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Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

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Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#31

Post by nicolas_t »

As a side note, I miss reading blogs from people. I remember 12-14 years ago when google was still useful to find information, I would often stumble onto blogs that had a lot of relevant info. For example when looking for reviews about a private school, I'd see a blog with someone whose kids go to that school, when looking for reviews of a restaurant, I'd see someone with reviews on their blog, etc...

Now it seems that whenever I search for something, I only get content farm and search engine optimized garbage.

I do get that now a lot of this has migrated to instagram, tiktok and/or youtube but it's not searchable (and it's a lot less useful than it used to be)...

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#32

Post by vaylian »

davidtos wrote: post #27

I have been writing for my personal blog now for a year. The time spend writing and editing does feel worth it. My writing is a lot better than it was a year ago. It helped me to get noticed at my work and to make new connections. You will always learn something about the stuff you write. To write better, some new way of doing something, or something from the comments. I run my blog through cloudflare pages. I only h…

> You will always learn something about the stuff you write. To write better, some new way of doing something, or something from the comments.

This. While you try to explain something to the potential reader, you will notice some holes in your own understanding. Teaching/explaining helps you become better at something.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#33

Post by tnzk »

pamoroso wrote: post #2

It's definitely worth it for me as my blog doubles as a repository or personal notes, projects, and ideas I reference often. And sometimes I get noticed, so far without further opportunities. What made me blog way more, from once per month to nearly daily, was to switch to a lightweight, low-friction hosted blogging platform. Now the tool fades away and blogging feels fun.

> a lightweight, low-friction hosted blogging platform

Which platform have you swictched to?

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#35

Post by diamondap »

It's been worth it for me, though not yet in the way I had expected. I write novels when I'm not coding, and I maintain a self-hosted blog about reading and writing mysteries and thrillers. I had hoped to draw a loyal audience of readers who would buy my books, though I never actually implemented a coherent readership-building strategy. I just wrote about whatever I felt like.

Turns out, a handful of like-minded readers, authors, and editors have gotten in touch through my contact page. Those contacts have opened up a number of opportunities and helped me develop a network.

I had a larger following on my Facebook author page years ago, but I didn't like the platform or the company. I stayed on solely for the author page. Judging by the number of followers and post engagements, I seemed to have a broader reach there. But I can say the actual engagement of those followers was much shallower.

People have contacted me through my blog for film rights and European publishing rights (neither of which panned out). They've given me free copies of books by other authors to review. They've invited me to write articles for their sites, and more.

I wouldn't say my blog has helped develop a brand, but it has definitely been useful. And it's never a chore if you just write when you please about what you please.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#36

Post by newswasboring »

nicolas_t wrote: post #31

As a side note, I miss reading blogs from people. I remember 12-14 years ago when google was still useful to find information, I would often stumble onto blogs that had a lot of relevant info. For example when looking for reviews about a private school, I'd see a blog with someone whose kids go to that school, when looking for reviews of a restaurant, I'd see someone with reviews on their blog, etc... Now it seems th…

All of that stuff has been commodified and monetized. In a world where that wasn't happening, this sort of (for the lack of a better term) organic content would be on instagram etc.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#37

Post by hkon »

nicolas_t wrote: post #31

As a side note, I miss reading blogs from people. I remember 12-14 years ago when google was still useful to find information, I would often stumble onto blogs that had a lot of relevant info. For example when looking for reviews about a private school, I'd see a blog with someone whose kids go to that school, when looking for reviews of a restaurant, I'd see someone with reviews on their blog, etc... Now it seems th…

YouTube took over that niche. What used to be a blog post is now a 10 minute video.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#38

Post by whoomp12342 »

nicolas_t wrote: post #31

As a side note, I miss reading blogs from people. I remember 12-14 years ago when google was still useful to find information, I would often stumble onto blogs that had a lot of relevant info. For example when looking for reviews about a private school, I'd see a blog with someone whose kids go to that school, when looking for reviews of a restaurant, I'd see someone with reviews on their blog, etc... Now it seems th…

SEO is much like prioritizing lines of code developed. When you set an arbitrary measure and enforce upon that, you will find that the only thing achieved is that arbitrary measure.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#39

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

davidtos wrote: post #27

I have been writing for my personal blog now for a year. The time spend writing and editing does feel worth it. My writing is a lot better than it was a year ago. It helped me to get noticed at my work and to make new connections. You will always learn something about the stuff you write. To write better, some new way of doing something, or something from the comments. I run my blog through cloudflare pages. I only h…

Writing and communication is an engineering superpower. Writing critically about anything is still a good exercise.
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