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I was reading a post about how hard it is to gain traction on DEV a couple of days ago, go give it a read and see if you feel the same way or not:
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I appreciate this, very much. And the points are great. I think the key is, know your "why". Why are you looking for more eyes, more follows, more attention? If you start from a "what", like "I want more people to follow me!" without a "why", like "I would like to become an influencer, because I would like to help others find their voice and I want a less toxic ecosystem for all of us."
Going simply from the "what" is why we get clickbait, and why we get garbage posts. Folks think that starting a flame war of negative attention is still attention. And as a culture and an ecosystem, we prove them right.
But going from the "why," we start with far less traction. My viewership is low, my numbers are small, my voice is a tiny one - and that's okay. The folks who do see what I write value what I'm saying, and we have great conversations.
If the focus is "I wanna be an influencer" there are all sorts of ways to accomplish that. If the focus is "I want to help shape this into a healthy, creative, positive and supportive space, and I can do that by ..." Then the ways to accomplish that become more defined, but way more worth it.
Thank you for this piece!
Damn it, you just hit on a point I really should have made, the why!
In fact without that part perhaps my article isn't clear that the "why" of creating some pandering content is to help you reach more people with your true passion!
Honestly I wish there was some place I could release an article, get great ideas, suggestions and feedback like this and then...just release it again as if nothing happened! 🤣
I think the other gem in here is how the motivation behind writing has such a huge influence on the quality and type of content being produced. Hell, I should have written an article about that instead as that would really spark some interesting debate!
Thanks so much for the comment Toby, it gave me a few things to think about and some interesting "internal debates" will likely occur in my head thinking about the balance between writing for growth and the motivation behind each article etc! ❤
Sounds like the foundations of your next article. If you get a chance, try watching Michael Junior's YouTube Video, "Know Your Why". It absolutely firmed this concept in my own head.
Think I found the clip, the one with the guy who sings amazing grace and then "the hood version" and the comparison of the two? That certainly does frame it well and is a great example! Thanks for that!
Exactly that one! Yes, it really drives home that, while we know the what, we need to consider the why.
Really enjoyed it, great share! 💪
Everyone of us should be required to type this sentence before writing anything else:
Very well said! Thank you!
Couldn't have said it better - in this day and age of social media and influencers we're so obsessed with numbers, always more, more, more ... I say, small is beautiful, quality over quantity!
I keep telling my fiancé that but she just won't listen 🤣.
Hahaha I'm not going to inquire about the details ;)
Never apologise for a long comment, you know they are more than welcomed on my posts (good or bad) and yours are always really interesting and engaging so they are especially welcomed.
The thing that perhaps got lost in my post was the "sometimes you have to get mucky and do things you do not like for the greater good" aspect.
I don't want a feed full with rubbish and self promotion, but I also have changed my view that writing some articles purely for growth is OK and even something I encourage.
I think I agree with every one of your (counter? Agreeing?) points! The real gem in there is "I generally structure articles in blocks of the topics I want to talk about", this is a great tip for people who want to write about varied subjects but still make it easy for people to engage. Damn, I missed a real good one there! 🤣
In fact the only point that I possibly do "disagree" with (would question is more accurate) is:
There is a ton of research and case studies that show that asking for likes, asking for follows etc. all result in higher follows / likes, but it very rarely puts people off (as long as it is subtle and you don't repeat it over and over again in the same piece of content). It is probably the one thing I would say "do it, it could help, it certainly won't hurt!"
As always your comment is better than my original article...you should really just start a blog with all your comments on 🤣
p.s. as for the "my stats aren't as good", I would say you are wrong there.
You have a higher view rate and reaction rate per article than me! Those are the real statistics that matter for someone who writes out of passion and enjoyment and show what I already know, you write consistently high quality and engaging content!
Your advice is to lower the standards and keep cluttering other people's feed with "50 shades of React". I think that if my chances of getting heard are higher on a search engine - I should do just that :-)
You didn't read it properly if that is what you took away! 😋
As someone who knows how to play the game (I remember reading a listicle of yours that was entertaining on Go or something) I hope this was just me missing the joke! 🤣❤
Oh please don't take any offence, I didn't mean that your articles are as bad as the novel in question.
But you are rather an exception than a rule. All I'm saying is that if authors feel that they aren't heard on a certain medium, maybe the problem is not the author 😅
Good writing doesn't scale.
No no, Valeria we have interacted enough that you should know I will never take offence, I like being challenged (a firm believer that differing views are what help you grow, not a crowd of "yes you are right" people) so I am one person you never need to apologise to (unless you call me some expletive...and even then I will probably just laugh!)!
But I was quite surprised by your take so I thought you were being sarcastic (my default setting as a Brit but so hard to tell in text whether it is sarcasm or not 🤣)
100% agree good writing doesn't scale, but I would argue that anyone can get heard on a medium with enough patience, practice and involvement in that community, I think unrealistic expectations are what drive the frustration many of us experience.
I do think a few of the points I was trying to make have got lost (serves me right for just "writing as it came to me" rather than doing what I normally do and planning the article properly!).
I was essentially saying "play the game" when you are a new writer and improve your writing while you do, and, in some ways, defending listicle writers themselves as I do not know their motivation and want to give them the benefit of the doubt!
As a reader, I want to get to know the author, understand their point of view, learn something or get entertained. Fine-tuned articles in most cases turn out to be very alike. And they get traction and other authors are engaging in the comments so that their conveyor articles can get some too, creating an endless cycle of content for the sake of noise which overshadows rare unique pieces more and more.
