I plan to be deriving some kind of income from this venture at some point.
I need to create up-to-standard Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and other such pages due to some new, very strict regulations.
This is why it is taking a while for my website to be ready for purpose. It's also partly because this kind of paperwork puts me off. When I'm done, I will probably hire a professional to give the site a once-over to ensure I'm in compliance with all the required laws and regulations.
There's also Article 13, which I'm not too bothered about since I mainly create my own content. I don't do reaction videos, movie reviews or covers of other people's songs. I should be fine on that ground.
When it comes to deriving income, a big difference now is that we have the Steem Blockchain, with with the help of SteemPress, I can plug my website into. I already have community on there, as well as a source of revenue for my posts.
As such, I will probably completely disable the built in comments section of Wordpress - which is mainly spam and hacking attempts now anyway. I also don't have to worry about generating so much traffic just yet - in order to benefit from Google Adsense.
I can however use my Affiliate Marketing links, including banners and photo blocks.
The initial dream is for this website to pay for itself so it is at least sustainable for now. My previous websites had not done that, so they were kind of a financial liability.
I could just blog directly using one of the dApps (decentralised Applications) on there, but the way things are going, everyone is moving towards having their own independent system, but plugged into a decentralised blockchain like Steem. This gives me a lot more control of things like - how long my content stays up for and how I present the information.
For now I'm just grateful for this technology and the opportunity it brings for small creators like myself to share and monetise our stuff.
