Sessions 2 of #hashnodebootcamp III was by Ali Spittel who is a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS Amplify

Overview

• Roadmap
• how to start i.e her story, what works & how to pick a theme
• content
• gaining an audience

When she started blogging writing tech-related articles she gained a million readers and half by the end of one year

She started a blog on medium titled On learning new things which she wrote in October 2017 was mainly for herself wanting to tailor her learning and to get exposure

Pure CSS art written on October 23rd, 2017 gained 36 views in the first month

ELM reflections written on 1st Nov 2017 gained 262 views within the first month. She embraced cross-sharing across her blog and practical dev. After that, she quit blogging for some time before getting back fully.

Zen of Programming this was her personal blog built using Gatbsy.

"This blog is for Ali of a couple of years ago and all the people like me to younger self(developer) dealing with imposter syndrome" this was her goal when setting up a blogging site and writing her articles.

Building a kickass portfolio written on 2nd August 2018 got 18, 451 views on DEV.to and 4500 on medium

25 tips for New Developers written on 7th August 2018 got 55069 views on Dev and 10000 on medium

At times there was "Reddit Gate" where people leave rude comments on personal social media and self-taught developers were low paid.

In 2019 she built WeLearnCode "Ali friendly guide to your questions" which has lead to jobs and many income sources for her.

Why you should blog

1. To write the past that would have helped the past you i.e it's difficult to learn therefore study and figure out to teach someone else.

2. Establish yourself as an expert for future your career.

3. Less selfish note to make new friends and teach

"Don't need to follow the advice just pick and choose tips that are good for you be reasonable try yourself and set realistic goals."

Naming things/blog: it's hard you can use your name, come up with something funny, or think about SEO.

Target Audience: have an ideal person in mind (previous self or Bootcamp learner) i.e who do you want to read your writings, how to write in a way to appeal to them and pitch yourself to the audience i.e why are you writing show it to other people. Remember that people who like stories try to integrate them into technical content.

Coming up with a topic: go-to person on a very narrow topic i.e challenge yourself, research on what works at your own content, what does well, and other people's blogs. Think about a year now write more about or too much so on.

Have a content calendar i.e different posts and when to release personally she uses a Trello bot she created to track her blog writing and scheduling when to post.

Content Types

You have a blog on your site, Hashnode, or other content like video or podcast.

Blogging Platform

• Don't build a blog site until you know you like blogging i.e Have a repository of content before the site. - You can build a blog using, Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt, or GridSome.
• Thinking of a hosting platform you can consider Amplify which is cheaper.
• Make time for content i.e batching where you have a batch of content at first then schedule more content i.e to use a calendar for specific things or writing at coffee shops on Sunday maybe blog post for the week.

Content

• What to write about

getting started guide, demo projects, common stumbling blocks, things you struggled with along the way, your story, write about when you google a bunch of things and couldn't find an answer, ask an audience like Twitter (topics they'd like to see written about)

Don't worry about being 100% be unique and revolutionary i.e don't copy other people's work. Write down topics as you think of them not when you're trying to write. If you're experienced enough to write about a topic, put in that you're learning i.e write about your learning experience.

Title Tips

• Be catchy but honest i.e good representation
• People like numbers in titles
• Talk about the number you're solving
• Be fun i.e don't be boring

Writing Process

• Brainstorm topic
• Keyword search
• Write demos
• Super rough outline
• Fill in headers
• Revise, revise, revise
• Check your grammar i.e use Grammarly or Hemmingway Editor
• Add in multimedia i.e you can create visuals on Canva

Advise of Content

• Break up walls of text i.e people don't want to read.
• Using multimedia appeal to different learners like code snippets, images, lists, visualization
• Break into sections
• Write to your audience
• Add why and where to learn more and cite sources or code samples

Building an Audience

• Writing for yourself vs still perfect for others.
• Don't rely on just one source i.e Twitter, LinkedIn, hacker news, Reddit, Quora, Instagram, Pinterest among other platforms.

Grow on Twitter

Join talks and contribute to chats like #DevDiscuss on Tuesdays and #CodeNewbie on Thursdays and newly launched Twitter Spaces. Goals:- non-promotional tweets i.e tips, funny stuff, promotional tweets i.e promote someone else's content, respond to other people's tweets, engage and build genuine relationships.

SEO

Use keywords use low competition and low volume principle first. You can use sites like Keywords Everywhere, Mangools, Ahref which also a domain authority checker, use backlinks through social media. Remember that quality content answers several questions i.e don't give medical advice and site quality is determined by time on site, site speed, and accessibility if you build your own blogging site you can use LightHouse to test site speed.

Email Lists

Only one thing you can own and there aren't algorithm changes through Lead magnets, Newsletter

• "A lead magnet is the free value you offer to convince your visitors to give you their email addresses. Getting their email is a transaction. You want their email, so you have to offer something they want in return. Your job is to sell the idea of subscribing to your list and you need an attractive lead magnet to do so"

• "an email newsletter is a type of email sent out by companies or individuals to a subscriber list."

e.g Tinyletter which allows upto 2000 subscribers, Mailchimp, Buttondown, Convertkit which has tons of bloggers and also Hashnode has newsletter for it's writers.

Cross post

Use canonical URL i.e URL of the page that Google thinks is most representative from a set of duplicate pages on your site to post elsewhere and get more eyes on your post. Hashnode allows this you can cross-post your articles.

• Building hype around an upcoming post: share teasers and a sneak peek of upcoming posts using Twitter threads or other ways.
• Consistency: the audience knows what they're going to get and when this differs for everyone.
• Dealing with H&Rs i.e screenshot & delete

• It can be rough but don't be hard on yourself for struggling there's a support system of other bloggers

• Monetization:- patreon, Ads i.e carbon, media vine, codefundio, sponsorships, products or Affliates.

Thank you for reading through this article that compiles Ali Spittel's session you can check her blog WeLearnCode, follow her on Twitter, or check her podcast where she talks amongst her friends in tech.