And as a writer I could sit and write "10 creative ways to shoot yourself in a foot with Redux" or "How to master Kubernetes in 3.5 seconds" every day before breakfast and they still will be better than yet another "Difference between var, let and const in JS". My most popular article had 30000 views and 1k+ reactions and it is a result of said optimisation and it's almost entirely useless :-)
My favourite article has 3k views and 40 reactions, it's 1 year old, yet still relevant and keeps getting views from search engine and rare but positive feedback from readers. But this article "expired" and no amount of engaging is going to bring it back to the feeds.
But that article at least had some google-able keywords (and that's how the new readers find it). I doubt someone would actually search for e.g. "build server with css" one year from now unless they are high as a kite. Yet Pascal's piece has a lot of valuable insights and doesn't deserve to be covered with tons of "999 way to iterate an array in JavaScript".
There, did I make it any clearer now? (NOT sarcasm 😅)
Much clearer and I agree on your points, there is just one thing missing - the popular and optimised article...is that the entry point for people to follow you and read your favourite article?
That is my whole argument really, write some optimised pandering "rubbish" as we see it, get more eyeballs on the stuff you care about.
So I would say, go write that article before breakfast you don't care about...then write one that you care about and link to it from you crappy and pandering article as a "you might also like" type link!
And yet again, I can easily track how a crap article prompts people to read my better ones, so although an old article of mine might be dead in the feeds it will still get the occasional like as a result of a new article I posted if it is shown in the sidebar or I link to it deliberately.
Don't get me wrong, I totally get it, we live in a world that rewards people for licking toilet seats on planes or literally sitting there while they watch a video of someone with talent, and receiving 100 times more views than the original piece of content. We can't move that needle, so we need to compete, so I say "play the game a little, your hard work deserves to get noticed".
Hopefully I have made myself a little more clear now!
Yup, but there's nothing wrong with your article, I got it the first time :-)
And that's a valuable advice for a newcomer that tries to get his first job and needs something to show to the hiring manager (huge market, wise choice for target audience, not sarcasm).
And as you rightfully noticed I haven't placed a link to the articles I've talked about, because as weird as it is I come here to talk to you, get to learn your perspective, not to do a plug. Thank god my articles don't have business needs and I can choose not to do it! But wouldn't world be a better place if we won't need to do it?
Oh 100% I wish we didn’t have to play the game!
The only thing I have to say is share the article you love with me in the comments, I have no issue at all with that and would love to see your favourite! ❤️
Massive difference between genuinely sharing something that is relevant and just spamming a link to your article for views. Your intentions are pure, fire away 🤣
NOTICE: This is not a plug 🤣
dev.to/valeriavg/how-to-use-custom...
I think maybe you've misunderstood me.
I'm not looking to become popular or gain followers. I only occasionally write, if I think I've come across something that would be really useful to others. When I do write, I put a lot of effort into it - if it's not clear and helpful, there's no point in writing in the first place.
The frustration in my rant (post) is about the same thing you just confirmed in this post: the fact that content does not subsist on it's own merit.
You have to actively curate your "brand", you have to strategically manipulate the "market" to get a word in.
I have zero interest in any of that. If my content was posted completely anonymously, but actually found the readers and helped them - if I never got any recognition for my work at all - I would be perfectly happy.
My only motivation and interest in writing is getting good ideas out there - my only hope is that maybe I can help make our line of work a little more enjoyable and interesting.
So, thanks, but I wasn't looking for a media strategy or a business plan.
I think I understood, I think perhaps I didn't express my agreement as much as I should of though.
Your key point "content does not subsist on it's own merit" is exactly the point I was trying to help people with. It would be amazing if that wasn't the case, but we don't control the game so we have to play along if we want the cream to rise to the top!
Your article was a catalyst for sharing my thoughts on how to grow, not whether that is appropriate for everyone (and that is a key point I really did express poorly / not explain well in the article).
It is a "you can't have your cake and eat it" type of scenario that I wish wasn't the case. Thousands of quality pieces do get buried under an avalanche of pandering listicles. I share all of your frustrations.
All my piece was meant to do (and I can see from the comments I failed in some ways) was highlight that we can't change the game on our own, neither can we place the blame on DEV for what people want to engage with, and give people a path to actually achieve growth for their work in a crowded place.
Instead we have to make a choice, play the game so we can get quality content in front of more eyeballs and put up with the fact that pandering is a part of growing to a point where we do have a voice and a way to get that quality content to "cut through the noise". Or we can just keep releasing things we believe have value and hope that we get lucky that someone who has played the game boosts our work.
Is it ideal? Nope! Would it be great if content was popular based on quality and merit? Absolutely!
Hopefully that clears up the bits that I did not make clear, at the end of the day the only outcome I really care about is that you continue to write the things you want to write about and if they don't get popular that it doesn't leave you frustrated to the point where you don't want to write anymore.
And from a personal perspective, your rant was useful for me, I may not have expressed myself well, but it is helping me formulate the points I made into a more succinct and well explained system that new writers can follow if they wish for growth and to build a platform for themselves.
So I consider that mission accomplished and am glad you shared the article, hopefully I continue to see your writing on the site and thank you for taking the time to come and comment, I hope we can have some engaging conversations about the topic...who knows we might come up with a solve for this seemingly impossible problem and finally "have our cake"! 😁
This kind of makes me think of good old "Appleseed John," an American folk tale based in truth. In the early days of the American frontier, John Chapman started wandering along that frontier and beyond, finding areas where farms might be and planting apple seeds so folks might, when they finally got there, have fruits they knew waiting for them. He spent years doing that, and he's considered by many a folk hero for it.
But I've often wondered if he came back by years later, and saw his beloved apple trees being used for firewood.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to give to your fellow man, I applaud the intent and the sentiment. But if that is the case, if you're not "tending your garden," then is it a reasonable expectation that someone else should tend it for you?
