Should you be blogging as a software developer? (and how much I earn from mine)

I have been blogging for 8 years now as a developer but is it worth your time? Will a blog help you get a job as a software developer and earn you some extra money on the side?
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00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - Why I Blog?
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01:41 - Helps you think
02:17 - Personal Brand?
03:46 - Blogging is a big commitment
04:17 - My Blog Traffic and Revenue
07:51 - How to start your own blog for FREE
10:17 - Build an Email List
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🧑‍💻 WHO AM I
I’m Alex, a Software Developer and KZbin working in the UK. I make videos about software development to help developers with the skills they need to be senior developers. As well as this KZbin Channel, I also write articles on my website (alexhyett.com) as well as write a regular newsletter that contains some thoughts to help aspiring developers.
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#coding #programming #developer

[@Cookingonpurposehealth]

I just came here from your article on 1000 subscribers in 5 months. thank you for that detailed strategy and transparency. How cool is it to see your hard work and dedication from going to 1000 subscribers to over 16,000 subscribers since then. I'm sure it took many hours of dedication and work. Software development isn't something I usually subscribe to but your article was so helpful and encouraging that I had to come find you. Thank you again.

[@usuanleleehis5065]

this is wow.. you encourage me.. i have being in this file for years without thinking in this direction.. you make me to think right now in this way.

[@disachin]

I really enjoy and learn from your content. Keep up the good work ❤.

[@alexhyettdev]

Thank you!

[@alijabrayilzade3568]

Really good Video. Thank you for all the advice. I am also thinking to write a blog and was thinking to create my own website but After watching this I am thinking maybe I should stick to medium or something like that for a while at least till I get more traction and don't forget there are more strategies: 1. we can post first couple articles in medium for example then from there we can move people to the our own website for more profit. This way we can utilize both things large community + personal blog 2. repost some articles in medium or some sort of blogging platform maybe

[@alexhyettdev]

Yes I used to repost my articles to Medium but recently deleted my account as most of my articles were getting barely any views. I still repost my content to dev.to and it seems to do well on there. Whichever strategy you pick it does take a while for it to build up. Personally I prefer doing that on a platform even if it does take a little bit longer.

[@malawianprogrammer]

Enjoyed the video ♥ - if you are interested, a video on your personal blog setup would be fun. It can be cumbersome but as someone who likes having things to chew on on the side, I mostly started developing my own blog/personal site from scratch as a pet project I could always check in on.

[@alexhyettdev]

Sure I can see about doing one in the future. I will add it to my backlog.

[@markokraljevic1590]

excellent choice of topics

[@alexhyettdev]

Thank you! I like to cover a wide range, I think I would get bored otherwise.

[@tvmc9887]

Inspired to write my own blog now. Thank you Alex

[@alexhyettdev]

Go for it. Send us a link when it’s up and I will check it out!

[@kishirisu1268]

How many readers do you have except your mom?

[@flatmapper]

Thank you for inspiration

[@alexhyettdev]

You’re welcome! Thank you for leaving a comment!

[@Lion_McLionhead]

Lions have to blog to think through programming problems & to keep the inline comments brief. No-one reads it because it's not GPT, blockchain, or self driving, of course.

[@retrogamereaper]

Thank you for the advice! I used to blog some time ago and this video has inspired me to get back into it. Hashnode seems pretty cool, but something I'm really on the fence about is whether or not I should use my real name or a username there. It seems like most users have their blogs under their real names, which is fine, but I'm someone who doesn't keep much of a personal profile on the internet.

[@alexhyettdev]

I think it depends on what you want to achieve from a blog. Many do it to improve their professional appearance. If you apply for a job it is helpful to show that you have the relevant skills through your writing. Unfortunately, thanks to AI there is a lot rubbish generated content now. People like to know they are actually reading someones own words and not those generated from an AI. A big part of that is adding your own experiences, humour and of course being happy to associate yourself with it.

[@subramanianchenniappan4059]

As you say 99.9 percent of fulltime developers dont have own website . I am an experieced java developer .i have own wordpress websites as well. Have to resume writing blog content . I got freelance project leads from my blog as well. 😅😅

[@alexhyettdev]

Yes having a blog is such a great asset. It does take a while to get into the habit of writing though.

[@UC_Code]

Thank you sir 👏👏 Please how can I connect to you

[@alexhyettdev]

You’re welcome! My email address is in my video description if you wanted to say hi. If you want to stay updated I have a weekly newsletter you can follow too.

[@theanandodedra]

you cant belive but i am from india , and i started new blog on programing , and i found your blog through keyword reach and i foud that your site is compititor me on one keyword.

[@alexhyettdev]

Hello fellow blogger 👋 I prefer friend to competitor. What’s your website I will check it out?

[@theanandodedra]

@@alexhyettdev actually I work on my gadgets releted domain but I started researching web development releted topic , and I want to start subdomain around programming 👍

[@alexhyettdev]

Awesome!

[@kishirisu1268]

Another one Indian trash blogger. Please stop 😂

[@shagunsharma661]

From india😁

[@gunhann]

Wow, it seems so so low for 10k-16k/m views

[@alexhyettdev]

Yes, unfortunately you need over 100k views in order to make any decent money from adverts.

[@gunhann]

@@alexhyettdev I was motivated to improve my dev blog but seeing this result discourages me. As you mentioned I have other responsibilities as well, and this is just kind of side hustle for me. I want to think that this could be just your results though and that way maybe I can motivate myself to think that I'll do better in terms of ad revenue at least(obviously the content is the most important)

[@alexhyettdev]

@@gunhann I think the key is to find other ways to monetise you site beyond ad revenue. More and more people are using ad blockers now so ad revenue is only going to go down overtime. I am currently working on a course to sell, and I will soon start looking for sponsors for my newsletter.

[@mandlankosi2160]

​@gunhann same here bro

[@kishirisu1268]

Blogging for portfolio is literally posting spam which nobody would read, even HR will not read it. We all know those websites full of “blogs” of people from third world countries, the content is low quality, expert level is “copy paste from GPT”… Dont waste your time, make real projects, get real skills, learn something real which will help you in future, instead of “blogging”.