Start your own site today!

In 2013 I built the first Badnet site as part of the Bold & Determined universe of websites. In the 6 years that followed I set up hundreds of websites for people that wanted to have their own blog. After B&D shut down I ran Badnet for a year or so just to make sure current clients remained properly supported.

At the time I had really hoped to transition Badnet into something more than basically just a Bluehost affiliate page. For one, Victor Pride rarely wrote about what I would call practical advice for operating a blog. There were a lot of writings with compelling reasons to start a blog or motivational articles but nothing that really got into the meat and potatoes of how to operate your own site.

While ideas for what that would look like for Badnet were bouncing around in my skull we all went through Covid and the lock downs and we really started seeing the results of the brain rot produced by the chronically online crowd.

I was also feeling like the time for a service like Badnet had passed. WordPress was NEVER difficult to install but for someone that had never had a hosting account or installed anything on a remote server the whole idea was just to remove any hesitation and say, “Hey, I'll handle that!”

As WordPress grew in popularity custom install scripts became available that basically walked a new user through setup without them ever having to download the software or set up a database on their own.

At the start of Badnet I mostly ignored the setup scripts and did it the old fashioned way. This was mostly due to the fact that these scripts would email the site owner about their new site being ready as soon as I ran the script but before I'd finished cleaning things up, installing plugins and sending them their welcome package. It was easier to just do it manually and avoid the confusion.

Towards the end most shared hosts like Bluehost, Hostgator, etc. had dedicated WordPress plans. From the moment you signed up it walked you through getting WordPress up and running.

At this point, I didn't really feel the free Badnet setup service had a purpose. The hurdle of getting a site setup for absolute beginners had already been removed.

3 Things I Think Still Hold True Today

I still think having your own space online free from platforms and algorithms is important and hope to continue to encourage people to set up their own sites.

I still think WordPress is the easiest way to get started blogging or running an online business.

I still think affordable shared hosting plans like the one we have been promoting from Bluehost is where most beginners SHOULD start out.

I plan to kickstart the revamped Badnet off over the next few weeks with a series of posts explaining in greater detail why I think those three things are still true today.

I'm looking forward to sharing more with everyone.

– Badmin