Marathon, Not a Sprint
Independent blogging is a marathon that requires patience measured in years. Real growth comes from genuine connections and community, not viral tricks or corporate tactics.
Blogging Outside Format. Manifesto, post #13/14
Where do you find your first readers? Simple answer: friends, colleagues, people who already choose to spend time with you. They'll read, share with their own circles, and you'll grow — s-l-o-w-l-y.
Who reads me? Nobody, really. Random people. And Masha. I figured that out when I wrote a piece about friends who became parents. Turned out Masha had been reading all along. She responded. One real response is worth more than a thousand views.
Virality is a skill, not a fluke
Something goes viral when it hits a nerve — when it triggers something raw and real in people. That's rare. Doing it consistently is a genuinely rare skill. At the start, you probably don't have it. Neither did I.
Two things work against you. On Telegram and Instagram, people share privately — not publicly. Short-form video can go viral, but a million views doesn't mean a million follows. You have to earn that separately.
Nothing spreads on its own. You have to put in the work.
Power law
Less than 5% of users generate most of the content and engagement. 0.8 — 2% of creators capture most of the money and visibility. Early promotion creates a feedback loop: whatever's already popular gets even more traffic. It's not fair. It's just how it works.
41% of people admit to subscription fatigue. 40% unsubscribe from weekly newsletters. The future isn't "launch more newsletters" — it's "earn the right to stay in someone's inbox for ten years."
A blog is a marathon
A blog is a long game. A marathon, not a sprint. And at the end of the month nobody pays you — even though you worked like a dog.
Growth without chasing popularity is possible — through community, word of mouth, mentions from other writers. But it's orders of magnitude slower. And it takes patience measured in years, not months.
I don't want to grind myself into the ground over this. Maybe I'll hire someone to handle promotion. Maybe not. But the blog isn't my employer. The blog is me.
