The Art of Not Blogging

Matthew Gates https://notetoservices.com 36m 9,053 #notblogging

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Alternatives to Starting a Blog

Author Note: Since this article was written about 2 years ago, and just published now, some of these websites no longer exist, or have changed, but have been left in to preserve their memory.

In a previous article I published about how to start a blog, for those looking to start blogs. There are, however, plenty of people who do not want to start a blog, run a blog, or deal with all the hassle of domain and hosting registration hassle, but occasionally want to write a page, write down their thoughts or ideas, keep a journal, but not actually do any of the nitty gritty work when it comes to running a blog, such as actually coming up with articles to write, setting up a user account, installing the blog, choosing a template, interacting with commentators, and more. In this article, we will focus on some alternatives to blogging and why someone would choose not to start a blog, specifically with the more popular blogging platforms.

To most, Confessions of the Professions is considered a blog or website focused on delivering mostly work- and career-focused content and other types of articles from multiple authors. Amazon or Ebay would be considered e-commerce stores, while YouTube could be considered a video blog or website. Facebook, on the other hand, is considered a social media website or social media blog. WordPress.com and Tumblr.com are also two blog-centered websites that offer their visitors to sign up and become members of a blog community, setting up a username and password, choosing a design, and the blog can focus on any topic of choice, or complete randomness.

There are also other websites springing up that are trying to make “blogging” and designing web pages even more simple. Websites such as Medium.com, HelloGiggles.com, BuzzFeed.com, and CollegeHumor.com are focused more on article writing than allowing users to set up a type of blog, but require a user to signup for an account in order to participate.

Confessions of the Professions is also another website that is focused on article writing, but has no signup process, focuses completely on article writing, and takes care of all the visual images, SEO, and distribution of your articles for you.

Google Drive has since allowed users to create webpages, in which they can upload HTML files and use them as a website, or a blog. However, there are plenty of people who want FREE, SIMPLE, EASY-TO-USE, and most of all: NO SIGN-UPS OR REGISTRATIONS in order to protect their PRIVACY!

Why the Art of Not Owning A Blog?

Minimal blogging effort.

Some people really do not want the hassle of finding and paying for a domain and web host. Some people do not want the hassle of registering for a user account, setting up a blog, picking out a name for the blog, choosing a template, writing routine articles, or having to find a main stream of readers. Some people just want to make one page dedicated to the topic they are writing about in the moment. Some people want easy, simple, and no complicated screens. They want to simply write their thoughts down and have them publicly displayed on the Internet via social media or by sharing a link.

They may not want to start a whole website dedicated to one article idea. Others may want more simple pages, like a white paper, a research paper or article, or an advertisement. Whatever the case may be, they know they do not want a blog or a website. They especially do not want to give up their privacy of handing over their name and email or associating one of their social media accounts on the Internet. It is like having or owning a blog, leaving a footprint, without letting anyone know whose footprint it is.

The review of these websites are fairly brief and to the point, to explain how they look and what they do. For any website that had optional registration, I did not sign up, as I wrote this article for that very reason: avoiding the signup and registration process, specifically to avoid giving out my email address, and in particular: to see if I could find websites that did not invade my privacy by asking for any personal information, other than the information I wanted to hand over.

There are several advantages and disadvantages to using any third-party blogging system listed below.

Advantages:

• You can remain completely anonymous
• No registration required
• Complete privacy
• Easy setup
• Very little effort and commitment involved
• You can talk about any and every controversial topic in the world without identifying yourself
• You can establish yourself as the author but you don’t have to
• You can take sole credit for your work but you don’t have to
• You can disappear without a trace if you want
• You do not have to worry about PageRank or Popularity
• You can choose to keep your work private or share it
• No worries about SEO
• Most Art of Not Blogging websites are free

Disadvantages:

• If the third-party website goes down, makes changes, gets hacked, or decides to discontinue its services, all of your blogs and webpages are gone
  • Examples of this are seen:
    • when the owner(s) of the website decides to not continue it
    • when a larger company decides to buy the smaller company website and purposely discontinues its services to eliminate the competition
    • no upkeep or maintenance by owner(s) of the website causes errors (instablogg.com has been down for almost 3 years, with the word “Err” showing, but was once considered a very good website for anonymous users who wanted to blog without having a blog, as can be seen from the Internet Archive website)
• You may not have access to delete the URL or page, but you can “empty” the contents of the page
• You may not be able to define a custom URL and be assigned a random URL
• While you could establish a name for yourself using these sites, it might be better to actually have your own domain and hosting service
• You may not have control over the actual “design” or “color” of the webpages you create
• You might write something inappropriate and go against the terms of service, causing all of your data to be taken down and you will be unable to retrieve it
• You may forget to save the URL and be unable to retrieve the link to the page you wrote
• You are not the owner of your content
• Commenting and social media sharing may be unavailable
• SEO and search engine indexing may or may not be that great for these types of pages so their discover-ability may be very slim
• You may not be taken seriously as a blogger, even if you choose to reveal your identity or reveal yourself with just a signature
• You technically do not own any “real estate” online