My articles are nothing special, they're things of interest to me and to a very small group of like-minded nerds. But I am constantly working and reworking them, revisiting based on conversations, having follow-up articles based on those conversations, trying to "tend my garden". Not from a desire to build a brand, but because if I'm writing this stuff, I'm probably the one best able to curate the stuff. It isn't really reasonable to think that someone who doesn't have some sort of investment (even an intellectual or emotional one) will do that for me.
I get having zero interest in building a brand, I get not giving a rat's patootie about "strategically manipulating" anything. But from what I've seen, if I'm are interested in building awareness of the ideas I'm putting out there, I'm going to have to put in the work of consistently, regularly cultivating those ideas.
It bugs the crap out of me that I'm not getting more comments on my articles, but I do get feedback from folks who have read them elsewhere (notably, on a few discord groups). So I do have some idea of what's going on and how my ideas are hitting, but I do agree - I wish I could figure some way of increasing engagement and conversations, the way this thread has.
I love that story, it is a beautiful reminder to leave something for others in the future, to work towards bettering things long term (I like the short version which is "plant trees in whose shade you know you shall never sit").
Also the way you put the part about tending your garden and expectations that others should maintain it for you is a great analogy.
So I think what I have gathered from this thread is that there is a huge gap in the market for heavy duty agricultural equipment. Machines that mean we can tend to our fields with less effort and with greater yields.
We probably also need a farmers market so that we can sell our high quality produce without having to resort to adverts in the paper and signs by the side of the road.
OK, I think I have done the analogies to death there, but the core principles are there...there is a gap for quality content to be put in one place.
I suppose though, if you think about it from that perspective, the answer would be to build a site that is pure high quality content with a central marketing team and reputation.
We kind of have that with sites like CSS tricks, smashing magazine etc. so perhaps just an improved version of them that is half way between full editorial and a free to post what you like site is the answer.
So taking that to a (very long-winded) conclusion, perhaps the advice for people who want to write high quality pieces but not have tend their garden, for people who do not want to write regularly and aren't bothered about building a personal reputation that much, but instead sharing their valuable insights is to submit them to sites that pay for articles, or sites that curate high quality content and accept the trade-offs that entails?
I feel like I am just a couple of steps a way from a "how should you create and promote content" flowchart / decision tree at this stage 🤣
Loving all the ideas this article's comments section has within it, and the beautiful ways in which people have expressed themselves, such as in your comments Toby!
In the not-too-distant past, I worked as a landscape crew foreman, ran a crew of guys handling care and maintenance. We had a number of folks who didn't want to have to work at their lawns and garden beds, but they wanted the pleasure of looking at them.
So it comes down to this, regardless of field: you will always invest something. You might invest your time and effort, or you might invest your money in other people's time and effort. If I want to get my word out there, I can keep promoting and hyping and selling myself, or I can affiliate or use someone else to do that for me.
I have tried to be fairly consistent and complete in the kind of writing I do, and I have to say that being accountable to my better half has helped tremendously. She helps keep me on task, writing new things, and helping spread the word. Just recently, on another article site to which I cross-post, a developer magazine asked if I'd consider listing my articles under their publication. Had to think about that one a bit.
But if I do, I still own my articles, my words are still my own, they are simply being affiliated with that ezine. Their editors review my stuff, correct typos, improve my SEO and help promote for me. I'm still working at it, I'm still doing the writing and responding thing, but I'm able to focus on the parts I want to do - because I remained constant and consistent in my message, and my delivery.
I don't like to market, I don't like to hype myself or talk about myself or being the center of attention like that. But I love teaching and sharing and writing. And by consistently regularly doing the things I love to do, I'm slowly starting to reap those rewards.
Yes, but also no! We already discussed consistency (remember my rant Stop rewarding quantity!), and you have sort of convinced me that consistency can mean helpful habit building, but I still see the greatest "value" of consitency is that alorithms and probably also other human readers seem to like it. Personally, I still prefer sporadical updates, not based on measured time but rather saying something when there is something to say and respect that there might be many things in life that are much more important than writing and releasing a DEV blog post.
Sounds creditble, but could you possible quote a source?
That's a very practical tip! I think I have somehow, subconsciously, come to the same conclusion. My recent post some useful git commands started as a stopgap as I didn't manage to finish my upcoming post on CSS blend-modes in time, to continue my series "What's next in CSS". I thought I might just paste some commands from my bash history that I tend to use more frequently after rediscovering, like
git log -p. Then I saw that this could actually become a helpful#beginnerarticle, and, to my surprise, the practical dev even featured it on twitter.With about half an hour for writing the post in its initial form, and another hour for subsequent additions, this is probably the most efficient writeup I have done so far, making it a relatively low-effort "one for them" article.
Another practical tip with several benefits at once!
Mentioning (
@) authors and quoting their posts (\{% post) invites others to discuss, it helps to connect related posts and form some kind of thread, plus it is one of the easy ways to add more visual variety to a post without creating any imagery or even a codepen.The annotation in brackets is the most important one, at least for me!
I am a person that gets annoyed quickly by GIF images, even more so if they show some dude who might be an American actor but I don't get the meme because I don't watch TV and I prefer independent films over mainstream movies. And even if I do get it, most is just irrelevant and if you need Sponge Bob or Home Simpson to get attention, then maybe your content is not that relevant at all? But sometimes it is, and people still put animated images between every paragraph! At least I live in Germany where the internet connection can get so slow that I don't have to endure that sort of "engaging" content in its entirety.
