mxleader on 6/1/2024 at 03:28
So about eight years ago I started working on building a blog page using WordPress but ended up getting a job instead. I occasionally worked on it trying to learn how to build a site on WP but never had the time or energy to really make a solid effort. Fast forward to yesterday. I started working on it again and just flat gave up on WP. It's one of those things where you should just pay someone to build the basic site for you and then you can make posts and do minor updates as you go. So I looked around for an easier blog site and chose Google Blogger. It took me a about six hours total to build something that's usable for now. I don't want to spend all of my time working on a site but rather posting blogs and photos. This is what I built: (
https://tiltonwestword.blogspot.com/).
Anyone else do any blogging? Have any suggestions on better ways to blog, sites, hosting, etc? Does anyone even read blogs anymore?
henke on 6/1/2024 at 08:59
Thirith has a pop culture blog: (
https://adamnfinecup.com/) A Damn Fine Cup Of Culture. He occasionally even ropes other TTLGers into contributing to it!
I've got (
https://septembergames.com/blog/) a blog section on my company's website. Once a year I recap the past year in the life of my lil indiedev studio. I'm currently working on the 2023 recap.
Pyrian on 6/1/2024 at 09:03
Quote Posted by mxleader
Does anyone even read blogs anymore?
I feel like people don't
write blogs anymore, lol.
More specifically, people seem to write their columns in sites that give them some discoverability. I see them on Facebook, news sites, Patreon even. A lot of people I follow,
used to have blogs, and arguably still do in a sense, they just write their columns in places more people are likely to see.
qolelis on 6/1/2024 at 11:04
I do have a blog for game reviews, but it's... resting now. I started it back when I thought I was going to make a game (which is also resting now). I've been meaning to get to it again and update the look a bit, but this just never seem to be happening. It used to see a lot of activity for a couple of years (I even coded sort of an ARG for it, but that needs updating too (got a bit messy and I probably made it too hard)).
Last post is from 2020, reviewing
Eastshade:
(
https://maskinkultur.com/)
mxleader on 6/1/2024 at 12:36
Quote Posted by henke
Thirith has a pop culture blog: (
https://adamnfinecup.com/) A Damn Fine Cup Of Culture. He occasionally even ropes other TTLGers into contributing to it!
I've got (
https://septembergames.com/blog/) a blog section on my company's website. Once a year I recap the past year in the life of my lil indiedev studio. I'm currently working on the 2023 recap.
I just looked up Thirith's blog and it's pretty nicely built and has a lot of good content.
That's pretty cool you can use your company for some blogging.
Quote Posted by Pyrian
I feel like people don't
write blogs anymore, lol.
More specifically, people seem to write their columns in sites that give them some discoverability. I see them on Facebook, news sites, Patreon even. A lot of people I follow,
used to have blogs, and arguably still do in a sense, they just write their columns in places more people are likely to see.
I've thought a bit about that because I read a lot of e-zines and even printed literary magazines still and for some work it makes sense to get more exposure. Part of the reason I wanted to create my own blog is purely out of wanting to learn how to build simple webpages. I think though there is some merit in letting someone else work on webpages while I work on writing and photography. I also want to see what areas people gravitate to so I can focus more on those in the future. There was a time that I was making daily posts on Facebook and was getting good responses from family and friends but that is a very limited audience that rarely criticizes your work. I also contribute to a museum page I created on Facebook but that is hyper focused on one subject with limited reach. In the past year and a half I've written about 600 pages in my personal journal that I don't publish but there are a number of stories and other material contained within that I can use to write stuff for the public. It'll be interesting to see if I can create a decent following but you are probably right about posting where there is wider distribution.
Quote Posted by qolelis
I do have a blog for game reviews, but it's... resting now. I started it back when I thought I was going to make a game (which is also resting now). I've been meaning to get to it again and update the look a bit, but this just never seem to be happening. It used to see a lot of activity for a couple of years (I even coded sort of an ARG for it, but that needs updating too (got a bit messy and I probably made it too hard)).
Last post is from 2020, reviewing
Eastshade:
(
https://maskinkultur.com/)
That's a cool blog site. It looks as good as some professional e-zine sites. Way too much work for me though to try to make it look that nice but I suppose once you have a solid template you don't have to mess with it too much.
mxleader on 7/1/2024 at 21:21
It's interesting going down the rabbit hole of blogging and how much new stuff I'm learning. One thing that I'm learning is that a lot of tutorials are out of date. I was trying to add an email subscription widget and set up service using Feedburner but that service has been shut down as far as I can tell. Now I'm looking for other ways to let readers subscribe to my blog and was messing around with IFTTT but that is not easy to figure out and I'm not even sure if I'm on the right path. I was reading a tutorial on Medium and part of me thinks that might be the best place for me to do all the things I want to do on my blog but potentially earn money for it. Also, there's a lot of great content to read and look at on Medium already. Any suggestions for free email subscription services to use on Blogger?
