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What's the best way to promote yourself as a developer: Blogging or Youtube?

Hi,

I want to become a freelancer in 6 months-1 year.

To promote myself, right now I'm doing 2 videos/posts (the same topic on video and the text version) every week, with the occasional post of "This is what I think about X" or "How to solve Y", making 2 videos/3 posts every week, while I have a full job.

As I want to become a freelancer working on contracts and/or teaching on 1-to-1, should I focus on just blogging or just making videos?

I have been doing this for around half a year, but I don't know if I should ditch the blog and focus on making videos, the opposite, or keep going what I'm going.

Given these options and what I want to do (teaching/working on contracts), what should I do?

1.- Just focus on blogging
2.- Just focus on making videos
3.- Keep doing both
4.- Keep making videos and just link them on a blog post with a brief description

Dev.to, what do you suggest?

Top comments (10)

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johannesjo profile image
Johannes Millan • Edited

Probably not too helpful but unless you want to work as some sort of Rockstar consultant the most important thing is project experience. Everything else is just the icing on the top and you should do it only if it is fun.

I'm working as a freelancer for 7 years now. After reaching mid/senior level I never had a problem finding a (on site) project.

EDIT: I might add that I usually don't mention my small efforts in blogging. What I think helps sometimes is having some contributions and some personal projects on my github profile.

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davidmm1707 profile image
David MMπŸ‘¨πŸ»β€πŸ’»

I have more than 2 years of experience, and yes, it is fun and I enjoy doing both things, but I wanted to know what employers value more.

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johannesjo profile image
Johannes Millan

Above all work experience and personality. After that I think there is no clear preference for blogging or YouTube. Depends on the person and context. Videos are probably nice because they can catch a glimpse at your personality.

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davidmm1707 profile image
David MMπŸ‘¨πŸ»β€πŸ’»

Thanks for your answer

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johannesjo profile image
Johannes Millan

I'm sorry. This was probably not the answer you were looking for :)

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tim0807 profile image
Tim

Hi Johannes,

Just to clarify, you are a freelancer that works on-site (in the company office) not remotely? If that's the case, any reason why onsite rather than remote?

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johannesjo profile image
Johannes Millan • Edited

I work on-site most of the time (though I work from home at least once a week for those projects as well). The reason is that there is simply much more demand for on-site and better payment as well.

You bring up a good point. YouTube and blogging might be much more important if you never meet face to face.

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tim0807 profile image
Tim

Thanks, definitely makes sense. Just out of curiosity, at what stage were you able to go freelance and how did you go about it?

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johannesjo profile image
Johannes Millan • Edited

I started as a freelancer right after university (I didn't study computer science). Not gonna lie: The first one or two years were tough mostly working on small projects with bad payment, me overcommitting in trying to do a good job and with worries how to pay my rent and food with the irregular flow of income. But after that things got very comfortable.

I started out with smaller jobs offered by family or from a company a friend was working for. My first on site project which I found myself was a total disaster. I don't want to talk about it! :D I later worked for a green social agency with very bad payment and never I never said no to a project during that time. While it was hard I also learned a lot because I was highly motivated to improve myself and with time and more on site projects working together with other programmers I learned that I really got something to offer. And while I today almost exclusively do on site projects I value the experience of having to handle project scopes and all workflows by myself. Being in charge of everything offers a very different perspective.

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promode profile image
Pramod Dutta

Both, I have been doing it, both complement each other.
at scrolltest.com and youtube.com/thetestingacademy