Finding Interesting (Personal) Blogs
5 February, 2023
A while back in this space, I wrote about my dismay with a post I’d stumbled across that proclaimed it was time to bring back personal blogs.
That dismay stemmed from the fact that personal blogs never disappeared off web. Those personal blogs might have been eclipsed by so-called pro blogs, but they’re still out there. The trouble, though, is finding those personal blogs.
Platforms like Write.as and Bear, for example, have discovery feeds for the blogs that they host. But personal blogging goes beyond Write.as and Bear and similar platforms. So it’s a good thing that there are other ways to find interesting personal blogs. Here are a few of them:
Let’s start off with The Forest. It’s a collection of blogs and websites that various people have suggested. Click the Go For a Walk button and you’re taken to one of those blogs or sites. The fun part is that you’re never sure where you’re going to land.
Similar to The Forest is indieblog.page. Again, it’s a a collection of suggested posts from various personal blogs. Click the Open Random Blog Post button and that happens. You never know where you’re going to land until you do.
If you’re looking for a little more structure in your searches, then check out Blogroll, a curated list of personal blogs, grouped into 18 topics. Each listing comes with a short description, so you get an inkling of what the blog is about before you decide to jump to it.
Continuing on that theme is the newer curated directory on the block: ooh.directory. It’s similar to Blogroll, with a dozen or so categories, but with a different and cleaner layout. When you jump to a category, the list of blogs includes a link and a short description.
You can also hop over to PersonalSit.esto find something that might catch your attention.
Personal blogs are out there. Go find some. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what turns up.