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?