My present Wordpress is something I set up at hoc when I wanted to try out blogging. It has gotten more ramshackle over time. Some settings are screwed up and I do not know why, or how to fix them.
Since this project has gradually become a serious vocation for me, it is becoming clear I need something a little better. But I do not want to mess around with the technical side of things any more. I am a little wealthier these days, so I paid some bright young people at Wordpress to properly set up a new site.
Long ago now, I could create fairly complex, attractive web pages just using self taught HTML. I even creating my first blog entirely by hand. I have returned to blogging now that there are much better platforms which allow me to see who is reading me.
However, HTML has long been obsolete as a way to do web pages. I am getting to be too old a dog to learn these new tricks, like CSS, and my skills are rusty, anyway. The apps which made it easy to hand code HTML the way I did it, are not compatible with the new MACs.
Wordpress is not very user friendly. It is hard to find where the controls are. Nonetheless I am staying with Wordpress for three reasons.
I want to have my stuff on more than one platform, in case one goes down. Some Ukrainian might not like my attachment to Mother Russia and demand I be taken down. Or, hack it with some diabolical tool provided by the CIA.
I hope the new, improved site improves traffic to my site and helps people find things in it. So far, Wordpress my readership is lower than on Substack. However, Substack Also thinks yesterdays blog post is yesterday’s news. They are very journalism oriented.
Also, I need a way to archive my old work so it is easier to find; especially my best and most popular stuff. This seems to be indicated by the pattern of usage of this blog. Some of my stuff gets few views when I first put it out, but people keep going to it a year later. A lot of people seem to come onto the site, look through recents and archives, then leave without reading anything.
Other people will spend all day reading through my stuff. Some days no one at all visits. Some days, I get quite a few, and I haven’t even put out anything new.
Most of my stuff gets one or two dozen reads. It is better than the one or two when I started. But some of them get over a hundred. I have had three now that went over a thousand.
That might not seem like much to a professional blogger. However, for someone like me, for whom this remains essentially a hobby, it is acceptable. I get comments saying how good my stuff is.
No doubt “The Shadow” has a lot to do with my limited audience. I am definitely someone whose reach on search engines or social media would be rigorously monitored and restricted. Of course, there are an awful lot of voices out there calling for attention.
Most of these people with big blog audiences first acquired a following out of some other work, and then drew them to their blogs. Usually, they have money and organization behind them. Some bloggers are just very good at telling people what they like to hear, and have turned it into a business.
I think my very small reach has protected me from all the harassment and banning and hacking which controversial blogs seem subject to. I am not big enough for them to worry about. I am left alone to till my own little out of the way patch of the blogosphere.
Perhaps I should be content with that. Perhaps at least I should wait until new platforms develop which are really independent and free of censorship. It seems like such things are slowly developing.
In a couple of days I should be able to move into my new home. I think the url will be adultsincharge.wordpress.com Come visit me there.
got it.!
Where are you moving, Tim? I think i follow you on Twitter