There’s no editorial board, no one to ask for permission. You blog/publish what you want, when you want, for whom you want. You go direct to your market. You are the market. Your market decides whether you succeed or fail.
You don’t have to have a book to sell, you just need a story to tell. Or something to teach.
What I’m saying is that you can do this too. After a year of blogging, I have much better insight into the world of self-publishing, even though I’ve been working in this field for years.