Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

- I got to the front page of HN a few times. Definitely a vanity thing, but it was fun!

- My posts on dynamic programming, which got a lot of traction, resulted in someone I knew reaching out to ask me to speak at a conference they organize. The conference didn't result in much professionally, but I love public speaking. It was just a great experience.

- I mentioned off-hand that I got to talk about DP, and that got me connected with someone who was able to create a video course on the topic. I learned a ton thanks to their guidance on things like how to organize smaller chunks of information that build up to a bigger course.

- Another post about mental health got me a chance to be interviewed on a podcast. I'm a huge podcast listener, so I was ecstatic about actually being on one!

With the confidence from the 12-month experiment, I then decided to write weekly about hiring in the tech industry, a topic I'm passionate about. I kept that up every week for over a year! What came out of that is I had a bunch of thoughts floating around in my head, and now I have them documented. Now if I want to bring up something about hiring, I probably already have an article I can just link instead of explaining it from scratch. The same actually applies to some topics on my personal blog.

EDITED: Regarding that last point, I've been setting up a Raspberry Pi after a few years. Having some notes documented has been invaluable for myself.

Every single interview, from the ICs that were interviewing me, to the Director of the Org that I chatted with, had read one of the articles on my blog.

Ended up having some great conversations at the end of the interviews, and I think that's really what helped me get the offer.

However, it has helped me as a space to write about the launch of my books, which probably yielded some sales and has allowed me to have some interesting discussions with people about the posts on occasion. It's also just cool to have people reading what you write.

On the other hand, I think creating a personal "who am I" website was helpful in a past job search as a point of reference for folks to learn about me and the job search went pretty well.[1]

0: https://www.observationalhazard.com 1: https://davekopec.com

tl;dr: I wouldn't suggest starting a blog for the purpose of getting some external benefit (e.g. receiving a job opportunity). But if you believe you'll get an internal benefit and you feel that benefit is worth the time investment then go for it.

Background: I started my blog "On Product, Tech, & Leadership" (https://blog.colinroper.com/) about 4 years ago to help me crystallize my thinking on Product Management and Leadership topics that I've learned over my career, and with the hope that it would help lead to future career opportunities.

So far it has yet to provide any meaningful external benefits (from what I'm able to tell). The site hasn't garnered much of a following or feedback, despite some modest marketing on LinkedIn. I suppose this is the fate of most blogs, though maybe my luck will change at some point. The blog has also has been a large time investment (in doses) to write the content, create the site, tweak the designs, and promote the occasional new posts.

That said, it has provided internal benefits. It has helped me clarify my thinking on some topics I care about. And despite not liking the act of writing, I have gotten better at it. Further, the time sink has been somewhat by choice: I have willingly gone deep into coding and design topics as an excuse to grow my skill set.

So I would propose the following as a litmus test if you're considering starting your own blog: if nobody read your blog would it still be worth it to you? I'm a sample size of one, so maybe this questions is unfair. Or maybe your situation is different and you have a captive audience ready to consume. But I hope my experience helps someone make the right choice :)