10 Reasons You Should Blog As A Developer
Blogging is a great thing – especially for developers! This is a list of 10 reasons why you should blog as a developer.
You will become a better developer
If you are blogging on a regular basis, you will do a lot of research for your blog pots. So you will learn a lot. But I’ve made another very interesting observation: There are a lot of things I thought I knew. But when I’m writing a blog post about that topic, I’m always learning something new about that topic. That’s the reason why you say “The best way to learn something is to teach it.”
You will get speaking opportunities
In 2015 I was speaking at the Swift Summit in San Francisco. It was a great experience to speak in front of so many iOS developers – although it also was a little bit scary. I don’t know exactly, if I would have get the speaking slot without this blog, but I am very sure it was a big help.
But apart from the fact that the talk was very exciting, it gave me also the opportunity to visit the US for the first time – an amazing experience! I am sure that sooner or later I would have visited the US anyway, but for sure not until 2015. And that’s just because of this blog.
You will become more disciplined
If you want to have a successful blog, you have to blog on a regular basis. I think especially at the beginning you should blog at least once a week. And sustaining this over a long period of time is very tough. But after a while, it will become natural. And then you’ll see that you can develop the same kind of discipline also for other areas in your life.
You will become more self-confident
It is not an easy task to produce something that literally everyone in the world can see. So I was very scared, when I published my very first blog post. But after some time you will get used to it and you will become much more self-confident in that process. And this will help you in other areas of your life as well.
You will learn to deal with criticism
It doesn’t matter how good your blog posts are: If a lot of people read your blog posts, then there will always be people who will criticise you. And don’t get me wrong: It is good go get criticised because you can learn a lot, if you are open for that criticism. But on the other hand you will also learn that you can’t please everyone. As in real life, there will always be people who just don’t like you. And that’s not a problem at all, if you learn to accept this fact. So if you blog as a developer, there will be a lot of criticism and that’s the reason why you will learn very quickly how to deal with this.
You will meet new people
Blogging is an excellent opportunity to meet new people. If you start blogging, you get suddenly much more awareness. You will get in contact with people on social media platforms like Twitter and Linkedin. And people will send you emails with questions and comments. But you will also meet new people in the real world. As I said above, blogging will also create interesting speaking opportunities. So if you perceive those opportunities, you will build new relationships with people all other the world. That’s really amazing!
You will market yourself
Blogging is an excellent way to market yourself. But what does this mean? It means that people get much more aware of you. So for example, if you are applying for a new job, it could very well be that your new boss already knows your blog. So it is much more likely then that you will get the job. Or imagine you want to write a book: If people know you already, it is much more likely that they will buy your book. The same holds true for publishing an app. Of course you can also market yourself just on social media platforms, but a blog is your own place in the web. And that’s much better than being just on someone else’s place.
You will become a better writer
Writing is an essential skill for everyone – also for a developer because writing code is not your only job as a developer. Instead you have to document your code, write emails and lots of other stuff like that. So writing blog posts is a huge help to improve your writing skills.
I am also facing the challenge that English is not my native language. However, I know that it doesn’t make sense to write this kind of blog in German. So I’ve started the blog in English and I know that my English is anything but perfect. But with every blog post I am learning something new, so my English is improving with every blog post.
You will help other people
Another great thing is that you will help other people. Of course, your blog posts will not always get a lot of praise. But nevertheless there will be a lot of people who will say “Thank you!” or “I’ve learnt something”. Hearing those kinds of things is a very good feeling.
You will have a lot of fun
Last but not least: Blogging makes a lot of fun! It is a great joy to look for new blog post ideas and to write that post. For me that’s the main reason to blog as a developer.
[thrive_text_block color=”blue” headline=”Conclusion”]It is really a good idea to blog as a developer, because there are a lot of advantages. And although it is a lot of work – it’s worth the effort. Just try it out for yourself – you will not regret it![/thrive_text_block]
References
Image: @ Photosani / shutterstock.com
Soft Skills: The software developer’s life manual