I have written several posts with tips for various aspects of blogging. This post curates those posts and bits from the #IndieWeb wiki into a linear progression, from why, to what, and how to post. This post assumes you already have a blog — if you don’t have one and wonder why you should, that’s a different blog post.


Why Post

There is a whole wiki page on the topic:
* https://indieweb.org/why_post — which could use some gardening

Here is a summary of reasons why to post:
1. Wean yourself off social media. Post to your own site instead of social media. If you already post on social media, into someone else’s garage¹, then you already have reason enough to post. So post on your own site first, and optionally syndicate² to that silo, only if you have friends who still use it to read posts.
2.


What to Post
* Post positive things promptly: https://tantek.com/2018/357/t3
  * … from that day first: https://tantek.com/2018/364/t1
  * … in time order: https://tantek.com/2018/364/t5
* Make and share lists. People like lists


How to Post
* Use a local text editor
* Capture first, edit & publish later: https://tantek.com/2023/365/t1/
* Do something positive (in-person), then post about it: https://tantek.com/2018/002/t1
* Single topic post
* Short and to the point. Edit and remove anything distracting from the main point.
* Quotable post title
* Summary opening paragraph
* Put tangents aside
* Quotable sentences and multi-sentence paragraphs
* Subheadings help cluster related paragraphs
* Use a footer for updates, terminology, previous writings, additional reading, and citations.
  * Move definitions, citations, etc. to the footer unless including them inline either provides little risk of distraction or significantly helps reading flow.
  * Use footer subsections: Previously, Post Glossary, References, Additional Reading
* Check your references


Each of these points could be its own blog post.


Glossary

silo
  https://indieweb.org/silo
social media
  https://indieweb.org/social_media


References

¹ https://tantek.com/2023/001/t1/own-your-notes
² https://indieweb.org/POSSE


This is post 29 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts

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