Why must you write a technical blog?

Do you have to be an expert in a technical area to write a technical blog? The answer is no. You write a technical blog for a number of reasons. Firstly, for your own benefit To capture your experience and learning so that it will be useful to you in your future endeavors. I use my blogs and books to jog my memory prior to my job interviews. I also use my blog as a reference guide in my regular job. These 650 job interview questions are something I collected over 12 years from my own and others' experience. When you create a blog post, you could keep it private for your own use, until you are ready to share it publicly. Information gathering takes time, so better start now. Writing blog posts isn’t easy. Most posts require lots of thinking, researching, trying out the code, scratching your head when they don’t work right, etc. So, it not only widens your technical skills, but also improves your writing and communication skills. By blogging, you will learn what related topics that you need to learn and identify where your understanding is shallow. It is very handy when you are feeling stagnated to motivate you to self learn. In addition to being the valuable part of your learning process, it helps you network, show off your skills and earn a very small passive income. Employers are increasingly inquisitive about your online presence and good blogs can open more doors in terms of better job opportunities and other collaborative endeavors. Blogging shows that you are passionate about your chosen field. An attribute which most employers value. Venting your frustrations diplomatically and professionally through blogs as to what not to do or how not to do things as opposed to writing inappropriate comments like "this code is rubbish" in code base or sending emails like "ashamed to work with this code". I have seen very technically talented professionals being sacked or overlooked for potential promotions due to inappropriately venting their frustrations. Your blogs could also invite different perspectives and solutions to your frustration or problem from the fellow professionals and followers. For example, you could take the view that if you are paid $50K to do a job then you could think that you are paid 25K to add value and the remaining 25K to put up with things you have no control over and get things done to the best you can.

Your own learning process is a great justification in itself for writing a blog, but good writing and communication skills require you to target the intended audience. This helps you network with the fellow professionals and learn from their experience, comments and feedback. Blogging has helped me handle criticisms well. When you write technical blogs, people who are more nerdy than you are going to read it. Technology is a very vast area, and you cannot be good at everything. Here are a few tips as to what you can blog about

• Write about the problems you faced about any one of the 16 key areas, technology, or framework for which you have not found good solution on the internet.
• A step by step guide to getting a task done for which you have not found any simple and clear guide with examples on the internet.
• If you are interested in writing about what you had learned last week or what you wished had learned a year ago, then think a little differently and explain it with a liitle bit of imagination to make it unique from 100 other articles or blogs that can be found on the internet. I learned JavaScript by blogging. Read around 20+ online articles and then blogged it in my own style.  I am still an amateur when it comes to JavaScript as I don't use it regularly at work, but when I want to brush up my I knowledge, I know where to look. 
• Blog readers have too many other stuff to read, so your blog entries need to be precise and concise.
• Take part in industry specific forums to help others. Others' problems and needs may give you your next topic to blog on.
• Anything else that you find interesting and would like to share with others in your own style.

So, don't wait and get started. Write something you are passionate about. Write it because you feel it should be written as opposed to worrying about it will be read or criticized. So, blogging is not for the experts, but for everyone who is passionate about something. 


Think --> research --> Write --> Learn --> get feedback --> handle criticism --> grow --> succeed


Finally, to take what you need

If you had given what others need in the last step to retain followers and get enough hits, you will get what you need in terms of recognition to open more doors and earn additional income by promoting your own and others' books (both eBooks and printed), products, and services via your blogs and websites. There are so many tips out there on getting enough hits to your blog, the best 2 tips I can give you from my experience is that

• Tip #1: Write quality blog posts that are unique and informative.
• Tip #2: Keep posting. Many bloggers just give up after not getting enough traffic. Again, think about the "give what others need before you take what you need" philosophy.

Secondly, to give what your target audience need




Things to watch out

• Blogging can be quite addictive, and it is imperative to get your priorities right.
• It can be time consuming. So, it requires lots of patience. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" -- by Lao tzu
• Do it professionally. Support and network with the other bloggers.
  

How to get started

• Pick a blogger tool by researching online. The wordpress.com and blogger.com are worthy contenders. 
• Register your blog with javablogs.com so that your blogs can be discovered by others.
• Start writing quality blogs.
• Promote your blogs via forums by providing the link to your blog as your signature, publishing articles via java.dzone.com, which lets you have your web address , and adding social media widgets to your blog for people to network with you.
• You can add your blog url to your resume and relevant email correspondences.
• Use the Google keyword tool to target your blog keywords.
• Use Google  analytics to analyze your blog traffic. 
• Once you are in it, you will find lots of other SEO tips on Google.

 Here are other similar posts that might interest you

• Building additional income streams as a software engineer
• How to earn more as a software engineer?
• Are you feeling stagnated?
• Apply the philosophy of give before you take for success in software engineering