Why It’s Still Essential To Blog On Owned Properties

Do you rent or own? That’s a simple question to answer if you are discussing real estate. However, you may not know the answer when it comes to publishing or marketing your blogged work online. But here’s the answer: It remains essential for bloggers to blog on owned property and choose rented property carefully for marketing purposes only.

Many successful, long-term bloggers have shut down their blogs and turned to sites like Medium or Substack to host long-form and short-form posts. Others have taken to repurposing what they publish on their blogs to such sites, effectively reshaping the content.

Despite these bloggers’ decisions…and all the those who saw such actions as a sign to follow suit, I’ve maintained my opinion that its best practice to use an “owned” property—a website (and blog) built with a URL you purchased and self-hosted—rather than a “rented” site—one run by some other organization, group, or company. Rented properties remain effective for promoting your work to a larger audience.

That said, I’m always open to learning something new or hearing a different perspective. So, I sought some out.

What’s New in 2025?

I recently spoke at the San Francisco Writer’s Conference, where I run a Personal Growth for Writers track. I had some free time and saw that Rusty Shelton, chairman of Zilker Media and senior marketing strategist at Forbes Books, was speaking about new developments in book marketing in 2025. I decided to attend and hear what he had to say.

I listened to him speak but heard nothing new. Good marketing strategies remain the same in 2025 as they have for years.

Shelton said the best practice is to own your website—rather than rent it. Then use rented properties, such as social media sites, to promote or market your site, books, blogs, and services, but always with one intention: to drive them back to your website so they subscribe to your mailing list.

An owned website and blog requires purchasing a URL and building your site using WordPress.org, the open-source publishing platform of choice for millions of websites worldwide—and most professional bloggers. Then, publish it with the help of a hosting company.

During the question and answer section of the session, I asked Shelton, “Do you recommend using a site like Substack for any reason, especially if you have a blog and website on an owned property?”

His answer was simple. “No. Not unless you have the time, energy, or desire to share your content there. If you don’t, just blog on your website and send people to your site by sharing the URL of each post wherever you can.”

He added, “Then, once they are on your site, provide a way to get them on your mailing list.” An email list continues to be the most powerful marketing tool for authors and bloggers.

So, when it comes to marketing, what’s new in 2025? Nothing…at least according to Shelton.

Best Blog and Book Marketing Practices for 2025

Marketing and promotion for authors overlap with bloggers. Both need a website, and a blog provides strong SEO for the site. This makes you (the blogger), your blog, and your book more discoverable in an online search. Sharing blog post links on social media provides a powerful way to click through to your site, join your mailing list, or even share the post.

However, given the popularity of Substack and bloggers’ exodus to this site, I decided to ask a blogging and website expert for feedback on using such rented property for marketing or promotion. I reached out to Chris Garrett, co-author of Problogger, internet business consultant, and web developer.

I asked, “Is it good practice in 2025 to blog (or market your blog) on rented properties?”

“Sure, but use it as an acquisition channel, not your whole content strategy,” he replied. He also offered two pieces of advice.

1. “Be careful where you hang out, so you are focusing your efforts on places where you can find your community and that will not reflect badly on you.”
2. “Bring your audience home. If you don’t own it, then you can have it taken away from you, have your content used in ways you do not approve of, or worse.”

On the topic of repurposing blog content to Substack or other rented properties for promotional purposes, Chris offered this advice: “My preference for newsletters (not specifically Substack) is to put an excerpt and a link into the newsletter and the long form version on my website that I own and which has the appropriate SEO.”

If you choose to repurpose in this manner, be sure your post has a canonical tag, which comes into play when you post the same content in multiple places. A canonical tag is a simple HTML tag that tells Google this is the definitive version of the post; the others are copies. It goes in the <head> section of your webpage.

Be Careful Where You Share and Market Your Content

My typical warning around rented properties, including all social media sites, is this: They can disappear in the blink of an eye; therefore, it’s better to own your blog property. I have a new warning for 2025: Be careful where you share and market your content and with whom…if you want to retain your audience.

Consider that die-hard Twitter/X users left that site in droves after Elon Musk purchased it. This was primarily due to concerns about the platform’s increasing levels of misinformation, harassment, and toxic discourse, attributed mainly to Musk’s ownership and policy changes. The latter was perceived as promoting unregulated content, including racist and antisemitic rhetoric, leading to a feeling of an unsafe and unmoderated online environment. These people left Twitter/X for moral and ethical reasons and to remain aligned with their values.

Similarly, some long-time Facebook users have left the site because Mark Zuckerberg changed his political leanings, which led to new site policies. Also, people have rejected the use of Substack due to who is allowed to use the platform and the information (or misinformation) they share, including racist and antisemitic content.

Having a presence on a site that doesn’t align with your values and morals looks misaligned to your audience. As Garrett said, it reflects poorly on you. Thus, using such a site may prove to be a significant enough turn-off for your audience that they choose to unsubscribe from your mailing list and stop following you on social media.

With all this in mind, I want to repeat what I’ve said for over a decade. Choose to create an owned property in cyberspace—your website and blog. This remains the best practice for bloggers and authors in 2025, as it has in the past. Use rented property only to market yourself, your book, blog, and services and drive people to your site and email list, but choose such a strategy carefully.

Are you primarily using rented or owned properties for blogging and marketing your posts? Tell me in a comment below, and please share this post with a friend and on social media.