What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating and publishing a website?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

I've had websites for nearly a decade, the bulk of which are essays I've compiled. Many of them make evil people very angry to the point of attempting a denial of service attack against me. Another disadvantage is seeing all the pedophiles visiting one of my pages because of keywords it contains. Oh, and there's also increased email spam despite taking steps to hide the address from spiders.

On the plus side, some really good people have contacted me and we've become online friends. An intelligence agent exposing government crimes liked my site enough to send me a free copy of he and his wife's latest book.

Other perks include being asked to write an article on Disney for Paranoia Magazine, and I'm also being published by the Society of Applied Psychology in Mexico. Wikipedia even credits my Brain Implants essay as the basis for their article.

I've also been able to get Best Answer for some web design questions here.

As for making money from my sites, while I'm not trying to sell products, the Google ads I host on just a few pages are actually covering my web hosting bills.

Answer 2

That's a badly formed question - why are you thinking of creating a website? If you have a good reason: you want a personal blog, you're making a website for a business, you are an artist and want to show your work. If you have no reason to create a website, then the disadvantages will outweigh the advantages, which are zero.

Answer 3

Sounds like a homework question.

Advantages:
* Reach a wider audience for your product and/or services.
* Open 24x7 for customers.
* Cheap compared to IVR (automated phone), print, TV, radio.

Disadvantages:
* Risk damage to brand due to hackers defacing website.
* Might not be able to cope with increased business -- website can increase volume that you may not be able to cope with.
* Potential loss of privacy (eg if blogging).

Follow-up question: How many teachers use Yahoo Answers?