I have been thinking to start blogging so that I can add value, help others just like internet helped me to become full stack developer in JavaScript. However, every time I want to write a new article on JavaScript, I could not, knowing that lots of people has already written awesome articles about same topic, feels like I am trying to re-invent the wheel. So my questions is, If you write article on same topic that many has already written, are you still adding value?
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Top comments (21)
You don't need to invent new things. In fact, I bet 99% of what you're thinking at the moment, already presented on the Internet in some hidden corners (StackOverflow, Reddit, Quora, Medium, Dev, etc., you name it).
Wrting a blog means expressing one specific topic in your voice. Your niche in this case is JavaScript tutorial. You can write about one aspect of JavaScript development, your own learning experience, anything.
Regarding the value, personally, it helps me solidify my knowledge, while being a way to entertain myself during spare time. In a sense, it resembles a developer advocate role. Blogging also is a way to bring me oppurtunities, think it as a portfolio of some sort.
Is it valueable to the others? There is no objective answer. Go ahead and write your first article then wait a day, a week, or a month. Look at the traffic and engagement stats after that and you will know if your article is helpful. If the stats are not satisfied, look back and think why your article was not attractive, then learn a way to improve the quality.
Thanks you for helping me understand how I should look at it!
You should be asking yourself: why should I NOT write articles? Who cares if it's been done before. Maybe you'll find a twist to a topic that will spark interest. Or you will enjoy it! People don't read everything I write, but I enjoy writing so it doesn't matter.
Just do it 👊👊
I agree that if you think you are not going to add value then don't write yet another article on, I don't know, what
===means, or how ieee floating point values work.So what you should do is look through the stuff that's out there, find a topic where you can add value, then blog about that.
The reason there are so many articles on the same thing is because a lot of people think they can do a better job, and that's fine. Find something you can do a better job at and go for it.
Back then before I began writing articles I thought everything is available over the internet. But as I progressed with software development I faced more errors and the solutions available "are" out-dated. So when I solve a problem, I have to write an article about it.
You should consider writing articles even if the topics have been discussed by other writers. You never know who is facing the problem you are solving.
There is no reason to feel that. So many articles means that It is popular. Javascript has enormous potential for content and even if you repeat 100% of all other blog post, you can still share it with your own words and in a different way.
If you don't copy other people work, there shouldn't be a single problem.
For me personally, it's really useful to blog on topics to help me solidify my own learning and understanding. I also write to keep notes for my future self, on topics that I found hard to Google, or reminders where I got stuck and learned a lot from the journey.
Start out by writing for yourself, and you may help some other people along the way!
I'm sure that's some of it. If you can be today's dev.to article on
===or whatever entry level topic, then maybe you can encourage people to read your other stuff.As a learner, Reading the same topic, it makes me feel like I know correctly.
And It's interesting how people learn and think about a topic that I'm in.
I also write a post about the same topic that I read, I'm getting to know about that topic as writing. I believe all of them might be helpful for someone.
A long time ago, I read somewhere that your blog could just be a self-documenting learning experience. My old blog posts are horrible, but I learned a lot.
Plus, and this is from experience, you may think you know a topic/subject, but you'd be surprised what you may not understand when you try to explain it to others by writing about it. Teaching, conveying a topic is one of the best ways to improve your own learning experience. So why not publish that and share it with others. Worst case scenario, they don't read it, you already got your value from it and that's a win!
There is topic and there is authors stance, many will approach the same article and topic with different ways of thinking, so as long as you have an opinion preferably based on cold hard fact you have the makings of a good post. Don't be disheartened