
You should blog even if you have no readers - romain_g
http://nathanmarz.com/blog/you-should-blog-even-if-you-have-no-readers.html
======
kalid
As a blogger of 10+ years, I agree. A few more benefits:

* "Serializing" your thoughts. You (2013) can explain an idea that you (2014 onward) won't remember. I try to explain "gotcha" moments to myself, in language that works for me, so I won't have difficulties later on. This began in college, and developed into the blog I run today.

* Putting in your hours. I don't believe in 10k hours exactly, but practice helps. In the past decade I've written 100+ essays of 1-2k words that I wouldn't have otherwise. I can visibly see my writing improving. Take a look at the first Garfield strip: [http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/garfield.h...](http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/garfield.htm) or Calvin and Hobbes: <http://calvinethobbes.free.fr/english/c_prem.html>

* You're writing anyway. Most tech people are writing at least 1-2k words a week in email, forums, etc. anyway. You might was well capture some of that in an archived, searchable format that can benefit you with contacts and new opportunities.

~~~
kadavy
Just to add a +1 to point #2, I didn't even really like writing when I started
my blog, and my first blog post sucks[1]. 9 short years later, I'm an author
of a book that has done pretty well[2], and I LOVE writing.

1\. <http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/my-first-blog/> 2\.
<http://designforhackers.com>

------
nathanmarz
Author here. You may also want to check out a more recent post I wrote about
blogging that focuses on those "side benefits":
[http://nathanmarz.com/blog/break-into-silicon-valley-
with-a-...](http://nathanmarz.com/blog/break-into-silicon-valley-with-a-
blog-1.html)

~~~
wslh
Could you reopen the discussion thread there? I was trying to reply to a
comment but then realized that was closed! I don't get closed comment threads.

~~~
pekk
Have you seen the kinds of tripe that people leave in comments?

~~~
wslh
I saw meaningful comments. Don't sure what you propose... there is "tripe" on
HN too.

------
mindcrime
Couldn't agree more. I've been writing a lot lately, and the exercise has
forced me to research things, clarify my own understanding and thinking, and
really think about the big picture of how a lot of things tie together. Also,
I keep finding new connections between "topic A" and "topic B" that I had not
thought about before, OR discovering "topic C" that I didn't even _know_ about
before.

So, as a side effect of writing, I've actually generated quite a few new
ideas, from ideas about marketing and branding, to product feature ideas, etc.

My nominal purpose in a lot of this writing has been to engage in some
"content based marketing" and drive more traffic to our website, establish
credibility, etc. But as nathanmarz points out, those things become (or almost
become) just side benefits.

Now if I just had more time to write...

------
treelines
I blogged for months pre-launch with very few readers. It felt ridiculous to
put so much into something that wasn't directly related to the brand I was
building and was taking away from my sw dev time.

But when I launched, a surprising number of key industry folks read a
significant amt. of the blog when they went to check out my site. Most didn't
know me prior to my launch announcement, but after reading the blog they were
convinced of my expertise in the area and a few have been working overtime to
open doors for me. Likewise, a number of new users got to know me through the
blog and came to champion the site after personally connecting w/ me & my
background in the field through my writing.

It turned out to have been the best marketing / biz dev dollars I never spent.

I got advice many years ago from a VC that you should proclaim yourself the
expert in whatever field you are entering. It turns out that the blog
permitted me to do that successfully in a very low-key way.

~~~
SeanDav
You should put links to your blog and startup in your bio/about section of HN.

~~~
hispanic
I don't understand why so many members here leave their profiles completely
blank. HN is populated with a lot of really intelligent people with
interesting views. It'd be nice to be able to follow-up (off-line) on their
comments and posts.

------
petercooper
I mostly agree, but I also think it's worth doing it for the "side benefits"
since they can be so huge, even if you can't predict what they may be.

Cutting a long story short, if it wasn't for tirelessly blogging in the early
2000s, I'd not have gotten a book deal which led to me creating a blog which
became my main source of income and led to the e-mail newsletter network I now
run. Nor would I have luckily became result #2 for a popular route planner and
made $2-3k per month in Adsense over 2 years by accident. And.. a lot of
things like that. And I barely had any readers, it's just that certain posts
hit the spot with people Googling for very specific things.

~~~
romain_g
That's great, it seems like a bunch of happy "accidents" happened in
connection to your activities as a blogger. Was it a technical blog? What
pushed you to start a blog in the first place?

~~~
petercooper
This probably says something bad about me but almost everything good I have
came through an accident followed by seeing it through rather than planning or
setting goals!

