Lots of people blog or have a personal website. The reasons vary—from making money to venting about politics. I’ve never quite nailed down my own reason, but here are some general themes:
I really went all in on those first two. I’ve spent a good chunk of money over the years—on hosting, themes, software—not to mention countless hours chasing knowledge and skills.
I’ve learned more than I ever imagined about WordPress, HTML, CSS, and other web technologies. I feel confident in my ability to solve problems and build things. The journey has been personally rewarding. It’s also given me useful skills.
Mission accomplished.
I guess the point is… I just don’t care about fancy blogs anymore.
I want to pursue other hobbies. I love writing—but it always drops to the bottom of my priority list when I feel the self-imposed pressure to create a custom featured image, a perfect social graph preview, and a dozen other formatting details.
What if I just want to write?
Yeah, images boost engagement. But who cares? This isn’t a business. I don’t need to market anything.
So here I am. Starting a free blog on a free platform with a free URL and a minimal feature set—with no expectations of likes, comments, shares, or… anything, really.
I’ve been through this cycle before. I make hasty decisions. So I won’t delete websmith.tv just yet. I’ll let it simmer. I do love having a slick-looking blog (even though right now, it’s under construction and not that slick).
That said, I want freedom again.
Freedom from formatting.
Freedom from custom images.
Freedom from meta descriptions and social sharing optimization.
I just want to puke my thoughts onto the page.
And that’s enough.