Why Blog?
I started blogging 8 years ago with Programgood - First Post It turned into a very good ideas repository, not a blog. That’s fine.
I’d now like to try a more ‘walkthrough’ style blog, taking inspiration from hanselman.com and ScottGu
Like all research projects, I start with OneNote so I can share notes across all devices (2 at home, 1 at work and iPhone)
Why Blog
- Helps you learn (by the act of writing down logically)
- Help others
- Build brand as a developer so you can earn good money
- Carrot to ‘finish’ writing projects
- Sharpen communication through written word
- Makes you Happy! (when others read what you write and care!)
- Tell stories
Titles
What is in it for your reader?
What are you passionate about? It really doesn’t matter how much of an ‘expert’ you are at a subject. If you care enough to write on a subject, then damn, get on it, and write it. More than likely, others will care about the same.
Who are your (fabulous) target audience
Jeff Bezos - write the press release first.
“davemateer.com blog is where to go, to find in-depth tutorial articles on high performance business applications which are maintainable”
“Dave Mateer is a professional software developer who can make simple performant and maintainable code”
How to reach your (awesome) audience
-Talk at conferences -Answer questions on SO and link to articles -Do code reviews are link to articles -Pluralsight make videos -Youtube
Blogging Advice Articles
I liked ‘Get ideas from your audience’, specifically if someone asks you an interesting question then write a blog post to answer that question. I was asked recently about how to get the ‘meta tags’ so that Twitter previews work well. So I wrote a blog post on it.
Conclusion
Blogging is good - go for it!