Starting a Blog in 2024 – Why Would I Do That?
Ah, the future is here. All the big companies are pushing short video content. If you want to build an audience and become a rich influencer, you need to cram as many 30-second dancing influencer videos as humanly possible.
Luckily, I am not creating content for these reasons, so I can afford to remain a bit more old-fashioned.
So, why a blog in 2024?
A Long Learning Tradition
I started blogging probably 20 years ago, and it has always been a great learning experience for me. The first iteration ran on a Myspace-ish platform, where I mostly learned about rudimentary HTML and analytics tracking. Since then, I’ve started and restarted several blogs, using them as a learning experience for various web technologies. In no particular order, I’ve explored PHP, jQuery, Javascript, MongoDB (which might have been a bit overkill), Cloud Computing, CSS (I’m still bad at this), React, NodeJS, and the list goes on. This new iteration is focused on a couple of new fancy technologies and Artificial Intelligence; you can find the list in another article.
About Data Ownership and DIY
Sure, I could rely on very nice third-party platforms (think Medium or WordPress), which would save me some headaches on the coding side and probably be cheaper to run. But where would be the fun in that? Since the main goal of this website is to be a learning exercise, I don’t mind spending half a day building an XML sitemap endpoint—something I wouldn’t even need to think about on WordPress.
Additionally, I value having full control over what I publish. Terms and conditions of third-party platforms can change at any time, and on top of that you are a bit at their mercy regarding analytics quality and fairness.
Other Random Thoughts
In addition to being a fun hobby, this blog has allowed me to connect with many useful people over the years. It also provided an opportunity to work on my English skills and served as an outlet for my long-winded rants. Case in point.
I am fully aware that relying solely on SEO for traffic will be tricky. Therefore, I plan to experiment with a LinkedIn creator profile—perhaps it will provide some assistance. However, even if only one visitor finds this website useful each year, that’s already good enough for me!