The how, why, and when of a tech blog

This post was originally made on - My Tech Blog
Most developers handle a wide variety of challenging tasks on a day to day basis, and that includes the meticulous art of being able to google our bugs and find relevant solutions.
And you have to admit, you have copy-pasted code from a technical blog at some point in time. After all, we do stand on the shoulders of giants.

TODO - Insert flat earth turtle picture

Why another tech blog

To put it simply, nothing demonstrates your skill better than being able to impart that skill onto others. As a developer, its an easy way to showcase your abilities on a range of topics to any potential employer. This is especially beneficial because a blog can portray your thinking process and problem-solving abilities in broader ways than a white board interview can for such untangible skills.

How to make a distinct tech blog

• Identify and cater to your audience Your audience isn't going to be your average leisure reading crowd. It probably is a developer on their second cup of coffee desperately trying to fix something with at least 30 other tabs open simultaneously.
• Make an impression Clean UI, readable text, lack of snazzy animations. To the point information. All of it matters. You should put in the time and effort to save someone else the same time and effort. This matters even more when an employer goes through your blog, and a well designed and maintained one can make your resume shine!
• Try not to use WordPress You probably can, and it's easier, but as a showcase of your technical skills, you can do better. Take this blog, for example, I learned Next.js (detailed post coming soon 😉), followed a tutorial and now I can use this blog on my portfolio as well.
• Don't repeat yourself (or others) There are plenty of technical blogs and stack overflow posts out there. Not everything is worth repeating. Only repeat something already out there if :
  1. A given resource was hard to find.
  2. It needs updating.
  3. Alternative approaches to established practices. ## When to blog Honestly, whenever you want to, or have the time to. It might be a god tip to create a blog post whenever you solve a tricky problem or a persistent headache is resolved. For me, that happens at least once a week, so my goal is to do that as my New Year's resolution (fingers crossed 🤞).

Stay tuned for further updates, and I'll see you in 2021!