Advices for starting and maintaining a blog
Tags: discuss
Published: 2018-06-28 14:51:44

---
title: Advices for starting and maintaining a blog
published: true
description: 
tags: discuss
---

## Context

Since a few years now I want to start writing a blog. These few past months I even started putting down some ideas for articles and I feel now is the time to get started, but the truth is: I don't quite know how!

Before asking any questions, here is a (not so) small description of what I'm considering for my blog.

### Topic

The blog aims to be a personal blog on which I can write about things I care about.

This blog isn't meant to be about one specific topic or area but most articles will most likely be tech-related (dev stuff mostly). Other topics will draw in my hobbies (cinema, video games, music) or anything else I'd like to write about.

In short: 70% tech stuff, 20% hobbies, 10% others.

### Articles/writing

I'm considering writting different kind of articles. Some articles will just be my two cents on a subject, some others will be more like news posts (conveying specific information to the readers), and some will be more like how-tos.

The length of articles will vary depending on their type and their subject. Articles will be written in english and sorted in different categories (most likely articles will be tagged and sortable by tag).

### Layout and design

The idea is to keep things simple and stupid: fixed header and footer and any page will either be a list of articles or an article. Navigation will be in the header, footer will contain miscellaneous informations (bio, external links, social media, etc...).

The goal is to keep the layout and design minimalist to focus on the content of the articles. The text width will be fixed to facilitate reading and the blog should be mobile-friendly (responsive).

Also, a classical comment section will be available on each and every article.

### Backend/technical stuff

This blog project isn't meant to be a technical project, meaning that once the blog is launched, it should require very little technical maintenance, 90% of the work put in the blog should go into writing articles.

That being said, the tech stack should be chosen accordingly. The current favorite candidates are static sites generators like Jekyll or equivalent.

Ideally, articles should be written in Markdown, to keep both the redaction and the articles layout simple.

## Question(s)

Now, here are the two things I'd like to ask:

1. Your thoughts on what I just described! Anything, really.
- Answers or advice for these questions:
  - Is it a good idea to have various topics or should the blog be focused on one domain?
  - How to find, gain and keep readership? That's not an absolute goal (meaning: I don't want to blog to gain fame), but a blog is meant to be read after all!
  - What about social media presence? (any advices and thoughts are welcome)
  - How to make the blog interesting? (kinda broad question, I know)
  - What short and long term goals should I set for the blog?
  - How to monitor traffic and readership? How to see how things are going?

Of course, if you have any other recommendation, it's more than welcome!