What I have learned from blogging so far - A retrospect
Tags: watercooler, devjournal
Published: 2021-01-22 16:53:23

---
title: What I have learned from blogging so far - A retrospect
published: true
date: 2021-01-21 00:00:00 UTC
tags: watercooler, devjournal
canonical_url: https://bhupesh-v.github.io/what-i-have-learned-from-blogging-so-far-retrospect/
---

Yesterday I completed my 2nd anniversary of Tech blogging, Yes my blog is now 2 years old 🎂 I started my website (& my blog) in Jan 2019, a few days after I got my first internship as a developer. This post is going to be a reminder for me on how far I have come.

This was my very first post 👇 (January 20, 2019)

> [**My dev life has just started**](https://bhupesh-v.github.io/My-dev-life-has-just-started/)

I know this is not your typical tech blog, talking about _5 ways to nail your tech interview_ but this was mostly about my journey into tech & what has about to come. Moreover, I cross-posted this on [DEV](https://dev.to/bhupesh/my-dev-life-has-just-started--3959) so I got a lot of helpful advice. Big thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts.

In this blog, I retrospect on what I have learned and achieved. I hope this helps the reader & future me.

- [You help someone!](#you-help-yourself)
- [You help yourself](#you-help-someone)
- [You are mostly alone](#you-are-mostly-alone)
- [You don’t have to be a “content creator”](#you-dont-have-to-be-a-content-creator)
- [Should you blog?](#should-you-blog)

## You help yourself

Writing of-course improves on how you think as a human. Blogging for the past year has been an eye-opener for me. I can think more descriptively & clearly then I use to before. Moreover, I feel more confident in the things I write & talk about.

At the time of publishing this post my [personal blog](https://bhupesh-v.github.io) currently sits at 6515 unique page views

![google-analytics-website](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1NRcHnpRYXShbMMHYO8d9lbdj9zCpfUI6)

Not to mention I am active on DEV as well with more than 8000 followers and 53,000 views.

![dev-analytics-dashboard](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1FfOMdojPa_q8F4UmRFhwQfoVjDYIDJoA)

I also published [2 blogs on freeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/bhupesh/) last year, attracting more than 18,000 unique page views

![freecodecamp-stats-bhupesh](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Hc-alJ3jvQVuCezAcxULw7dU3dyYL-Pj)

This leaves us with a total of 78,695 people reading what I wrote. That’s fucking crazy!!

![go-crazy-go-stupid-kermit-frog](https://media1.tenor.com/images/4f5b6cc323ab2fe963f0aa9dbbbb852a/tenor.gif?itemid=14046098)

> Before blogging I wasn’t confident enough with what I did, sure I loved programming but something was lacking.

A big thanks goes to [DEV](https://dev.to) itself which motivated me enough to join the dev party & all the people who followed me in my journey, my close friends & my internet friends 💙 Thanks a lot!

## You help someone

Nothing is more valuable than helping someone without asking anything in return. This was a recent comment on one of my blog posts (1-year-old)

[![i-am-god-python-scheduler-blog](https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1KMwZGSXlpWLugfog4ftXtdJsmO0jNWjG)](https://dev.to/bhupesh/a-simple-scheduler-in-python-49di)

No matter what your experience level is if you push content on the Internet someone would find it valuable & that’s when you make a difference.

## You don’t have to be a “content creator”

Let me explain before you start thinking this in a negative space. By this, I mean “_constantly_” creating content no matter the quality.

The “content” creator term has recently seen a huge spike on internet thanks to YouTube and other platforms like Twitch more and more people can share what they love & help others but this has a negative side-effect of constantly chasing the Algorithms set by these companies so that you as a creator constantly create stuff thereby attracting more and more clicks & hence more revenue.

But in terms of blogging, I don’t necessarily think you have to write stuff constantly since your content is owned by you & by not a company therefore you don’t have to chase any algorithms.

## You are mostly alone

![spongebob-think-gif-alone](https://media1.tenor.com/images/dfbd1d84c4c68a5186b186e6a4488357/tenor.gif?itemid=4860166)

And that’s kinda ok, I mean social internet is to blame, day-by-day people are getting away from the habit of “reading” anything. More specifically the modern way of consuming content has changed from traditional blogs to social media stories.

Constant notifications, story updates have made people move away from reading anything. Moreover, learning mechanisms have shifted from plain old text to engaging video content. And since the video is a much better engaging form of content consumption, you are better off creating a YouTube channel/Twitch if you are trying to build an audience. In terms of blogging, you are going to have fewer people in your ecosystem who actually read.

But this doesn’t mean text is dead, especially programmers who deal with text every day & I don’t know about you but following a text-based tutorial is much easier than a video one.

## Should you blog?

No and Yes. Only 2 kinds of people are blogging in 2021. Ones who are trying to build an audience out of it hence create a passive income source and those who just like to write about anything without any goals. Both of these 2 categories are inclusive to each other in some way if you think about it. You may accidentally start building a personal brand without you even noticing.

Both of these options are perfectly fine, pick what you like, stick with it. Both of them are ultimately helping others in some way.

### Why not Video?

- You will be able to produce/publish much more quickly compared to editing a video. 

> Good luck trying to edit a video using a backspace key

- And since YouTubers are no special beings they also ultimately have to research on the internet for there content which largely comprises of text (think WWW)
- One thing I have seen is that more Technical content is shared in terms of text than Video (since it takes time). I mean just go to either [HackerNews](https://news.ycombinator.com/) or [Lobsters](https://lobste.rs/) and just start reading how much advance the quality of blogs shared there is 🔥️.
- Also since we programmers usually debug things every day, search results for our queries mostly comprise of personal blogs. And if not it is probably StackOverflow which is again in text and gives a vibe of a micro-blogging site

> And oh! Did you know we were [tricked with StackOverflow](https://blog.codinghorror.com/how-to-write-without-writing/)

**Maybe text will die in the future but until that happens always remember that the _ultimate_ goal of Internet was (and is) to share information in an open manner no matter the form you choose.**

Before you start thinking I am against video base form of consumption, I spend a significant amount of time watching technical videos every day (mostly technical conferences). Video is much better when topics are usually long to explain & since pictures speak worth a thousand words, this form prevails

If you are looking to start blogging actively & don’t know where to start I [wrote some points here](https://bhupesh-v.github.io/i-spent-a-week-offline-here-is-how-i-stayed-productive/#3-takeaways) that you may find valuable.

> Before you start writing make sure you are able to find the _Motivation_ factor be it money, views, audience, or just for fun, you would need it more than anything.

That’s all the advice I have for you. Help yourself, Help others, Good Luck