Travellings#

Travellings is a blogroll relay project:

https://www.travellings.cn/

Its gameplay is quite charming. You place a “Travellings” entry on your website, and visitors who click it will randomly jump to another independent site participating in the project.

Joining instructions:

https://www.travellings.cn/docs/join.html

Suitable for blogs that already have some content.

Don’t apply right after building it with an empty homepage. Write a few articles first so people actually have something to read when they click through.

Moe ICP#

Moe ICP is the Moe Country ICP Filing:

https://icp.gov.moe/

Application page:

https://icp.gov.moe/join.php

This isn’t an MIIT filing, don’t misunderstand. It’s more like a fun identifier and community entry point among ACG/personal websites.

The official application page has content requirements, such as being non-commercial, non-gray area, not an empty shell, enabling HTTPS, and being accessible long-term.

If your site’s style is suitable, you can apply for a Moe ICP number and place it in the footer. It doesn’t have any practical necessity, but it has a strong independent website vibe.

Forever Blog#

Forever Blog:

https://www.foreverblog.cn/

Its core is a pact: from the moment you join, your blog won’t shut down for ten years or more, maintaining updates and vitality.

It sounds a bit chuunibyou, but I quite like the idea.

However, this requires one year of operation before you can apply, so just wait for now. Of course, if your site has been running for a year, then you can definitely give it a try, haha.

Jiuchan#

Jiuchan:

https://hi.jiuchan.org/docs

It’s a personal website indexing and random access platform, somewhat like putting independent sites into a “random discovery” entry.

If your blog already has a few readable articles, you can check out its inclusion documentation. For new sites, the significance of these platforms isn’t about immediately bringing in a lot of traffic, but about giving others a chance to jump from one site to another and gradually discover you.

Chinese Independent Blogs List#

GitHub：https://github.com/timqian/chinese-independent-blogs

This repository collects Chinese independent blogs. It’s more like a long-term maintained blog index, including blog addresses, RSS, descriptions, and tags.

Who it’s suitable for:

• Those with a stable blog
• Those with RSS
• Content is primarily self-written
• Willing to be publicly indexed

Many people no longer actively subscribe to blogs; information is now queued and distributed by platforms. The Chinese Independent Blogs List at least preserves an old but effective method: subscribe to whoever you like.

If you want to submit your site, make sure these are filled out:

1
Site Name
2
Site URL
3
RSS URL
4
One-sentence description
5
Topic tags

GitHub Pages’ Own Domain#

If you don’t want to bother with any domain services for now, GitHub Pages itself gives you one:

1
你的用户名.github.io

Cloudflare Pages also provides one:

1
你的项目名.pages.dev

Strictly speaking, these aren’t “your domains,” but they’re sufficient for blogging and showcasing projects. It’s not too late to buy a formal domain once you’ve thought it through.

Add a Comment System to Your Blog#

The last post mentioned covering comment systems, so here it is.

A blog can survive without a comment section, but if you’re writing tutorials, experiences, or troubleshooting logs, occasionally receiving a “this helped me” or “I encountered a different issue in step three” can foster communication and your learning, and having a comment section makes it easier to get feedback compared to email contact or similar methods.

Here are a few comment systems I’ve seen that are quite suitable for personal static blogs:

Other Places to Put Links#

• Friends page: find bloggers with similar topics to exchange links
• GitHub Profile: put your blog on your personal homepage
• Bilibili / YouTube / Xiaohongshu bio: tutorial videos with article links
• Linux DO / V2EX and other forum signatures: follow community rules, don’t spam
• Open-source project README: if the project is related to your blog, you can include documentation links

Opening up more entry points for your website will naturally lead to more visitors.

Blog Data: Knowing If Anyone’s Visited#

After adding a domain and community entries, you might start wondering: is anyone actually reading my blog?

A few lightweight alternatives:

• Umami：https://umami.is/, you can self-host or use the official free version. Clean interface, data under your control.
• Cloudflare Web Analytics：If you’re already using Cloudflare, its built-in Web Analytics is free and requires no extra code; you can just check it in the Dashboard.
• Plausible：https://plausible.io/, primarily paid but can be self-hosted.
• No analytics at all：That’s fine too. A personal blog isn’t a commercial website; it can survive without looking at data.

My current recommendation is to start with Cloudflare Web Analytics (since you’ve likely already connected to Cloudflare), and then consider Umami if you feel it’s not enough someday.

Don’t stare at the numbers every day. Writing is more useful than looking at data.

Finally#

Don’t rush to pursue perfection with a freshly set up blog.

If a free domain works, use it for now. If Cloudflare can resolve, get it running. If you can join a community, apply gradually. It’s not too late to add a comment system later.

What’s truly important is to keep writing.

Domains, ICP numbers, friend links, Travellings buttons, comment boxes—these are all little decorations that make a blog feel more like a “site.” The articles are the reason it stands.