Can I Be Bothered? — Who Needs a Website?
Titling a piece of writing, Can I be bothered, is dangerous. The answer, regardless to what the question is referencing, will always, categorically, be no. Can I be bothered to study? Absolutely not. Can I be bothered to diet and exercise? Doubtful. Can I be bothered to create a free, easy-to-use website, to publish my work and get my name out there? Go fuck yourself.
The problem with this lack of motivation and ambition, is that creating a website is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of professional life. According to Pew Research Center, only “10% of Americans don’t use the internet” (2019). This emphasises how vital it is to have an online presence, and suggests that 10% of Americans are either old or stupid (I can say that, safe in the knowledge that they’ll never be able to read what I’ve written — get a fucking computer, Margaret). This same survey states that 100% of U.S. adults, aged 18–29, use the internet, whereas only 73% of U.S. adults, over the age of 65, claim to be ‘online’ (Pew Research Center, 2019). This implies that over a quarter of old people are still sending Morse code messages to their family, and the rest are playing in Mahjong tournaments and being mildly racist on Facebook.
Despite being an American study, it’s still apparent how large a percentage of the population uses the internet. It’s therefore unsurprising that a business’s online presence, also has a direct impact on their success. 70 to 80% of consumers research a business online, before visiting in person (Fit Small Business, 2019), and 91% of customers have been to a store, because of an experience that they had online (Pixo Labo, 2019). Statistics don’t lie, and even if they did, lies get you nowhere (except perhaps to the White House or out of the EU), so clearly, creating a website for your chosen brand or business, is the key to success.
I’ve never been a man for ‘facts and figures,’ and so perhaps it might make sense to incorporate a meaningless and irrelevant example/anecdote, in order to seemingly back up my position and help get me to the word count. Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I am a strawberry salesman. It just so happens that I believe myself to be the grower of the world’s greatest strawberries, and so I would like the world to know about my product. I’d like to sell a hefty quantity of strawberries, so as to make myself a shit-tonne of money; I’ve never really been the farming type (blame the career choice on my parents), and so I’d like to retire early, purchase myself a swimming pool and drink non-alcoholic mojitos until the end of my days. At the moment, I own a small stand on the side of a relatively quiet road, and business is not exactly booming. People don’t realise quite how delicious my strawberries are, and there’s a Lidl down the road, whose strawberries are cheaper, albeit not as tasty, and money is tight for people right now. If only I had a free way of advertising my strawberries, using strong alliteration to describe their sweet, succulent and sensational flavour, detailing the whereabouts of my stand, the price of my product, and outlining some reviews from previous, incredibly satisfied customers. I imagine that if this was the case, orders would begin to flood in, and my business, and my personal brand, would really pick up. If only…
All joking aside, websites are a beneficial way of providing information to a large quantity of people, from all over the world. That being said, please visit my website: https://pleasebuymystrawberries.wordpress.com/.
