Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#21

Post by reactordev » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:32 PM UTC

TrueGeek wrote: post #15

sph wrote: post #8

> I am afraid of sharing though and getting negative feedback. Then don't. Don't add a comment section. Unless you have built an extensive community around your site, having open comments just invites drive-by criticism or generally people demanding, rather than stopping by to say nice things. What I am thinking to add on my personal website, though, is a "send a reply" box at the end, where one can directly write to…

> What I am thinking to add on my personal website, though, is a "send a reply" box at the end I just list my email address. FastMail's spam filters are good enough that I rarely get spam so it hasn't been a problem. Occasionally I'll get an email from a dev asking following up questions or if I can help them with their code. It's nice to know that it's not just my mom reading the site.

Analytics could tell you that without exposing your email address to the world.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#22

Post by Ayesh » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:36 PM UTC

dustincoates wrote: post #11

debadyutirc wrote: post #2

I have got several BigTech interviews as well as jobs through regular posting long form posts on LinkedIn. One of the best framings I have learned is to teach yourself by writing. Think of it as a conversation with your friends and you are learning together. Take the negative comments as a motivation to improve. Go for it.

My question is how do you go from posting to interviews/offers? I've been blogging for years and I do it for my own sake, but I wouldn't mind these fringe benefits.

> how do you go

Well that's the thing... You don't. It's a very passive approach if you are actively looking for a job.

Posting solutions to interesting challenges you come across has a lot of potential getting asked to interview for jobs that solve similar problems. A generic article about "top 5 Gen AI projects" will be fruitless, but a post about how you practically "abused ramfs to make database tests 5x faster" might be.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#23

Post by muhammadusman » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:38 PM UTC

As someone who has had a blog for almost 10 years, with varying amounts of attention put towards it, this is what I can tell you.

- You're probably overthinking starting it. Just sign up for a blogging service, don't try to set up your own thing unless you're going to use that experience and write about it. I have had a blog in plain html/css, a PHP-backed one, a self-hosted Ghost, a self-hosted Wordpress, and ultimately, I settled on not self-hosting a Ghost instance and it has been the best way to write because paying $9/mo is a lot easier for me than to update deps or manage bugs when I'm trying to write about something on my mind.

- Don't worry about the negative feedback. If or when someone leaves negative feedback, this is your blog, delete it. It's the easiest way to get rid of it. Some people just have negative attitudes, don't let them bring you down too.

- And another comment on feedback, most people will take time to leave feedback that's positive or encouraging because they want you to keep writing.

- Write for yourself, like get someone off your chest, think through things in your head, don't let the wider internet audience be the judge of what you should be thinking about or writing about. It will help you grow as a writer and hopefully as a person too.

If you see this, I hope you go out there and start writing.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#24

Post by analog_signal » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:39 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#25

Post by TrueGeek » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:41 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #21

TrueGeek wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I am thinking to add on my personal website, though, is a "send a reply" box at the end I just list my email address. FastMail's spam filters are good enough that I rarely get spam so it hasn't been a problem. Occasionally I'll get an email from a dev asking following up questions or if I can help them with their code. It's nice to know that it's not just my mom reading the site.

Analytics could tell you that without exposing your email address to the world.

But analytics wouldn't allow me to respond to the people asking for help.

The site has been up for over 20 years, I think I added the email address about 10 years ago. If it was a mistake and would result in massive amounts of spam surely I would have felt the effects by now.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#26

Post by bensonn » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:42 PM UTC

cpach wrote: post #4

I try to write blog articles mostly for my own sake, my main purpose is to record my thoughts/ideas/experiences and to improve/maintain my writing skills. I haven’t been active in promoting my blog, so I have not received much feedback at all (: I imagine getting people to read one’s articles might involve quite much work and promotion. Could still be worth it.

The main navigation on my site is: Thoughts/Ideas/Stuff. Thoughts- serve no purpose, brain dump so I can stop thinking about them. Ideas- I wish I could make but can't. Stuff- things I have made, mostly pointless and stupid

My mom said my website was fantastic. Other than her I doubt anyone has ever seen it and that is fine.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#27

Post by freedomben » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:44 PM UTC

If you're writing anything useful, then you will get some negative feedback. IMHO the key is to use it to your advantage. I treat it like a game (maybe similar-ish to chess), basically I made the first move, and here's a counter-move. It's now up to me to use my critical thinking skills to determine if the criticism is valid or not. If it is valid, I can change my thinking and grow as a person. If it's not valid, I can still grow as a person by identifying any fallacies and really figuring out why it's invalid. Win/win.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#28

Post by Ayesh » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:45 PM UTC

I wanted to echo all the comments here saying to turn off comments is a great tip. I have quite a few blogs/personal projects that I write weekly or more frequently.

My tips would be:

- Use Markdown. It makes writing so much more faster and takes away the focus from markup.

- Do not focus too much in the technical details. Content is still the king.

- That said, make yourself familiar and follow great typography patterns in your blog. Use legible fonts faces and sizes, clear separation, hierarchy, etc has the best impact.

- Have your email address visible. I find it be more effective than contact forms. You will get all sorts of feedback, but you can still decide if you want to respond to them. In my experience, people who take the time to compose an email tend to provide constructive and generally positive feedback.

- Decide a "tone" that you want to follow. For example, I have my technical content separate from personal, and travel content separate from the rest. It's sometimes refreshing to be able to speak in different tones.

- Be open about what you expect from the blog as well. If you hope to land in a better job, saying it openly won't hurt.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#29

Post by hyperific » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

I was nervous/hesitant to start my blog last year for the same reasons. Then I figured that probably no one will ever read my blog so why was I worried? I ended up just doing it for the writing practice. I'm a few months in and it's already got me in a groove of thinking about side projects I can work on and then write about. My readership is mostly me making sure the formatting looks right and sometimes my brother when I share my musings with him. Based on what I get out of it I'm happy with that.

Re: Ask HN: Experience Starting a Blog

#30

Post by awanderingmind » Sat, Jan 06, 2024, 4:50 PM UTC

I recommend writing for the sake of writing. Posting content can be scary, but as others have said: just don't add a comments section. You'll avoid the majority of the unhelpful 'your writing is awful and you suck' type responses if you add even the tiniest barrier to giving feedback.

I've had a blog since May 2021, although I haven't posted much: https://www.awanderingmind.blog/. Sometimes people send me nice emails. It hasn't helped in the slightest with getting a new job, but that's not why I write.