Ask HN: Should I start blogging when my startup is still early? - thomasttvo
======
tedmiston
Everything is ROI.

My company has heavily invested in blogging [1] which has helped us become
influential in the product space (enterprise ETL around Apache Airflow). As an
engineer, every time I write a post I try to balance time vs ROI. I think it's
more valuable to pump out a good post that takes 5-10 hours of effort (not
counting writing the code etc) vs tons of very low effort posts when you're
first getting started. Occasionally, you can find time for a high investment
post like 20+ hours but this is pretty difficult and probably not worth your
time at the early stages.

If 10 hours invested into writing a good post turns into thousands of page
views turns into a small number of conversions, this can be very beneficial in
growth.

One trick you can do is recycle ideas across blog posts, meetup talks, and
conference talks.

Another thing to think about is that not every engineer enjoys investing in
writing. If it's not something you enjoy, I wouldn't force yourself to do it.
Some people are much better at formats like podcasts or videos (personally I'm
the opposite though).

Happy to answer more specific questions if interested (email in profile). Feel
free to reach out.

[1]: [https://www.astronomer.io/blog](https://www.astronomer.io/blog)

~~~
tixocloud
Given that the enterprise ETL space is crowded, how do you pick and choose
topics that are relevant while still unique to your company?

~~~
tedmiston
It definitely is crowded. I'd say that the strategy varies by department (in
engineering, we have a lot of freedom with technical posts) so we tend to
write about using flagship frameworks and platform design decisions.

At the end of the day, the goal of my technical content is just to write
interesting things that draw other engineers and technical people like data
scientists to our blog and site. It also helps establish credibility in a
crowded space. (I'd also start to like doing tutorial posts in the near
future.)

I think if you have the opportunity to speak with leaders in your industry and
work collaboratively on blog posts / podcasts / etc that speaks volume as
well. We've done some of this already and it draws a lot of highly engaged
traffic.

~~~
tixocloud
Thanks for the tip.

------
Scirra_Tom
You need to weigh up your perceived benefits of blogging against lost progress
of other aspects of your business.

In the early stage, focus should be on generating money so you become self
sustainable. If blogging is part of that strategy, so be it. But blogging for
bloggings sake isn't probably a good spend of your time.

However, the relationship between doing something here = an equal loss
somewhere else is rarely true - so if it's something you enjoy doing as
something different to your normal routine then why not.

We've written a fair few blog posts in the past and always focused on keeping
them high quality and is has paid off in some ways - I would say though that
writing a good quality blog post easily can take 1 full days work. If you're
looking to outsource it, you're doing it wrong.

------
crispytx
I started blogging recently to document my experience starting a startup. In
my posts I just make sure to mention where I'm at so people know that I don't
necessarily know what I'm talking about yet :)

~~~
fairpx
sounds like an awesome attitude to have when blogging. good job!

------
CM30
Yes. In fact, you should generally start marketing anything while it's still
fairly early in development. Build up a fanbase and supporters before your
product or service is released so it gets a lot of users on day 1.

This will also get you more press coverage too, which is much easier to come
by when journalists know they've got a guaranteed audience for stories about
your startup than if it's a completely untested idea with no existing
audience.

------
hluska
Do you have spare time to blog? If yes, blog. If no, what will you avoid doing
in order to blog and will that other thing have a higher immediate ROI than
blogging?

When your startup is young, your job is to keep it alive (which usually means
to get it growing). Blogging can help, but don't blog if there are other
higher value things that you can do.

------
freelancercdf
Yes, to start introducing your business. It will help determine your market
range. Just be consistent with your brand and content.

------
muzani
Yes, it also attracts talent to your startup, especially at a time you can't
afford to pay more. Assuming you write intelligently.

------
codegladiator
Yes. Audience to your blog will build over time.

