too late to the blog party?
2026 seems like a very strange time to be starting to blog. I work in a field that is probably one of the first to be well and truly revolutionised by AI, so my already-sceptical mind is telling me not to bother. Surely sponsored content, algorithms and AI-collated results mean I’ll be lucky to appear in any of the big search engines? Won’t my blog just be fodder for the AI bots? How do I make myself stand out when I am writing with my own human (sometimes error-prone) fingers, battling against all the sparkling pieces of content filled with AI’s beloved short sentences, bullet points and em dashes to really draw the readers in? And, lastly, does this content-saturated world really need more content?
Blogging has been around a lot longer than most of us think… According to this very informative History Cooperative article, the first ever blog is attributed to Justin Hall, who created a site called Justin’s Homepage back in 1994. I remember being taught how to create a blog page during a summer fun week at secondary school back in the early 2000s. I loved the idea of being able to share my love of Westlife and my cat on an amazing hot pink page with super cool Comic Sans font. However, my enthusiasm soon waned once I figured out it was taking me half an hour to write the code for one paragraph!
Blogging has since become significantly easier, taking off during the late 00s and 2010s thanks to sites like WordPress, Blogger and micro-blogging sites such as Tumblr and the ultimate micro-blog Twitter. People were making a living off their blogs and a business wasn’t a business unless it had its own blog. I think anyone who loves words and writing has at some point harboured dreams of hitting the blogging big-time. However, as social media grew, especially short-form content like Instagram reels and TikTok, the importance of blogs began to diminish. To attract readers nowadays, you apparently need to offer valuable, professional content from an expert perspective or something quick and punchy to keep their attention…
A photo of my kitchen wall in the peak blogging period of the mid-2010s. I took this photo for one of my many planned blogs that I never actually made (this was one home interiors; there were also plans for children’s book reviews, explanations of German sayings and general tips on parenting and freelancing – hopefully I might manage to incorporate that one here somehow!)
…Or do you? I have recently been missing the days when you can stumble across a blog belonging to someone who clearly just enjoys writing and sharing a little about their loves, hates and everyday life. Hence why I have got into reading Substack in a really big way – my recent reads on there include how the Muppets would be cast in The Odyssey, why Harry Styles is secretly working to bring down the other 1D members and articles from a writer who reviews 00s films. Are they giving me 10 top tips on improving my personal brand? No. Are they bringing me joy with the things they love and how they write? Yes! So, that is really what has won me over to the world of blogging. Even if it is just AI bots out there reading, then I hope they enjoy learning about translating, words (both German and English), freelancing and sustainability.
Beth x