You will get an audience (if any) that fits the topics. If you want to have more readers you will have to increasingly include things they would like and exclude things they don't like.
In reality an interesting topic is one where the answers are unknown. You might be biased or super objective, you might carefully compare theories and evidence on both sides or perspectives of an argument or theory. At some point you will have the tendency to include what YOU think about it. It doesn't matter what that is, you will lose readers.
Perhaps you welcome Jesus in your life or reject him. One could switch between those two every other week and if that is what is on ones mind one should just talk about it. Talk about it often enough and you will build an audience of similar doubt while some Christians and atheist won't stick around.
For those with more patience or sufficiently impressed with your other writings you need only repeat the "offense" often enough.
Surely a thoughtful person should have an opinion about every empire, corporation or ideology murdering, maiming or torturing people? If you are completely indifferent about it, that would be your opinion.
Disclose your opinion and those who don't agree wont be amused. You have to actively avoid the topic which isn't easy as everything in the universe is connected.
You can be Steve Jobs, that doesn't mean you can just talk about alternative medicine. Facts have nothing to do with it.
I can write cookie cutter stuff that everyone can read (perhaps even enjoy!) but my private thoughts gravitate straight towards the controversy and I ponder those things deeply, sometimes for decades. If I mistakenly write those thoughts down Best I can hope for is an audience of anger. If you talk about something it means you must believe in it.
Someone on twitter just asked what the rope hanging from the American flag is. I got a 12 hour ban for saying "I dunno, it seems enough rope to hang yourself?"
That is your free speech absolutism sandwich all bagged up for ya. ha-ha
Wanting attention and for other people to remember you with the purpose of getting ahead later on, by getting favors from the audience, selling things to the audience, etc. Commonly done back in the day to later send traffic to whatever SaaS you'd try to start.
A good enough personal brand means you have a name (generally) disconnected from your individual job and you are known as an entity in your own right, often not entirely pinned to a single discipline. The most cynical example here is probably Kylie Kardashian, ostensibly a billionaire entrepreneur, but you could just as easily sub in a lot of modern content creators like Mr. Beast.
These can come about naturally through some amount of fame, naturally through having a natural talent for something that generates interest in you and your opinions, or you can grind for it in a kind of numbers game.
If you are working towards getting your name "out there" and having some of that sense of recognition, if you're hustling for subscribers or follows, if you are following trends to post about in order to try to get more readers, you're behaving in brand-building exercises.
If you're just writing for the sake of writing, or to keep a journal for your future self, or just so your close friends can keep up with you, you're not.
>Can you tell me the difference between building a brand and this guy ?
I think it's about intent. Everyone builds a brand to a degree just by being themselves online, but some people do it with an intent to capitalize on it and it often come through in their work in a way that can be distasteful.
I like this guy is doing his own thing.