Then There Was One

The Problem

My brain works in taxonomies. I group, categorize, tag and file away things. Ideas, thoughts, opinions, essay drafts and blog posts. To that end, I’ve spread my writing across multiple blogs and a newsletter that I thought would be nice compartments for different types of ideas and subjects. This was a mistake. If I had it to do over again, I’d do all my writing in one place. I can chalk it up to naivety and a feeling that my own name wasn’t worthy of being a place to write on the web. Imposter syndrome sucks, but it isn’t something I’m letting hold me back at this stage in my life (which feels awesome).

The Solution

I’m going to merge everything into one location. Existing domain names will redirect to this one (eventually). I’ll keep the domains registered for an undetermined time because, honestly, I rather like them. If I come up with a better alternate use for them, I’ll repurpose it then. If not, I’ll eventually get over my sentimentality and let the registration lapse and someone else can register and use them. The migration of content from the other domains will take time, but any new blog post (including this one) will get published to this blog.

Tangible Life runs on Blot and there’s a story for how I landed on using it for this, but I’ll save that for another post. It’s called Tangible Life because that’s what I’m striving to live every day. It felt like the best domain name to serve as an umbrella for all types of blog posts I may write. I’ve owned the domain for a few years. It was originally a site hosted at Paper Website, which is a cool idea and service for creating a blog with only physically written content. Ultimately, it didn’t stick for me, but I tranferred the domain out for safe keeping and here we are.

Other Bits

I toyed with the idea of having the consolidated blog be steveledlow.com. It wasn’t the imposter syndrome, but I use that as a landing site with links to my blog (previously plural) and my newsletter. I can see that someday I may have other endeavors I’d like to point visitors to that fall outside this blog, so it will remain my landing site of sorts. It also contains my now page, which will continue to live there. I realize many modern bloggers use Linktree or another “link in bio” type service for this need, but having my own flexible and self-referenced solution for the need feels more “me”.

As I mention above, I’ll keep my newsletter (and more regularly send it). It’s a nice way to share an essay and a few links to cool things. I think some people would rather subscribe to a newsletter than follow a blog, and that’s cool with me. Do one, do both or do none. Whatever works.

I do have one site I wouldn’t consider a “blog” in the traditional sense. I will leave it out of this plan. That’s what’s nice about having your own places on the internet… They can be anything you need them to be.

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