Live data from Hacker News

Why I Blog

craigkerstiens.com

11–18 of 18 posts

Re: Why I Blog

#11

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 peopl…

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…

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.

Re: Why I Blog

#12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 communic…

Cool, so you find that people are more interested in hiring you even if they don't necessarily understand your posts because it shows that you are knowledgeable?

Do you have a link to share to your blog so I can see a good example? :)

Re: Why I Blog

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 communic…

> 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.

Re: Why I Blog

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 communic…

> 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.

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?

Re: Why I Blog

#15
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.

Re: Why I Blog

#16

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 peopl…

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…

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

I can't speak to programming specifically, but I'm a consultant and contribute to my company's blog, Grant Writing Confidential (http://blog.seliger.com). For us, the most useful part of the blog from a marketing standpoint is search engine traffic.

We're not exactly Perez Hilton—I'm sure people posting celebrity nudes get a lot more hits—but people searching for terms specific to our work often find us, which they seldom do through generic searches ("grant writer" or "grant writing.")

The secondary benefit is that we demonstrate that we know what we're talking about; if you think we're full of shit, you can read as much of the blog as you want, and decide for yourself whether we are.

Re: Why I Blog

#17
post #6

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... ) that hits on many of my own thoughts on the topic. His basic argument is: * Writing blogs clarifies your…

>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 anyw…

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.

Re: Why I Blog

#18

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 peopl…

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…

Be really careful about drawing conclusions from thought experiments. Would you assume that people searching for "Toyota Camry" were interested in repairing one or buying one? And why would it be exclusively one group or another?

I have a blog post about http caching that a CEO of a networking company enjoyed. I do occasional freelance writing for them now.

Post reply on HN