TEN YEARS AGO, I saw compelling reasons to have my own place on the internet and so I took a domain name that I bought in 1996 and started writing blog posts on it every day. And even though other distractions (i.e., Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus) have eroded the interactions I have on my blog, I'm still churning away at InsideView because I think everyone needs their own patch on the web. That's also the opinion of Louis Gray. "With so many places to position your identity on the Web these days, from social networks to blogs, personal profiles, custom pages like About.me, resumes and so on, presenting one's central presence with a domain that bears your own name is increasingly valuable."
Google has recognised the importance of your own space and has started showing author profiles next to material written by people. That means when you search for Lousi Gray you will discover content he as created, alongside his smiling face. That's helpful.
I'm trying to pull all the blogging material I've ever written into Typepad because its servers ensure I can easily export everything out. I can also use third party services to regenerate alternative views to material I've written so I might produce a single copy perfect bound book of 10 years of my blogging.
More than anything else, I like knowing that I have a piece of the internet and that it was cultivated by me and not a third party network. I also enjoy recording how the more I write, the fewer people read it. As the above screenshot of webstats viewed across six years proves, readers prefer fast-refreshing microcontent and not full-form blogging. I can live with that result.
Louis Gray -- "I gave away my web identity. And all I got was a t-shirt." on his blog, July 12, 2011.
My random thoughts on blogging.
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