The Art of Not Owning a Blog

mypost.io

MyPost.io is a quick, user-friendly single webpage creation platform without having to deal with hosting or registration.

mypost.io offers the ability to create single web pages or posts within minutes and maintain complete control over all of the elements. Whether you are a beginner who knows nothing about HTML or a guru who knows how to manipulate CSS to do your bidding, mypost.io is for you. Design a post with a specific theme in mind, change the fonts, colors, and sizes of the text. Add your own CSS customization to make everything just the way you want. There is no registration, no signups, no user accounts. You choose your password, save the URL, and return to it later on to make changes.

Creation of a post can only be done from the home page or by bookmarking the create post page.

This is a sample post modeled to look like Confessions of the Professions.

More advanced options include:

• headline font, size, color
• content font, size, color
• background color
• ability to have comments and change the color
• display the character and word count
• display how many times the post has been seen
• display how long the post takes to read
• display it on mypost.io
• display social media sharing buttons
• add custom css
• add custom javascript
• hide from search engines
• remove default mypost.io css styling
• leave notes for yourself and others, not visible to the public

What can you do with mypost.io? This is a list of just several things you can do:

• articles
• web pages
• web sites
• infographics
• e-books
• lists
• note to yourself
• school lessons
• business proposals
• business listings
• landing pages
• white papers
• resumes
• press releases
• research findings
• research documents
• photo gallery display
• essays
• writing assignments
• philosophy
• presentations
• advertisements
• recipes
• landing pages
• autobiography
• wedding invitations
• memorial page
• use the comments system as a chatroom!
• and much more!

You have complete control over what you want to do with your post. You must choose your own custom URL, as one is not randomly generated for you, which will look like: https://mypost.io/post/your-url

In addition, mypost.io offers image and file hosting to make everything very convenient to write your post.

You can even save the posts you like by setting up an account, which is not optional, but if you wish to save posts, you will need an account. However, deleting your account is just as easy as deleting all your saved posts.

A tutorial is available to help you write your post as well as tons of resources and samples to help you get comfortable with using mypost.io. A support page is also available for additional help.

mypost.io is a side project I had been working on, designed in September of 2015, while writing this and many other articles. This article was the inspiration for creating MyPost. It is my own creation to help accommodate those who are looking for a simple free website platform that allows them to create web pages or posts in minutes without having to sign up or register for an account.

Update 2018: MyPost.io now requires registration for account, as there was too much abuse going on by not requiring any signups. You may still remain anonymous and we do not release or even see your email, but requiring an account has since prevented most abusers of the service.

pen.io

Create a singe web page or blog post with your own URL in seconds with a password for editing options and for later return. Everything that is created is public. The option for private password protected pages might be available at a later time. As an alternative, if the information is for private eyes, but is needed temporarily, it can be written down and deleted later.

pen.io has become quite popular among college students and professors, who are able to share their work without having to sign up or register for anything. It truly has a lot of potential that is yet to be discovered by many different organizations and groups.

Pen.io Helper Page

Penup Markup Language

Here is a sample of a pen from Confessions of the Professions: confessionsoftheprofessions.pen.io

The follow is just several examples of things you can do with pen.io:

socrates.io

If you are at all familiar with the Ghost blogging platform, in which you can view your post live as you type it, socrates.io comes very close. While this is not any official blog that you post to, it generates a random URL, which you can return back to and continue typing. It does not look like HTML markup is possible. There is no signup or registration process and the platform is pretty much straightforward with no additional options: If you are looking to write something and have a very minimal yet fascinating interface, socrates.io is for you.

bold.io

bold.io is a beautiful blogging platform that is extremely similar to Medium.com, and while not exactly the same, is quite a powerful compliment, as it seems to take influence from it. It focuses on minimal distraction for maximum exposure to the writing screen. Begin off writing on a blank canvas with just a few basic tools – the only tools you really need. Its design of minimalism actually makes it beautiful. Write in your own name as the author or connect via Twitter. Afterwards, publish your article to the Internet and share the link. You can get an private edit link so that you may return later on for editing purposes or download as a JSON file.

It comes with a “Hemingway assistant” which helps you write like Ernest Hemingway himself by highlighting unnecessary adverbs and use of passive voice or overly complex words. In short, it helps you keep your posts simple and direct.

