I will be your first reader
Starting a blog is the best way to share your voice online.
No, this isn't 2005. Blogs are back, baby! And the web becomes richer every time someone uses their own website to voice their opinion, instead of shouting inside one of big tech's walled gardens.
If you're thinking about joining the revolution, I'm excited to hear it. A blog can become your online home. Your safe space, where you have room to think and just be you. Something to appreciate in a world that is spinning ever faster, constantly bombarding you with information, directions, instructions and lessons on everything from what to do, how to think and all in-between.
On the flip-side, starting a blog can be lonely. Sometimes it will force you to practise what Blaise Pascal called the reason for all of humanity's problems: The inability to sit quietly in a room alone. And that's a good thing. We all need to spend more time in quiet rooms.
At the same time, we have a deep need to be seen. To have our voices heard. If you've tried blogging, you may have found it difficult to get readers. I'm here to tell you that's not true. Because part of what makes blogging great, is that it isn't subject to the network effects of social networks.
When you're blogging, it is human connection that provides reach and readership. Interacting with actual people. A radical concept, I know. But one worth pursuing.
Still, it can be hard to know where to start. I feel it too. And that's why I was jumping up and down in excitement when I stumbled across Manu's post I'll read it. He tackles the point head on. He promises to read your blog, and to keep reading it. What's more, he's sharing a big list of other bloggers who have taken the same pledge. They will all be my readers, and yours.
Inspired by the idea, I knew I had to join the movement. So, in Manu's spirit, if you start a blog, I will read it. Unlike Manu, I don't speak Italian, but if it's in English or Norwegian, I'll read it. I will also add it to the list of 87 blogs that I subscribe to in my RSS reader. To make sure I don't miss your future posts.
Just email me the link. I'm looking forward to it.
And, for good measure, here is a link to every single one of the bloggers who responded when I emailed them to be my first reader. You should email them as well. I know they too will be looking forward to getting your message.