People started moving to social media around 2016. I’d noticed the decline of truly worthwhile blogs to read about ten years ago. But I believe that trend is about to reverse.

Social media gives you access to a large audience, and people often expect you to have at least a Twitter account if you’re a public figure. I get that. I use Twitter and YouTube myself — and maybe, in the future, I’ll increase efforts on Instagram too.

However, the way these platforms have evolved makes having your own website more important than ever. I was banned from Medium over a year ago without a single warning, I’m fairly sure YouTube shadow-bans my channel, and German Twitter is full with state censorship for those who don’t align with the mainstream narrative.

On my website, nobody can censor me. I can write what I want and speak my mind freely on here. Some will like it, others will hate it — but no one can deplatform me here. Sure, Google might bury content it doesn’t like in the search results, but once I’ve built a loyal readership and mailing list, Google’s influence over me fades.

For authors, maintaining a blog is especially valuable because it’s a simple (and free) way for readers to discover and get into your work. I often give away books for free, but blogging is another way for potential readers to get to know me without any commitment. If you enjoy my blog, you’ll enjoy my books — guaranteed.

But I believe a website is essential for any public figure. In the near future, hosting video content will likely become very affordable. At that point, anyone could host their own vlogs, video essays, podcasts, and livestreams directly on their own site. Add a payment processor that doesn’t discriminate by political beliefs, and the bubble of mainstream media control could finally burst — giving rise to a new golden age of citizen journalism. No add AI video making and anyone could make Hollywood quality movies and post (and sell) them on their own website.

Even if you’re not an author, social commentator, vlogger, or influencer, a website is still for you. At the very least, it serves as your personal business card — a place to showcase your projects and interests. Whether you study math, play college sports, work as a plumber, invest in crypto or dividends, or love to travel — create a website and write about it. You might not become a famous influencer or make big money from it, but it will open doors.

And I’m not just talking about professional opportunities — personal ones, too. Let’s say you love riding motorbikes. With a website, you’ll quickly connect with other enthusiasts in your area. If you love reading, authors might start sending you free books or you’ll get great book recommendations by other readers. If you’re passionate about a sports team and write about them for fun, you might gain better access to games in the future.

A website simply builds credibility — in every area. And it does that far better than social media can for the average person. Sure, having a million Twitter followers is great, but what about smaller accounts like mine, with only around a thousand? Nobody cares about these accounts as they’re a dime a dozen.

A website with just 1,000 monthly readers, on the other hand, is something real — a meaningful platform that connects you with potential friends, collaborators, and opportunities.

Not long ago, standard SEO advice was to include a specific keyword at least once every 100 words in your website articles to make them rank better on Google.

This led to a practice called keyword stuffing — the result of Google’s early algorithm favoring pages that repeated the main keyword multiple times. People discovered that the more often they added the keyword, the higher their articles could rank.

The outcome? Millions of unreadable, low-quality articles cluttered the web. Google eventually adjusted its algorithm and started penalizing sites that overused keywords. What human readers hated soon became what Google’s algorithm hated, too.

Around the same time, headlines like these flooded the internet: “12 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Cat (Number 7 Will Shock You)”. They worked for a while, attracting clicks and views. But once readers realized that Buzzfeed-like listicles were mostly fluff designed to generate traffic rather than offer real value, engagement plummeted.

I can’t prove that Google adapted its algorithm in this case as well—but I certainly adapted. Whenever I see an article with a typical clickbait list headline, I skip it. I even avoid returning to that website altogether.

The blogs I continue to read are usually one-person sites. The authors behind them feel real and authentic. They write about their lives, work, and hobbies as if they were talking to a friend. In short: they write for humans, not machines.

And that’s the best long-term strategy. Think about it:

Google (and other search engines) are ultimately trying to connect readers with writers. Its algorithm aims to understand what humans want to read—and over time, it’s getting better at imitating human interests.

On top of that, social media has become a major driver of website traffic. And on social media, it’s humans—not algorithms—who share links to your blog.

