I have a few blog-related issues I’d like to get out in the open. Feel free to address whichever one you feel most qualified to help me with! I put it under “Software” as finding a new platform is a major reason behind this post.
First, Some Background (2012-2016 or so…)
A few years ago I had a tech blog of sorts. It wasn’t huge, but I wrote articles a couple times a week that aimed to help my friends and family with their tech issues. I introduced them to cool apps, walked them through backing up files, told some funny stories (I thought ), and I wrote a few guest posts on some app sites. I even got some Trello and Evernote swag at one point, along with some Day One/1Password licences to give away (before subscriptions took over the world). In the end, I hated maintaining Wordpress, and I didn’t like the constant pressure of having to keep posting, even when I didn’t have anything particularly life-altering to say. It became more of a chore than a fun hobby, so I shut it all down.
2023 (Blot.im)
Seeing some of you maintain blogs, I was inspired to get back in the game. I knew I didn’t like Wordpress and I wanted a friction-free experience for very little money, given the fact I wasn’t committed to this project in the first place. I landed on Blot based on some recommendations in this forum. I liked it a lot, but using Obsidian as my front-end, I found it very finicky. I only posted three times over a six month period, so figuring out where to store image files, how to link to them, and all the little Blot tricks – it wasn’t for me. It’s a genius piece of software/setup, but even with my background in programming, I just found the setup to be very particular. I was constantly looking up how to do things. I deleted the site yesterday.
A Future Site, But on What Platform?
Currently thinking of Micro.blog and Ulysses. You can publish posts directly from Ulysses and I’m familiar with the app. Ghost is too expensive and as mentioned, I’m not a Wordpress fan. I have my own domain through Fastmail, so I would like to implement that if possible. That’s my current line of thinking for a new site…
Future Steps
A little history again first, sorry. When I returned to University for some part-time courses a few years ago, I did an Arts Degree with a major in History. For my elective courses, I chose a lot of classes that were focused on writing (e.g. Intro to Academic Writing, Creative Writing etc) because it is something I enjoy and a muscle I had never really flexed before. I had a few profs tell me I was a good writer, and on class forum sites my fellow students would sometimes comment that I wrote well, always with an eye on entertaining the reader. So it seems I’m decent at it, and I enjoy it, though I’m definitely more of a casual writer than someone who should be investigating for the NY Times. Also, a few random compliments don’t put me in Charles Dickens territory. I’m not saying that to make it sound like I’m really great or extraordinary. I’m just saying I seem to be okay at it and I do like it.
But let me take you away for a minute here…
I remember in highschool our teacher was talking about Romeo and Juliet, and she said it wasn’t so much that they they were in love with each other, but they were in love with the idea of being in love. I may have fumbled her interpretation of that, it WAS 25 years ago, but you get the idea.
I sometimes wonder if I don’t love writing but rather, I love the idea of writing.
My point is, part of me wants to fire up Ulysses and Micro.blog and make a run at writing a bit more. The other part of me dreads the idea of sitting down at my desk to write a blog post after already sitting on a computer all day for work. I also don’t love the idea of paying $100-$150 a year to keep a site going when I never post to it. But I also feel like a blog has value that’s worth working for as well. Maybe in the future I’ll want to look at a job more in communications or with a more admin side. Having some online writing on display would be a benefit. It would give me a home base on the web. It would get me off the couch and away from YouTube when I’m writing a post.
Finally – it’s hard to put the effort into all this when your audience starts at zero. It’s a slog to get going. With kids, sports, social activities, work – I’m not sure I want to get into it again.
Or am I overthinking it? Is it worth the financial cost to at least keep a home for myself going?
Finally – I feel like whenever I have something to say, I come here and write 12 pages for you poor people. I feel like I should be posting these extended thoughts on my own site sometimes.