CJ Chilvers wrote:

Most writers started writing to please the search engines (later just one search engine). To feed the beast, more “original” content was needed. The sharing moved to social media and got lost with the ephemera. Writers burned out producing longer and longer posts for ad pennies over trust and community.

This has been playing on my mind recently and CJ sparked a thought in my head before it had formulated properly. I too love writing link posts, just taking a paragraph or two and expanding your thoughts on the subject. I’ve promised myself to write more of them, but I think many people view them as a cheap way to turn out content.

However this post prods me to wider thoughts about what to write. About pandering to algorithms and news feeds just to get clicks or views. It comes up time and time again, and if you need the metrics you simply have no choice but to pander to the platforms and make the content that ranks.

But I am joining the ranks of those that refuse to write longer form posts just because, or sign up for courses on how to rank higher in algorithms. I want to write whenever and whatever I want, and so should you.