Another point where I might agree and disagree at the same time. Conversational chatter adds noise that can make it harder to concentrate on the actual content, but on the other hand, DEV is a community and not a university, so conversational words can add personality and a feeling of personal contact to a post. But it doesn't make a difference if it sounds exactly like 99% of all other people would have said it, and it can even alienate readers if it's too specific to a conversational culture (like my pseudo-British German English might be as well!)
Like animated GIFs, some kind of conversational style makes me cringe, like:
Hey y'all, how are you all doing, guys? As we all know, React is the greatest JavaScript framework. So today we want to build something that will blow you away!"
In this made up example, the noisy idioms just add to some other facts like false premises and spammy click bait wording.
Luckily DEV, unlike medium, does not incentive to add a "high quality image" just for the supposed sake of growing interaction, which makes authors browse Unsplash to add some mostly irrelevant stock photography, making them more indistinguishable instead of original. But using a cover image is indeed a good tip, as we don't want to waste the possible space and color as opposed to posts without cover images that occupy less space in a list of posts.
As we're in a community for developers, I prefer code examples and embedded code pens instead of animated memes, and likewise I tend to take a screenshot or make a collage of multiple screenshots as a cover image. Beware that DEV crops uploaded images if they don't match the target aspect ratio, so make sure to place the most important parts in the center of the image.
If you cross-post the same content, take care of which is supposed to be the original (preferably a blog hosted on your own domain), and add
canonicaltags pointing to the original post when re-posting on DEV, medium, Tealfeed etc. That option is often hidden deep inside expert settings and it's supposed to tell Google which content to favor, and which one to hide as duplicate content. Note that this doesn't always work in the intended way which is why some people had to stop (re-)posting on medium. Read Stéphanie Walter's reason for removing her content from medium.Not a "dirty secret" but another practical tip. It's legitimate, otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it. You can't upvote your own StackOverflow answers, but you can like your own DEV posts and tweets!
Another useful tip, especially using
#webdevas a fallback. I regularly get overwhelmed by the number of possible tags. Some popular ones seem to have strict rules when to use, some have questionable descriptions (like#php') and some others seem to be relatively unpopular (like#a11y`) but the latter one is also chance to get noticed inside a "niche" building up popularity and authority for "long tail" (special interest) search terms.But we can, and should, blame the current tech community for "our" (collective) failings, one of them being the technophile ableist dude culture mostly ignoring accessibility, diversity, ecology, inclusion, or more generally speaking having at least a little bit of decency and open-mindedness concerning our society, our world, our future, and the world we are creating for our children!
(Now it's time for my final rant, hopefully the moderators will have stopped reading before reaching this part. As I write this, Russian soldiers are attacking Ukraine, even the capital Kyiv and the city of Lviv, which is so far west, it feels like they could drop bombs on Krakow, Vienna, or Berlin as well. Corrupt western politicians make business with Russian oligarchs so they stop the EU plans to impose harder sanctions on Russia. I am so ashamed to be German, not for the first time. My grandfathers were soldiers, one died in a Soviet prison, the other managed to flee the Russian bombs and take our family as far west as possible. Now we're here and someday the Russians will bomb us again. In World War II at least we deserved it.)
That being said, don't blame DEV for anything. The practival DEV offers a platform that allows us to share ideas and knowledge, providing tools aimed at developers (markup editor with codepen integration and proper syntax highlighting for various programming languages) with an open-minded, inclusive, and welcoming approach unlike StackOverflow's gatekeeping snobbism or medium's arbitrariness.
It isn't. Your modesty credits you, but don't exaggerate.
Just because something isn't DEV's fault, it doesn't necessarily mean it's your fault or mine, see my rant above. There is a lot wrong with our society and our tech community, and as privileged people that do get a voice (at least on a small scale) it's also our responsibility to criticize and aim for a change (like you do).
To anyone who bothered to read to the end: don't let anything discourage you, don't get frustrated, if you have something to say, say it!
DEV is one place where we can have a say as techs, and INHU's tips can help us to do it in a way that might attract some additional audience as well.
OK so now I see why you wanted to come back to this, that is without doubt one of the most epic comments I have read.
Brutal honesty is that I have read it but I probably won't be able to respond with anywhere near as much vigour until next week!
The few bits that I will quickly mention I will certainly come back to:
Probably about 10 other really interesting talking points once I really think about it rather than just reading it.
So much to unpack here, but I will certainly find the time as soon as possible to give you the response this comment deserves (and nudge me if I forget, there really are some interesting things here I would love to chat about)! ❤
Thank you for sharing your opinion! 👏
When I read something like this I am entering dynamic read mode desperate to find when its end 🤣
I think it boils down to: you can write what you want to write or you can write what people want to read. If you're lucky then they overlap.
Dev.to is a place for all developers, so if you're writing specialised stuff, you're not going to get a lot of views. If you can't crank out a lot of articles, you won't get a lot of views.
There's no magic sauce, people are just people. BASIC is as BASIC does ;)
My whole rambling article summarised in just 2 paragraphs! 😁
The key bit is "balance", that is why I suggested the "one for them, one for you" method, growth with substance is the aim!
But this is the bit that often gets missed, people are complex as individuals, but as a crowd we are still dumb irrational beings. I would argues there is a magic sauce...you need to understand crowd mentality and the overall population for the overall strategy and the understand the individual for how you interact with them and your tone of voice etc.
Amazing comment, honestly this whole comment section has just blown my mind with some of the insights!
I think the thing I underestimate, that you mentioned, is interacting with people. If you want to keep people coming back it helps to make them feel welcome.
It is more than that, engaged readers are 100 times more valuable than passers by. Engaged readers are where the job opportunities, friendships, repeat readers and advocates come from.
I think it all boils down to how you look at the relationship.