It also comes with some Ambiance background noises to help you write including A cafe in paris, An enchance forest, A relaxing storm, Hogwarts Library, A beach bonfire, Castle Black.

telegra.ph

Have you ever heard of Medium.com and used their editor? If so, the writing area is even more minimalistic, but with all the tools of what a blogger needs, including changing the most basic formatting tools, to adding a photo. When you publish your blog post, you will get almost a nearly pretty URL containing your headline with the date to make it somewhat unique.

There are no sharing tools or encouragement for social media and there appears to be no way to delete your posts. However, you can edit the post for as long as the cookie it sets remains on your website, though it looks like it will expire after a year. When this happens, you will no longer ever be able to edit the post again. If you decide to try and edit the post from another computer, you will be unable to do so. If you, for whatever reason, need to delete cookies on your computer, you will lose access to ever edit the post again.

Telegra.ph,makes up for this downside in its absolute beauty of simplicity and minimalism. In fact, Telegra.ph should not even be considered either of those. There is literally nothing but white space, a headline, a subject, and content, along with a publish button on the page. It is probably the only editor that you will ever see that resembles brutal web design, also known as brutalism or brutalistic web design.

notepad.cc

notepad.cc is a simple notepad to take down any notes, without HTML or other markups, complete with a random URL or custom URL option and password protection. Just enter the random or custom URL to return back to the notepad. If you leave the page, a draft of your work is saved. This can be used for multiple purposes of sharing with others and having others add to the notes, although you will not see the changes in real-time if someone else is working on the page, so it is best that only one person at a time is working on the actual page. The URL may be shared publicly. If you leave the page with a random URL, be sure to write down the URL beforehand. Once you forget it, you may never find it again, though you can always go through your browser history.

notepad.pw

notepad.pw is a very simple notepad to write your notes. Navigating to the website will generate an automatic notepad session for you with a random URL, but you can customize the URL. You may also password-protect your notepad session. Once you click Save & Share, you will receive a different URL which is the permanent URL that you use to share your notepad with the public. The random URL you landed on or the custom URL you chose is your way to get back to the page for future editing. The editor does not offer any markup, but the word count of your document is displayed in the footer.

shrib.com

shrib.com is a slightly advanced text editor with markup text, revision control, and password protection. A random URL will be generated for sharing and later return. There are options to delete your text, change how the text is displayed, and even switch into another language.

checkthis.com

checkthis.com is an advanced platform that allows you to share text, image, video, maps, sounds, tweets, and even web apps. It comes with the tools to like, share, and comment. You may type a headline, subheadline, and body, After your post is published, a timeline will appear with a real-time feed of reactions, including views, likes, comments, mentions on Twitter, and more. Your published article will turn into its own web page on the website. Registration is completely optional.

throwww.com

throwww.com allows you to post anonymously or identify yourself via sign in with a twitter account. Posting is as simple as choosing a Article Title and typing in the Article Body.  The editor is very basic and easy to use. A random URL is generated after the post becomes published. If you posted anonymously, you will not have access to ever re-edit the post again.  Comments are allowed and limited social media Twitter and Facebook sharing is present. Throwww offers a look into the engagement of your post including the number of times it has been viewed and favorited.

If you sign in with Twitter, you will be able to access your account and see all your posts by entering the url: throwww.com/u/[username]

pastebin.com

Need to copy and paste something real quick and want to store it forever? pastebin.com has been around since 2002 and requires no signup to paste anything. Registration is optional and does show the username of the paste author. Registration allows you to edit and delete your “pastes”. If you choose not to register, you will be unable to edit or delete a past paste. Every paste receives its own random URL. Pastes come with expiration options, syntax highlighting for different languages, and exposure types such as Public and Unlisted. Registered members may choose a Private option.

Trends of pastes are kept including the number of hits they receive and are shown according to recent popularity. Pastes can be turned into raw code, downloaded, embedded, printed, cloned, or even turned into QR code. pastebin.com comes with apps for iPhone, iPad, Windows, Firefox, Chrome, WebOS, Android, Mac, Opera, Linux, and Windows Phone. Whether you are a programmer, a poet, or just a random person trolling the Internet and want to paste something on the Internet beyond your own computer, pastebin.com is the place to do it.

pastebin.com comes with a search feature, upgrade options, as free membership and unregistered users are limited to a certain amount of kilobytes that can be pasted, and ads are expected to show up. A PRO version can be purchased to eliminate all those annoyances, and offer additional and more advanced options, such as uploading files, unlimited pastes, larger pastes, and extra security.

typed.pw

Write simple articles, with markup availability, and a random generated URL, and password option. This can be used for multiple purposes of sharing with others and having others add to the notes. The URL may be shared publicly.

