Well, well, well...now since I started a blog here on my website, I realized that blogging seems to be a lot harder these days than back in 2017 when I wrote my first blog. I blame social media platforms for that. Even when I started, most well-known bloggers at that time already seemed to transfer their content creation more or less to social media platforms. Not exactly in 2017 yet but I could see many of them shifting to publishing their content more on instagram than on their own blog.
Needless to say that it changed even more with Substack. Yes, even I transferred all my blog posts to Substack in the end of 2021 and solely started publishing there then. And in 2024 I even closed my own hosted blog down. Looking back at it I think it was a horrible choice.
For this blog, I'd create graphics and illustrations and then pin them on Pinterest and through Pinterest and Google I got lots of organic traffic to my website. Sometimes even people emailed me asking me if I could do some design work for them or asking if one of my blog posts could be published elsewhere or I even got requests to have some of my designs printed out as wall art.
How stupid was I to shut that down? Well, 2024 was an awful year and money was extremely scarce, so in order to save around 120 Euros or a bit more, I decided to let go of my first blog since everything was not on Substack anyways.
In retrospect I should have just continued to blog on my own website instead of changing over to Substack. But ok, it is too late and that former blog now on Substack is now private and now this website is the one where I blog. Not with my own graphics anymore, I might get back to that since I really miss designing and illustrating but right now I have other priorities.
Like growing this blog and newsletter, creating digital products, driving more traffic to my website through blogging (hey my first blog was proof that this works) and once I have a little more of mental peace, I will get back to designing and illustrating again. I gotta say I miss it. But I am glad I got back to writing at least which is another thing I always loved but also neglected for a long time.
The thing is, your own website, your own email list - you own that - while social media platforms can ban you which is something they sometimes do. Owning your list is crucial for independence and also for earning money. Your list does not depend on stupid algorithms so therefore I believe blogging is still powerful even in 2026.
I am not one for new year's resolutions but writing more on this blog here is certainly one of them!
What about you? Are you still blogging, or like me blogging again, or still reading blogs?
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