Thirith on 7/1/2024 at 22:28
Thanks to henke for giving A Damn Fine Cup of Culture a shout-out! I started the blog (originally under a different name) back in 2007, in the lead-up to managing a WordPress-based website for work. I'm still enjoying the blog (and, since 2017, the podcast) a lot, but I'm not really doing it because I think it'll have lots of reach. Among other things I do it in order to write on a regular basis, and to practice expressing my thoughts about films and TV series and books and games, and if people read and enjoy the blog, all the better. I guess that blogging was already massively uncool back in '07. Probably the podcast has more of a reach, though I'm not sure how much of that is podcast aggregators and bots.
rachel on 8/1/2024 at 11:20
(
http://www.rachelrelat.net/journal/) I have one but I don't post consistently enough (whether schedule-wise or subject matter-wise) to really expect any following. It's mostly just an outlet for me, I don't really care that anyone reads it. I've been at it more since I quit posting on FB though.
mxleader on 8/1/2024 at 13:59
Quote Posted by Thirith
Thanks to henke for giving A Damn Fine Cup of Culture a shout-out! I started the blog (originally under a different name) back in 2007, in the lead-up to managing a WordPress-based website for work. I'm still enjoying the blog (and, since 2017, the podcast) a lot, but I'm not really doing it because I think it'll have lots of reach. Among other things I do it in order to write on a regular basis, and to practice expressing my thoughts about films and TV series and books and games, and if people read and enjoy the blog, all the better. I guess that blogging was already massively uncool back in '07. Probably the podcast has more of a reach, though I'm not sure how much of that is podcast aggregators and bots.
Yeah, I know I'm very late to the blog game but I've typed about 600 pages (1" margins, 1.0 single space and 12 pt. text) in the last year and a half for a total of 829 pages. So at this point I figure I have some material in my head that is actually sharable to the world beyond Facebook family and friends.
Quote Posted by rachel
(
http://www.rachelrelat.net/journal/) I have one but I don't post consistently enough (whether schedule-wise or subject matter-wise) to really expect any following. It's mostly just an outlet for me, I don't really care that anyone reads it. I've been at it more since I quit posting on FB though.
I've noticed FB going downhill a lot lately with so many people I know not posting there anymore. All I get is ads and posts from all the groups I've joined and writing anything more than a few sentences is pointless, and you have to include a pic just to hold people's interest. In fact I don't think many actually read anything I write on FB unless I include a photo as if it's a magazine. So now with my new blog on Blogger and mirrored on Medium I include at least one image.
Your blog is pretty clean and simple and that's how I should have started but I went a little crazy this weekend and created something goofy. I don't want to just appeal to a few people I went to college with so I'm trying to keep it light and the language middle of the road.
Did you stop posting on FB when you transitioned or was it because FB has just started to suck over the last few years? I ask because I can be pretty controversial in various ways when I make posts and I've found more accepting audiences elsewhere. As a road cyclist I have had many run-ins with people that make many gender based and sexual orientation based comments at me over the last 30 years so I steer clear of that subject with even my family and friends. It's obviously not the same thing as transitioning but it's odd how often I have been called names or been threatened in a similar manner for wearing cycling clothing and having amazing legs.
Anyway, I've been unemployed for five months now and I've wanted to get into the writing profession for many years now and just have never had the time and energy to go full bore while working a full time career in a field that I have never liked.
rachel on 8/1/2024 at 16:56
Quote Posted by mxleader
Did you stop posting on FB when you transitioned or was it because FB has just started to suck over the last few years? I ask because I can be pretty controversial in various ways when I make posts and I've found more accepting audiences elsewhere. As a road cyclist I have had many run-ins with people that make many gender based and sexual orientation based comments at me over the last 30 years so I steer clear of that subject with even my family and friends. It's obviously not the same thing as transitioning but it's odd how often I have been called names or been threatened in a similar manner for wearing cycling clothing and having amazing legs.
Oh no, I'd been quiet-quitting FB for quite a while. My coming out post was actually the first "real" post in a good while and I'm happy and grateful to say it was well received. But beyond that 99% of my FB activity was just cross-posting pics from Instagram and I barely interacted with anyone even on Messenger, so I just went and deactivated it. I'll likely fully delete it some time this year.
Thanks for the comment on the look and feel, minimalism is exactly what I was going for ;) I originally had a Dreamweaver template but I did most of the current site in Notepad++ and adapted the styles in Wordpress all by hand too (without forking the default template which is very much not what WP recommends, I risk everything every time there's an upgrade!)