Aside from being able to educate others, blogging is also a really great way to reinforce knowledge, build your brand, earn money, amongst other things.
Most developers shy away from blogging because they think they are not smart enough or they don't think it is important.
As someone who has been into tech blogging for quite some time, I will be sharing some reasons why blogging is important for developers. If you've ever wondered why developers should blog, then this article was written with you in mind. I do hope you learn a thing or two from it.
Now let's get right into it. 💃🏽
Give back to the community
When you started learning how to code, you most likely read a couple of tech articles to grasp that programming language. You know what? Let's scratch that. You still read tech articles now that you are no longer a code newbie.
If the assumption I made above is correct, that means you've benefited from at least 1 tech blogger in the developer community at some point in your career. So, why not write to help another developer too?
There's a high chance that this might not seem like an excellent reason for you to start blogging but try to imagine those articles that helped you out were not written by the authors and ask yourself if you would've been able to understand those tech concepts at the time.
Blogging gives you an opportunity to give back to the community, to help someone understand coding, and to inspire.
Improve your skill
Over the years, I have noticed that people think tech blogging is only about educating others. But that's not true. I believe blogging actually helps the author as much as it helps the reader.
Truth be told, most tech bloggers actually research the tech concepts days or weeks before writing an article about it on their blog. Because of this research carried out by tech bloggers, their knowledge about everything they write about keeps improving. For instance, if I write about ReactJS consistently for a year, I will be way better at ReactJS than I was the previous year when I didn't write anything about it.
So, what exactly am I saying?
Blogging helps to educate others, but it will help you learn about new things and improve your coding and communication skills.
Build your brand
At first, it may seem like nobody is watching or noticing your articles. But over time, people will get to know you for the type of tech articles you write. And that, my friend, is a good way to build your brand.
Blogging about a certain programming language or tech concept consecutively will make you known in that respective developer community. This can lead to recommendations, opportunities, job offers, and so much more.
When recruiters see your blog posts, it can also increase your chances of getting the job over others who don't write technical articles because it shows them you are really knowledgeable about the subject matter and you also have good communication skills. I mean, who doesn't love a developer with strong communication skills? 😉
Make money
Oh yes, you can make money from blogging. In fact, it is such a good way to make a passive income even while working as a full-time developer.
Listed below are some ways to make money while blogging as a developer;
- Ads: Adding ads to your blog is one of the most popular ways to make money through tech blogging. But most developers don't like seeing a lot of ads when they are reading articles, so I will recommend using Carbon Ads because it centered around content for developers and designers, so developer may not leave your blog when they see these type of ads.
- Web monetization: If you are not a fan of ads, you can integrate Web Monetization on your blog.
- Paid community writing programs: There are tons of tech companies and communities that pay developers to write technical articles for them. Most of them pay between 100 to 2000 dollars. Here's a list of some paid community writing programs for developers.
- Affiliate links: You can add affiliate links from various tech companies on your blog posts.
- Community funding: Getting community funding is also another way to make money as a tech blogger. With a Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee account, various people in the developer community can support you financially monthly.
Conclusion
Blogging is a combination of sharing & gaining knowledge. It can help you achieve great things & get better as a developer.
My final words would be to remind you that tech bloggers have the great benefit of becoming lifelong learners because they need to be well-versed in the field they are writing to explain the concepts to readers clearly. So when you blog, you also help yourself too.
If you now see why you should start blogging and want to get started, I'd recommend using Hashnode because it can help you spin up a blog mapped to your custom domain in under 2 minutes. Aside from that, you'll also get readership from the dev community, own a newsletter service, an audio version of your articles, and more!
Having a blog mapped to your custom domain is very important for your personal brand and SEO.
Do you know of any other benefits of blogging as a developer? Please share it in the comment section below, and I'll reply to every comment.
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