IT'S ALL HERE.
My customization journey and early Bear Blog impressions.
After four whirlwind days and late nights, I'm done customizing this blog.
I'm super happy with the way it looks. All the pages are linked and ready to go. No more tinkering and nudging elements pixel by pixel. I can move on with my life!!
But more importantly, I've been learning so much.
The indie blogging community is amazing. I love how everyone shares their tips and tricks so openly. I have limited knowledge in coding, and I was able to put this all together thanks to blog posts, forums, and when desperate, solicit ChatGPT for help. However, I'm proud to say the changes I've made today were done without the use of AI. I'm finally applying what I've learned!
Social media in turn feels like the opposite: Gatekeeping resources, hiding information behind a paywall, only promoting your brand and building your community because it's a job. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of cool content creators out there. But the popular ones feel like celebrities, untouchable and unreachable to the everyday person.
I'm also sick of building my personal brand. I've worked in branding and marketing for years, and I don't want to treat myself like another product to sell. I'm a person goddammit!
ʕノ•ᴥ•ʔノ ︵ ┻━┻
It's only been a few days since this all started, and I'm already getting much more positive traction on my analytics page here compared to Substack. What I hate about Substack's analytics is how it shows your blog's performance in the most negative way possible.
I just took a screenshot of this. How motivating.
I mean, I'm no analytics expert, so I'm sure it's designed that way for a reason—to motivate you to post more, do more, more, more, more!
But on Bear Blog, I'm seeing people visiting from countries I've never heard of, and I'm amazed that people are already finding my blog already. How cool is that?
I can't stress how important this tiny change has been for me. One platform told me I wasn't doing enough, but in reality, I'm doing just fine.
So, THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE and have a look around! I've added a lot of facts about myself (I love making lists) and a contact form.
This blog has disrupted my life in a big (but good) way, so now I need to readjust back into a functioning person where I take care of the other things in my life. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and we're making hot pot, so we need to buy all the ingredients today and tidy up around the apartment.