The blog was just my personal blog. Being a technical person it had a
technical edge but wasn't focused on that. I started a blog of sorts in 1999
(something called an "e/n" site which were the rage at the time - the infamous
"StileProject" site came out of this era and genre) simply to share stupid
photos, jokes, insights, and interact with people I knew online. Then I
blogged constantly from then until Twitter took off (which somehow killed my
personal blogging entirely :-().

I think I should start personal blogging again though exactly because of the
happy accidents. You just don't get them as much through Twitter or Facebook
because the content there is so ephemeral and not likely to come up in a
Google search in a few years.

------
henrik_w
Good quote on the subject of writing: "I don't know what I think until I try
to write it down." Joan Didion

------
jacques_chester
I've mostly found blogging saves me time by allowing me to link myself. Plus
longform writing allows one to transcend mere comment-box arrogance and ascend
to the heady heights of bounteous pomposity.

~~~
kmfrk
I sometimes use my blog posts as an alternative to bookmarking. Many of my
blog posts are like bookmarks with annotations, and it also makes it much
easier to refer other people to, when I need to cite sources, break down a
large article or complex subject, etc.

------
SSilver2k2
I've been blogging for about a year now, and I have been getting a consistant
growing readership. The best advice I ever read about blogging was have a
scheduled post.

I do one post every friday, even if I have very little going on.

I still write blog posts throughout the week, but it's only when I want too.

My Friday post is a have-to commitment I've made. It makes it easier for my
readers to know when to come to my site.

------
q_revert
having recently started a blog for several of the reasons mentioned I'm
interested as to what HN's opinion on comments are? my site's current
incarnation doesn't have any, and I've considered adding them, but I'm not
sure they'll really add anything given the low traffic

I do like the idea of Svbtle's 'kudos' system as a measure of leaving positive
feedback or an indication of a post's popularity. I guess my main worry is
that someone might actually enjoy a post but find it difficult to let me know,
is an email link really enough in this instance? seems like a rather high
barrier to entry

<http://ocfinn.com> [in case anyone was wondering]

~~~
rverghes
As a blogger, I like comments. They give you immediate feedback. Things you've
missed, or overlooked, or an indication that you didn't explain yourself
correctly.

However, you shouldn't write expecting people to comment. Sometimes they do,
sometimes they don't.

As well, I strongly recommend deleting "bad" or impolite comments. People like
to push the edges of acceptable behaviour. Being ruthless with moderation
keeps the comments in line and stops your comment threads from degenerating
into stupidity.

On the other hand, in my mind the best argument against comments is spam.
You'll get a ton of spam, and it is a hassle to deal with. There's things you
can do to mitigate this, though every anti-spam action will probably cut down
on legitimate comments too. Best thing in my mind is probably close comments
on posts older than a month or so.

------
hispanic
"Writing reveals holes in your thinking. When your ideas are written and
looking back at you, they're a lot less convincing than when they're just in
your head. Writing forces you to mature your ideas by thinking through
counterarguments."

Totally agree.

I'd also add that writing publicly (blogging) forces you to evaluate and
really consider your true convictions with regard to whatever it is you're
writing. Because you're going on the record with something - for all to see.
And there's bound to be people out there that disagree with you. If and when
they come, will you still be proud of and confident in what you wrote? If not,
reconsider your stands.

------
Ras_
Another good development path is to write Wikipedia articles. You get to see
someone "kill your darlings" and perhaps learn from it. Plenty of readers too.
But there is no opportunity for blog-like self promotion. You only get better
writing and analyzing skills. Editing popular articles vs. starting a new one
are completely different experiences.

~~~
r00fus
The only downside to this is that typically, there's little promotion angle
here.

I have no idea who wrote/contributed to the vast majority of the many
wikipedia links I reference in comments and emails.

It does bode well for resume-padding however - you can just link to your body
of contributions and some stats (edited 1k articles, etc). As a hiring
manager/customer, that'd definitely pique my interest.

------
grenobli
Totally agree - I'd like to add one huge benefit more: you create great
longterm value for your future customers. Sometimes people encounter blogposts
which are couple of years old and contact you - it's an awesome felling to
help people in the long run. If you keep on blogging readers will follow!

------
Nursie
We used to call this writing a diary...

~~~
kreilly
Maybe. But I think the act of making it public is an important distinction. I
don't post to my blog very often (and traffic is essential zero), but when I
write I try to make it worth reading. I'm certain I would not take the same
care with a diary entry that would never see the light of day.

~~~
hnriot
playing to, and trying to please your audience is the kiss of death, if you
write for yourself and forget how you might be seen by those reading you, your
writing will improve.

~~~
pseut
I didn't read it as "playing to... your audience." When I write a public blog
post, I put some thought into coherence, logical ordering, etc. and I (at
least briefly) proof read the post for massive errors. I wouldn't do that for
a diary entry, but it helps me clarify my thoughts.