I view it as a privilege if someone takes the time to read and then comment on my writing (time is valuable), so I will give them the time and respond whenever I can as it is just good manners!
So I suppose at this point I should say thank you for reading and commenting 😁
😁 you're welcome. Thanks for the post.
Got to say I agree with this and would say that you do have a very specific tone of voice which is recognisable and generally speaking very clear and descriptive. I think we'd disagree on a few things (Typescript lol) but I think your comments and posts are great.
I also don't want to write here because I want an audience, when I have something to say or that interests me then I'll write it, I hope that this is generally useful or interesting and definitely not something someone else has recently said.
I have to admit that my Dev browsing habits include checking what you've commented on and reading that.
@inhuofficial also has a very particular and enjoyable style and very unique content.
Aww Mike I am blushing. A money filled envelope is on it's way to you 😉
I 100% agree on writing when you feel like it, if that is what suits you. These guidelines are certainly geared towards someone who wants to "get serious" about content creation (probably geared towards content creators who want to make a living out of it) and I perhaps have not expressed that perfectly!
As for disagreeing on typescript, possibly, but I am always open to being persuaded! 😁
And I can confirm that when you do decide to post I always find it interesting, well written and useful!
haha, well it is either going to be really good or really bad if I have commented, I do live on the extremes when it comes to my content reading 😂
Honestly this comment really warmed my heart, thanks so much for it and I hope you are well as we haven't interacted in ages (it is practically March...what is happening to the year?)!
I'm only going to drive-by comment here to talk about phrasing. A lot of articles here make the same assumption - that users of the site are only reading it because they want to have lots of numbers next to their names.
I'm not here for that, and I'm sure I'm not alone. I throw occasional articles at the wall and some of them stick. I sometimes put in more effort, and I sometimes get reactions. But I don't see it as a failure when I don't: I'm not trying to build a brand, make new friends or launch my career as a Typescript influencer.
You might say, "that's fine, in that case this article isn't for you"; I say using words like, "fault" for people who don't have a lot of magic Internet points is part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
There are a lot of things in this article that I think I could have prefaced better and there are key points where I address stuff (but it is a massive article).
However I think I can stand by what I said with some confidence (but I certainly am considering how I can improve the message).
I know it is 2 paragraphs in a gigantic article but that is certainly right for people who write for enjoyment. But at that point you aren't bothered about growth so much.
I will stand by "fault" as it is your fault if you don't grow, but I certainly cover that as "it isn't necessarily a bad thing" in several places. In fact I end with it...
As for blame, I take the blame for the poor structure of this article meaning some of the message I was trying to make is being lost! It is a lesson in practicing what you preach and I wrote this article on a whim and without structuring it first.
Hopefully there is still enough value in the rest of the article that you still enjoyed it though ❤
I always enjoy your articles :)
I still remember seeing your rise and wondering "who is this commenting on everyone's articles?" It seems to be working!
What I've realized is there are a few different types of articles that have very different "success" measurements:
I decided I don't want to write feed articles: I'm terrible at them, dislike reading them, and don't mind missing the "popularity" they bring. So I stopped measuring my "success" by feed article standards and I'm much happier. I have a few Google-able articles that I'm incredibly proud of their success (consistently first page for several search terms) and I have a litany of personal articulations that I've shared with colleagues and has been helpful in my professional communication.
I really like this categorisation! I am going to steal it, adapt it and add to it I like it that much!
I like the "google-able" articles, what us old dogs call SEO'd articles 😉
But being serious for a second, articles that rank well for popular terms are, in my opinion, the best articles overall, especially "evergreen" articles that just feed consistent engagement over months and years. They are what we should hope to have at least 25% of our articles be one day.
You certainly should be proud of any article that fits into this category and ranks well for key terms, it takes skill and effort and I certainly applaud it! ❤
Related to your number 4, commenting on posts definitely gains followers. I don't post often. Most recent post was in November. But I do comment more regularly. And I've noticed increase in followers when I'm commenting more often.
Probably my favourite part of content creation is the comments. The comments on this article in particular have been a real gold mine of ideas and inspiration, much better than the article itself I have to admit 🤣.
Having had a quick look through your comments I can see why you got followers, you added value and essentially that is the whole point of content creation!
I hope you find the space / time / motivation to write more, i just skim read your article on the jacoco-badge-generator you developed and maintain and will read that properly when I get chance, but I just wanted to say that the documentation for the project is beautifully detailed and structured.
I consider that top quality content and have bookmarked that for future use as an example of how documentation should be done! ❤
Thanks. The traffic data on that repository in relation to that dev post is interesting. It seems many find their way to that GitHub repo from dev, which I assume is from that post. Posting on dev can be useful in getting open source projects noticed.
I would most focus on why you write. If you want to write for the views, well do the "listicles" but don't expect to grow in skills but only in views and followers. And trust me views and followers won't bring you contract requests or job offers.
If you write articles to show off your skills or to validate what you have learned (if you can explain it you have definitely learned it) then you can expect to become recognized for what you have done one day.
Yup and the point (I am beginning I realise I made badly) was that as a new author you should deliberately write both for growth and for yourself. Once you have a base of followers you can pivot to pure high quality content.
Maybe that should have been the entire post as I certainly appear to have confused a lot of people 🤣
Agree entirely and I think perhaps I need to embolden these two paragraphs as they are exactly that:
Thanks for the advices, I don't have anything to add since i'm still new but the point you talked about Tiktok and the rise of the short-content is what i felt from most or some people in this platform, That's why you find short-content posts are more dominant then the long and detailed ones, So i kind of know why somebody would argue that it's hard to grow or even not worth it
For me i'm not trying to be famous but i would want me a handful of followers so someday an employer would say "Hey this guy is part of a community! Lets hire him" (lol)
Again thanks for the tips will definitely try the "dirty" one haha
PS: just a quick question do you schedule your posts or do you post them as soon as you finish ?
