

Why I Blog - thinkbohemian
http://www.craigkerstiens.com/2013/03/31/why-i-blog/

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sergiotapia
Right on!

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!

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jiggy2011
I'm interested to hear you say that your blog got you measurably more
freelance work.

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?

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sergiotapia
I write 100% technical blog posts, and I also guest write for a prominent
[$programming-laguage] blog. People search the common problem, I provide well
written solutions.

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.

~~~
mkwayisi
> I write 100% technical blog posts, and I also guest write for a C# blog

I don't consider writing articles like "BitCoin - Have you heard of this new
P2P Currency?" technical.

~~~
sergiotapia
What's with the passive aggresive comment? I don't appreciate that.

I also didn't say that I guest write for a C# blog, why did you quote me
saying such things?

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hkmurakami
I really like to reasoning, and it doesn't have to be limited to programming.

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!

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mgoforth
I highly recommend companies to setup an internal wiki for many of the same
reasons. A culture of knowledge sharing makes for a great work environment
especially if the information is easily searchable.

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lbarrow
I don't think these are very good reasons to blog. He's assuming he'll
definitely get a lot of readership, specifically from his coworkers. That's
not really a reasonable assumption.

Steve Yegge wrote a great essay on why people should write blogs
([https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-
write-b...](https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/you-should-write-blogs))
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?

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hkmurakami
_> He's assuming he'll definitely get a lot of readership, specifically from
his coworkers. That's not really a reasonable assumption._

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).

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jseliger
Right. I'd also add that many of my own blog posts start from e-mails or
random conversations. In the case of e-mail, it's often a fairly
straightforward transition to a post.

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ExpiredLink
I'm going to write a blog post entitled "Why I don't read blog posts that
start with 'Why I'.

~~~
RegEx
I much prefer "Why I" over "Why you should" or "Why everything you're doing is
wrong".

