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Why blog if nobody reads it?

andysblog.uk

331–340 of 373 posts

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#331
If the main reason for blogging is to get an audience and/or become popular, I'd say it's not blogging. It should be a serious descision to do it as a job, not "blogging". If blogging is a personal project then it could help with following:

1. Blogging is a very good way to help sorting out own ideas and shape thoughts on a particular topic. Unless you write it down and try to express your idea coherently, thoughts are just bouncing inside your head without proper actionable output. I notices from my own experience that ideas form and progress much better when I write them down.

2. Blogging is helpful as a form of journalling about particular topic—to return to later. Sometimes I read my old posts to refresh my memory and often get surprised that it was written by me—after some time I forget what was the logic that led me to a particular idea or descision and old posts look like written by somebody else.

3. Blogging helps to discipline oneself. Writing and editing takes time and effort. Only regular stable blogging attracts any audience at all. Not that it's important, but it's good feeling when somebody finds what you wrote helpful. Many just want to get audience without understanding what it really takes. It's not that easy. So, as a byproduct of the first two points, one learns what it takes to produce good content with a regular cadence.

It takes effort to carefully write, edit, and rewrite. But it really helps with our own thought process, improve ability to shape ideas, helps save sorted out ideas for later, and disciplines ourselves.

So, I'd say blogging is a pure self-improvement exercise—fitness for the mind.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#332
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…

This is precisely why I am suspicious of most "free" online resources out there. When one writes to establish themselves as a credible source or as authority on a subject, they are flipping the target of the writing. They are making it all about the author , and not the reader/student. This is similar to what happens with academic writing, where using an approachable tone of voice can be seen as hurtful to the author…

Academic papers are supposed to be about the author... They're meant to be an author's work put forth to an intended community of "colleagues", not students or general public. No one should think that a general learner is supposed to turn to academic research papers as their main vector of learning content.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If some one is determined to find out the authenticity then it’s possible right? Like Waybackmachine or similar tools?

Lots of plausible deniability

If I find 10 backdated articles appear out of thin air in Waybackmachine I'm not going to ask the author to explain it. It just lowers their credibility in my mind and I move on. I'm not interested in proving to them or in a court of law that they backdated articles.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#334

I still believe in blogging. For anyone keen on getting started or switch providers, I recenly launched a no-nonsense service: https://LMNO.lol . The experience feels more like taking notes than blogging (low friction). My blog is https://lmno.lol/alvaro (also at https://xenodium.com )

Subscribed. I like your 'fortune cookie' that provides a username for frictionless onboarding!

Thank you! Glad to hear it. Hope you enjoy blogging.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#335
I frequently discover useful and/or thought-provoking and/or inspirational information on numerous small indie-dev blogs.

If you are the author of one of these or similar blogs: thank you, and please keep posting.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is precisely why I am suspicious of most "free" online resources out there. When one writes to establish themselves as a credible source or as authority on a subject, they are flipping the target of the writing. They are making it all about the author , and not the reader/student. This is similar to what happens with academic writing, where using an approachable tone of voice can be seen as hurtful to the author…

Academic papers are supposed to be about the author... They're meant to be an author's work put forth to an intended community of "colleagues", not students or general public. No one should think that a general learner is supposed to turn to academic research papers as their main vector of learning content.

I personally never thought academic papers were about the author. They might have turned into an ego game, but I always assumed that the goal of academic writing was to effectively communicate complex ideas and research findings to the reader. If not, then it's no wonder our voices are the first ones the public ignores in a time of crisis.

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#337
post #307

Surface area. Networking. Openness to those that for whatever reason click and might become friends, business associates and romantic partners. Few will click, but those few will have shown at least some interest in you and what you do. It took divorce and loneliness for me to understand the concept of surface area, to exist, to not be invisible and anonymous, but create tiny opportunities for connection. It's pretty…

I would love to read a true romance that started from a obscure blog

Re: Why blog if nobody reads it?

#338
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> "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." How is it being received by those people? I can't help but imagine the response being: "Okay but then what's the point of us sitting here with beers?" EDIT: If I was hanging out talking with someone, and have them terminate an interesting conversation t…

Maybe I didn't get the nuance in the best way. I think it would be more in the vein of we've probably explored this topic as much as we feel like it at the moment but maybe we can continue the conversation via some more deeply-thought sources.
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