How to Get Started with the IndieWeb

Start by claiming a domain you control and publishing something there, then use the community's own entry points — the Get Started page, the #indieweb chat, and This Week in the IndieWeb — to choose tools and stay oriented. This guide fits anyone who wants a personal site as their primary online identity rather than a profile on someone else's platform. It does not require a particular platform, and the site does not state that any of these steps cost money or require an account beyond the chat.

What "getting started" actually means here

The IndieWeb describes itself as "a people-focused alternative to the 'corporate web'" and as a community of independent and personal websites built on three principles:

• Own your domain and use it as your primary online identity.
• Publish on your own site first, optionally elsewhere afterward.
• Own your content — it belongs to you, not a corporation.

The site frames the payoff in three claims: your content stays yours and in your control, your posts can be distributed to any platform rather than just one (with replies and likes from other services coming back to your site), and you can post anything in any format without monitoring, using permanent readable links such as example.com/ideas.

Step 1: Pick your starting point on the site

The main page offers a single direct action — a "Get Started Now!" link — plus a "Why IndieWeb?" page for the reasoning. Use the first if you want to begin building; use the second if you are still deciding whether the approach fits how you publish.

Decide what you are building first

The community's stated approach is "publish on your site. Show before tell," and it explicitly prioritizes "making what you need" and iterating on your own site over designing protocols and formats up front. In practice that means your first version can be a simple site with a few posts and a permanent link structure — not a fully federated setup.

Step 2: Join the #indieweb chat

The site points newcomers to the #indieweb chat (described as having a real-time log) for three concrete purposes:

• sharing your website,
• getting inspiration,
• asking about services and projects to set up your IndieWeb site.

This is the fastest way to resolve the practical question the site leaves open — which tools and services to use — because the answer depends on what you already have. Come with your domain and a description of your current setup, and ask which projects fit it.

Step 3: Follow This Week in the IndieWeb

The site recommends reading This Week in the IndieWeb for weekly highlights. Treat it as your ongoing source for what the community is building and discussing, rather than trying to absorb the whole wiki at once.

Step 4: Publish on a rhythm you can keep

Once your site exists, the community offers monthly collaborative blog carnivals that you join by posting on your own site. Each has a different topic, theme, or movie:

These are low-commitment ways to publish regularly and to see how other people structure posts on their own sites.

How to check you are on track

You have the basics in place when:

1. Your site lives on a domain you own and that domain is how you present yourself online.
2. Posts appear on your site first, with readable permanent links.
3. You can point to your content and say you control where it lives.

If a step feels blocked, the chat is the intended place to ask — the site directs questions about services and projects there rather than prescribing one stack.

Common sticking points

• Looking for a single official platform. The site is explicit that the effort differs from project-centric communities: it favors "principles over project-centrism" and is "developing a plurality of approaches and projects." Expect several valid paths, not one sanctioned tool.
• Trying to design formats before publishing. The stated order is "design first, protocols and formats second," with simpler building blocks adopted or created only when necessary. Build the site and the posting habit first.
• Skipping the community. Sharing your site in the chat and reading the weekly highlights are the site's own recommended starting moves; going it alone makes tool choices harder than they need to be.
• Ignoring conduct expectations. The community has a code of conduct, so read it before participating in shared spaces.

Where to go next

Begin with the Get Started page, then introduce your site in the #indieweb chat and subscribe to This Week in the IndieWeb. Add a monthly carnival once posting feels routine. For the underlying rationale, the site's "Why IndieWeb?" page and its section on going "beyond blogging and decentralization" explain how this community's approach differs from earlier efforts.