At work we use write.as for the blog, and I like it so far.
For my personal website, I use Jekyll on Vercel (ex. Zeit). I only did it because I wanted to code a bit and own the domain and the content.
Ask HN: Where do you write?
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#12Mostly twitter, and my company's blog.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#13Github?
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#14I have my own personal blog using Jekyll.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#15I know a couple people writing on posthaven.com, and when it comes time for me to start putting stuff online, that's what I plan to use.
Their value proposition is 1. they will keep the servers online for all time 2. low bullshit post hosting
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#16I would use my own domain, so that I have the control of my site. Why hand over the control to Medium or Wordpress.com?
Same thing with the SEO. Why give the SEO juice to Medium instead of your own personal domain?
Building a static site with e.g. Hugo or Jekyll is an appealing choice. If you want you can use Cloudfront + S3 to host it.
OTOH, Wordpress is very convenient to work with and quick to set up. If you don’t have a VPS there are shared web hosting sites that should be good enough in the beginning at least. Shared web hosting can also be used for static sites.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#17I wrote a blog post about that: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2019/10/14/how-to-start-b... But the short answer is: wherever is easiest. I find setting up a wordpress.com blog (free) easiest, but medium or dev.to are good as well. Don't let your desire to find the perfect platform inhibit your writing. The hard part about writing is the writing, not the platform. As a developer, I find it easy to get tangled up…
> Don't let your desire to find the perfect platform inhibit your writing. The hard part about writing is the writing, not the platform.
This is why the vast majority of my writing is on paper, never to be published. The act of writing helps me order my thoughts, and that’s much easier to do if I can be confident they’re only for me.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#18Medium will be OK for this purpose.
1. It's pretty quick to start
2. It's free but you can upgrade to premium for advanced features
3. Also Medium's community is a huge advantage
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#19I recommend a blog with your own URL (WordPress or Ghost). Then you can syndicate to Medium and Twitter with plugins. That way your content stays yours and you remain in control, while also getting the exposure from other platforms.
Does it really work to syndicate content to Medium? I don't remember the exact number, but the vast majority of my Medium readers (something like 80% IIRC) came from HN, Reddit, Twitter, etc. My most read article had about 170k reads before I removed my content from Medium.
Unless you have a very large following already, you're at the whim of the Medium editors to "elevate" content to the wider readership of the site, via the preexisting topics, or if you're really lucky, to feature your article on the front page.
* Edit: That doesn't mean you shouldn't! :-) However, you might get more readership - if that's what you're interested in - by writing pretty much anywhere, and just sharing it with the right communities.
Re: Ask HN: Where do you write?
#20It depends on how pro you want to get. If you have the means, I suggest getting both a story editor and a proof reader and ask them to give brutal feedback. The reality is that most stories that are written are low quality and thus don't get the audience that the writer would desire. Much like programming, it takes a while to get your stuff where you want it to be.