In 2020-ish I gifted myself a blog and website with the idea of maintaining a regular writing schedule. The idea of building a platform and maybe connecting with fellow scribblers also occurred to me.
Mid-life what?
Some guys restore sports cars, others buy a boat. I started a blog. Laugh if you want, my ego-indulgence didn’t risk divorce.
But honestly, if my Missus knew how much I paid to Wix (et al) to kickoff my little endeavor she would’ve dropped me like a bad habit.
Aside from that, what’s the rub?
Everything I read touted Wix as easy to use, easy to clean. No special skills necessary, just pay a fee and build your website from a collection of templates and bolt-ons. Then pay another fee to register your domain. Then another fee for an SSL. Then another fee…
Honestly, the downside was more than fees—though the fees were painful.
Blog content can be controversial but blogging platforms shouldn’t be
Wix is highly restrictive. You never own your website. So, you pay annually or “your” website goes down. Did I mention it is expensive? Customer service is next to nonexistent and as a result I could either use my domain for my blog or my website but never both.
Had enough? Ready to migrate your website away? Good luck! The stories of timeouts, corrupted download-data, and “we’ll create an archive that you can access later”—with “later” never actually defined in hours/days/weeks—are legendary.
Still, within a year, I’d had my fill of never getting the website to “face” the blog—or much of anything else that I dropped too-much money on.
At first, Bluehost seemed like a better fit. With plans starting at $3.99/month, it was more economical. All too soon, however, incidental charges stack up and $3.99 starts to look like a bait-and-switch.
Ultimately, Bluehost became just as eye-watering expensive as Wix. I ended up dropping well-north of three-bills a year with even less to show for it.
Then there is WordPress…
What originally started as a community-friendly platform has turned into a Trumpian battle for control and profits. As closely as I understand it, (not at all close, btw) one of the founders is poaching WordPress clients through redirection. Further, he has stopped automatic updates. And while cease-and-desist letters are flying none of it gives creators a sense of wellbeing or security.
Oh, and you’re paying somebody for all this uncertainty. In my case over $80/year—on top of the whole hosting fees, domain fees, hungry-hungry-hippos fees, I can go on…
Readership/WriterWednesday
Of course it also comes down to readership and priorities. As previously stated the original idea was writing and connecting with other writers. My little blog served both purposes in aces.
I made writer-friends like Michael Cook and Victoria Patton. I averaged a post every two weeks. My writing improved with some of my more juvenile impulses exorcised along the way.
Then, in 2022, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Everything shifted for me. My little crime stories no longer matter so much. Neither did publication. Or, for that matter, connection.
The focus of my blog shifted to frightening facts. From diagnosis to the best skin-care for radiation treatment to the post-surgery bra options, I chronicled my wife’s journey through the lowest point of her, of both our lives.
Mostly, I wrote to process our fear and powerlessness in the face of such a deadly, daunting, disease.
Still, that $300-plus-yearly fee became harder-and-harder to justify. Then Fiona Quinn asked me if I’d be willing to contribute to her blog.
Fiona writes romance thrillers, really good ones. I’ve read her blog for years. It is as well written as her books, (excellent, BTW). As a result her blog has a considerable audience.
To my total surprise, Fiona gave me free-reign to write on whatever interested me. Writing tropes, comic books, Netflix—whatever I found interesting. It was a beautiful re-introduction to fiction.
But wait, there’s more!
Best of all was the platform: Google’s Blogger. That’s where I saw, first-hand, how easy it could all be. Drag/drop, copy, and paste, post—easy-peasy. The platform is incredibly intuitive. Best of all, the price (free) is right for posting something that maybemaybemaybe three-dozen people (fingers crossed) will read.
Blogger isn’t perfect. Just ask Dennis Cooper who’s 14-plus-year blog was suddenly and inexplicably deleted. A number of other long-time creators will attest that Blogger isn’t perfect.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just have to be. That’s all I need.
Sure, Blogger is declining. As is the medium as a whole. There are newer, hipper options.
The thing is, my stuff is hardly serious enough, (or consistent enough) for Substack or Beehive. My musings are meant to be conversant, not dissertations.
Further, monetizing my take on tropes in crime fiction has never been my goal—or even feasible. I simply want a space to post without feeling like I’m being financially irresponsible.
You know, like a neighborhood bar…where everybody knows your name. And there’s no door charge.
If you’re interested, you can find my take on our life with and after breast cancer at BoldlyBeyondBreastCancer. Likewise, if you’re curious about my views on crime fiction (and most other forms of fiction as well) you can find me at ThrillWriting.
I hope to see you at either/or/both.
