This talk could've been a blog post

Jamie Tanna he/him

Chief Blogger @ https://www.jvt.me

Senior Software Engineer @ Elastic

👋🏽

Jamie's profile picture

I've been blogging since 2016, where my site had ~250 views:

As the years have gone on, I've gained more traffic:

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2017's traffic, which shows a minimum of 2130 views

2017 - 2130 views (+755%)

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2018's traffic, which shows a minimum of 10380 views

2018 - 10380 views (+387%)

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2019's traffic, which shows a minimum of 47270 views

2019 - 47270 views (+355%)

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2020's traffic, which shows a minimum of 117545 views

2020 - 117545 views (+148%)

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2021's traffic, which shows a minimum of 146772 views

2021 - 146772 (+24%)

Screenshot of the Matomo "Visits over time" view showing 2022's traffic, which shows a minimum of 363136 views

2022 - 363136 views (+147%)

2023 - ~322000

Have I got off track?

Sponsored by DidYouKnowJamieHasAWebsite.co.uk

I'm here to talk to you about the resurgence of blogging in the recent years, and why you should blog, too

Blogging is great

⚡

Blogumentation: blogging as a form of blogumentation

  • Solve problem ✅
  • Write blog post ✅
  • Number of blog posts: 691
  • Number of blogumentation posts: 441

How blogging has affected me, as a neurodiverse person

  • Write blog post ✍
  • Forget about the thing 🗑️
  • Did I write a post about that problem? 🤔
  • Find the blog post in the future 🧙
Ctrl+F

Why am I on stage then?

https://www.jvt.me/posts/2023/10/07/why-blog/

Reasons not to blog

"I don't have anything to say"

Letters to a New Developer

"There are better people who can blog about this"

"I'm not very good at writing"

"I don't have the time"

Reasons to blog

Leave the internet better than you found it

xkcd 979: "Wisdom of the Ancients": A person sitting at a desk, shaking the screen in frustration as they find a forum post with the same error as they had, marked as resolved, but without a solution posted

Remember and show off all the great stuff you've done

For the dopamine hits of the traffic

Via Phew, that's a lot of traffic 😅 What happens when a blog post goes viral?

Learn by teaching

Help others

Free labour for your employer

Gru explains his plan meme - "Solve difficult problems at work", "Spend evenings and weekends blogging about it", then "Your employer gets free labour", which Gru is surprised by

It's a choice

Does the tech industry thrive on free work?

On your employer's blog

Because you are an awesome, interesting person, and the world will care what you have to say

Recap

  • It's your blog
  • You don't have to write publicly... but it helps
  • Own your URLs!
  • Don't aim for perfection
  • Choose a schedule that works for you - including none
  • Learn through teaching

Thanks for having me!