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Why blog if nobody reads it?

andysblog.uk

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Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#91

Post by righthand »

geerlingguy wrote: post #87
righthand wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your intention is still to pass on the knowledge though regardless of traffic otherwise why even publish if it’s just for you? What is the difference from the Documents dir at that point?

I can stay in my browser and use Google, DuckDuckGo, or even my on-site search (I use Apache Solr, I'm a little weird compared to the typical hosted blog) and don't have to go into some webapp or search on some local notes app. I can also add permalinks to any of the posts from anywhere, and share them in public documentation or bug reports and such, a handy feature.

I do not understand the need to never-leave-the-browser especially with modern window tiling, but I respect it as a preference that other people have. As for syncing I just use file sharing (Syncthing), I hardly live collaborate on documents and if I did everyone else in the group ended up doing the typing. Otherwise it’s write then get reviewed then reiterate. So unfortunately nothing about the online text editors really strike my fancy. I also find the browser almost too distracting and often get sidetracked while using it for research during writing time.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#92

Post by ghaff »

afterburner wrote: post #78
ghaff wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That trivializes it, I think. A ton of what people do related to their jobs is marketing at some level. A lot of people here probably resent marketing and self-promotion (to a certain level) but that's the way the world works. If no one has any idea what you do, either directly or through your manager, guess who is getting the chop if the company cuts back even a little.

That's fine. I would also argue self-marketing is important when you have lazy or bad managers.

Good managers help but you’re ultimately responsible for your own career/reputation.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#94

Post by [deleted] »

deadbabe wrote: post #70
n_ary wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#95

Post by raybb »

The author says it's a myth that if you write it then they'll come.

That may be mostly true but with the way recommendation engines like substance and social media get new content in front of people it's a little different.

Last month I started a weekly roundup blog about urbanism and with relatively lite marketing efforts and the help of substack recommendations we have almost 100 subscribers already. So share it with the relevant parties but also take advantage of the algos if you can. That being said, I don't really have a plan to monetize so it's more of a passion project to inspire people to take initiative in their local setting.

If you wanna see the project for yourself https://urbanismnow.substack.com

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#96

Post by sebmellen »

deadbabe wrote: post #70
n_ary wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

We need better timestamping services for this.

I tried to write out an initial spec here, but I haven’t been able to write any implementations yet: https://github.com/sebmellen/proof-of-origination.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#97

Post by chistev »

Pooge wrote: post #81
chistev wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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'll fix this. Thanks. > 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? I'll do this too. Thanks.

I'm glad you took it nicely. You should definitely post here when you write a new article. There's always something to learn! Just remember to do things the easiest way possible; allows you to "redirect" users using HTML-only, while needs an event attached to it using JavaScript. There are many things that people use JavaScript for but that are 100% possible using HTML. We should favor those. Also, writing a static w…

Yea, sure I will delete emails if asked to, but no one has ever asked.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#98

Post by boznz »

ghaff wrote: post #35
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…

I regularly have conversations with people that end up with some form of "Let's not belabor this over beers but I'll send you a link to something I wrote. It may be a little bit stale but let me know what you think and we can follow up." Blogging has internal benefits of organizing thoughts or even just being a fun hobby. But it's external validation as well. Sure, writing a book is even more but that's probably 100s…

I have two book and tons of blog posts only a few people have read.. Still feels good. I even wrote a blog post on why.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#99

Post by Retr0id »

Aurornis wrote: post #46
n_ary wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. I always read blogs if people include them in resumes. It’s really cool when an applicant has a blog with unique and interesting content, but I can’t remember this happening without us already having been very impressed by the candidate’s resume. More…

> is that because they’re an expert creating tutorials for beginners, or because they are a beginner and these entry-level projects represent their skill level?

You can tell by reading one of them though, right? For a subject I'm an expert at, I can tell the difference between an expert talking about the basics, and a beginner doing the same.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#100

Post by ghaff »

Retr0id wrote: post #99
Aurornis wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I always read blogs if people include them in resumes. It’s really cool when an applicant has a blog with unique and interesting content, but I can’t remember this happening without us already having been very impressed by the candidate’s resume. More…

> is that because they’re an expert creating tutorials for beginners, or because they are a beginner and these entry-level projects represent their skill level? You can tell by reading one of them though, right? For a subject I'm an expert at, I can tell the difference between an expert talking about the basics, and a beginner doing the same.

It's probably not the only input you want but, generally, I agree with your comment especially across a number of posts.
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