peg.gd

Peg.gd is a straightforward tool that can put webpages on the Internet in seconds. Fill in the headline and content box that can touched up with Markup or HTML formatting. The interface is beautifully minimal with no distractions. You may preview the post before publishing it. Once you are done, you may optionally choose a password if you wish to return to the post at a later time. A random URL is assigned once the post has been published.

justnotepad.com

Write notes, which are saved by the browser. No HTML or other markup is available. These notes are stored in your browser cookies for later viewing, but these notes are specifically for you, and cannot be shared publicly. Only one version of your notes can be started at a time. If you open up a new page and begin typing, that page will be saved, and all of your other information will be lost.

shorttext.com

No fuss, no hassle, just messages that you can share publicly. Limited to 30000 characters. Markup text is available. Option to make private, allow comments, and include an image or video is available. A random URL is generated for sharing.

notepin.co

notepin.co is a semi-public and personal notebook system, meaning that anyone with the URL to your note can edit or delete it. You can choose as many URLs as you want, but that URL is related to all the notes within it. In other words, every URL is a notebook with notes that can be added into it. It is a very plain and simple interface. Start off with adding your URL. The only markup that seems possible is a bullet list by adding a * before your text. After you have written your simple note, you can click the checkbox to publish it located on the right hand side. The interface itself is gorgeous and simple. Every time you add a note, the older notes get pushed underneath it, and the note itself receives a timestamp, making it look as if you are just taking notes.

notepin.co comes with the ability to contribute a one-time fee of $5 for access to additional features including password protecting your notebook, theme support, and ambient sounds. It might be worth the $5, as anyone with a URL can access your notebook and change things.

write.as

write.as has a very plain interface that allows you to write anonymously. Upon publication, you will be able to edit, delete, or share your post. If you were to return to it at a later date, you may not be able to edit it anymore. You can choose your URL. The free version of this allows you to publish 1 blog, have 1 identity, and up to 50,000 characters per post, with 3 monthly cross-posts to Twitter, Medium, and Tumblr. Choosing the Casual feature, which allows you to write 3 lightweight blocks and have multiple identities, up to 100,000 characters per post, and unlimited cross-poss to social media, as well as the ability to use your own domain name and export data, at just $10 a year. The Pro version is an extension of the Casual and allows you to write up to 10 blogs, have multiple identities, post up to 500,000 characters per post.

meta.ga

meta.ga has one of the most plain and simple interfaces you will ever see. It comes complete with markdown text. Upon publication, you have the ability to choose a URL. If you choose not to attach your Twitter account to the post, the post will be anonymous and you will be unable to edit or delete it. If you do attach your Twitter account, you will have access to additional features.

txt.fyi

txt.fyi is probably the most fun looking editor you will see of everything listed. The interface is as simple as entering something into a text field and hitting publish. The Consolas font literally gives this text editor a personality. There is no ability to delete or edit your published post or any ability for markup. It is just a plain editor, but the font certainly makes the content look great.

txti.es

txti.es is a very simple editor that requires some content. The optional advanced options allow for a URL and custom edit code that serves as a password so that you can later edit or delete your post. You must not forget this code as it will render you unable to edit the post ever again and there is no way to retrieve it. If you choose no URL, a random one will be assigned for you. If you do choose some advanced options, you will have the ability to email the information to yourself. Upon editing the page, you can also add even more data, including meta data, such as the title of the page, authro, and description. Markup text is available to add additional features to your post.

primarypad.com (Etherpad)

primarypad.com offers optional registration but upon landing on the homepage, click on Create Pad, and you will be taken to a screen with a basic text editor with line numbers that offers a few formatting options. A random URL is generated for you and the page can be shared via link or embed code. When sharing the link, you can choose to allow others to edit it or make it read-only. If you choose to make it read-only and were assigned a random URL, be sure to copy the random URL so you can get back to editing the document.

You can also go directly to the free version of the primary pad and assign a name to your pad, which will also assign the name to the URL instead of assigning a series of random letters and numbers to the URL.

As you type, your text will be colored to represent changes and different colors are assigned to different authors. You do have the option to select a different color and clear the highlighted author text. You and multiple people can be in this text editor at once making changes as well as using the chat box that is offered. Several settings include keeping the chat always up on screen, showing chat and users, authorship colors, line numbers, and changing content from being read left to right or right to left. This editor also comes equipped with an undo and redo feature.

You can also choose from over a dozen different languages and whether you want Normal font (Arial) or Monospace font (Courier New). You can mark revisions so you can start back where you left off or return to an earlier point. You can export the pad in a variety of different formats from Etherpad, HTML, Plain Text, Microsoft Word, PDF, or ODF, or import files. You can also view a “Time Slider” of your revisions and see which authors contributed and the times that changes were made.

