π Hey there, I am Waylon Walker
I am a Husband, Father of two beautiful children, Senior Python Developer currently working in the Data Engineering platform space. I am a continuous learner, and sha
I started blogging in 2016. A downturn was laying off Engineers in massive groups without even considering who was in the group. I was a bit scared to get cut and have nothing to show. I started a blog, and way overthought what a blog was. I posted a few posts per year that no one read.
In November some big projects finished giving me a bit more time, and I started to double down and cross-post to dev. I started at a monthly frequency, quickly ramped to weekly, and now post several per week. I am now thinking of DEV more as a forum than a blog site. I cross-post full large posts, I cross-post things that are slightly bigger than a twitter thread, I also post discussions that have almost no content in the post body, but generate quite a bit of comments.
My dashboard says I am at 124 posts, but I suspect it's closer to 100 published. It is interesting to compare metrics. I have similar reactions, quite a few more follows, and quite a few fewer views. I suspect I am getting more followers because I am super active in the discussion of other posts.
I totally get this. Part of the reason that I did not blog for 20+ years in this field was the fact that I understand the massive difficulty in blogging as a means to building your own "brand". It can be done. But it's much more difficult than most people tend to realize.
Furthermore, I don't even recommend blogging for that purpose. To me, it's sorta like asking whether you're an actor because the theatre is your passion? Or are you an actor because you wanna be a rich-and-famous international star? Cuz if fame is your goal, you might find yourself hating the whole acting gig.
I am now thinking of DEV more as a forum than a blog site.
This is a great point. Due to the "ephemeral" nature of many posts, and the fact that many posts are quite short (or "just" cross-posts), and the tendency by many to comment-rather-than-post, it's definitely true that Dev.to is - for many people - more of a dev "social network".
On a (somewhat) related note, I don't really like the way that Dev.to displays your library of past articles to other users. This means that it's challenging to browse the site by author. It's geared much more toward browsing the site by subject, and especially, by latest posts.
My dashboard says I am at 124 posts, but I suspect it's closer to 100 published. It is interesting to compare metrics. I have similar reactions, quite a few more follows, and quite a few fewer views. I suspect I am getting more followers because I am super active in the discussion of other posts.
That basically backs up my own observations. If you make a ton of posts - of almost any type - you'll probably get a lot of followers. This happens mostly because the Dev.to algorithm will then end up recommending you to tons of new people.
As far as I can tell, most of your "followers" on Dev.to aren't your followers because they said, "Oh, man! This person has amazing content and I want to mash that FOLLOW button!" Most of them were kinda "auto-enrolled" under you. I'm not complaining about that. It doesn't bother me. But I think it's good to be realistic about it.
I'm guessing that the short-form content effects your viewer totals though. Every once in a while, I do seem to, occasionally, write something that strikes a note with people. When I do, one post can get between 1,000 - 3,000 views. I'd think that such a reaction would be hard to come by with very-short posts?
π Hey there, I am Waylon Walker
I am a Husband, Father of two beautiful children, Senior Python Developer currently working in the Data Engineering platform space. I am a continuous learner, and sha
I'm guessing that the short-form content effects your viewer totals though
My highest performing content (view wise) is some of my shortest. I think catchy titles, topics that appeal to a wide audience and writing something that the right people want to share have the most effect on view count. For the most part I am writing about a lot of topics that don't appeal well to the heavy webdev focused DEV community.
This is one of my top-performing posts (4596 views). It actually came directly from a LinkedIn reshare where I maxed their character count for a post. I almost didn't even post it to DEV thinking it was a bit short, but figured I why not.
This one is my #2 most viewed, bu #1 is actually a discussion thread
As far as I can tell, most of your "followers" on Dev.to aren't your followers because they said, "Oh, man! This person has amazing content and I want to mash that FOLLOW button!" Most of them were kinda "auto-enrolled" under you. I'm not complaining about that. It doesn't bother me. But I think it's good to be realistic about it.