In the past I always just posted when I was done (I wrote for fun).
However my focus has changed so I will be posting on a schedule to take advantage of "peak times" for posting as I want to maximise engagement and get as many eyeballs as possible for the same amount of effort.
And as for not having anything to add as you are new, you added several interesting points and asked a good question, you added plenty!
Based on what you said (not trying to be famous but as a way to improve your hiring chances) a few mini-tips:
Hell I could probably write a post just on this subject (another reason why your comment was super valuable, it may have inspired a future post of mine so thank you!)
Additionally I have an extreme example of content creation to employment. I don't know if you currently have a job or what stage you are in your career so this may not be relevant...but this is a "zero knowledge, just started coding to hired in 6 months" strategy that is a bit extreme but certainly the path I would take if I was brand new:
That may seem like I am joking, I am not (although I have certainly over-simplified it!). People have gone from nothing to mid 5 figures in less than 6 months doing this. 5 years ago I would have laughed if someone suggested this, today I truly believe this is one of the quickest paths into tech and a strong foundation for growth.
I cannot think of a path into tech that is quicker than that and will also result in a decent salary. Plus you then get to spend your days growing your following (as well as that of your employer) while working as a dev advocate, so you are essentially getting paid to grow your own network and open up even more opportunities!
There is an old adage "it isn't what you know, it is who you know" and content creation is a great way to get to know people worth knowing!
Obviously there are 200 steps in the middle of that, research to do, improving your skills through consistent effort and creating that much content is hard work, but it can be done along side a normal 9-5 if you want it enough!
Anyway, I might have "over cooked" this response, but as an old dog the rise of dev advocates and that path into tech in the last few years has really blown my mind and I wish that opportunity existed when I was starting out!
Very informative and genuine response, thanks from heart
curious about those peak times, When do you exactly post if i may ask ?
I'm still learning :)
twitter is a bit weird for me but i know its where the devs lives so i will start tweeting once i write a couple good posts
Well that just impressive! do you know anybody who's active on the internet ? Would like to check them out
Definitely not at all, Thanks again for putting the time onto this
Here is an old analysis of the times (third table at the bottom) that get the most reactions. It needs updating but that is 250,000 live articles on DEV up to about 6 months ago (and yes I did download every single one of them so I have over 10GB of article markdown sat in a database 🤣)!
inhu.co/dev_to/analyse/timeofday.php
Twitter is a strange place but once you "get it" it really is just spewing your thoughts on what you are learning out and sharing useful tips and tricks (plus some of your personality).
If you want a prime example of someone who has done exactly what I said: twitter.com/codingyuri
She has a unique style but she threw everything she had at Twitter and content creation for 6 months while learning. Check her join date and then check out what jobs she currently does, dev advocate, web3 editor at hashnode. I wouldn't set my expectations quite that high but certainly worth following that path and taking ideas from her.
I think she is the single best example, but there are plenty of others!
With my time here on Dev, I must say I have experienced different situations.
I completely agree with you on consistency. I have not been a lot consistent and that has affected my traffic from Google feeds.
Also about commenting, I really don't do it 😁. But after reading this, I made up my mind to start engaging with other articles. I basically had to force myself to comment right now. Especially for the purpose of encouraging and interacting.
Just a little tip on quality based on my experience: writing quality contents really depend on your understanding of that topic.
I remembered in my first article, I recieved a hot slap in the face to welcome me to the community. I knew about the topic, I had done a little bit of research but I didn't really understand it. But that was the last time.
When I wanted to write on Aligning elements to the center in CSS, even though I was solid in it to a great exten, I had to practice for more than a week on aligning items to the center; just to be sure I understood it. 😁
And here is another tip on traffic: Google feed/Google.com is a cheatsheet. My last two articles didn't receive any traffic from google feeds because I basically disappeared and appeared again, and so I was already tossed down from the headlines of my reader's (not DEV followers) feeds. But the last one that got traffic from google feeds generated over 45% of the traffic (out of 38k+).
And as much as I would not encourage anyone to write because of Google trends, I'd also suggest you optimize for search engines as well. Now that you have a topic, just use SEO tools to check out your competitions, keyword ideas, optimize the title, cover (as you mentioned)
My article on learning react still gets more than 100 views from google.com every week. That's crazy. Honestly, I'd say just take advantage of the domain authority of DEV.
Thanks for this awesome article. I would never have written a comment this long. Like never 😂
Then I believe my article has at least done some good in the world if it encouraged you to engage...and I am so glad you did as you raise some interesting points (and I learn so much more from the comments than people realise!)
The one thing I will say is the quality based on understanding...you are right, but there are things you can do.
Lets say you are just learning about flexbox and aren't so sure of yourself. Then write an article that is not claiming to be an authority piece, but instead starts with a "this is what I have learned, please correct me" type intro. You will find that the comments will fill in your gaps in knowledge very quickly (as you found out!).
The "hot slap in the face" you received (I liked that expression lol) is a good thing though and that is the other thing that is hard to consume as an author. Every single snarky comment that points out a mistake is an opportunity to learn, you just have to learn (and it is difficult) to zone out the mean or negative parts and focus on opportunities to learn! It is hard though, nobody can zone it all out! 🤣
Also there is another thing you have done in your comment that people are afraid to do because "they might appear pushy". You shared your work that is appropriate to the conversation. It isn't forced, it isn't an attempt to just grab views, it adds value! Many people are scared of doing that, don't be, any author who gets angry at someone sharing something appropriate in the comments has completely missed the point.
