I'm not abandoning the attention economy, I'm revolutionizing it with spectacular story telling that weaves in a natural flow of search engine based writing. This is a skill that not many have but any writer can obtain with enough practice.
The fact that SEO broke the web is a testimony to the fact that people keyword stuff their fluff, and that good writers abandon SEO, leaving nothing but crap. Food for thought Justin, you're an amazing writer and IF you choose to incorporate SEO into your blog without selling out to writing garbage, then you too can revolutionize the writing world.
That said I'm all about writing that honors thought sharing and the mundane. These are my favorite things to read, so I'll be checking out Mastodon. While I'm throwing my two cents in there, can I just say that I hope other writers will learn to use AI to create new ideas, incorporate information they didn't previously have, all while altering the AI generated writing into fresh human insights through merciless editing. Please note I'm advocating for adding AI to your toolbox, not mindlessly generating content and then posing it as your own work. PS I have a you can't make a hater out of me and I don't respond to haters policy.
Endless love to you writers; keep them keys clicking.
This insight, carried around, early on ... by me. Now: Masses turn to the same Insight. I write because I love to create. And, gone are the days when actually The Numbers En Masse of Attention Givers meant something - to me. I care about Loveful Conversations. Period.
Great article, Justin! The seemingly inescapable paradox is that at least for now, I need to produce a lot of SEO driven content to make money writing. It’s not the worst thing ever- I like to write, even when what I’m writing doesn’t reflect who I am.
Substack and Medium are my outlets for that. Substack more so because even Medium is algorithm driven. I’ve really enjoyed the community I’ve built on substack
Three months ago I took FB off of my phone and I don't think I can look back. I'm so much happier and waste so much less time. I'm trying to build my community here so that I can stop worrying about Twitter (where I found a lot of community with like-minded people who made me feel less crazy, but Elon broke that) and IG (where the video and algorithms are out of control) and perhaps figure out how to effectively microblog on Post. I want to focus on writing, not on SEO, and that is HARD because how do we get people to find us and follow us without SEO? It's a brave new world.
Just the conversation I needed. Your newsletter popped up hours after an intense journaling session asking myself "why DO I write?" I refuse to start the new year bogged down with the pressure of writing for attention when that has never been my primary intention. Thanks Justin, and thanks to others who've shared.
Its Amazing how far the internet has come this last twenty years! -Websites, content platforms, blogs, and content mills all, jostling for SEO content and now ChatGPT are threatening the beautiful art of free expression, (writing our hearts out) - Its time real writers stood up for what's right and write!
Great post. It echoes some of my thought processes at the end of the year. I have missed the thoughtful community of blogs, and the way that blogging makes me think deeply about things - for myself, not SEO and lead generation. I feel like I’ve found a bit of that old feeling since joining substack two months ago. I haven’t joined Mastodon yet, and I’m dubious if I want to. I can’t escape the suspicion that marketers will find a way to ruin it too, so why bother? Any thoughts about that?
So funny. I just posted a piece on losing my soul and being bored by my own writing because I was so worried about playing the game, building an audience, understanding algorithms, etc. I lost myself. Now that I’ve realized it, I’m going back to writing about what moves and interests me. And hopefully connect w other likeminded folks instead of SEO algorithms.
Those words resonate a lot with me. I'm a musician & music producer who is about to follow the same path, open a newsletter on substack and focusing more on Mastodon. Social media have been a waste of time that seems to require that we spend more time to create content to please the algorythm. We are kind of lucky in the music world in a way because it('s easier to make a living with a hundreds of dedicated listeners rather (who will buy the records) than a million casual listeners who will only stream them. Most importantly, it's way better for the soul to have a small but supportive community. The social medias illusion is over, let's put it to rest.
I really appreciate your thoughts, Justin! I also always love getting your newsletters. I've been in the "creative entrepreneur" spaces and getting very bogged down and saddened by the inauthenticity of affiliate marketing, ads, etc. Your opinion of Mastodon is super interesting—my spaces HATE it (but they also hate Twitter, soooo 🤣). I was never super active on Twitter but might check out Mastodon. I'm curious how long it will stay in the nonprofit space, however.
Can you recommend an app for Mastodon or are you using the browser? I'd like to get better about being active there. My interactions have all been quite positive. I just hate using my phone's browser for Mastodon, feels clunky.
I love this article. I have been thinking about this a great deal lately. I recently changed blogging platforms and have been "revamping" some of my old blog posts as well as my earlier work on Medium. Over the last couple of years, I have been trying to learn and use SEO and do keyword research to build an audience. My earlier work seemed much more personal and more of a reflection of me. And I have been thinking how wonderful it would be to just write creatively. Some of my newer stuff reminds me of something you would find in a textbook. It would be wonderful if things could swing back the other way. Thank you for sharing.
I moved from blogging on a personal website to blogging on Livejournal in about 2002. The writing community on LJ at one time was a thriving, creative, yet personal place where friendships were made (some of which I've actually kept into this new age) and craft improved. I tried twitter a little but really didn't take it seriously until 2016 or so. I still don't/didn't use it much. I'm not a soundbite kind of person. My words need room to stretch and breathe. Too much nuance is lost within a character limit.
Nowadays, I've been using Instagram more often, but I still keep a personal blog on a site called Dreamwidth. My 'audience' is small, my 'content' personal, the way it used to be. There's no algorithm to fight and my 'circle' (friends feed) is all chronological.
For building my commercial audience I use Instagram and (don't laugh) Tumblr. :) Though on both sites I'm striving to be authentic in everything I do.
I'm not abandoning the attention economy, I'm revolutionizing it with spectacular story telling that weaves in a natural flow of search engine based writing. This is a skill that not many have but any writer can obtain with enough practice.
