How Counting Stars is made and who decides what should be covered in this blog

I've been wanting to write an article like this for a while, explaining what every day is like in this little corner of the web. Let's get to it.

Counting Stars turns 20 years old with the same freedom and without any subvention
Counting Stars and credibility

Although its appearance sometimes leads one to think that this is the editorial office of a digital media outlet in which a team of people works, in reality Counting Stars is a personal blog, as I explain in the blog profile. Perhaps some people find it hard to believe, but what is published daily here is written by a single person. Maybe this way I take away a bit of the magic from this, but I have never wanted to indicate anything else.

The process of choosing article topics

This website does not have an editorial board. The topics that are published on the blog are chosen by me. To be honest, sometimes the choice is easy, because I usually choose topics that interest me and that I have knowledge about (I don't like to write about things I don't know about, which is why you rarely see anything about football here, for example). As a rule, I try to cover topics that you won't see elsewhere or that the mainstream media doesn't pay attention to, although I also try to bring a different perspective to everyday issues.

Sometimes I get ideas from readers that I think are good for writing an article, and often these ideas come from family members (this blog wouldn't be the same without them). I also occasionally get pressure from outside to publish something (or not publish it). The authors of these pressures are always left wanting. This blog has the advantage of not receiving any kind of grant or money from any organization, which allows me to enjoy complete independence when it comes to writing.

It's not all about talking about politics

Generally, eight posts are published on the blog every day, four in Spanish and four in English. Half of them are about current political and social issues. I try to keep the other half on different topics, generally related to defense and exploration, which are the topics of two of the main sections of the blog. I cover these last topics first of all because they interest me, but I also have a rule that I don't just talk about politics, so as not to tire people out and to make the content more varied.

The process of writing each article

I usually start an article by looking for a good title. I know that many people nowadays only read the headlines, and it is a constant challenge to find ways to stop people from reading them (any journalist will tell you this). On the other hand, I am a layout maniac, so I always try to make sure that the titles fit well with the blog design, both in the desktop version and in the mobile version (a few months ago I introduced some changes to better fit the titles in this version). As for the text, my big problem is going on too long: I generally write a long text and then start to eliminate what is redundant (for me it is like carving a sculpture), since my readers spend valuable time reading this blog and I do not want them to waste it.

One of the things that may surprise you the most is that I always write in HTML format, using the tags of this programming language. The blog management system (WordPress) offers a rich text editor, but because of my job as a web designer I am used to using HTML, and I find it a better way to locate possible code errors. To give you an idea, this is how I see the space where I write the articles (in this case you see the editing of an article in Polish):

I always try to add links to the sources of the information I publish in my articles, which makes writing a little more cumbersome, but I think this gives readers the advantage of not having to take my word for it. As a general rule, I always write the article in Spanish first and then translate it into English (and if I see fit, into other languages ​​as well: Galician, Polish, Ukrainian...).

The choice of images

After writing the article, it's time to choose the images. I attach a lot of importance to the image on the blog, so I always try to choose photos that look good and, above all, that don't give a cheap or unserious look. I'm an amateur photographer, so I almost always retouch all the images, in order to improve the brightness and contrast. Lately I've also been trying out images generated by artificial intelligence, but I limit them to articles that require rather conceptual images.

The process of dissemination of each article

Once I've published a blog post, I share it on my social media channels. I'm methodical about this so I don't have to think about it every time: first Twitter, then Telegram and WhatsApp, and finally LinkedIn, Facebook, and now Threads too. Beforehand, I always run the posts through Facebook's Content Debugger to check that the previews are working.

After posting the articles on social media, I send them to subscribers via email. The blog has three newsletters in Spanish and three newsletters in English.

Blog maintenance tasks

In addition to all of the above, I also manage incoming emails, as well as subscriber and user administration (a constant source of spam attacks). I designed the blog myself (that's the advantage of being a web designer) based on an old free WordPress template, so if anything needs to be added or removed, I can do it myself. I usually think about any design changes a lot before implementing them. I'm very particular about details.

Obviously, this whole process is subject to other factors, such as work or any family or personal commitment. After all, this blog is not for profit, so I don't earn anything from it. I do it because I like it and, in the case of current affairs, to contribute my grain of sand to the causes I defend, such as the defense of Spain, life and freedom.

I know that many of you will find it hard to believe that all of this is done every day by just one person, but as I have already said, I tend to write quickly. In fact (and this is known by people who have ever seen me working in front of my computer), watching me do all of this can make anyone dizzy, because of the speed with which I change screens or programs while working.

The topics that remain undiscussed

Obviously, I could publish more content on the blog every day (the record for articles published in a single day is 16, I think), but I like to publish less content and of better quality. This necessarily implies that many topics that I would like to write about are left unsaid. I have assumed that I cannot express my opinion on everything that happens in the world on this blog, because I do not have the time or the knowledge to do so. I hope, at least, that what I publish daily is to your liking, and I hope that these lines serve to give you a better understanding of the work behind it.