Hey guys, over the past few years I have maintained various blogs and social media accounts on platforms like Blogger, Wordpress, Medium, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and more. They are all great platforms but overtime I switched to Google+ for everything and re-sharing those G+ posts to my other accounts.
Today, I’m switching this up so keep reading if you want to know what’s changing and where to look for content I share!
1. New Blog
First change is a Jekyll powered Blog on my domain BrandonGiesing.com.
Why Jekyll and not something else?
Well out of the platforms above, Medium and Tumblr are my two current “blogging” tools.
Tumblr
I love Tumblr due to it’s cross-platform use, fast post creation, and not having to maintain a website. However, the biggest issue with it is that it’s almost so easy to make a post. This meant that it was a jumbled mess of memes, professional and personal projects, reposts, and more. Post customization is fairly limited also.
I see Tumblr as more of a social network than blog. This has the advantage of spreading stuff better and faster than a unknown website; but, it also has more chance for in-depth posts to be buried under dank memes and otherwise super immature posts.
Medium
Medium is a good option as it’s basically Tumblr for in-depth content (so blog turned social network instead of social network turned blog) so it still spreads stuff faster. Problem is the post options are limited and your site is doesn’t get much customization. This makes Medium the Apple of Blogging as it’s easy to use and not mess up but severely locked down.
Others
As for things like Blogger, Wordpress, etc. I needed the options but I don’t need to be smothered in them and they are either outdated or need paid plans to do simple things like custom domains.
Jekyll
This brings us to Jekyll!
Jekyll is good for me as I can:
- Host it on my own domain (unlike everything else unless you buy a “subscription”)
- I can embed anything into a post as it’s just HTML, JS, and CSS.
- Uses Markdown (which makes making posts easily even without Internet or a fancy word processor)
- I own all the content, not Tumblr/Medium.
Also since it’s hosted by GitHub Pages, I also get these advantages:
- Anybody can submit corrections or page fixes on GitHub
- I can edit anywhere I can use Git or GitHub’s site or offline and publish once I get connected (More on this below!)
- Hosted on Secure and Fast servers for entirely free
As for disadvantages? One of the main ones is the lack of Viral Spreading mentioned above. However, I can still easily share a link to it on my other platforms. Also, Mobile editing is harder and I use mobile devices more than my Laptop anymore.
Making It Easier
As I mentioned above, it’s difficult to edit on Mobile with Jekyll for a couple reasons:
- Markdown is not as easy to type with a touch keyboard.
- Git clients on Android are shitty so I would have to still have to Publish at a PC.
Even if not on mobile, PCs still have problems too if you are on a public computer or Chromebook as Git can’t be installed. GitHub can edit files on their site but it’s not the most feature filled editor. The solution is a platform that acts like a CMS for Jekyll!
WTF is a CMS?
CMS (or Content Management System) is what most people are used too with Blogs. Wordpress is a CMS and so is Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium. CMSes don’t have to be only for Blogs though as lots of popular websites are powered by them. Those may use a non-blog specific one like Drupal. They are almost always slow, require Paid hosting (or free on their domain), and require big databases.
Enter TinyPress.co!
TinyPress is a Static CMS that acts as essentially as a online text editor for GitHub instead of a full platform. Compared to the above methods of GitHub’s web interface or the downloadable Git client, this also:
- Has a Android App (and iOS soon)
- Can Schedule Posts
- Make a Blog for you with some pre-defined themes
- Writing Prompts for Inspiration
Even though I know how to set up a blog, the blog builder tool is great for beginners and the themes are nice (I’m using one of them on here!)
The site is a work in progress still so please let me know if anything can be improved!
2. Changes to Social Media
What is changing?
I have started this transition a while ago so some people might not notice much difference but I never actually said it and some changes have been made since.
Google+ auto-repost is no more
I had my social media accounts set up to reshare all my G+ posts to others like Facebook, Twitter, App.Net, Tumblr, and more. That meant G+ was the only unique content and everything else forwarded to G+
This had issues because G+ had no API so it was hacky and a lot of those posts were about a G+ friend so people had no idea WTF I was talking about.
Original Content across platforms.
This means that I may not be able to post as often on some sites but the posts will be better for the different types of people on each platform.
Dropped Platforms
With so many Social networks, it would be impossible to do Original content everywhere. So with that said, I am not posting on some places so I can focus on a few key sites.
Tumblr is no longer “my site”
Before now, Tumblr has acted as my main site with my Bio/About page, list of projects, Donate links, and more being hosted there alongside the actual Tumblr blog. Now those will be here and the only pages left will be Tumblr’s Ask Me Anything and Submit pages.
What’s dropped?
Facebook
Facebook is one of my most hated social media accounts. The site and apps are buggy and I know nobody on there but family that I see often anyway. I’m going to keep the account for FB Sign-on so that might show activity but otherwise no new posts and if I do check it at all, it could be months or years apart.
App.net
Never really used it anyway and only followed blogs.
What Do I Follow?
Blogs
| Site | Contains | Avg. Post Length |
|---|---|---|
| Jekyll (aka BrandonGiesing.com) | Project Announcements or Technical Posts that require advanced formatting. | Long |
| Tumblr | Reshares from Tumblrs I follow and Quick and Easy posts that are still decent length, not professional at all | Medium-Long |
| Medium | Select posts that may come from Jekyll or original to Medium | Long |
Multi-purpose Sites
| Site | Contains | Avg. Post Length |
|---|---|---|
| Short ramblings, Live Tweeting what I’m doing, and sharing links | Short | |
| Google+ | Topic focused posts (like Tech or Gravity Falls) using Collections and trolling friends | Medium |
Video Sites
| Site | Contains | Avg. Video Length |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Anything I want (usually Mashups) | 2-8 mins |
| Vine | Short clips, Exclusive Mashups, Revines, and Previews of YouTube content | 6 secs or less |
| Vid.me | Mostly backup for YouTube but also contains some videos that are longer than Vine’s 6 secs but shorter than a minute as they loop short videos. | 0 secs to 8 mins |
Art sites
| Site | Contains |
|---|---|
| DeviantArt | Fan Art and Graphic Design |
| RedBubble | Professional Designs for Purchase as Clothing, Stickers, and more. |
I hope that these changes will be better and the blog will work good! If you have any questions, you can find me on those sites above! Just search “Brandon Giesing”, “bgiesing”, or “bgiesing39”!