Home Working Henry on Bearblog
Around 12 months ago I was getting sick of the effort that went into maintaining my then two blogs.
The constant updates, security patches, and platform bloat were eating into the time I actually wanted to spend writing. I needed a fresh start.
The platform had to meet three criteria:
- Free or very cheap
- Very easy to use or learn quickly
- Low maintenance day-to-day
Discovering Bearblog
After some random googling (remember doing research on Google?), I stumbled across Bearblog. I was hooked immediately.
Straight away, I knew it had almost everything I needed. It costs around $5 or about £4 per year for a custom domain, which is as cheap as chips compared with other platforms.
It is genuinely easy to use. Setting up the site takes seconds, and once it's live, getting to grips with the markdown syntax has a short learning curve.
The maintenance is absolutely minimal, as the site has been designed to last forever. It is very, very simple by design.
So I upgraded and handed Herman, the creator, my money.
The Migration
Migration took a little time, as I had to repost each article separately and convert everything into markdown syntax.
I was moving away from trying to monetise my knowledge and toward what I call 'hobby blogging, writing for the sake of writing.
My two original blogs, Home Working Henry and the Naked Recruiter, had been attempts to turn my expertise into income streams. These had always been side projects, and it showed.
I had previously used WordPress and Blogger, and both platforms just consumed time that could have been spent on writing.
So I decided that consolidating everything under Home Working Henry made sense. The Naked Recruiter as a name had OF vibes.
The reposting and reformatting also gave me the chance to prune outdated content and do a general tidy up. I republished each post with its original publication date preserved. This exercise took about three weeks.
It was worthwhile.
It forced me to reconsider what was worth keeping and what belonged in the past.
Costs to Run Home Working Henry
Home Working Henry now costs £68 per year in total: £20 for domain registration and £48 for Bearblog premium. That's a bargain when you consider what you get: a fast, simple platform that will likely outlast most of the internet.
There is also a free option on Bearblog if you're willing to use their .dev domain, which could bring the cost down to zero.
Home Working Henry Today
Home Working Henry has become my hobby blog, a place where I write about whatever interests me, more for the joy of it than anything else. It's an eclectic mix of work, business, economics, politics, and local pieces about Galloway in Scotland, where I live.
Bearblog is what blogging platforms should be: easy to use, no frills, no gimmicks, and no bloat. It's not for everyone, but I've become such a believer that I now host my recruitment business on Bearblog as well.
Stay up-to-date with Home Working Henry
My Blog in Numbers
Since moving to Bearblog, the numbers have been encouraging. 2,633 visitors have come to the site, generating over 3,582 unique page views. The majority come from the United Kingdom (993 visits), with significant traffic from the United States (827).
The top traffic source is Bearblog's discover page, followed by LinkedIn and Google. The most-read post is "3 Simple Ways to Find a Part-Time Work-from-Home Job"
Here's the full breakdown of visitor data:
My Top Pages for Visitors
- 3 Simple Ways to Find a Part-Time Work-from-Home Job 379
- A Brit's Personal Reflections on America's Decline 137
- Books 125
- Let's Talk 107
- Home 93
- Everything I Know About Mushrooms 75
- Downloads 55
- The Sorrow of Lost Retail Vibes - How shopping in person was a far more fun, joyful and interesting way of life 53
- My New Microhobby: Mushroom Photography 46
- Why does everything feel so 'flat' in Britain today? 42
- Having Trouble Finding a Job? AI Isn't Rejecting Your Applications. It's Something Far Worse 40
- I'm Just a Millennial Sitting in the Nostalgia-Inducing Glow of a Christmas Tree 36
Traffic Sources
Bearblog - 978, LinkedIn - 240, Android App 196, Google 139, Kagi 91, Bubbles.town 29, Facebook Mobile 22, DuckDuckGo 21, LinkedIn Short Link 19, Bearroll 17
Top 10 Countries That Visited My Site
United Kingdom - 993, United States - 827, Singapore - 493, India - 299, Turkey - 124, Canada - 105, Germany - 65, Indonesia - 56, Philippines - 45, China - 40
Devices People Used
Android - 1,201, Windows - 878, ChromeOS - 528, iOS - 430, Mac OS - 376, Linux - 169
Browsers People Used
Chrome - 1,796, Firefox - 597, Android Browser - 473, Safari - 389, Chromium Edge - 116, Chrome iOS - 56, Opera - 39, Yandex Browser - 3
The Future
My goal is to keep blogging and occasionally writing longer-form work for Kindle books. Writing helps me understand what I know, and I genuinely enjoy the process.
I'd love for you to join my newsletter and follow along.
Thank you for reading.