Thanks for the comment and I am so glad it has encouraged you to comment more, that really does warm my heart! ❤
Yeah, I totally agree with you on writing to learn more. Even someone who is very good in something can still learn from other people. I feel like everybody's understanding/experience is different and sharing makes it a perfect combo for all.
Thanks a lot for your kind words.
Good points, words of the wise, but in my opinion dev.to should be putting more effort into pushing down the repetitive low quality content (listicles and all that) and promoting high quality. But then again who am I - maybe that would simply not be in dev.to's interest, if "listicles" is really what The People want.
So in fact what we can conclude is, if you really want to be "popular" on dev.to then you might have to make concessions. I'm not willing to make those, so I simply accept that I'm not popular ;)
(funny analogy - it just occurred to me that dev.to has evolved a bit into "the Instagram of the developer world" - looks matter more than content)
I certainly agree that it would be great to promote higher quality articles, but the “how” is the bit that is very difficult without manual intervention.
Maybe some clever machine learning / sentiment analysis / post analysis could do this in the near future but as with anything in that sphere, the second you give a black box a set of rules it becomes difficult to control (look at Google, it doesn’t work well anymore for complex queries as it has self optimised for the 90% and the engagement vs quality problem DEV has is similar, hell we could write a whole thesis on trying to solve it!)
The team at DEV are running experiments to try and fix the problem, but it is a very tough problem to crack, so that is why I suggest “playing the game” a little!
Right, but the question is if they even WANT to change it - many people simply like the listicles and the other dumbed down content. But, I do respect the people at dev.to, and I do believe they do want to promote better content more - I think they also see that if it's all getting too much dumbed down, then part of the audience will jump ship or simply check out (engage less).
And yeah I understand you, sometimes you have to be practical and play "their" game ... if you can't beat them then join them, lol.
See, I practice what I preach, a call to action (albeit a soft one), written in my own voice, i liked my own article and i left a comment on my own article.
Oh and go give Rasmus some love and affection please, we need more passionate writers!
Rasmus Schultz
Just to let you know that your 101 A11y tips article was one of the best reads I had here and the reason you are one of the few I follow here. So keep doing one for them but don't forget the one for us! Those are great readings.
Thanks so much, it really means a lot!
Thank you @inhuofficial for sharing your interesting point of view! I am putting into practice what you shared here, I will give the feedback later in the future ✨✌
❤ and 🦄 for you! 😂
( I will ask for ❤ and 🦄 on my next post, It's like YouTubers asking for like and subscribe. I don't have any problem reading this kind of request 😊)
Great post. I've been slowly coming to a lot of these same realizations.
One thing I want to add though is that sometimes low view counts may not be an issue of people not being interested in a topic, but instead that the people who are interested in that topic aren't on DEV.
My JavaScript posts get a decent amount of views on here, but anything I write about Elixir gets far fewer views (even if they sometimes end up getting more likes).
But recently I shared a link to one of my posts on elixirforum and it was picked up in some other places that gave it a lot of traffic on my website.
So while it's true that there are fewer people reading about Elixir than JavaScript, that wasn't my real problem. Rather, Elixir devs just seem to get their content from more niche sites.
I'm going to continue to publish my Elixir posts on DEV, but I don't expect it to constitute a majority of the traffic.
A very important distinction that I really needed to "lean into" more, thanks for putting emphasis on that!
And another great point on putting your content where the audience is.
There isn't much I can add here, but I certainly realised I need to incorporate those two points into similar articles on the subject in the future! ❤
Reflecting on my own writing journey on Dev.to, the amount of post reaction/follower can certainly be a source of motivation(or the complete opposite). What I would remind myself of is this:
If I write to gain traction and I don’t get that, I should change the way I write/promote my post. If, however, I write to simply share something that I think it’s noteworthy, why should I be upset that the post does not get to a crazy level of reactions from readers? That’s not the goal of the post anyway.
I do see the value of having a voice on various platform but honestly, even though I don’t get that many “likes” when I click publish, I don’t have to worry about what I should write to please the crowd either:)
Exactly.
I just find there is a balance to be made, there is nothing more soul destroying than sitting back after hitting publish and thinking "that is some of my best work" and then getting no interactions.
So although followers and views are not important as a "self worth" or "measure of your self worth" as some people see it, they are certainly important in terms of getting people to see your stuff, comment or react and then have the opportunity to engage with and build a relationship with them.
As you said the "goal" is important, I am just trying to persuade people that growth is a goal worth pursuing as we have all been fed the "follower numbers don't matter" rhetoric and it isn't quite that simple!
Always love your content. When I find time to properly read this long post, I want to reply in more detail where I agree and disagree and why. Trying to sum up my first impression after skimming: don't stop to write content! And if you're frustrated about not getting views and feedback, make an effort and try to change your strategy! Or don't bother, it's okay to write what you want, but don't expect that others share your interests.
As always I look forward to your comment, they are always informative and I love hearing your opposing opinions when you have them (I like the ones that agree as well, but you know I am someone who likes people who challenge my opinion so we can have a good debate and learn from each other 😁)!
I will respond when I see your comment land, I hope you enjoy the article!
yet again, agree, groups of like minded people foster growth (in any aspect of life). They say you are the sum total of your ten closest friends and so you should choose who you spend time with wisely!
Ah, get you now! 100% do it in a style that fits your personality and do what works for you! (unless your personality is like mine and really enjoy swearing, roasts and articled written with "venom", in which case maybe let just 50% of your personality out on somewhere like DEV...or get a ban like I did 🤣)
All very true points.
