Member-only story
Own your content and join the POSSE
I’ve talked many times on here about how I believe we should all work to own our content. Having content in a system that you control is absolutely the way to go, and then you can use other channels (like social media) as a means to share it.
Along those very lines is a great concept being pushed by IndieWeb called POSSE: Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.
The idea is not unlike what I’ve been promoting, but they’ve taken it a level further to refine the idea. The main idea is to publish your ideas on a platform that you own (which could be WordPress like me, but certainly doesn’t need to be), and then sharing the content across the web so your readers can see it wherever they prefer to consume content.
They offer a few main reasons why this is a solid model, but ownership is a big piece. This matters in two big ways:
- You’re not relying on a third-party to do the right thing with your content.
- You’re creating an “ownership chain” of your content. Wherever you’re reading this post, there’s likely a link back to the original that I published on mickmel.com.
Keep it easy for others
Continuing to share on social media, email, and other places helps keep things easier on your readers. While I’d love to see a world where everyone uses RSS to handle their media consumption, I realize that isn’t going to happen. I’ll still encourage that angle, for sure, but I’ll also be…
