Ask HN: Is maintaining a personal blog still worth it?

Yes, define "worth it".

If you want thousands of people reading it, probably not. If you just want it there for posterity, I would say yes. In that case maybe see if it is in the wayback machine.

I have moved my site to gemini with a gopher mirror, I find that far easier to maintain and I do not really care who or if anyone sees it :)

It is a difficult question. I personally no longer run anything close to a blog.

That said, in the few instances when I stumbled upon someone's writeup, even when I disagreed with what they wrote I took a moment to appreciate the medium used ( some are into minimalism, some like amusing retro feel enforced by very new framework ). I think I even once reached out to someone to ask what they used to generate such and such effect.

Still.. I am not certain if that qualifies as meaningful connection.

Blogger for more than 20 years. I love writing and I can't stop. Last year I published 60 or 70 original posts on my two business-focused blogs, and maybe 10 on my personal blogs.

In terms of finding an audience, it starts with being a good writer and having very original outlooks or information to share. Sometimes, that entails stating something provocative or that goes against the hot takes spouted by everyone else.

I've found that using multiple platforms to market your blog posts - and also expanding into other types of creative content, such as videos or newsletters - is the best way to build awareness.

Repurposing content is important. Some great blog posts started out as my own HN comments that seemed to resonate or I thought deserved a wider audience. I'm currently working on a project to turn about 35 blog posts (which originally were published on my niche business newsletter) into a book.

Awareness also requires regular cross-promotion - video descriptions have a direct link to the blog, and social media accounts might mention a single post a half-dozen times over the course of a year.

I spend a lot of time and effort on it, but I like to do it and there are real benefits for my business.

1) I write a personal blog [0] whose posts I sometimes share here [1]. I write mainly to understand what I think and to have a "prepared statement" for conversations I am having with friends. If I develop a brand at some point, great, but it's not the point.

2) Looking at some blogs that routinely do well on HN (e.g. Dan Luu [2], Jake Seliger, [3] or Jeff Kaufman [4]), I don't see a lot of SEO-/algo-aware optimization. I see instead people who are writing persuasively about topics they're knowledgable about. Obviously that's easier said than done. But is there something you know a lot about where you have something burning to say?

3) Nate Silver, Matt Yglesias, and Noah Smith are all successful independent journalists who have written on blogging [5] [6] [7]. I'd probably start with those, but a common theme is they write a lot and they promote/talk shit on social media.

[0] https://setharielgreen.com/blog/

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911306

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fdanluu.com%2F

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https%3A%2F%2Fjakeseliger.com

[4] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jefftk.com%2F

[5] https://www.natesilver.net/p/always-be-blogging

[6] https://www.slowboring.com/p/how-to-get-slightly-better-at-t...

[7] https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/noah-smiths-writing-advice

Most of your questions revolve around acquiring readers and sharing content. I am not sure my reasons for blogging are the same as yours, but I will say that it has been beneficial for me, both personally and for my career. During job searches, it is helpful to have a collection of writing samples that show I am competent and indeed a real human rather than an LLM fabrication. On a personal level, it’s been very rewarding to get emails from people telling me my content helped them in unique ways.

If I had to start over, I would certainly do it again.

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