In the years since I’ve plateaued from blogging, the following things have happened:
- Substack became the spiritual successor of the old blogosphere, which is now overrun by SEO/SEM and content marketing
- Ghost.org and Beehiiv (at least from my research) followed as close but not exact alternatives of Substack
- FOSS and self-hosting have also emerged in popularity, at least on my radar
- Following that, Jekyll, Eleventy, Hugo and Obsidian-powered blogs have become lightweight alternatives
- Threads, Instagram and TikTok (and YouTube, by distant relation) continue to be viable platforms for microblogging
I’ve tried some of these and was tempted by many, but as of this year and likely the next, I’m staying put in my managed hosting WordPress set-up. Here’s why:
- Substack, which I briefly published on, consistently refuses to deplatform or demonetize hateful content. The linked text redirects to a Wikipedia section, because this is the best compilation of articles covering the issue.
- I’ve brainstormed how I want to proceed with posting, and a lot of the experimentation I want to do is easiest to achieve with WordPress’s Gutenberg feature.
- I’ve had several years with Hostinger and am hesitant to give up the reliability they offer.
- Ghost.org, which in a certain sense is my endgame target, currently has a steep cost difference from my current setup. It’s a difference not currently justifiable given that I do almost nothing with the platform. I’m also not able to monetize it now or in the future, given that Stripe (Ghost’s only available payout partner) is not accessible in the Philippines.
I’m actually glad I was able to talk myself out of migrating. I think I was allured by shiny object syndrome again, but it’s a scaling solution to a problem I’m not even close to facing.
As of here and today, I resolve to:
- Build a platform with intent and not assumption, and proceed from there
- Start where I am and not where I feel pressured to be in ten years
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