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What has your experience been in starting a tech blog? I want to start one as a way to explore and express my interests, which currently include HTMX, Django, Python, and data engineering. I am afraid of sharing though and getting negative feedback. Was that something that you pushed through when starting? Did starting a blog lead to a new job?
Thanks!
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.
You can take your blog in whatever direction you want; you can write technical, professional posts, or write about anything else that interests you! No matter what you write about, there is probably someone out there who will be interested in what you have to say. If you share your blog I'll take a look. Now you already have a prospective reader :)
I am unsure the extent to which my personal blog was weighed when I applied for my current job, but generally having a technical blog is a plus. Being able to point to blog posts where you have at least one post on a project you worked on, a bug you fixed, things you have learned, how you solved a problem, etc. is incredibly valuable.
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.
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.
> my main purpose is to record my thoughts/ideas/experiences
Mine too!
You most likely will get some negative feedback, but just ignore it. If you want to start one then do it
I found that by taking time to collect my thoughts and write them down made them clearer and more persuasive. An unexpected side effects it that I started to have greater influence beyond my immediate team, with random colleagues emailing me about posts. Though it hasn't directly found me a job it has resulted in people asking me to apply to positions.
Later I added more technical content and tutorials about the problems I was immediately working on, partly just as a way of documenting things I'd found out and helping myself to understand them.
Overall I think it's been extremely valuable in terms of self development and my career (but this is heavily influenced by the fact I enjoy doing it)
I would say don't think too much about your audience to begin with and just write about things you're personally interested in. I've literally never had negative feedback/trolling (probably because there's no comment section). I have virtually met a number of people interested in similar topics who've contacted me after reading the blog.
Fwiw, by blog is https://www.robinlinacre.com/
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 me, and I can respond via email. There is no promise of being published, which discourages spammers and drive-by snark, requires a valid email and promotes 1-on-1 communication which is much healthier and personal than the average Web 2.0 public comment widget.
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But, in general, do not write for an audience. Write for yourself. Write to get better at writing. Write because someone might find it useful, without having any engagement target. In that frame of mind, who cares if one doesn't like your content? The worst that'll happen is one will scroll by. They'll click the link, skim, and move onto the next shiny thing. We mindlessly and compulsively scroll down our social media apps until something piques our interest. This is the default mode of navigating the internet for most of us. If one stops by, spends time to comment on your post, it means they cared enough to.
I would avoid AI tools like Grammarly. They have a very prescriptive style that they think is the single correct way to write. You end up sounding like everyone else writing like that.
You will always have at least one reader of your work - yourself.
Yes, I got negative feedback, and still do, and I pushed through. However, that is because my blog was not just a tech blog. Keep it tech only, and the problem will be minimized, even if it doesn't go away completely. And as for the rest, just realize that those who are negative are louder than those who like your stuff.
Should you do it? Absolutely. It will make you stand out against others.