111–120 of 173 posts
I think it depends what you want to achieve -- I keep a blog without playing any engagement games and get ~500 visitors per day, which is much more than I'd have imagined.
The result is that a lot of what I’ve written has come up in interviews, caused me to meet new people I’ve eventually worked with, and it has generally enriched my career.
The key is that (in my opinion) you have to write mostly for yourself. I don’t write as though I have an audience (I don’t, really) and I think it shows. I’m just building or talking about stuff that I care about, and I get into it however I want to. Sometimes it isn’t even technical.
When there’s a target audience, unless you’re trying to sell something you care a lot about, you’re going to burn out on the content and there’ll be no passion leaking through. Write if you want to, and write about what gets you excited.
Even if no one reads it, you’ll benefit a lot from time spent thinking, writing, and learning about yourself and your work.
The fact that so few people blog these days makes blogging even more influential than it used to be. You can establish yourself as something of a global expert on some topic just by writing about it a few times a month over the course of a year! Don't expect people to come to your blog. Practice https://indieweb.org/POSSE - Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere - post things on your blog and then tweet/toot…
I quit writing a while ago, but resumed in 2025 after reading your excellent series of posts on AI topics
I hope I can keep learning to be able write with the clarity and depth that you do
Success here is the sum of an equation that combines publishing and distribution. The early days of blogging, the distribution came from RSS feed readers. The minute those fell out of fashion, the distribution loop of self-publishing disappeared. Medium was clever because it kind of created that built-in but it never took off. The distribution loop has always been social media which is now drowned out with other nois…
What would be your tips for improving distribution for a personal technical blog?
As a data point I started a blog this past year. It’s very technical content, and it’s driven around 100k visits just sharing it in socials https://jeremymorrell.dev/blog/ My takeaway has been that I’ve dramatically underinvested in public writing in my career and will be doubling down on that. I don’t really care about audience size, but the feedback and engagement from people whose work I respect has been amazing.…
What kind of articles work better for mass readership?
I sometimes write about niche technical topics and they barely get any views at all, which dissuades me
Though I used to predominately write about tech, these days I write about my dance journey and that in itself has connected me with people all over the world, many people saying they found (house) dance classes in London via a Google Search and my tiny little blog sits at ranking #1. Totally unanticipated. Every time I have 1 person (IRL) come up to me at some event or class or workshop, I'm reminded that maintaining my blog is worth it.
Despite that, I launched a blogging service just recently https://lmno.lol
The workflow is derived from my own, which I used for more than a decade (a single text file for my personal notes).
> why do you keep writing?
My blog is an extension of my notes. Blogging helps me write better notes I can later revisit.
Finding wholesome pockets on the internet is still awesome. Contributing to that is still a worthy effort IMO.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are thousands of blogs. You need something memorable to keep people coming back. That is what branding is to some extent. It's not just about slogans or logos.
Even if you do have something memorable, how would you be found through organic search and even then why would most people remember to check it off unless they follow you on social media - which will probably be suppressed if you have a link to your blog - or they use RSS, which few people do these days unfortunately. You almost have to have a mailing list, which is problematic on its own. Then, what’s the ultimate g…
It by no means gets thousands of views per day, more like single digits, but people keep finding it, which gives me hope it’s been useful for others as well.
The fact that so few people blog these days makes blogging even more influential than it used to be. You can establish yourself as something of a global expert on some topic just by writing about it a few times a month over the course of a year! Don't expect people to come to your blog. Practice https://indieweb.org/POSSE - Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere - post things on your blog and then tweet/toot…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are thousands of blogs. You need something memorable to keep people coming back. That is what branding is to some extent. It's not just about slogans or logos.
Even if you do have something memorable, how would you be found through organic search and even then why would most people remember to check it off unless they follow you on social media - which will probably be suppressed if you have a link to your blog - or they use RSS, which few people do these days unfortunately. You almost have to have a mailing list, which is problematic on its own. Then, what’s the ultimate g…
I know I am a rare beast with rare habits but a Firefox Bookmark/Favorite is my friend.