Registration will allow you to keep the current pad indefinitely, while using it without registering will keep the pad for a total of 30 days before it self-destructs.

scratchpad.io

scratchpad.io is a page for coders and developers, but allows for regular writing. The page offers a unique half-half view of the code and live preview of what you have written, similar to the Ghost interface. Each time you land on the website, a random URL will be generated. The text editor is very simplistic with line numbers included. No social media sharing is available. If you have cookies enabled, your previous pages will be remembered. Anyone with the URL can edit or change the page. No delete option is available.

notes.io

notes.io comes with a unique interface editor and actually looks like a notepad editor complete with yellow pages. Registration is optional. The editor is very basic with no markup available. Clicking on Short will generate a short link which will allow you to view the page. At this time, options for attaching images or files, sending, and printing the document is unavailable. Once you view the shortlink, you cannot edit the page anymore. No delete option is available.

notehub.org

notehub.org is a very simple split-screen editor that allows you to see your changes live, including any HTML markup that you may have added. You may use it to jot down quick notes or use it as a pastebin. A demo page is available to show you how to use Markdown and HTML code. Agreeing to the Terms of Service each time is required in order to publish a new note. A password is optional, and while publishing a post and returning to edit it without a password is possible, it is likely the password is stored in a temporary cookie, so upon expiration, you will no longer be able to edit the note. Upon publishing, a random URL is generated for you, and you may see statistics for your note, which include the date your note was published, the date for when it was edited, and the number of views. You can also export your page as plain text and you also have the option to delete your note.

gist.io => gist.github.com

If you are familiar with Github, you can share your software and files with other developers for one of the greatest open source websites on the Internet. Github also offers another option for you to share your gists. Simply write a description, give the file a name including extension, and write your content. The editor comes with page numbers, but no additional markup is available. Choose your indent mode, either spaces or tabs along with indent size. No wrap or soft wrap your text. Afterwards, you can create a secret gist, which is hidden from search engines, but visible to anyone with a URL, or create a public gist. You may also continue to add more files to the gist. Upon publication of the gist, you will be given a clone URL, an embed code, and the ability to download the gist as a zip file. Every gist is under the URL of anonymous. No social media sharing options are available.

piratepad.net

piratepad.net has no registration, comes with a basic editor with line numbers, a random assigned URL, and formatting options. You may invite other users to collaborate and write with you by sharing a link or providing the embed code for a website. You can save revisions and view them later in a time slider. When an author types, their text will be highlighted with a specific color that is associated to them, and this can be changed to a different color. You may turn the pad into a read-only pad which will prevent further editing and this feature cannot be undone. You can import and export files, in the format of HTML, Plain text, Bookmark file, however Microsoft Word, PDF, and OpenDocument. Pad options include removing line numbers, authorship colors, and choosing normal or monospace font. The pad comes with an undo and redo feature. You can also make the editor full screen so it fills up your browser.

killr.io

killr.io offers a unique and dark user interface, similar to a Linux terminal, or codepen.io. Write or paste your text and then click save. A unique URL will be created for you. A delete option is also available along with the number of times the page has been viewed. Anyone with the URL can also make changes to your text. Once the save button is clicked, however, an entirely new URL is generated, rendering the old page as is forever or until deleted.

notepub.com

notepub.com does not require a registration but does ask that you enter a username and a password. The “trial” version, which is the free version, offers a simplistic notepad with several formatting options including the ability bold, italicize, or underline, create lists, encrypt text, or link text to a url. The trial version offers up to 50 notes per year, but does not allow for uploads, sharing of notes by links or public notes. The paid version, for $8 a year, offers unlimited notes, and offers the ability to share links and make notes public. Advanced options for both the free and paid versions area available.

slexy.org

slexy.org does not require any registration and offers you the ability to choose from over two dozen languages you want to write in, and while it does not change the display of the text editor, the resulting page shows the specific language, with the option to choose the types of indents you want, from 2 to 4 to 8 indents. You may also choose the author, description, line numbers, and public or private visibility. One of the best features of slexy.org is choosing the expiration time, from 5 minutes to 6 months, or permanent. If you choose permanent, there is no option to ever delete the slexy paste. Once you click on the submit paste button, you will be taken to a new page with a random URL. No markup is available and text will be displayed as is with information author, description, timestamp, expiration, and your message. You may view your paste as Raw text and people can reply to it, which just allows them to further add to the text, but a new URL is generated every time.

