Why I Blog
craigkerstiens.com
craigkerstiens.com
The reason I write blog posts on my website is because it has measurably impacted the amount of freelance work I am offered and it's also a way for me to write down something I learned in a clear, succinct manner.
Six months down the road when I forgot how to do something, I can just read my blog post and Sergio-from-the-past will be more than willing to hold my hand and explain things to me.
If other people find it useful then excellent!
I considered blog writing to increase visibility for freelance work , but in the end I just concluded that the only people who would be interested in reading it would be HN types who are good enough programmers that they wouldn't need to hire me anyway.
Do you find success from writing technical blog posts, or do you focus on other aspects such as business etc to try and get a more diverse set of readers?
I guess that proves to potential clients that:
A) I can speak English at a native level. B) I'm a good engineer with an interest in my field. C) The most important one: I'm a good communicator.
In a team environment you want someone you can communicate with, first and foremost.
Do you have a link to share to your blog so I can see a good example? :)
I don't consider writing articles like "BitCoin - Have you heard of this new P2P Currency?" technical.
I also didn't say that I guest write for a C# blog, why did you quote me saying such things?
I can't speak to programming specifically, but I'm a consultant and contribute to my company's blog, Grant Writing Confidential (http://blog.seliger.com). For us, the most useful part of the blog from a marketing standpoint is search engine traffic.
We're not exactly Perez Hilton—I'm sure people posting celebrity nudes get a lot more hits—but people searching for terms specific to our work often find us, which they seldom do through generic searches ("grant writer" or "grant writing.")
The secondary benefit is that we demonstrate that we know what we're talking about; if you think we're full of shit, you can read as much of the blog as you want, and decide for yourself whether we are.
I have a blog post about http caching that a CEO of a networking company enjoyed. I do occasional freelance writing for them now.
I'm often asked for resume help especially from friends who live abroad who are applying to US companies or US schools and have explained things multiple times to them. I really should write a "how to" on boilerplate resume writing, provide templates, etc!
Steve Yegge wrote a great essay on why people should write blogs (https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-write-b...) that hits on many of my own thoughts on the topic. His basic argument is:
* Writing blogs clarifies your thinking and improves you writing skills
* All the reasons people usually give to not write blogs are bad
What more needs to be said?
IMO coworkers asking one another questions about various topics regarding general programming stuff happens pretty frequently (especially regarding gotchas), so I think his justification is pretty reasonable. (you often end up having to write emails explaining these sorts of things anyways, so you might as well just have a blog post you can point to).