Yes, follower numbers need dividing by 10 to get an accurate reflection of who will truly engage (maybe divide by 20 or 50?), but it is certainly something that influences the initial reach of an article, which has a snowball effect. As always, everything is relative and if I implied that follower numbers were mega important...they are a nice boost let's just say that, not the be all and end all.
As for the VS code articles and the potential genocide...I am certainly up for a less extreme version of the same idea 🤣 Could we perhaps just create a plugin that filters the words "VS Code" and "tips" or "plugins" to make our lives a little better without resorting to mass murder? 😋
I found the rant informative (or more precisely the resulting comments), I gain inspiration from strange places and this was just my way of telling new authors "keep going, you can make it", perhaps my message got lost as this was not a planned article just a "as I write it" quick piece!
FYI the humble brag was not actually meant to be a brag at all, just to show some numbers that are easily achievable by even an average Joe like me. It just looked a bit "boastful" without context so I was trying to make a joke, not a point, I obviously failed 🤣!
I think I agree with what you are saying 95%, I think the only bit we might be slightly apart on is the importance of a following, yes it might be an inflated number, but the bigger that number the bigger your engagement so I do think it is relevant (to growth and getting engagement), even if it is not important (in terms of people who use that number to prove their self worth!)
Only halve it? ;P
I feel you on the "rant" portion of your article. I've had a constant debate with myself on whether to fight 'em or join 'em. If I choose to not engage with low-quality short-form content, and everyone else does the same, it'll go away, so providing higher quality alternatives should help right?
...As long as everyone else pitches in which is... unlikely. 1-for-you, 1-for-them seems like a good compromise.
Didn't even know that existed on DEV. I rarely report posts (only obvious spam with no dev aspect at all).
This is the post that encouraged me to take a leap of faith and start blogging about AI. I joined Dev.to about 3 minutes ago and I'll start with one article every monday. I'll aim for quality quantity in the long run. Maybe I'll to put Chris Bongers to shame in a few months !
That means a lot to know this post helped you get going! ❤️
Now the hard part…shout into the void for a few articles! Trust me if you keep at it you will soon start seeing loads of great things happen!
I hope in a year or two you do manage to put Chris to shame! 💪🤣
I would say that to have a voice you need people who interact and listen (as well as respond to) what you have to say. So I suppose the technical answer is followers. But views and likes are obviously a component as well. Call it influence to use a buzzword and hopefully that gives you an idea of how I see it.
There is probably a whole conversation to be had on just these few points here.
But picking up on one of them - what are valuable metrics?
In my opinion it depends on the goal and your "level" of content creation.
Starting out? Views and followers are pretty much top priority.
Established and wanting to switch to meaningful engagement? Reactions / views as you suggested and then comment quality (so number of comments that reach a certain "value threshold" divided by total comments and probably views)
Already got a decent following? Write purely for your purpose. If that is to sell something then write related content to your product offering / target client's interests and sprinkle call to actions in there. If it is to get a job then showcase your writing quality at every turn and show how you interact with people etc.
Hopefully you get the idea, as you can tell you have inspired me!
I can't talk about it properly yet, but I have been interviewing for a well known tech firm, they said the position was for a technical writer, but I hopefully have pushed my foot far enough into the door that I will actually be creating their whole content strategy, and one of the things they want is to help people succeed at technical writing. More on that if I do (or don't) get the position!
I say this because I think you might have just given me an ideal topic for an article that I will not only enjoy writing and researching (coming up with a "formula" to measure an articles success) but also may align beautifully with what they need.
So thanks a lot for the inspiration! ❤
Just shows that "the value is in the comments" rings true more often than not!
Hard agree on not being grumpy as a voice. Sure, it works if you're smart about it, but so many people find it easier to be mean then humorously grumpy and we don't need more snark.
Grifting 101?
“Calculated grifting for growth” is what I like to call it 😜🤣
🤦
My problem with publishing every day is that it may not be sustainable in the long term.
Consistency doesn't have to mean publishing an article a day. Rather I'd say that it means to find a schedule that works for you and stick with it.
I think putting it this way may scary a lot of people, as the process of writing includes multiple steps.
Anyway thanks for this post! Very helpful. 😊
Sorry where did I say to publish every day?
If I did that is a massive typo / mistake I want to fix ASAP as I certainly do not want to give people the impression they should write every day, I even warn against it when talking about Chris.
You are 100% right, nobody should feel pressure to write every day, it isn't maintainable long term and it will soon put a new (or even established) author off creating content and I don't want that.
If I even hint at that, or have phrased something badly that suggests that, I will correct it ASAP.
I deleted an account with 5k followers hereon Dev... I had no traction what so ever after a while.
That is really interesting, did you take a break from writing, did you change what you wrote about etc. etc.
I would love to hear that story as there may be some really valuable insights for others to learn from (good or bad lol!).
I did took a brake, but it wasn't a huge gap...
I don't know if it is valuable but, for example I am sure those were mostly bots
100%!
Ghandi probably 😋
Don't hold back dude!
Hehe I have to, I am a little bit too bullish in my opinions if I don’t and it lands me in trouble! 🤣❤️
I first saw your comment on a post by Rasmus and was kind of hoping you'd turn it into an article. Very insightful!
Glad you enjoyed it and thank you so much for the kind words, it means a lot ❤
It is always brings a really big smile to my face when someone says "I was hoping you would write this" as it shows people do connect with my random musings! 🤣
Anytime! And well it could be your writing style that makes the people connect even with the most random of musings 🤣 In my opinion anyway, but definitely enjoyable to read!
I agree with a lot of this it all comes down to content and engagement in my opinion. Being consistent with posting articles and commenting on other peoples articles will help you to grow.
💯, the hard part is finding the time to do it all though! 🤣