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Why blog if nobody reads it?

andysblog.uk

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Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#61

Post by zoogeny »

Totally tangential, but I was thinking this morning about my experience as a kid when my parents forced me to be an alter boy at our local church. There are these occasional observances where the church is obligated to put on a special service, part of a liturgical calendar. Sometimes these happen at like 11am on a Wednesday. It was nice to get out of school to go and burn some incense and follow the priest around while he mumble prayers, instead of sitting bored out of my mind memorizing times tables or whatever.

For the majority of these minor observances, almost no one showed up. Maybe you'd get a couple of old ladies but otherwise the church was completely empty. We'd be doing this elaborate stage show for no one.

It made me think of a history YouTube video I watched about some ancient religion. The priests had a complex daily ritual including setting out meals for the Gods, saying certain prayers including certain physical movements like bowing, prostrating, raising their hands. They would have to do certain cleaning rituals including incense and sweeping. Super elaborate stuff. But it was all in an inner chamber and no one would come and even watch them. They just did this ritual for no one.

I suppose I think it is interesting to see a parallel here. Like, us tech people are spiritual hermits, cargo-culting our own incantations. We're keeping a tradition alive that in only rare cases actually has an audience because we have a some faith in its utility.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#62

Post by BirAdam »

I just enjoy reading and writing. My blogging used to be very infrequent tutorials, but I switched over to history. I get read now, but I still do it just because I enjoy it.

HTTPS://www.abortretry.fail

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#63

Post by bawolff »

afterburner wrote: post #32
begueradj wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people wrote about why it is important to blog, but I never heard of what you just stated about credibility. That's the best and most convincing thing I ever heard. Thank you very much for having shared it here.

It's just self-marketing. Nothing new.

I think the key is that its high effort self marketing. Its proving you are willing to put in work which is hard to fake.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#64

Post by bawolff »

I have a blog that nobody reads (or very few anyways).

The one exception was that one time i put some vacation pictures from portland. I dont understand how or why, but that got 10x the hits.

It almost feels like there is an inverse relationship between effort and views.

Regardless, the main reason i write is to try and sharpen my writing skills, something i feel like i was weak at historically. It has value in and of itself.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#66

Post by ghaff »

hrkucuk wrote: post #51

A question for everybody on counting your visitors : How do you do it? I am self hosting my blog on archlinux + nginx using an old laptop. I proxied it behind cloudflared tunnel. On my Nginx access logs, All I see is mostly bots and for any visitor that does not identify as bots, I feel like they are still bots. I really can't be sure. And Cloudflare analytics suggest that I have a little shy over 1 thousand of visit…

I just look at the numbers Google Blogger spits out. I'm sure they're overstated with respect to real users but I don't actually care.

(I use blogger and, in fact, after much deliberation just decided to roll everything (personal and business) together on my existing template.) Anything else was just too much trouble and probably cost. Zero interest in self-hosting.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#67

Post by Pooge »

chistev wrote: post #55
JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Change that Twitter account. Do you have a RSS feed? How can I donate? Last but not least, your blog is unusable without JS. The posts are not links for some reason, why would you make such a paywall?

You can donate here - https://buymeacoffee.com/chistev12 I don't have a RSS feed but I have a newsletter with a subscribe button. What do you mean by posts are not links? You mean you can't click on them to get to the detail page? Edit: What's wrong with my Twitter account?

> What do you mean by posts are not links?

Not GP, but he is right; the behavior of your website is semantically incorrect. Looks like you redirect the users to your blog posts by using instead of .

I also agree that your website should absolutely not require JavaScript to work. Clicking on links is something that is possible with 0 lines of JavaScript.

> I don't have a RSS feed but I have a newsletter with a subscribe button.

This is also not very hacker-friendly behavior. Why should users give you their email addresses when a RSS feed is much easier to implement and use?

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#68

Post by simonw »

glouwbug wrote: post #36

One important aspect I learned about blogging is that a post effectively "ships" a side project, deeming it complete. A blog post allows me to move onto the next thing. It is closure of sorts (glouw.com if anyone is interested in the style).

Yes! Absolutely this.

I have a personal rule that the cost of doing a side project is I have to blog about it. No regrets on that at all, it's a small thing that can greatly increase the value you derive from the project.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#69

Post by dhosek »

bawolff wrote: post #64

I have a blog that nobody reads (or very few anyways). The one exception was that one time i put some vacation pictures from portland. I dont understand how or why, but that got 10x the hits. It almost feels like there is an inverse relationship between effort and views. Regardless, the main reason i write is to try and sharpen my writing skills, something i feel like i was weak at historically. It has value in and o…

I have no analytics or log analysis on my blog. The only way that I have any indication that it’s getting read are the rare occasions when someone leaves a comment, although in one case, it was the author of a book I wrote about responding to a bit of wondering at the end of the post: https://www.dahosek.com/100-phi-socrates-cafe/

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#70

Post by deadbabe »

n_ary wrote: post #14
simonw wrote: post #11

Writing on a blog is a very inexpensive way to establish your credibility about different subjects. This pays off later down the line when you can link people to things you've written in the past. Credibility is a very valuable commodity. It's worth investing in ways to build more of it. Don't assume people will stumble across your content (though they will eventually via Google). Actively send links to people who yo…

Agreed, after a year or two, blogs become your experience logs to prove experience and credibility once the landscape is killed by GenAI slops and SEO scams. Anyone can generate a big portfolio of projects these days(be it graphics, video, software, writing etc) but blog posts from 2023 and before are proof and undeniable.

A dark pattern on your self hosted blogging website is to backdate blog posts and make yourself seem very good at predicting future trends.

There is no reason why you have to write a blog over a long period of time, you could quickly pump out several blog posts and link to them to establish credibility quickly.

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