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> Register your domain, install wordpress, start your own blog. And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Maybe your strategy

> Register your domain, install wordpress, start your own blog. And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Maybe your strategy works for well known bloggers, but tweeting content that people actually read beats owning content that nobody reads. And it is much harder to get people to visit your self-hosted blog than it is to get them to read your tweets.

2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago
Spread the word of your personal self-hosted blog on social media. Post about things that gets picked up by indexers like Bing or Google so that people searching the web can find your blog. Come to terms with the fact that nobody reads your blog and that's okay. Not everyone is entitled to readers or has opinions worth reading about.
- eitland 7y ago
  > Come to terms with the fact that nobody reads your blog and that's okay. Not everyone is entitled to readers or has opinions worth reading about. This. More people should probably blog to their perfect audience either that audience exists or not. I used to write about stuff that I spent more than a couple of hours to and that couldn't be found on the internet. Back in the days at least that meant I'd get search engine traffic from other developers searching for solutions to that problem. It didn't earn me any money but it was still very useful for me to learn from. Edit: add "should probably"
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago
    This is exactly my position. I won't doxx myself and post my blog here but I write to document the things that I work on and if someone else reads and learns something that's a bonus. The act of writing is fulfilling enough in and of itself.
taurath 7y ago
This is also why a public user registry would be a really good thing if it were figured out how to do it well and also give people privacy. That our social lives and online conversations are beholden to advertisers above all else is not the ideal end state of things. Can’t wait for something better to come along.
Hoasi 7y ago
> And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Well, the same thing could be said of most tweets written by a random person. Building an audience rarely happens overnight. These things take time, be it on twitter or your blog. It is still better to own your content (and maybe syndicate it elsewhere, like on Twitter) regardless of whether you have an audience or not. But now blogs discoverability needs to be solved again.
michaelmrose 7y ago
Can't you just tweet the main ideas behind your blog posts and link to the main content with each tweet with a link to the full content?
- benibela 7y ago
  That is how you get a shadow ban I used to have a Firefox plugin that would tweet all my bookmarks, but then Twitter hid all my tweets from the search.
joelrunyon 7y ago
> And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Then you have to gasp tell someone about it. The idea that if you build something people will automatically know about it is a delightful fantasy that has never actually been true - regardless of whatever distribution promises Apple, Medium, or Twitter will make you.
- warrenm 7y ago
  You mean blogs don't work like Field of Dreams!?? I'm shocked! SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!
sircastor 7y ago
C'mon. This is what SEO is for. People are still using Google and the like to find information. It's not all Facebook and Twitter. I'm some cases you don't even need to work hard. Google prides itself on finding the good content amongst the farmed garbage. If you write good material relevant to the topic, it's not invisible.
JSavageOne 7y ago
False dichotomy, one can tweet with a link to the full blog post.
OJFord 7y ago
Do you never find yourself reading someone's blog on their random domain? I appreciate it's some tiny fraction of what's out there, but if you want to do it you can do it, you just probably have to recognise that it's not content alone that's going to be important.

2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago

Spread the word of your personal self-hosted blog on social media. Post about things that gets picked up by indexers like Bing or Google so that people searching the web can find your blog. Come to terms with the fact that nobody reads your blog and that's okay. Not everyone is entitled to readers or has opinions worth reading about.

eitland 7y ago
> Come to terms with the fact that nobody reads your blog and that's okay. Not everyone is entitled to readers or has opinions worth reading about. This. More people should probably blog to their perfect audience either that audience exists or not. I used to write about stuff that I spent more than a couple of hours to and that couldn't be found on the internet. Back in the days at least that meant I'd get search engine traffic from other developers searching for solutions to that problem. It didn't earn me any money but it was still very useful for me to learn from. Edit: add "should probably"
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago
  This is exactly my position. I won't doxx myself and post my blog here but I write to document the things that I work on and if someone else reads and learns something that's a bonus. The act of writing is fulfilling enough in and of itself.

taurath 7y ago

This is also why a public user registry would be a really good thing if it were figured out how to do it well and also give people privacy. That our social lives and online conversations are beholden to advertisers above all else is not the ideal end state of things. Can’t wait for something better to come along.

Hoasi 7y ago

> And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Well, the same thing could be said of most tweets written by a random person. Building an audience rarely happens overnight. These things take time, be it on twitter or your blog. It is still better to own your content (and maybe syndicate it elsewhere, like on Twitter) regardless of whether you have an audience or not. But now blogs discoverability needs to be solved again.

michaelmrose 7y ago

Can't you just tweet the main ideas behind your blog posts and link to the main content with each tweet with a link to the full content?

benibela 7y ago
That is how you get a shadow ban I used to have a Firefox plugin that would tweet all my bookmarks, but then Twitter hid all my tweets from the search.

joelrunyon 7y ago

> And then have 0 people read your blog because it’s on your random domain. Then you have to gasp tell someone about it. The idea that if you build something people will automatically know about it is a delightful fantasy that has never actually been true - regardless of whatever distribution promises Apple, Medium, or Twitter will make you.

warrenm 7y ago
You mean blogs don't work like Field of Dreams!?? I'm shocked! SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!

sircastor 7y ago

C'mon. This is what SEO is for. People are still using Google and the like to find information. It's not all Facebook and Twitter. I'm some cases you don't even need to work hard. Google prides itself on finding the good content amongst the farmed garbage. If you write good material relevant to the topic, it's not invisible.

JSavageOne 7y ago

False dichotomy, one can tweet with a link to the full blog post.

OJFord 7y ago

Do you never find yourself reading someone's blog on their random domain? I appreciate it's some tiny fraction of what's out there, but if you want to do it you can do it, you just probably have to recognise that it's not content alone that's going to be important.