It’s now easier than ever to write online if you wish to. Here’s a list of more than 40 blogging platforms. Many are free or have a self-hosting option, and you can pretty much choose your own adventure here, so why not get going?

Manuel’s list of blog platforms

Now, some say writing on your own website is a wasted opportunity, because hardly anyone will read it. A better way, they say, is social media. That’s simply because the social media algorithms bring good writing to the surface to present it to far more pairs of eyeballs.

OK. The big problem with this advice is that the main platforms are capricious. They change their rules all the time, they lock you in, then boot people off for no reason, while still enabling trolls. They destroy databases with no warning; they promote genocide and fascism while claiming they’re not publishers so owe no responsibility, and they generally behave on a spectrum between exploitative and sociopathic.

You get what the algorithm gives you. This is both a meagre blessing and a wicked curse.

My partial solution is to publish on my own site while syndicating elsewhere. I keep the ‘canonical’ version here on my own website, while publicising it in as many other online locations as I wish. This is a little more work, but gives me control without total invisibility. And some of the syndication can be automated, through RSS and APIs.

POSSE: Reclaiming social media in a fragmented world|Molly White

But there’s also another side to the equation. How small exactly is a ‘small’ audience? My blog has a few views. If I was doing live events I’d be truly delighted with the numbers! And since you’re reading this, now seems like a good time to thank you personally. Yes, thanks for reading!

Social media is a river. Your post there might get a lot of eyeballs but it’s very quickly lost in the ceaseless flow. In contrast, a blog post like this one is smaller and slower, but more enduring. If you’re reading this from the future, thank you for proving this point!

And anyway, to get a message across, millions of readers aren’t necessary for most people. Ryan Holiday’s Daily Stoic email has a million readers, and Mr Beast has about 300 million followers on YouTube. Well, good for them. But does it really matter to the rest of us?

In his post, Hope for the Web, James says:

“Every personal website is a glimmer of hope, a metaphorical star in the sky that shows how wonderful the web can be.”

That’s right! And writing online is a conversation with yourself too, a conversation you might not otherwise have. the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard might have agreed. If he was around now I bet he’d be publishing a personal website.

“Metaphorically speaking, a person’s ideas must be the building he lives in - otherwise there is something terribly wrong”. Søren Kierkegaard, introduction to Provocations

The opportunity is yours and the time is now, to write for many, to write for a few, to write for yourself. So what are your Provocations?

It’s also easier than ever to publish a book. Check out mine: Shu Ha Ri: The Japanese Way of Learning, for artists and Fighters. And to stay connected, subscribe to the weekly email digest.