The 50+ Indie Author: Why I Keep My Author Platform on Blogger

 Ditching the pressure of an expensive website to reclaim my time, energy, and creative peace of mind

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-woman-wearing-eyeglasses-8317650/

WordPress and Squarespace are popular platforms for independent authors. One can pay anything from a $16 monthly fee for a standard site to $139 ($99 annually) for more optimization, high-volume, and all the bells and whistles. I suppose that's highly attractive to many writers, especially the 50+ crowd, since we indie authors heavily rely on our own best efforts. A midlife writer just getting started might find the all-inclusive platforms more appealing, not only visually but functionally. Modern flair certainly takes a lot of guesswork out of things.

Personally, the modern stuff often feels much too complex; I tried Squarespace, took a gander at WordPress, and then I discovered Blogger.

Yeah, good ol' Blogger.

As an emerging 50+ writer, I've discovered a thing or two since I began my creative journey: the magic isn't in the machine (platform, website); it's in my message.

This is precisely why I've chosen Blogger as my digital home, my author's website.

Trading noise for text

My upcoming book, Archetype of the Unlived, and my poetry chapbook, Shadow's Reprieve, tackle deep reflective spaces. They explore the Jungian shadow, spiritual crossroads, and the internal journeys we take when we finally decide to live the parts of ourselves we kept hidden. 

Blogger is the perfect companion; nothing flashy or expensive, the ideal space for author reflection, poetry analysis, and uninhibited creations, blending time and space. 

Created in 1999, Blogger clearly isn't a modern-day frontrunner, but I favor that notion.

In 1999, my youngest child was born. I was a mother of four, soon to be a single mom for the second time.  I was 27. 

When I think about how far the world has come over the past two decades, there's a part of me that sits in those past spaces, smiling, thinking, "My, it's lovely there."

Sure, technological advances and modern developments are great. Still, sometimes, modernization feels too loud, and I think about simpler days, much like I did at 27, recalling my childhood in the late 70s and 80s.

 Blogger complements my simple office in my humble apartment. Nothing fancy lives here. An older building, but with lots of character. An in-home office, a wooden desk, a simple laptop, and always a smile on my face, knowing I write without costly extras; in fact, making the most of FREE alternatives.

An independent author must be budget-mindful, and I make no apologies for cutting costs accordingly.

What about the learning curve?

Initially, Blogger is straightforward: the editor is simple and basic layouts are easy to understand.

One can opt to purchase a custom domain, like I did, if they'd rather not have their website end in .blogspot.com. I paid a small fee—the only cost I've had using this website.

Things get trickier where modernization is concerned; after all, Blogger is considered "dated," but since starting my blog, I've discovered helpful tips from YouTube.

Whereas all-inclusive websites save the newbie from guessing, Blogger requires some patience and willingness to learn new things: coding, the importance of a favicon, and a custom robots txt, are examples of need-to-knows. 

It may sound overwhelming; it was to me at first; however, after watching YouTube tutorials, I've made a lot of headway with this site since starting five months ago.

A point worth mentioning: knowing that tech-related things are always updating, I will often incorporate an AI assistant to help pinpoint specific details, further explain something, or otherwise test my site revisions through theory.

Has Blogger been worth the extra effort so far?

In a nutshell: yes.

Real-time proof

I am an example-type gal, so I will show a couple of screenshots of my PageSpeed Insights. One was taken yesterday before I went into the "backend" of Blogger to make some edits.

Basically, the numbers shown are my scores (yesterday morning)

Author's screenshot

Yesterday morning, my Seo & best practices scores were great; both in the 90s, while my accessibility was 83, and my performance score was the lowest at 65.

With a little help from AI, the scores were interpreted, and I was given a checklist of necessary changes. Being a newbie meant doing some further research, utilizing YouTube, incorporating a bit of code, compressing an image using too much space, changing my site cover image, changing the color contrast, editing the site description, adding a favicon, fixing a custom robots txt, and a few other glitches.

Sounds crazy, right?

It wasn't so bad because I tackled each task, bit by bit, taking my time with online instructions at hand.

To lighten the load, I divided the tasks between yesterday and this morning—a break is important when learning, and after I did all that I could, which did not entail lengthy code editing, just a little, here is what happened when I ran my updated site through PageSpeed the second time:

Author's screenshot

Seo and best practices stayed the same, accessibility dipped a little, but performance skyrocketed from 65 to 86.

For a woman without any coding experience or website-building knowledge, these results were very pleasing to see.

Looking at the long game

I've been around the block a time or two, enough to know that speed isn't always what one truly needs.

Becoming an independent writer in midlife is the perfect example of what I like to call "decades in the making."

Many twists and turns along the road of life have brought me here, and none of it was a speedy transit.

I look at my indie author journey much the same way. I am emerging, growing at a pace unique to me, and why shouldn't my author website reflect those sentiments?

Sure, I could trade in Blogger, go back to Squarespace or WordPress, or try something different. Better. Or would it really be better?

I don't think so.

Yes, Blogger is retro. It's old. It's outdated according to modern tech standards, but it's a throwback I love.

Besides, my poetry evokes "throwbacks to days of yesteryear" to create a better future.

Digging deep. Discovery. Direction (RE).

Indeed, a learning curve is required, but of a different kind.

The alignment is undeniable: This 50+ gal is keeping her indie author self on Blogger.