clipboard.space

If you are looking for a fancy pastebin, clipboard.space is for you. No registration is required. Next to the logo is eye candy in the form of line points that connect to your mouse and follow it. The major focus, however, is what clipboard.space can do for you. Choose a title and message for your clipboard.space and you will be able to see a preview of what you wrote. You can expand the text editor by clicking on preview and it will be moved to the side. You can choose any language you want or have it auto-detect the language you use. A password feature is optional. You may also choose whether the text expires or not, after the first visit, after a certain amount of visits, after a certain amount of days, or never. Once you save your text, you will be taken to a new page, given a random URL, where you can choose to view it as RAW text, download it, fork it, or copy to the clipboard. You can also view the stats for your clipboard.space, seeing when it was created, the syntax used, the size of the text, number of views, and its expiration date. You are also given a link, a tiny link, and options to share it on Twitter or Facebook. While clipboard.space has an option for no expiration, it does state that clipboard.spaces will be deleted after 90 days from the last visit. In other words, if no one visits the page for 3 months, it gets deleted.

pastie.org

pastie.org is another pastebin that is extremely easy to use, complete with a very simple UI, and a dozen languages to choose from. No registration is required. You can make your pasties private or public. A special code ## can be used to create new sections. If they are public, Google can index them. Upon creating a new paste, a random URL will be generated for you. From the display page, you have the option to change the font, copy and re-paste, embed the page into a website, download the pastie, or view it as raw code. You will also see the number of lines, along with character count. Once the pastie submitted, it is permanent and there is no way to delete it.

justpaste.it

justpaste.it comes with a complete markup text editor and the ability to add a custom page. If no custom page is selected, a random URL will be chosen. You can format the page with a variety of different colors and text styles. You can insert YouTube videos. Images may also be uploaded into the text editor with drag-and-drop available. You can also import doc, pdf, odt, and rtf files. If you prefer to not use the markup, you can write in raw HTML code. You can also password protect the page. If you choose not to password protect the page, it will be made public and available for search engines and everyone to see. Upon publication of the page, a short url will generated for you, and you can save the page as a PDF, see how many views it has gotten, see when it was published, see how many people are currently reading the page, and share the note on social media. If cookies are enabled, the page will remember that you are the author until you clear your cookies.

hastebin.com

hastebin.com is a pastebin with a simple interface, with Terminal similarities, that includes number lines, making it look more like it is a UI for coders, programmers, and web designers. However, it can be used by everyone and for regular text. There is no registration code or special markup code. Simply start typing, hit save, and your page will be assigned a random URL. You can view the RAW version of your text, duplicate and edit the text, but upon saving, you will be given a completely new URL, while the old URL will always remain. Sharing options are limited to Twitter only and there is no delete option. There is no promise of great SEO on this website, but everything is completely public.

pastelink.net

pastelink.net requires no registration and allows you to remain anonymous with plenty of options from public, hidden, or private pastebins, optional password for viewing, and an option to delete the pastebin. You may also hide your post from a referrer so they cannot see the link. The interface is a very basic text editor. A unique feature of pastelink.net is how links are shown, with the ability to link them directly, reference them so numbers are shown instead, and links are shown at the bottom of posts, numbers which will show the link and its number, or leaving links unconverted. After the page is published, a random URL is generated, and you can see its visibility, the date, and number of views. Sharing options to Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus are available. There is no option to delete a pastelink, but if a passcode was generated, changes can be made to the pastelink. pastelink.net also offers the option to read the public stream of recent pastelinks.

ideone.com

ideone.com is a pastebin and text editor directed at coders, programmers, engineers, and web developers. Choose from over a dozen languages. Selecting several languages sets you up with a default template. Samples are also offered to help you with your code. Once you are ready with the code you wrote, click on run, where you will be taken to a new page with a random URL, and the code will actually run in an output display. Your code can be made public, secret (visible by link only), or private. You may also view the code of the latest and most recent submissions if they were made public. There is no option to delete code results. Registration is optional and will allow for more options. When code is run, you can see the amount of time it took:

• • • compilation time: 10 seconds
    • execution time: 5 seconds (for non-logged in users) or 15 seconds (for registered users)
    • memory usage: 256 MB

codepad.org

codepad.org is quite simple to use with a straight-forward interface, in which you can choose from about a dozen different languages, make the code private or keep it public, and run the code. On the resulting page, which has a random URL, you will see your code, the output, the ability to create new code, and comments for the current code. If you choose not to run the code, you will just land on the next page with the code. On this page, the run button does not seem to work, so you will have to return back to the homepage and re-run the code from there. There is no option to delete your code results. Registration is optional.

verbatim.link

verbatim is a pastbin service to store text. All content is public and cannot be made private. Very simple dark interface. Simply start typing. Publish your post and get access to a few other features including adding it to your favorites (of your web browser), viewing raw text, viewing markdown view, grabbing the link. Some markdown text is available as well as some keyboard shortcuts and an API so you can use verbatim with your own web apps.

