It’s only taken me 18 years but I’ve decided the time has come to develop a newsletter. You might wonder why I’d like to join in the noise and clutter your inbox. Didn’t we have enough of this kind of thing every Friday evening at 5:59pm during COVID times when the Department of Education decided to email us? Don’t the representative bodies already provide us with a weekly update on what’s going on in the world of education?
I hope I have something to offer as an alternative to the official line. I’ve spent the bones of 20 years reading and writing about the primary education system. I’m under no illusions that I’m any good at it but I enjoy it and I think there are people that like to hear what I have to say. To illustrate how I’m not a great writer but I enjoy writing nonetheless, here are my thoughts on getting published things read online as the world of technology and online usage changes.
When Anseo.net started on Thursday 14th of April 2005, finding information online was very different. The internet was a smaller place. Word of mouth and a snappy name was all I had and it was all I needed. In the space of three years, Anseo.net had an annual readership of over 1 million impressions. I didn’t spend a cent on advertising.
As Web 2.0 and the birth of blogging came along, I changed course slightly. The idea of commenting on my posts was now available but it was still word of mouth that got people to my website. I also entered blogging competitions to get new readers. I thought about developing a newsletter back then but I had no budget and no way to fund one. However, it turned out I didn’t need it, thanks to social media.
Once Facebook and Twitter matured, anyone with a business or a blog could advertise on their platforms, and back then it was free and the algorithms at the time didn’t penalise you if you didn’t spend money. As time has gone on and they have expanded into the colossuses they are today, unless you have a very large following on Twitter (now X) or unless you’re willing to pump money into Facebook, it’s unlikely you’ll simply show up on a stranger’s timeline or feed. For the latter, I’ve basically given up. Where I would regularly see interaction on every post I shared on Facebook up until 4-5 years ago, despite still uploading the same level of content, I don’t remember the last time I had a comment on a Facebook post.
While I do enjoy interaction on platforms like Twitter (now X), I’ve noticed since it was taken over by Elon Musk, I’m having fewer interesting and respectful discussions. I’m not sure if this is because there is so much more automated noise on the platform or whether algorithms have changed or whether the place has been taken over by a different type of vibe but I’m finding conversations never get going anymore. I seem to be missing lots of my favourite people’s tweets and I presume the same is happening with mine.
With that in mind, I’ve gone back to thinking about where I started – the blog and the newsletter. Wherever I muse, I’m going to bring it all together on Anseo.net, and if you are interested, you can get a summary of these musings into your inbox via a newsletter. If it’s something you fancy getting, click here and subscribe. Let’s see where this goes next.
