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Have you tried self-hosted microblogging?

by Eduard
8 replies
So, here's the idea. I noticed that I'm pretty good at writing very short, to the point posts with practical tips, of about 20 to 200 words, but I don't particularly enjoy writing long blog posts, especially on a constant basis.

Considering this, I was thinking about creating a self-hosted microblog where I write in short bursts of practical advice and use it for personal branding and IM. There are a couple of really cool Worpress themes for this, like Conversate (not an affiliate link) which imitates twitter but on a blog.

My first thought was to use an existing platform for microblogging such as Facebook or Twitter. But there are a few problems with that:
  • Many of the people in my target audience don't use such sites.
  • I have to rely on a platform I don't own and I don't know what's gonna happen with in the long-term.
  • Some are too restrictive. I love short posts but the 140 characters limit Twitter has is steep even for me.
  • My messages can get lost in a stream of messages from all sorts of people and it's harder for them to get noticed and stick in a person's head.

This is why I'm considering microblogging on my own website.

The challenge (I think) will be getting people to visit, return and subscribe to a blog with very short posts, preferably via email.

I'm curious: have you ever tried something like this? What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Eduard
#microblogging #selfhosted
  • Profile picture of the author vegaskev
    I will chime in and say that while Google begs us all to provide the internet with QUALITY and UNIQUE content and that the content should have enough content to matter (so-called experts say a minimum of 500 words), I've been wondering how well 200 words per article would fare.

    However, if you market your content well and the traffic starts coming in from email traffic, social traffic, etc. Google will still give you love after awhile.....just look at twitter....its only 140 CHARACTERS...which is well under 200 words.

    Just remember to keep a few things in mind

    -Quality content
    -Refrain from spamming the crap out of your content
    -Focus heavily on the USER EXPERIENCE. <--- Google cares more about this than most people think.

    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author Eduard
      Originally Posted by vegaskev View Post

      I will chime in and say that while Google begs us all to provide the internet with QUALITY and UNIQUE content and that the content should have enough content to matter (so-called experts say a minimum of 500 words), I've been wondering how well 200 words per article would fare.

      However, if you market your content well and the traffic starts coming in from email traffic, social traffic, etc. Google will still give you love after awhile.....just look at twitter....its only 140 CHARACTERS...which is well under 200 words.

      Just remember to keep a few things in mind

      -Quality content
      -Refrain from spamming the crap out of your content
      -Focus heavily on the USER EXPERIENCE. <--- Google cares more about this than most people think.

      Good luck!
      Thanks. I wouldn't focus on getting free traffic from Google on this blog so I'm not really concerned with my posts being short and hard to rank .
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      • Profile picture of the author Eduard
        Anybody else?
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    • Profile picture of the author fin
      Originally Posted by vegaskev View Post

      I've been wondering how well 200 words per article would fare.


      Good luck!
      200 words is a long paragraph, not an article.

      Did they not used to be called blurbs.
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      • Profile picture of the author Eduard
        Originally Posted by fin View Post

        200 words is a long paragraph, not an article.

        Did they not used to be called blurbs.
        True. But I don't want to write articles per se on this blog anyway. More like short tips and advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author MakingMoneyPoint
    Instead of creating a mini site I would post my articles on Hubpages.
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    • Profile picture of the author Eduard
      Originally Posted by MakingMoneyPoint View Post

      Instead of creating a mini site I would post my articles on Hubpages.
      Cool. But why?
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeTucker
    Originally Posted by Eduard View Post


    I'm curious: have you ever tried something like this? What are your thoughts?

    Thanks,

    Eduard

    I know I am not the only person who enjoys
    concise, organized information over bloated
    ramblings.

    You can get readers via:
    1. Forum Marketing
    2. Solo Ads
    3. Combining posts into articles
    4. PPC
    5. Safelists
    6. Guest blogging/blog commenting
    7. Etc...


    I look forward to seeing what you put together.
    Signature

    The bartender says: "We don't serve faster-than-light particles here."

    ...A tachyon enters a bar.

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