52. Lessons learnt after a year of blogging
I.
Welcome to the 52nd edition of this blog. It’s been a year now! I’ve managed to keep it up and publish every week so far. Let’s take a quick look back.
When I started a year ago, I was sometimes a bit fed up with the internet. We all spend whole days doomscrolling, like hostages on the platforms of billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Commotion, opinions, debate everywhere. I missed the web of the early 2000s, when everyone had a fan site or blog. When people wrote about what was on their minds and pointed others towards fun and quirky pages.
I began my first post with a piece about Kottke.org, Jason Kottke’s blog, which had been running for a quarter of a century at the time. His enthusiasm and discipline are infectious. Over the years, I’ve started plenty of Tumblrs that disappeared again after a short or longer while. Many people who kept a blog years ago have since stopped. Or they’ve moved to Facebook and Twitter.
But the longing for the nostalgic feel of blogs seems to be growing again. Since the rise of Substack, for example, many people have started a newsletter, an accessible way to publish longer pieces of text in a space that also offers social features.
Tech site The Verge has also been charting a different course since late 2022, returning to basics. They were fed up with relying on Big Tech algorithms to attract readers. That’s not how you build a connection with people. So The Verge formed a counter-reaction to this kind of news feed. “We thought about a homepage that’s actually valuable when you open it,” writes The Verge boss Nilay Pat. “We came to the conclusion: bloody hell, we just need to blog more.”
II.
My blog isn’t a news site; I don’t need to make a living from it. For me, it’s a place where I keep track of what’s been on my mind that week. An interactive logbook. But I do share The Verge’s sentiment and would recommend everyone to start their own blog. A few simple tips for beginners:
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Write about what you enjoy. The simplest tip ever, but it’s really true. You can write about a specific topic, or just jot down some personal musings. Who cares? It’s your blog, so it’s your party. If it feels like work, you’re better off stopping.
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Write for yourself, not for money or recognition. If you want likes, go back to Zuck and Musk. My blog is a mix of tech and culture but it goes off in all directions. I look back at my posts and see a personal travel guide to the web.
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It helps to find a rhythm. Some bloggers write every day, others once a month. For me, weekly works well. Every day would be too much, and every month too little to bring any structure to it. It’s different for everyone, but set yourself a sort of deadline so you don’t grind to a halt.
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A blog lives and grows. Just get started and, as you go along, you’ll naturally figure out what works for you. Nothing is perfect straight away (you can strive for perfection, but don’t let it stop you from publishing).
Celebrate my blog’s anniversary and subscribe! You’ll receive this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday, free of charge.
---III.
I enjoy reading other people’s blogs and newsletters on a regular basis. They’re lovely ways to step into someone else’s world for a moment. Here’s a small selection of my favourites:
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Kottke.org: Since 1998, blogger Jason Kottke has been pointing out the beautiful things in life a few times a day.
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Waxy.org: Another long-standing blogger, Andy Baio. Every now and then he writes mouth-watering essays, but more regularly he posts interesting links on the right-hand side of his site (the fast lane).
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Robin Sloan: I’ve been following Sloan since his book Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore was published, and he writes monthly newsletters that are the envy of all. The design is already so good. His blog covers all sorts of things, but as he himself writes: “Always with the feeling that you’re receiving a letter from a friend”. Spot on.
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Craig Mod: This monthly newsletter is rather similar to Sloan’s. Mod was one of the creators of the Flipboard app for iPhone, do you remember that? Now he mainly does whatever takes his fancy, which boils down to photography, walking around Japan and writing.
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Gamepraat: The newsletter from a friend of this blog, Bas Vroegop. Every week he shares incisive insights into the gaming industry, often from an original, Dutch perspective.
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De Circulaire: A fortnightly blog by Hay Kranen, who celebrated his 200th edition earlier this week. Posts with a positive slant and links to fun things you might otherwise miss. And lots of cat memes.
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Francisco van Jole: The editor-in-chief of Joop.nl has been keeping a personal blog for years, in which he mainly writes about cultural visits and other things he experiences.
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CouranD: The newsletter by Ocky Wiemeijer, also a friend of this blog. Not to be missed if you’re looking for a great guide to new tech and media.
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The Bob Dylan Notes: Speaking of niches, this website by Dylan fan Tom Willems. He has been writing about everything to do with Bob Dylan since 2008. He first did so on Bob Dylan in (the) Netherlands, where, incidentally, I was also mentioned once.
So there are plenty of blogs that are still going strong. I’ll be carrying on for the time being too, with some new ideas for later.
PS.
And now for a quick round-up of this week’s internet finds.
This is brilliant. Larry David as the person who has to approve new apps for iPhones. The video was made in 2014 for Apple’s WWDC developers’ conference, but was never broadcast. Didn’t Apple quite realise who they’d asked for this? This perhaps goes a bit beyond the concept of self-deprecation, although David does have an excellent ‘good morning’ impression of CEO Tim Cook up his sleeve.
---Speaking of iPhones, director Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer, 13 Assassins) has made a short film for Apple. Shot on an iPhone 15 Pro. Midnight is a film adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s story of the same name (Astro Boy).
---Akira Toriyama has passed away at the age of 68. The Japanese artist was best known for his manga Dragon Ball, which was later adapted into several globally beloved animated series. Toriyama pretty much shaped my childhood. Every morning, the first question in the school playground was who had watched Dragon Ball Z. During break time, we would act out the various characters and throw around Goku’s Kamehamehas and Krillin’s Destructo Discs. NRC has a lovely obituary (unfortunately behind a paywall).
---Fancy this South Korean film, which will be available on Netflix from 15 March. Chicken Nugget. About a woman who turns into a chicken nugget. A bizarre idea and perhaps a parody of The Fly?
---I’ve been playing Balatro on the PlayStation for a few days now. It’s a roguelite based on poker. That sounds simple, but the possibilities are virtually endless because you keep manipulating and expanding your deck of cards. When a build turns out to work and your combo goes so fast that the score skyrockets, the dopamine rush is off the charts. I can’t stop playing.
---PPS.
A little bonus to round things off! Lars Paijmans and I have started a podcast on the spur of the moment. We’d both read Ian McEwan’s book Lessons and thought we might as well record our thoughts on it.
As brand-new book reviewers, we can no longer find the passages we’ve marked because of all the sticky notes. Lars would probably make himself a sandwich rather than call the police if his partner went missing. And right at the last minute of the episode, I come up with a lesson that’s immediately useful to you.
Over the next six weeks, we’ll be reading two chapters at a time, so do join us in reading and listening!*** (I’ll see if I can do something about the sound quality.)
###### **Only on Spotify.*