------
DigitalSea
I completely agree with this. Not only is blogging a great exercise for
getting you in a routine of committing to something it can eventually lead to
bigger things like job opportunities, author offers and money via affiliate
links.

I ran a blog that had low readership for about a year and a half, I would
write everyday and then all of a sudden I started ranking for common keywords
and the traffic started flowing. I then put up some CPA links for various
things and made $2000 one month from those survey popups (done tastefully). I
eventually shut the blog down because I wanted to do something else, but it
proves that big things grow from the littlest of seeds.

------
antninja
You shouldn't blog if you have procrastination tendencies. Focus on real work.

~~~
wladimir
On the other hand, writing about your work may actually help you take it
further, as it forces you to organize things in your head (a bit like rubber
duck problem solving). That's my experience, at least.

------
rahul_rstudio
I too have learned a lot from blogging. When I started out, it was
discouraging, and still is, when you spend time in writing good posts and no
one bothers to read them. But with time, you get better at it and actually
start writing in a better way which others find easy to understand. And yes,
sometimes google does recognize your good posts and sends you tons of traffic,
even when your posts don't get shared on social media.

------
president
On a related note, what's the best blogging site nowadays?

~~~
fudged71
How do you define best? Each platform has their own strengths, whether it's
social, code, aesthetics, extensibility, etc

------
tarkin2
Do it to keep a record of code you'll want to reference again sometime soon.

Same applies to ideas you've had or article you've written really.

~~~
shdon
Agreed. And not just code. Things you've done, why and how. Sometimes you
spend a lot of time searching Google and Stack Exchange to piece together lots
of fragments of information. Writing a blog post about it not only helps keep
it in one place for yourself if you ever need to refer to it again, if you
document the pitfalls you encountered it may even be useful to someone else.

~~~
hispanic
This is a great way to contribute back to open source. Document work-arounds
and how-to's and share them back to the userbase.

------
brudgers
Writing is thinking, about both what we are thinking about and how we are
communicating it ourselves and others.

My journal, which confers opportunity to benefit from writing without the
distractions of the screen, like my various blogs, has at least one reader. As
a writer, I have an obligation to entertain and inform him, even though he is
me.

------
mrcactu5
i have a blog with no readers! it's my notes from attempts to write my PhD
thesis. Heroku makes it a cinch to self-publish
<http://mrcactu5.herokuapp.com/blog> You're no longer restricted to WordPress
either since you can use MathJax CDN.

Another good source of material are e-mails... take out all the personal stuff
(or leave it in). This material is convincing since I am writing to another
person. 3rd parties may have something in comment with the person you are
writing to. that blog has not been created yet since my 1st blog is devoted to
math.

for the data scientists: blog comments are often more revealing than the
article itself, since they are (usually) unfiltered. They are also a bit
harder to process -- since usually don't go in the direction you had in mind.

------
chmike
Funny ! Reading this made me remember the a layer's advice would just be the
opposit.

------
doriandargan
Blogging is cathartic, and is a great way to keep track of how your thought
process has progressed over time. But yes... totally agree that the process
helps you to distill your thoughts and be a better critical thinker.

------
agscala
I found a great site that has improved my life: 750words.com

Forces you to write 750 words every day. It can be nonsense, it can be a
story, or it can be like a diary. It's helped me structure my thoughts a lot.

------
meerita
12 year prolific bloguer here:

Writing has become my catharsis.

It did a lot for me and I never regret the day I started to blog.

I started posting link, short news and now I just write rants. 10 min reading
format is what I love to write.

------
sfpark
No one is concerned to write something that will come back to you in a
negative way? Not everybody who could sing should sing in public.

~~~
hispanic
A negative way in what sense? Because you don't write good? ;) Or because
someone disagrees with the thoughts and feelings you express?

In the former case, writing (more) often will help you improve your writing
skills. The more often you do something, the better you get at it. However,
you might want to keep these "exercises" private until your writing improves.

In the latter case, as long as you're being honest, thoughtful, and respectful
(and not intentionally controversial or offensive) with the views you express
in your writing, I'm not sure how it would come back to you in a truly
(undeservedly) negative way. But, if you've lost your rose-colored glasses and
are still concerned, write anonymously.

------
nemrow
I just began blogging myself, and it really helps me take a step back and
realize / think about what I learn on a day to day basis.

------
kislayverma
I keep a list of unread email with ideas as their subjects and work my way
through them, converting each to a blog entry.

------
smooradian
What are some of your favorite blogs?

------
ChuckMcM
Its hard though.

~~~
bennesvig
The more consistently you do it, the easier it becomes, like almost everything
in life. I blogged daily for 5 months, now maybe once a week. It's harder to
write posts now than it was when I was blogging daily.

