Focus on the tech, not the blog.
If you’re a developer with a Twitter account, you’ve already seen everyone and their cat start a blog, YouTube channel, or Patreon. We all want to become stars, or at the very least, a recognizable name in the industry.
And why not? Just a few benefits include
- You build a portfolio of content.
- You retain knowledge and benefit others by teaching.
- You build an audience and create content tailored to their tastes.
- Finding a job becomes easier.
- Companies begin applying to you! Most of us get recruiter emails, but top tech names receive actual job offers.
Anyone Can Do It
It’s never been easier to create content. Today’s tools allow anyone with an internet connection to hop on stage and share their insights.
And like everything in life, this has tradeoffs.
✅ Content creators are empowered. Positive!
❌ It’s now more difficult to stand out. This, ironically, could make content creators feel less empowered.
But no matter how tough the competition gets, the one thing that’ll give you the biggest advantage is…
Create Quality Content
Creating and sharing quality content is key. People won’t stick around otherwise, no matter how good everything else is.
But how exactly do you do that?
Focus on the Tech, Not the Blog
This is priority #1 before optimizing your blog’s layout, SEO, or marketing strategy. Make sure you understand your technology well! If you don’t understand it, how can you help others understand it?
I look for topics that fit within the following criteria.
- I’m passionate about the subject.
- I can talk about it for 15 minutes or more.
- I can explain it in multiple ways.
- I’ve researched it ALOT and can now do one of those above things.
I’m also a fan of this quote.
If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it - Richard Feynman
Ideally you should shoot for this level of understanding. It’ll change everything.
Those Who Can’t Do, Teach
It sounds strange, but I’ve found that your coding skills become rusty if all you do is blog!
Always remember that teaching and doing are two different things. If all you do is teach, you eventually become that person who knows everything in theory, but can’t get anything done.
Make sure to balance the teaching/learning ratio by constantly challenging yourself. Do a side project, take on harder tasks at work, anything to sharpen your skills.
Enjoy Yourself
Blogging is not “get rich quick” scheme. It takes a long time of sharing quality content and can feel slow, hopeless, and destined to fail.
But if you enjoy yourself throughout the process, you’ll build a solid content portfolio, benefit others, grow your brand (over time), and cement your hard-earned knowledge by sharing your insights on the global stage.
Take your time, prefer quality over quantity, and always challenge yourself.
Thanks for reading
I teach coding on my YouTube channel now! Check it out here.
For more content like this, check out https://yazeedb.com. And please let me know what else you’d like to see! My DMs are open on Twitter.
Until next time!