Getting Back to Writing its a Ghostly Experience

My aim in going forward is to keep consistently writing, writing being the first priority.  This is why there are suddenly a bunch of posts on browngeek.net after years of silence.  

I don't have any specific writing schedule, apart from keeping it consistent.

Previous attempts

Apart from browngeek.net through blogger, I did have a grand idea to create a personal finance specific website, something focused on Hong Kong / Asia.  I did actually commit to this a few years ago and launched a website.

I spent weeks learning about SEO, backlinks, tailwinds, Google indexing and ranking and social media strategy.  I actually even wrote some blog posts.  However every blog post became this massive project to craft an SEO friendly blog post with the right title, relevant topics and writing the “right” words to get indexed on Google.

I was hosting on WordPress, which meant another research rabbit hole. Plugins, hosting platforms, theme optimisation. You name it, I spent countless hours watching YouTube tutorials and reading Reddit threads.

The result? A grand total of maybe five blog posts and a serious case of blogging burnout.  In due course I’ll share these blog posts here.

The technical stuff became this giant wall between me and actually creating content and eventually I just packed it in.

This Time Is Different

This time it's about writing.  Optimising can wait once I've got the basics sorted.

Consistency over perfection.

Don’t get me wrong - I’ll still tinker with the backend stuff because, let’s face it, I’m a geek. But it’s going to be incremental. 

Why I Kept browngeek.net

I actually considered starting fresh with a clean slate, new domain, new website, etc.. 

But then I looked at browngeek.net, sitting there on Blogger for almost 10 years and it did have quite a few posts.  Sure it was dormant for a long time, but it did have quite a few posts from back in the day, it had history.

Going Spooky with Ghost

Blogger was fine for what it was, but I wanted something that felt more professional and somewhere where I would own my content properly. Wordpress was the obvious choice as I did have some previous experience, but that experience did remind me that I would have to do a lot of background maintenance. 

I then found Ghost.org.

Ghost seems to be more about just writing and not worrying about the other stuff. 

I could have self hosted, but at this stage, that's just too much effort.  Instead I opted for a cheap hosting package from Magicpages.co*. While it's a one man outfit, the owner is very responsive and actively involved with Ghost..

The Plan Going Forward

Concentrate on writing consistently.

Will I eventually optimise for SEO? Probably. Will I customise the design and add additional features? Yes. When?  I don't know, but as I've already said countless times here, consistent writing comes first.

Right now, it’s about building a habit.

Where This Goes Next

Honestly, no clue. 

Maybe this blog grows into something bigger or maybe it remains a passion project and a more of a creative outlet.

For now, it’s just about showing up and getting one post out at a time on a regular basis. 

Everything else can figure itself out later.

* Referral link