Blog Questions Challenge

Answering questions related to my blog.

#73 · January 27, 2025 · 6 minutes read

Sometimes, in my profound moments, I imagine myself in an interview situation.
"Finally, my time has come", I think. Finally, I can pass on my wisdom and share what I have learnt on my journey as a blogger. Then, I awaken from my daydreaming and think, when the day comes, I'll be ready.

Today, it still hasn't come. The world doesn't care as much as I would like it to about the bloggers of the small web. Niq who? Niq with Q? But a blogging challenge has emerged amidst the blogosphere! And my blogging friend Thom challenged me to partake. I feel honoured and shall accept the challenge.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

When my friends talk to me about my blog, they often call it my "business blog" or my "tech blog". I know where they are coming from. When I launched this blog, I thought of it as a blog solely dedicated to web accessibility. I felt like a missionary, educating the world about it.

But over time my blog evolved. I realized that I don't want to write just about web accessibility. It is very close to my heart but so is travelling, productivity and the small web. Today, I write about anything that I get enthusiastic about. Anything is possible when writing a "personal blog".

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why did you choose it?

I built my website with NextJS, and I'm hosting it on Netlify. My decision to do so was influenced by my co-workers. There was a big buzz going on around NextJS.

It came in handy that once I completed NextJS's Get Started Guide, I had the foundation of a blog in front of me.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

After I have been blogging for a while, I tried out other platforms. I've built my travel blog with 11ty and my Spanish blog with Neocities. Last year, I also created a Bear Blog.

I'm so glad that nowadays it's so easy to start writing a blog. I wish more people would embrace the small web and leave the capitalistic world of social media behind.

How do you write your posts? For example, in a local editing tool, or in a panel/dashboard that's part of your blog?

When I feel really inspired and the words for a topic just appear out of nowhere, I immediately pick up my phone, open Signal and write a "Note to self". This is also the place where I collect ideas for potential blog posts. Sometimes, I manage to write entire blog posts in Signal.

Then, I pick up the draft or ideas from there and copy them over to a local Markdown file. The fine-tuning happens in Visual Studio Code.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

I identified four areas that raise my inspiration:

Movement (taking a walk, going for a run, riding a scooter).
Change of scenery (going on a day trip, spending time in nature, travelling in general).
Social interaction (meeting friends, attending events, talking to my girlfriend).
Consuming media (reading books, reading other blogs, watching movies/series, listening to podcasts).

In general, I believe that my inspiration builds up over time and once it has enough momentum, I'm in an elevated state. Then I feel most inspired to write.

Do you publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit as a draft?

I write a first draft and then push it to my test system. Usually, I'm not very happy with it at this point in time. What matters is that it's out there. It feels like progress.

I let it sit there and take a break from the computer. When I return, the editing starts, which I love to do. I simplify, I cut out, I rephrase. Sometimes I'm ready to publish a second draft, other times it's only my seventh. As a writer, story telling and writing style are very dear to me. Therefore, I take my sweet time before eventually publishing a post.

What's your favourite post on your blog?

When I launched my blog, I believed that I needed to know all the answers right away. What to write about, what features to build, what the website had to look like. It's no surprise that I soon felt frustrated.

How not to write was my freedom post. When I realized that I can write about anything, rather than stick to a theme rigorously, it changed my relationship towards writing. Today, I know that not knowing all the answers is among the best things of building something new. You just start with something and see how it evolves over time.

Any future plans for your blog? Maybe a redesign, a move to another platform, or adding a new feature?

So many. My blogroll and a /uses page have been in the making for quite some time now. I also want to introduce a guestbook.

The problem that I have with adding new features is that I always have to balance out whether I want to spend my time on writing or whether I want to spend it on building. Even though I love to build features for the website, writing usually wins!

Passing the torch

Let's keep the challenge alive! This is a great opportunity to motivate my blogging friend Paulo to write on his fantastic blog again. But no pressure, mate.