Another trend is that the traditional era of SEO is coming to an end. Now, everything is shifting toward optimizing content for AI. But what are tools like ChatGPT trying to do? They’re designed to think and respond like humans. So, in the end, writing for humans also means writing for AI.

Finally, you don’t just want traffic, clicks, leads, or sales—you want an audience. And that audience is made up of humans. So why not write directly for them instead of trying to game algorithms and machines? After all, Google, Twitter, and ChatGPT exist to bring human eyes to your work. And you want these humans to follow you (and even buy your products and services).

What’s the point of generating massive traffic with an SEO-optimized article if it’s so poorly written that no real human actually wants to read it? You’re not going to gain a following like this and you’re not going to earn the trust that is needed to sell books or other products.

In the end, writing for humans will always be the best approach.

Short answer: As long as they need to be — and not a single word longer.

Long answer:
It seems that blog posts between 2,000 and 4,000 words tend to rank best on Google. So if you’re writing primarily for search engines, that’s a good target range. And it’s the reason the pro-bloggers write primarily posts of that length.

Of course, sometimes the topic naturally determines how long your article should be. If you’re writing an opinion piece titled “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie” you could end it in a single sentence:

Yes, and Yippee-Ki-Ya, motherfucker.

But if your article is titled “How to Write a Book,” even 4,000 words might not be enough.

My approach is to write for readers first, myself second, and search engines last. That means I focus on giving the reader exactly what the title promises — as clearly and concisely as possible. Adding unnecessary words or paragraphs just to please Google is counterproductive. So I keep things short and simple.

Take Derek Sivers, for example. I like his blog because he follows the same philosophy. Some of his posts are shorter than 300 words, yet they still deliver great ideas.

For the real-time biography blogging niche I’ve defined for my writing on this site, my goal is to give you a quick look into my work and progress that usually contains one idea at a time. Hence, short posts are totally fine, and even better than 1,000 words of rambling.

On the first day of every month, I publish a longer post titled “Progress Report.” It’s already grown to about 1,000 words per post — and naturally, it’ll become longer over time as my Author in Progress project develops.

However, posts like the one you’re reading right now usually range from 300 to 500 words. And I believe that’s enough to deliver what the title promises.

You tell me if I’m wrong.

First impressions matter. Everyone likes to claim they care about what’s inside — about who a person truly is. But the truth is, we don’t have enough time to get to know everyone deeply. So we all make quick judgments. Within a few seconds, we decide whether someone is worth investing more of our time.

What’s true in real life applies even more online.

When I stumble upon a new YouTube channel, I scan the thumbnails and check the most popular videos. It’s shallow, sure — but if those don’t catch my attention, I move on. On Twitter, I make that decision even faster. And when it comes to blogs, it’s no different.

If a website greets me with pop-ups, sign-up forms, and flashy, blinking sidebars trying to sell me something I never asked for, I immediately lose interest. The writing might be amazing, but once the ads hit me in the face, I’m gone.

To me, a blog is like a personal business card. It represents who you are and gives complete strangers their first impression of you. And I don’t want that impression to be that of a salesman desperate to make a quick buck.

Years ago, I used to read a website called Danger & Play by Mike Cernovich. Around 2016, Cernovich stopped publishing, but before that, I visited his site almost every day. When he finally released a book, I bought it without hesitation. Then I bought the follow-up, and even a collection of his best blog posts. When he launched a podcast, I listened. When he tried YouTube, I subscribed.

At no point did he ever have to sell me anything. I’d been reading his blog for years, and when he released a printed book, I felt like I owed him my support. It wasn’t the relationship between a salesman and a customer — it was more like helping a friend out who’d helped me for years.

That’s the kind of relationship every personal blogger should strive for. You don’t want readers to see you as a salesman looking for easy money. You want to be a friend — someone genuinely trying to help. And when your readers feel that you’ve truly helped them, they’ll naturally want to give something back.

No ads required. No hard selling.

Just a simple announcement:

Hey, my next book is out. If you’re interested, here’s a link.

And after that announcement is out of the way, get right back to doing what matters most: writing something that helps or at least entertains your reader.