Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

Though it hasn't done anything for me as of late, in my senior year of undergrad I bought a domain name from a random person online ($70). I had no actual experience or understanding of web development, and thought this would be a good excuse to learn (in hindsight, I should have purchased a domain name for significantly less money, but having something set-up already felt like a 'win'; this was a ~big investment at the time).

I learnt about WordPress, HTML, basic CSS, and consistently wrote blog posts focused on tech in general (nothing technical - more along the lines of new gadgets, apps, useful software). Flash forward to being about to graduate and looking for jobs back home, I was asked to submit some work as proof of knowledge (this position wasn't necessarily geared to "entry-level", but at least I had something to demonstrate my limited experience). In my interviews, I was asked about this blog a lot - how it started, what I've done, my knowledge of SEO concepts and so on, and I strongly believe it's the main reason I was hired.

A blog is a long-term endeavor. You want to be able to run it long after any particular platform has declined. Ideally, it should be your portfolio that follows you throughout your career. That means you should minimize dependencies.

Also: a domain means links add value to your online identity, not the platform you happened to choose.

No shade to Edinburgh! I miss it every day. But I'll tell you this: there was no startup ecosystem there worth talking about in 2003, and a lot of people who would side-eye you and tell you to get a real job.

I mostly blog because I like writing, I like owning my own identity on my own site, and because other people have written about the benefits it's brought them.

I haven't blogged a ton (I plan to more) but I wouldn't say it's brought a ton of benefits so far.

The blog posts that have done well have had people email me nice things, produced some mean and uncharitable comment sections, some offers for low-paying freelance writing opportunities, and some signups for some projects I'm working on.

The number one piece of advice I'd give is to have some sort of goal in mind. If you're writing for fun, then make sure you have fun. If you're writing to build an audience, publish consistently and have a clear audience you're targeting in mind, and stick to writing stuff relevant to that audience. If you build an audience around a specific niche, you can convert that to something like signups for a product for people in that niche (e.g. a paid course on whatever programming topic you write about). However, you probably need to be somewhat intentional about that. And you'll probably get "stuck" in your niche to some extent, so pick one you care about. I think blogging increases your "luck surface area", but it's better to have a specific goal than hope for serendipity.

I see your point and agree - Substack etc may exist today but might not in 2-3-5y down the line and it'd be valuable to have hold of your own writing from Day 1.

On a different note, what has been the value of "creative posts" and even "creative name for your blog" for you?

I am overthinking this but sometimes I find myself wondering whether my post is really all that useful, that my blog should have a more creative/captivating name to catch audience's eyes etc. Did you ever face that? If yes/no, how'd you suggest to overcome this?