paste.ubuntu.com

paste.ubuntu.com is one of the most simplest pastebin tools you will ever come across with a straight-to-the-point UI. Choose the poster name, choose your syntax language, type or copy your content. Hit paste! Get a random URL. That is all there is to it. You cannot delete your pastes, there is no markup, and downloading the text does require you to create a username.

pastery.net

A great looking pastebin that looks like yellow paper notepad. Easy and simple to use. You have access to make it full screen. Upon every load, you are signed a new random URL that allows you to return to your notepad. There is no way to edit or delete the notes you create.

onlinenotebook.net

If you need an interface with lined paper, this is the perfect website for you. There is no markup and it is used mostly for taking notes, but you can change the URL and return back to it, and start editing. There is no way to “lock” it so anyone with the URL can come and edit it. There is also a button to write in full screen mode.

Cloud Checklist

Easily create and store checklists in the Cloud. Create To-Do lists, create bulleted lists, create organization lists, or tasks or goals to accomplish. Anything you want, create it in checklist form. A registered account is optional and will allow you to login and keep track, but it is not necessary. Click on Just Try It! for a new Cloud Checklist with a random URL. In order to return back to your list, you will need the URL.

jotonce.com

Easily create a note for anyone with the password to read. Up to 4000 characters for every jot. You can even choose to receive an email or text every time your jot has been read. Jots are only available for anywhere from 10 minute to 10 days. Choose a random passphrase or a random one will be chosen for you that needs to be entered before the jot can be viewed. There is no markup text and jots cannot be edited.

Honorable Mentions

authpad.com

authpad.com is a really simple blogging platform with several unique templates to choose from. It comes complete with a commenting system, number of views to blog posts, and a very simple accessible markup text editor that makes writing blog posts easy. You can even have posts and pages. Although signup is required, it is as simple as entering a username, email, and password to get started. The reason for the honorable mention is for its minimalistic look, ease of use, and brilliant administration panel that allows you to work with very minimal distractions.

View our demo at: confessionsoftheprofessions.authpad.com

myword.io

myword.io has a lovely UI and will allow you to begin writing with a very minimal UI, but requires that you sign into Twitter to save your writings and history. While myword may not have always been intended for the general public, it has open-source to encourage developers to expand upon the UI environment.

drive.google.com

Google Drive does require that you have a Google or Gmail account but is completely free and comes with 15 GB of space, so you will probably never run out, even if you write 10,000 documents and add images to every single one of those documents or “blog posts”. The Drive itself is an area where you can store all of your documents, along with other things, that will not be seen by the public, but you can dedicate a specific folder to running a blog, anonymously, as there is no real identifiable information other than some random URL gibberish, except for an ID that always remains the same.

Google Drive itself is not a blog or a blog platform, but it could easily be turned into one. Create a folder called “Blog” or whatever you want to call it. Right click on the folder and select Share… Get shareable link. If you want it to be discovered on the Internet, than you will want to click where it says Anyone with the link can view, and scroll down to More… then click on On – Public on the Web, which will allow anyone on the Internet to find the folder without login being required. The folder is now publicly shared and will be indexed by Google once the link is discovered or shared. Click on New and create any type of document you want, from a Word Document, to an Excel Sheet, Slide Presentations, or Forms. While readers would probably have to have a Google account to do it, so long as they are signed in, they would be able to leave comments on documents.

While there is no way to get a pretty custom URL with Google Drive, there are plenty of websites that create shortlinks, such as goo.gl, bit.ly, or tinyurl.com. There is also no way to add Google Analytics to documents, but it can be added to an HTML page, if you were to upload and share your written articles through the HTML file.

This is the folder for the Confessions of the Professions Google Drive Blog containing the blog post.

Read this guide on creating a website on Google Drive.

medium.com

Medium is both underrated and overrated as a blogging platform and while it does require a sign up, specifically from either Facebook or Twitter, it is as simple as a click to register and begin blogging.  Medium.com is overrated because its just another blogging platform and so many people turn to it for their blogging needs and it is, quite simply, the perfect platform for just about everyone, it is the trend. In the same sense, Medium.com is underrated because the world has not yet fully realized or understood the potential that Medium.com has, and I strongly believe that Medium.com has yet to truly understand its potential.

Why Medium.com gets an honorable mention is that it is becoming my favorite place to turn to when I need to publish articles that are either outside the realm of what I publish on Confessions of the Professions or I just prefer it to be not associated with Confessions of the Professions. Medium.com is also highly indexed by all search engines and your article has a great chance of getting discovered. Within a day or two of sharing your article on Twitter, you should find it immediately on a search engine results, especially if you wrote about a topic that does not have much information on it or asked the question in a specific way that tends to rank well with keywords.

