Blogging continues to remain a popular means of having a personal presence on the internet. Countless platforms are available today that offers an easy solution to create your own website without having knowledge of web development.
As a result, blogging has only continued to grow in popularity and there are many good reasons to start a blog today, especially if you’re blogging as a developer!
Blogging is a powerful form of communication and provides a means to express and document your knowledge and experiences. Blogging as a developer will not only improve your writing skills but will enhance your proficiency in both technical and non-technical areas.
As you interact with the blogging world there’ll also be opportunities to become involved with communities and collaborate with other developers. Such prospects combined with enhancements to your communication skills are just one of several reasons to start blogging as a developer.
This blog recently reached its 1 year anniversary and this post follows from reflections on my journey so far from blogging over the past year.
Here are 5 benefits to start blogging as a developer which should hopefully compel you to start a blog today!
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1. Improve your communication skills
One of the common benefits of blogging is improved communication skills. This simply comes from writing more often as a blogger. If you stick with it long enough over time you’ll likely see an improvement in your ability to put your thoughts to paper.
Writing is of course fundamental in how we communicate and growing your communication skills will only benefit you both professionally and personally.
On top of improved communication skills, writing can also be therapeutical and can act as a stress reliever. Research shows writing has the potential to make you happier, smarter and more persuasive.
When blogging as a developer, there are several categories you can choose to write about. Writing technical articles such as tutorials will benefit you by improving how you convey technical information. You can also write about topics not directly related to a technical subject but still very relevant for developers such as productivity, organisation and career growth.
Whatever you write about, as long as it’s about something that interests you, you’ll surely reap some benefits from blogging as a developer.
2. Reinforce what you know
What better way to show you know something than to explain it to someone else? Blogging as a developer provides a platform where you can do exactly this.
A developer often has to wear many hats and as a result requires knowledge of various programming languages, technologies and processes when creating software solutions.
Refresh knowledge of fundamental topics and re-affirm your understanding of your subjects of interest through the activity of performing research on them for the purpose of your blog.
Blogging as a developer is a great way to keep on top of what you know naturally, as you’re constantly writing about topics you’re involved with.
3. Share your knowledge and experiences
Blogging as a developer provides a means to document your learnings and give back to the developer community. Your experience so far will surely have some unique perspective and key learnings you can share with others.
To get an idea of topics to blog about that can help others you can start by asking questions such as: what technologies have you worked with? what were your biggest challenges? do you have something insightful to share from your past experiences? what advice would you give to someone new to the field?
Regardless of whether you’ve had positive or negative experiences, you’ll surely have something to share that will be helpful to someone else.
Note, being new to software development is not a reason to avoid starting a blog! If this is you, document as you go and share what you’re currently in the process of learning.
The book ‘Show your Work’ by Austin Kleon (amazon affiliate link) contains several pieces of advice on this point for creators such as bloggers. The book talks about how ‘you don’t have to be a genius’ to teach and rather to teach as you learn and learn in front of others.
The book encourages us to be ‘documentarians’ and record our process and progress in whatever it is we are learning. This is a great mindset to have and removes the excuse of being new to something before you can start sharing your experiences about it.
Furthermore, people who are amateurs at something they’ve just learned about (usually) have a better way of explaining it than those who are experienced. This is because we are more likely to be in tune with the struggles faced when learning something new and as a result will in most cases place extra effort to convey what we learn to those new to it.
So if you thought you could use the excuse ‘I’m new to development and shouldn’t blog’ think again 😉.
4. Showcase your technical skills and competencies
If you stick long enough with blogging, over time it will become a platform that reflects your personal journey and growth.
If you’re more intentional about how you structure your blog you can also use it as a means to showcase your knowledge, expertise and your projects. This can make your blog in part your personal developer portfolio.
Many developers will have a website with a page showcasing their professional background and skill set or even their entire CV. That website will also contain a blog section where they publish articles, tutorials or commentary on topics that interest them.
This combination works well because the skills section provides an overview of your competencies, while the blog section can go in as much depth as you want on your knowledge of a subject.
Writing on your blog will provide more detail on your experiences and is an opportunity to show the reader exactly why you are skilled in these areas or to even teach others what you know through tutorials.
This all forms part of your personal brand as your website becomes associated with the type of content you create. Not to mention it also boosts your chances of getting noticed in job applications or for lurking recruiters.
For these reasons, blogging as a developer is an impactful way to develop a personal presence on the web. Whether to grow professionally, to become an influencer or just for fun!
5. Keep up with the software industry
The software development world is highly dynamic and the industry is constantly evolving towards new technologies and obsoleting existing ones.
It’s to your advantage to stay on top of such advancements in the field to know how it may potentially affect your projects, whether professional or for personal endeavours.
It may not seem obvious at first, but blogging as a developer is one way to stay on top with the industry.
When you blog you’ll need to do research for your posts. The amount of research you’ll do for each post will vary depending on your level of knowledge on the topic or by how much insight you want to gain from others while writing your posts. All forms of research will benefit you by providing a constant trickle of information on various topics and categories of software development.
This has the advantage of making you aware of both the history of the industry and what’s going on at present. This can in turn alert you to significant changes affecting your field of interest or alert you to new technologies you may want to explore and eventually adapt.
By simply being a developer who blogs, the research you perform will provide constant exposure to news and information on software development. This will work towards your advantage by keeping you on top with industry trends and expanding your general knowledge of this vast field.
Conclusion
Whether for skills enhancement, giving back to the community, documenting your personal journey or simply as a means for expressing yourself, there’s many ways developers can approach blogging and reap the benefits from it.
We all have our own unique perspective on topics that at least one person out there will be grateful to you for sharing. Your blog is a platform to express your experiences, knowledge and everything in between.
It’s also very easy to get started with blogging as a developer. There are several blogging platforms geared towards the developer community such as DEV.to, Hackernoon and Hashnode to name a few. These are great ways to start blogging right away without having a personal website.
So what’s the wait? Start blogging today!
Are you a developer who blogs? Share your blog in the comments!
Ready to start your own website and blog? You’ll need a hosting provider such as Hostinger (affiliate), a well-known hosting provider which is also used to power our inspirezone site!
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