I can't agree more. I have made some of my greatest personal connections through DEV, so they arent all that way, but I think quite a few are. I sometimes look through their profiles and see quite a few that have never posted (post or comment), so they are either lurkers or set up an account and don't really come back. I am trying to pull over the folks who really care to my email newsletter. I am not exactly sure where to keep those who really had that "Oh, man!" moment, but this is what I am trying at the moment. I really don't want all followers there, but the ones who really care.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I started blogging in 2016. A downturn was laying off Engineers in massive groups without even considering who was in the group. I was a bit scared to get cut and have nothing to show. I started a blog, and way overthought what a blog was. I posted a few posts per year that no one read.
In November some big projects finished giving me a bit more time, and I started to double down and cross-post to dev. I started at a monthly frequency, quickly ramped to weekly, and now post several per week. I am now thinking of DEV more as a forum than a blog site. I cross-post full large posts, I cross-post things that are slightly bigger than a twitter thread, I also post discussions that have almost no content in the post body, but generate quite a bit of comments.
My dashboard says I am at 124 posts, but I suspect it's closer to 100 published. It is interesting to compare metrics. I have similar reactions, quite a few more follows, and quite a few fewer views. I suspect I am getting more followers because I am super active in the discussion of other posts.
I totally get this. Part of the reason that I did not blog for 20+ years in this field was the fact that I understand the massive difficulty in blogging as a means to building your own "brand". It can be done. But it's much more difficult than most people tend to realize.
Furthermore, I don't even recommend blogging for that purpose. To me, it's sorta like asking whether you're an actor because the theatre is your passion? Or are you an actor because you wanna be a rich-and-famous international star? Cuz if fame is your goal, you might find yourself hating the whole acting gig.
This is a great point. Due to the "ephemeral" nature of many posts, and the fact that many posts are quite short (or "just" cross-posts), and the tendency by many to comment-rather-than-post, it's definitely true that Dev.to is - for many people - more of a dev "social network".
On a (somewhat) related note, I don't really like the way that Dev.to displays your library of past articles to other users. This means that it's challenging to browse the site by author. It's geared much more toward browsing the site by subject, and especially, by latest posts.
That basically backs up my own observations. If you make a ton of posts - of almost any type - you'll probably get a lot of followers. This happens mostly because the Dev.to algorithm will then end up recommending you to tons of new people.
As far as I can tell, most of your "followers" on Dev.to aren't your followers because they said, "Oh, man! This person has amazing content and I want to mash that FOLLOW button!" Most of them were kinda "auto-enrolled" under you. I'm not complaining about that. It doesn't bother me. But I think it's good to be realistic about it.
I'm guessing that the short-form content effects your viewer totals though. Every once in a while, I do seem to, occasionally, write something that strikes a note with people. When I do, one post can get between 1,000 - 3,000 views. I'd think that such a reaction would be hard to come by with very-short posts?
My highest performing content (view wise) is some of my shortest. I think catchy titles, topics that appeal to a wide audience and writing something that the right people want to share have the most effect on view count. For the most part I am writing about a lot of topics that don't appeal well to the heavy webdev focused DEV community.
This is one of my top-performing posts (4596 views). It actually came directly from a LinkedIn reshare where I maxed their character count for a post. I almost didn't even post it to DEV thinking it was a bit short, but figured I why not.
Donβt waste your time learning everything
Waylon Walker γ» Feb 19 γ» 2 min read
This one is my #2 most viewed, bu #1 is actually a discussion thread
I can't agree more. I have made some of my greatest personal connections through DEV, so they arent all that way, but I think quite a few are. I sometimes look through their profiles and see quite a few that have never posted (post or comment), so they are either lurkers or set up an account and don't really come back. I am trying to pull over the folks who really care to my email newsletter. I am not exactly sure where to keep those who really had that "Oh, man!" moment, but this is what I am trying at the moment. I really don't want all followers there, but the ones who really care.