“A blog has to be around a niche topic. But don’t choose one in YMYL (Your Money Your Life), that’s oversaturated. Choose something like backpacks, and then write two-hundred articles, fill them with ads, and make sure you put low-competition long-tail keywords everywhere and put it in the right structure, or else no one will read it and you won’t get any website traffic. Make sure every article is 2,500 words long as well—the search algorithms will prioritize you if you do that.”

Anyone who’s ever thought about starting a blog has probably read something like that. The advice online is to pick a topic and write like hell about it in a very unnatural, trying-to-sell-you-something way.

I don’t want to do that.

This blog exists because I’m more interested in creating emotional resonance with my readers, not trying to sell off their attention to corporations with ad impressions. I want you to know me. I want to know you. Maybe you’ll buy some art, or read my stories, or get some use out of whatever I write here, but it’s not a demand and there’s no pressure.

As for what this site will become… I don’t really know. I’m writing into the dark and certain it will take form along the way, just like any creative project.