On Cross Posting
As I understand it, one of the central tenants of indy web blogging is POSSE, Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. As a micro.blog user, I take advantage of its powerful cross posting abilities to send links to:
I also use Robb Knight's Echofeed to crosspost from the blogs I have on Scribbles.page and BearBlog.dev. From looking at website analytics, the impact of cross-posting to other social media sites isn't significant.
The one place where I have found it beneficial to cross post to is Reddit. I only cross post to two subredddits r/MacApps and r/ObsidianMD. Reddit is one of the most popular sites on the Internet and some posts I've made there that have managed to strike a nerve have been viewed upwards of 100K times. Reddit is a weird place though. The minute people think you are posting for Internet points rather than contributing to the conversation, you're going to get roasted, so make sure you have something worthwhile to share in the context of whatever sub you're posting in.
Most of my social media engagement comes on Mastodon. It's where I spend the most time and where I have found the best sense of community. I get a little bit of engagement in Threads and Blue Sky and I've met exactly one interesting person on each platform. I also occasionally post things to Facebook where I still have an account, mostly for family reasons. I also belong to the AppRaven community, a website/app for software aficionados and when I write a review for an app that's in the app store, I post it there.
I have a webring set up on one of my blogs and it looks like I get some occasional traffic from that. I also have my blogs listed in a few directories and they also generate a little traffic.
- Gossip’s Web (gossipsweb.net)
- PersonalSit.es | Yes we got hot and fresh sites
- The Big List of Personal Websites
One of my primary reasons for blogging it to meet new people and spark friendships, so having a larger audience serves that purpose. And, not going to lie, there might be a little ego involved too, but not a lot, really. I full recognize my own limitations in the space. I'm a lazy editor and re-writer. I don't do a lot of polishing. I use my time to write a lot of just OK stuff rather than a little really high effort material. It's just the way I roll.
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