Writing a tech blog is a fun and rewarding experience. On this article, I will share what I learned after publishing more than 100 articles during the last 5 years
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Photo: Christopher Gower on Unsplash |
I have been working with technology for more than two decades now. As an avid reader and a tech enthusiast, having my own professional blog is one of the best ways to share what I learn and to give back to the community.
In this article, I will review my experience as a blogger after 5 years of work and more than 100 articles published.
The beginning
As most blogs, this one started off small. During the first year it had no more than a few page views per day. Personally that didn't mattered as my my goal was never to make it a successful product. For me, it was a tool to share what I learned with a greater audience and hopefully inspire others to be better at their jobs.
Little did I know how incredible this journey would eventually become...
As I persisted on the work and wrote more (and better) articles, SEO started to pick up. It didn't take long for this blog to gain traction, be quoted, linked to, and even referenced by search engines on specific queries.
Today
Today the blog has surpassed half-million visits and just keeps growing. On peak days, it has more than 10k visits. What an achievement for such an unpretentious work!
However, for different reasons I can't write as frequently as I would like to. But still, having this channel to communicate to a wider audience inspires me to keep working on it. And I'm not stopping any time soon!
What I learned
So what did I learn during this time?
First off, writing a technical article is no simple task. I usually spend a decent amount of time researching the topic in question before writing the very first sentence. During this phase, I collect as much information as I can, to then organize my thoughts in order to convey the message in a meaningful way. During writing, I carefully enrich my articles with the most relevant material to make the reading experience as fulfilling as possible.
Second, blogging requires a great deal of personal commitment. Be prepared to dedicate a significant amount of your personal time on it. I write most of my articles during my leisure time which may be a concern for some. But rest assured, the benefits definitely outweigh the drawbacks!
Third, persistency is key. For any work to thrive, it's important to have a solid goal and stick to it. Improvement is exhausting. It’s okay to enjoy when you don’t excel. Stick to your plan and don't give up!
Finally, the benefits for you, the writer, are much bigger than you think. Here are some of the benefits I realized during this time:
- You have the chance to help others
- You connect with the community and build great relationships
- You get more prolific technically. Meaning that you'll increase your productivity, confidence, improve your problem solving skills and consequently achieve better output in your work
- You can translate your ideas into paper more quickly and with greater clarity
- You end up writing and communicating better - which are great assets for your professional progression!
- You learn and retain more on the topic discussed
- Depending on how deeply you explore a particular topic, you can eventually become an SME on it.
- And of course, with all of that, greater professional opportunities will come.
What next?
As I prepare for the next 5 years and continue on my journey to reach 1 million articles read, this blog remains an exceptional avenue for inspiration and experimentation.
Starting today, my focus shifts to the challenges, practices, trends, technologies and complexities of the enterprise. And the reason is simple: there is now a rich ecosystem of tooling and documentation ready to address technical requirements with little customization while the most important part − focus on business and customer needs − remains obscure and in second plan for most.
Final Thoughts
Further Reading
Architecture
- How to transition from Software Development into Architecture
- The modern Solution/Software Architect
- Different Types of Architects
- The importance of onboarding for tech employees
- Microservices in ASP.NET
- Docker and Containers, everything you should know
- 5 alternatives to Docker Hub
- Why every developer needs to learn Docker and Containers
- Distributed caching in ASP.NET Core using Redis, MongoDB and Docker
- Non-technical skills for developers
Software Development
- Distributed caching in ASP.NET Core using Redis, MongoDB and Docker
- Async Request/Response with MassTransit, RabbitMQ, Docker and .NET core
- Adding Application Insights to a ASP.NET Core website
- Creating ASP.NET Core websites with Docker
- Accessing Entity Framework context on the background on .NET Core
- Getting Enum descriptions using C#
- How to Import CSVs with .NET Core and C#
- MassTransit, a real alternative to NServiceBus?
- Configuration in .NET Core console applications
- Send emails from ASP.NET Core websites using SendGrid and Azure
- How to copy data between Azure databases
- How to enable ASP.NET error pages using Azure Serial Console
Development Methodology
General Technology
Open-Source
Security
- How and why use stronger passwords
- Security and Ethics
- Security Boundaries
- Web Development best practices: 9 tips for stronger passwords
- Integrated security vulnerability alerts on GitHub - Why it matters
- Security is only as strong as your weakest node
- Security and development: how much is being done?