The fact that SEO broke the web is a testimony to the fact that people keyword stuff their fluff, and that good writers abandon SEO, leaving nothing but crap. Food for thought Justin, you're an amazing writer and IF you choose to incorporate SEO into your blog without selling out to writing garbage, then you too can revolutionize the writing world.
That said I'm all about writing that honors thought sharing and the mundane. These are my favorite things to read, so I'll be checking out Mastodon. While I'm throwing my two cents in there, can I just say that I hope other writers will learn to use AI to create new ideas, incorporate information they didn't previously have, all while altering the AI generated writing into fresh human insights through merciless editing. Please note I'm advocating for adding AI to your toolbox, not mindlessly generating content and then posing it as your own work. PS I have a you can't make a hater out of me and I don't respond to haters policy.
Endless love to you writers; keep them keys clicking.
This insight, carried around, early on ... by me. Now: Masses turn to the same Insight. I write because I love to create. And, gone are the days when actually The Numbers En Masse of Attention Givers meant something - to me. I care about Loveful Conversations. Period.
Great article, Justin! The seemingly inescapable paradox is that at least for now, I need to produce a lot of SEO driven content to make money writing. It’s not the worst thing ever- I like to write, even when what I’m writing doesn’t reflect who I am.
Substack and Medium are my outlets for that. Substack more so because even Medium is algorithm driven. I’ve really enjoyed the community I’ve built on substack
Three months ago I took FB off of my phone and I don't think I can look back. I'm so much happier and waste so much less time. I'm trying to build my community here so that I can stop worrying about Twitter (where I found a lot of community with like-minded people who made me feel less crazy, but Elon broke that) and IG (where the video and algorithms are out of control) and perhaps figure out how to effectively microblog on Post. I want to focus on writing, not on SEO, and that is HARD because how do we get people to find us and follow us without SEO? It's a brave new world.
Just the conversation I needed. Your newsletter popped up hours after an intense journaling session asking myself "why DO I write?" I refuse to start the new year bogged down with the pressure of writing for attention when that has never been my primary intention. Thanks Justin, and thanks to others who've shared.
Its Amazing how far the internet has come this last twenty years! -Websites, content platforms, blogs, and content mills all, jostling for SEO content and now ChatGPT are threatening the beautiful art of free expression, (writing our hearts out) - Its time real writers stood up for what's right and write!
Great post. It echoes some of my thought processes at the end of the year. I have missed the thoughtful community of blogs, and the way that blogging makes me think deeply about things - for myself, not SEO and lead generation. I feel like I’ve found a bit of that old feeling since joining substack two months ago. I haven’t joined Mastodon yet, and I’m dubious if I want to. I can’t escape the suspicion that marketers will find a way to ruin it too, so why bother? Any thoughts about that?
So funny. I just posted a piece on losing my soul and being bored by my own writing because I was so worried about playing the game, building an audience, understanding algorithms, etc. I lost myself. Now that I’ve realized it, I’m going back to writing about what moves and interests me. And hopefully connect w other likeminded folks instead of SEO algorithms.
Those words resonate a lot with me. I'm a musician & music producer who is about to follow the same path, open a newsletter on substack and focusing more on Mastodon. Social media have been a waste of time that seems to require that we spend more time to create content to please the algorythm. We are kind of lucky in the music world in a way because it('s easier to make a living with a hundreds of dedicated listeners rather (who will buy the records) than a million casual listeners who will only stream them. Most importantly, it's way better for the soul to have a small but supportive community. The social medias illusion is over, let's put it to rest.
I really appreciate your thoughts, Justin! I also always love getting your newsletters. I've been in the "creative entrepreneur" spaces and getting very bogged down and saddened by the inauthenticity of affiliate marketing, ads, etc. Your opinion of Mastodon is super interesting—my spaces HATE it (but they also hate Twitter, soooo 🤣). I was never super active on Twitter but might check out Mastodon. I'm curious how long it will stay in the nonprofit space, however.
Thanks for your post!
I find the graphic text on yesterday’s Gapingvoid post to be incredibly intriguing! https://www.gapingvoid.com/blog/2023/01/23/missing-out/
What happens when we direct our energy toward quality over noise? Does the marketing take care of itself?
Many, many good points. We need a trip BACK to the future to regain our best writing selves.
Justin, Thank you for your insights. This piece felt like a port in the storm. D
Can you recommend an app for Mastodon or are you using the browser? I'd like to get better about being active there. My interactions have all been quite positive. I just hate using my phone's browser for Mastodon, feels clunky.
I love this article. I have been thinking about this a great deal lately. I recently changed blogging platforms and have been "revamping" some of my old blog posts as well as my earlier work on Medium. Over the last couple of years, I have been trying to learn and use SEO and do keyword research to build an audience. My earlier work seemed much more personal and more of a reflection of me. And I have been thinking how wonderful it would be to just write creatively. Some of my newer stuff reminds me of something you would find in a textbook. It would be wonderful if things could swing back the other way. Thank you for sharing.
I moved from blogging on a personal website to blogging on Livejournal in about 2002. The writing community on LJ at one time was a thriving, creative, yet personal place where friendships were made (some of which I've actually kept into this new age) and craft improved. I tried twitter a little but really didn't take it seriously until 2016 or so. I still don't/didn't use it much. I'm not a soundbite kind of person. My words need room to stretch and breathe. Too much nuance is lost within a character limit.
Nowadays, I've been using Instagram more often, but I still keep a personal blog on a site called Dreamwidth. My 'audience' is small, my 'content' personal, the way it used to be. There's no algorithm to fight and my 'circle' (friends feed) is all chronological.
For building my commercial audience I use Instagram and (don't laugh) Tumblr. :) Though on both sites I'm striving to be authentic in everything I do.