Most developers want to write code, because that the best skill they can do and want to do. With code, you are able to solve your problems, create values for customers, or just fulfill your own coding hobbies.
But recently, there is a trend in the tech community that many developers start creating technical content to share their knowledge with others. There are many ways to create technical content such as writing blogs, publishing Youtube videos, streaming live. But writing in a blog is one of the easiest to kick start your content creation journey.
There are many reasons to write tutorials, documentation, or complete technical guidance. And this activity is not just suitable for experienced developers. It can be initiated by developers with all levels of experience.
In this blog post, I’ll quickly share some reasons why starting a technical blog is a good thing for every developer at any level.
Use blog as your tech dairy
As a developer, you learn new things almost every day. It might be a new API that you didn’t know about before, or a tool that helps you to boost your productivity, or even some solutions in Stack Overflow or other blogs that help you to fix some bugs or solve some technical challenges.
If you keep those findings in a short blog post, you will be able to find them again easily when you encounter the same problems again in the future.
I can’t count how many times I find some old Stack Overflow questions that I have visited, or even answered by myself because I have googled a solution for the same problems again and again after some period of time. With a blog post to keep some explanation for the problem, I’d be able to save time to find the correct keywords for my google search and could recall the solution much easier.
Use writing as a teaching method
Finding a solution in Stack Overflow/Google is easy nowadays. But if you want to grow as a developer, you’d strive to understand the solution in and out.
One way to archive that is to explain the solution in words. Writing a blog to explain your problem, and the solution you made or found is a great way to help you understand the problem and the solution even deeper
(Written) communication is a valuable skill
A good developer nowadays should not only be good at coding. If you are indie developer, you should be able to market your products. If you work i a team, you should be able to document, communicate with other team members about technical topics related to your products.
Personal branding
Tech recruitment has changed a lot in recent years. There is a huge demand for developers and the number of tech jobs is not small as well. So if you are working in tech, the chance that you can apply to multiple jobs at the same time, or being searched by job hunters is very high. But at the same time, you have to compete as well with many other fellow developers.
Even if you are indie developers/freelancers, you still want to market and expose your skills/products on Internet. And the best way to do it is to have a link placed somewhere for Google to index. This will increase the chance that someone will find your content when you are lucky.
Generally, as a developer, having a personal brand can help you:
- Build reputation and credibility.
- Share your knowledge and projects for feedback.
- Increase visibility in the job market.
- Make new connections with people in the same industry / with the same interest.
It’s very easy to start
It’s not like the year 2000 where you have to setup a LAMP server to run Wordpress for your blog. It’s so easy to start writing today. In fact, many platforms such as Medium, DEV or Hashnode have emerged to help you host and spread your content. You can fully concentrate to write and make your content attractive to your target audience nowadays.
Those are some of the reasons why every developer should start a blog today. As with most of the activities in our life, it’s quite easy to start but quite challenging to keep going. So having a minimal start and keep the motivation high is crucial to keep your blog alive. In the next post, I’ll discuss how to start a blog in 2021 and why consistency is more important than the quantity of blog posts.
In the next article, I’ll discuss different platforms and hosting options to kick start your technical blog easily.
Photo by Nick Morrison
