Introduction 👋

In case you are wondering what this boot camp is about, let me clear it out for you. It is a three-day-long boot camp about blogging or you could say technical writing. I will tell you about my experience on each of the days and the things I got to know along with the advice they gave. Each of the speakers had their own valuable insights to share from their experience and different topics to talk about.

The Importance of Writing as a Developer

The speaker of this session is Ankur Tyagi. He is a technical writer and has a decade of experience in technical writing.

What did I learn? 🚀

Let's say we get stuck on an issue while coding or maybe we don't know how to implement that particular part. What do we do in such situations? The first choice would be to refer to the documentation. What if you don't understand or maybe your issue wasn't there? The answer is (drum roll 🥁) We GOOGLE it!

What do you see in the search results?
Of course, you see stack overflow, well other than that? You come across some blog posts written by other developers who had done or gone through the issue.

What are they doing?

They are communicating. Just like we use messages to communicate with each other, they are using blogs (just like this one) to communicate with others. This is a form of written communication. Youtube videos or so-called video tutorials are a form of verbal communication.

So, do I need to write a blog? 🤔

Excellent question, although not new since I have asked this many times either to myself or to other developers I had connected with on Twitter. So, if you want a definitive answer yes. As you grow in your career, it becomes important.

Any advice/tips? 📝

How to stay consistent?

• Don't force yourself to write blogs. We are developers and have been coding all day. This one task might be an additional burden in some cases. So, need to force yourself to write daily. Try both of the ways, it's up to you which works for you.

• A sudden strike of motivation? Go all out. Work on the blog for a longer time than you normally would.

How do I find my writing style?

It takes a while to figure it out but you need to find your unique style. Do read others' work for inspiration. You can do it freestyle and go with the flow. Maybe you can refer to other resources and then replicate their thought process in your unique style.

• Using AI?

  Is it OKAY to use Chat GPT? You can use it to write content but in the end, write it in your style. Make sure you don't have typos. Use Grammarly or tools that do the spell check for you.

How do I grow?

• It's about what your audience likes. If you write a blog and think you like it, it isn't gonna work you need to think twice if your audience would like it.

• How long should my post be?

  Some may go lengthy, but the attention span of people is low unless it is really good or people are specifically looking for something.

• Advice you will give to someone who just started?

  Don't feel the pressure to write blogs, write them on a weekly or monthly basis.

• Not getting ideas?

  Twitter is one of the best ways, it is a huge source of ideas. You can use social media to get ideas.

• How to increase reach?

  One of the ways is cross-posting. There are many interesting competitors to Hashnode like Medium. If you are new and you don't have much experience then it is your responsibility to share your content. Switch to various platforms and leverage all these platforms. If someone asks for something, answer their question and then share your blog as a reference. Unless people know you, they won't check out your blog so you need to be proficient in cross-posting as well.

Leverage Technical Writing Skills

The speaker of this session is Swapna Kumar Panda. He started off the session by saying the importance of documentation and that it would help us know about the new additions as well as deprecated features. It is a tool of communication as well. If scientists never documented their work you would have not known their work.

A technical writer can monetize their work by:

• Asking for subscriptions

• Collaborations

• Paid content

• Ghost-writing

• Full-time writing opportunities

What are the benefits of technical writing?

• You start getting recognized for your work. It can also act as proof of work that you know that concept or topic.

• Your communication skills also improve since writing is also a form of communication.

Any tips? 📝

• Summarize your blog really well, since people scroll to the end of the page to know what is in the blog.

• Don't make spelling or grammatical mistakes.

• The outline of your blog is important as well.

• Write about topics you are learning now or the ones you already know and include appropriate code snippets wherever necessary.

• Learn in public and establish a personal brand.

• Always reference real-life examples in your blogs and try adding some humor as well, don't write as a serious person.

Leveraging Social Media for Monetization

What more did I learn and tips? 🚀

The speaker of this session is Nader Dabit. The general idea of learning in public is a good way to build your network. So, make sure you write your bio and that your profile picture is consistent so people can recognize you. Having backlinks is important be it links to your portfolio or GitHub.

1. Be consistent - Be consistent in sharing your learnings on Twitter or through blogs.

2. Walk the line between engaging and helpful without relying on gimmicks: Many people on Twitter post threads with links to tools or websites. These won't be useful to them. So, try mixing up.

3. Use rich media - Twitter has more reach with images.

4. Be thoughtful about how you format your writing - make it scannable: Instead of writing it all in paragraphs, try breaking them down into points in your blog. Similarly, instead of one long tweet break it up into 2 or 3 sentences. It makes it more readable.

5. Leverage other people's networks and audiences.

6. What if the content I am creating is already out there?

   If something has already been done, then do it differently or better. As you know the quote: Good artists borrow great artists steal. When you think of something cool, but you see someone else has done it, then do it your way. Never get disheartened about it.

7. Be good at one thing: Specializing in a field is a good thing and make sure it shows in your profile.

8. "When I learn something new, I will build an app, then open source it, then document it like a blog post and then make a video on that."
   This way he knows what the entire project is about and he can speak about it in a better way when explaining to the interviewer. When you have to teach something, you end up understanding it better.

9. How to write good content?

   When you are creating content, you are kind of teaching, taking complex topics and then teaching them or taking topics that have never been explained before.

Building Personal brand on Social Media

The speaker of this session is Akos.

Why should you use social media to build a personal brand?

• Simple tools

• Simple to build

• No competition

• No rules

What did I learn? 🚀

You will attract people similar to your content. You can grow fast but it is not really a good thing. Put out quality content, then you will attract a good audience. Think if your content is really beneficial to someone.

He shows the above picture from statistics and tells that twice as many people click your profile when you engage in meaningful discussions. Similarly, there is a negative impact of spamming others' tweets. People remember the account, and whenever they see it, they avoid it.

Don't forget the person in the personal. Your personal brand is about you. Don't forget to put yourself out there!

There will be constant changes in the algorithm, so try changing the method you post too!

Is there any trick or hacks to increase social media following?

Certain content can get you followers, but won't recommend using them. Again remember the audience depends on the quality of your content.

What if my content gets copied?

Just ignore it as soon as you see it. Always think in the long term.

Any tools to use for productivity?

Typefully is a tool that allows you to schedule your tweets. PS It's not free anymore.

What's the best way to choose a specific niche for your personal brand?

When you are interested in multiple topics, consider what's the most fun for you to do!

How will you promote your blog post or documentation?

SEO optimization plays a major role in recommending your blogs to others.

Freelance Writing Opportunities for Developers

The speaker of this session was James. James made six-figure by creating content in six months. You can also convert it into business by leveraging your content. Try providing limited content for free then charge them for further content.

What you write for the five minutes of any topic is a clear explanation of the topic. Structuring your content is necessary be it adding bullet points or breaking down the paragraphs. Make sure you don't have typos.

• Engage in different communities, join the slack channels and interact with people. You can also use Discord or Twitter. You will find like-minded folks who could help and you might help them as well.

• Learning in public is of utmost importance, when you learn something and then explain it to others, then you are gonna understand it better. You might come across some things which you wouldn't have if you didn't explain.

• When you are just getting started with your journey, try putting out a lot of content. Slowly focus on the quality of the content.

• Cross-posting the blogs will be useful as we discussed earlier.

Conclusion

Gained a lot of valuable insights into blogging in those three days. Each speaker had a different point of view but all of them encourage learning in public. Try using social media to promote your personal brand and only you can promote yourself at the beginning of your journey.

Let's Connect

Twitter : https://twitter.com/noname469717
Github: Shalini469717 (Shalini) (github.com)