There’s never been a better time to start a blog
To paraphrase a statement I heard recently, the best time to start a
blog was yesterday. The second best time is now. I think this has never
been truer than today. With so many people, in my circles at least,
seemingly feeling disillusioned with ‘big social’ like Twitter, Facebook
and, to a lesser extent, Threads I’m starting to see a lot more people
crave the more personal touch of smaller and more focused social
channels like Mastodon or Discord and, it seems, personal blogs.
I think the mass market are still very much enthralled with the
larger networks where they can get closer to brands and celebrities that
are generally out of bounds to them. The people I personally care
about, however, people that I interact with day to day, are starting to
form friendly, social circles with blogging and thought sharing at the
forefront.
For many years, Wordpress was seemingly the only
player in the market for normal people to create a basic blog. Whilst
there were always others floating around, Wordpress was always the king,
and still very much is. That being said, I’ve recently come across a
bunch of really great, small, and simple blogging platforms that I think
are worth checking out if you’re considering starting a blog in 2024.
These are services that put simplicity at the forefront of what they do,
allowing users to focus on the content first and foremost. I myself am
really struggling to choose one of these to stick with, they each have a
lot going for them. I’m not going to break each one down in great detail
here, for now at least. The main purpose of this short post was to
simply share a few of these little blog host gems I’ve found, should you
be looking to explore the world of blogging a bit more:
- Weblog.lol - A very customisable (if you have the skills) blogging platform from omg.lol. This is what I’m currently using.
- Pika - this service is extremely lightweight with only a handful of templates, which is a good thing in my eyes. Their rich text editor is really great as well. It’s still in alpha so there is no pricing model as yet, but this is coming soon. I’ve been testing this one HERE. I’m quite tempted to use this one full time, though I’m waiting for the p pricing to be announced.
- Bearblog - like Pika this is a very barebones blogging experience which is, like Pika, by design. This one has a markdown text editor rather than Pika’s rich text one. There are also quite a lot of themes available and you can edit your CSS to your hearts content. My site is HERE. Again, this one’s tempting.
- Micro.blog - This is an interesting one and is part blogging platform, part social network. The ‘micro posts’ are central to this service but you can also post longer form articles of course. There is a *fantastic* community around micro.blog and is worth the $5 a month fee for that alone in the most part. It’s where I hosted my main blog for a long time and I am, once again, tempted to move back there.
Whilst I’m still indecisive about using micro.blog, bear.blog,
Pika, or weblog.lol I hope you may consider finding a home at one of
these for your blogging needs. I really do love reading personal blogs
and thoughts of the friends and acquaintances I have in my circles. Some
of these are from lovingly crafted and thoughtful blogs, some are from
newsletters, and some are short social posts on Mastodon or Micro.blog.
The days of finding fortune from a blog are long gone, for the most
part. Those that are still left blogging are doing so for the love of
the craft, and to share their honest views with the world. Twitter,
Threads, Instagram and the other large social networks are all about
performative, attention farming and very rarely actually reflect the
human thoughts and feelings of the individual posting them.
Personal blog posts, on the other hand, reach far smaller circles but
can touch people far more than even the author is likely to realise. One
of my favourite bloggers, Greg
Morris will often post thought provoking stories about his
struggles, victories, and anything in between and it’s always
fascinating. Others like Gabz and Maique post beautiful photos of their
families, and their experiences and travels. Gabz’s posts are so full of
joy and enthusiasm and I can live a life of sun, and beauty though
Maique’s photos around Portugal. Lee
Peterson is one of the most prolific and dedicated bloggers I’ve had
the pleasure to read and Matt
Birchler is always a must read with his well researched and
insightful posts. These are not posts for attention, or to work an
algorithm, they are windows into an individual’s lives and souls and I’m
grateful to be invited to be a part of it. Will you be starting a blog
in 2024?