Another reason Medium.com serves as a great platform is, although there is some mystery to how they make money, though they may serve up featured articles that bring in some money, they focus more on content and less on serving any ads. Many websites turn to funding their operations, even if not for profit, but to just keep the website going and need to turn to advertisements, whether sponsored with banners or text links, Medium.com has managed to remain for years without the use of visible ads.

Medium.com also has the audience of millions of people already, so while it may take time to acquire readers and visibility, it is very possible on Medium.com.

news.ycombinator.com

Although an account is needed to post, YCombinator’s Hacker News is a great way to blog and connect with like-minded programmers, developers, engineers, hackers, and people from all walks of life in the tech world.  Whether you want to share an article you wrote somewhere else or start a thread on Hacker News, asking people just about anything or showing them something, there is a vast audience that trust this website more than any other on the Internet.

quora.com

While an account is necessary to post, quora.com serves as a question and answer site as well as a blog for many people. Quora is a community of like-minded people who can collaborate on just about anything and also has about a half a million registered users.

reddit.com

reddit.com is probably the most recognizable and well known community website on the Internet, with millions of visitors and registered users daily. Reddit is full of community boards with newly created ones each day. Chances are that if you type in reddit.com/r/topic, changing topic to anything you are looking for, you will find it. No matter the topic, you can write just about anything you wish.

blogger.com

Bogger is one of the oldest platforms and is certainly a pioneer that led blogging to be what it is today. It was founded by Pyra Labs in 1999 and bought by Google back in 2003 and still remains popular to this day by many people. Sign up is required but starting a blog is very easy.

wordpress.org

WordPress has also made its way into the world to become a very powerful service over the past few years and dominates a noticeable portion of the market share of websites using the product, from corporations such as CNN, TechCrunch, The New Yorker, Variety, MTV News, Time Inc., The New York Times, to musicians and celebrities such as Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Russel Brand, Kobe Bryant, Jay-Z, Wyclef Jean, Snoop Dogg, Sylvester Stallone, Perez Hilton, Kevin Smith, all using WordPress for their own websites. WordPress is fairly easy to set up and most hosts have one-click installs nowadays, and even specialized in just hosting WordPress websites, although there are still millions of people who have yet to take that step in getting their own domain and stepping to the WordPress.com side, and choose to remain as part of the WordPress.org community. WordPress allows for people to have a blog and a website, or just a blog, or just a website.  There is really no difference, but WordPress can be adapted to fit any needs or requirements. WordPress.org does require sign up, but starting a blog is as easy as choosing a URL, name, and a theme. Best of all, there is no limit to the amount of blogs you can create on WordPress, and it is completely free.

Confessions of the Professions

Confessions of the Professions requires no signup, no registration, is free to read, free to get published, and comes with the ability to remain completely anonymous – no disclosure of any personal information at all – when submitting a confession, infographic, or an article.

You submit the article and we do the rest of the work for you: We dress up your article with a few related photos if you do not provide them, we take care of SEO and distribution, and we publish your article in a timely manner, usually within 1 to 2 weeks.

Our website is your website, our blog is your blog. We hope that you will help us with sharing it on your own social media networks. The credit goes solely to you and the article is yours to own. You claim full rights to display or use the article as you please. The only policy we do have and remain strict about: Once the article is on Confessions of the Professions, it is permanently on Confessions of the Professions. We will, however, remove any information, such as author name, email, website, and byline, if requested to do so.

Feel free to make a confession today.

Content Curation

paper.li

For people that do not want to start a blog, a signup is required, but skip the blogging and go directly to the curated content, in which links are pulled from a Twitter or other feed, and organized into sections, as you would find in a newspaper. Choose your favorite type of content to share, from a favorite twitter accounts, lists, or hashtags, or other sources from YouTube channels or Google Plus authors, and paper.li will find relevant content for you and generate daily, weekly, or monthly “newspapers” automatically to share with your readers.

scoop.it

scoop.it is a content curation tool and social media tool that creates boards of content from your favorite sources of topics you choose, but you can share your thoughts about the content shared, and others with similar interests can find and connect with you so they get updated with your scoops. registration is required. social media networks can be connected to share your scoops. You can also scoop links you come across which will be added to your scoop boards.

pinterest.com

pinterest is a very popular social media network that does require registration and allows you to create boards and pin your favorite links, recipes, and images on them. You may also follow others, just as others may follow you and comment on your pins. Most pins contain a picture with a headline and short description. Clicking on the image or headline brings up the original website from which it is linking. Search for anything you are looking for, from infographics to beauty products, workout regimes, food recipes, tips and advice, and just about anything, and you will find it on pinterest.

(