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Intro
For those of you who don't know me. Hello, my na...
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Great post. Very informative. Just make sure you give yourself some downtime every now and then.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never really used reddit. I’m going to check it out and see what it’s all about.
If be honest it's still the best site out there. Yes, it could be cruel, but stick with the right subs and you'll be okay. When I first discovered Reddit several years ago it replaced me pretty big amount of websites I used.
Also, there are very unique subs which you won't find anywhere else. I'm taking Photo class on Reddit right now for example.
Thanks, really glad you got value out of my work, that makes me happy.
I'm going to give myself an easy week, I'm very exhausted so not a hard sell.
It's one of the best informational resources that is available to you, please do check it out!
But also God help you.
What he said
Awesome article, I really like dev community. As I cross post a lot of articles most of it.
I always have a worried feeling of posting since I don't really know if those posts will be controversial with tons of backlash.
Especially those that are non developer topics.
Thanks for leaving such a genuine response. I'm happy to hear the article provided you value.
That's the best case ;)
I would expect those topics to do less well on Dev.to. That doesn't mean you shouldn't post them. I still plan on posting more data science stuff.
Hahaha I'm inclined to post more python and startup stuff as well hahaha.
A very interesting look at the growth on the different platforms. Dev.To is definitely my largest audience by far (~1,700 followers) and it's a wonderful place for conversation.
Ya.. that schedule sounds super hectic and not very sustainable in the long run.
I'm glad you took that out of it too. I think if there's one thing to takeaway from my post it would be "Don't limit yourself to one audience". I also think Dev.to is wonderful and I enjoy my interactions here more than anywhere else.
Completely agree. I was still getting enough sleep etc, but it was too draining. That being said, sometimes it's nice to be able to push hard for a month and overcome personal deficits quickly.
That's pretty great growth on DEV and on Twitter! I've been using both for longer and have no where near that progress. I guess besides writing more frequently (on DEV and on Twitter), I just have to write more interesting and/or controversial things. 😂
I did see your Elon Musk post, that was pretty clever to capitalise on that topic.
I agree. It still requires a lot of manual effort, but for the time I’ve been doing it, the progress is great.
I really think more is better than controversial. I didn’t write a ton of controversial articles (only 2 actually). Once you’re writing frequently, you’ll feel comfortable playing around with topics until you find a good fit.
I’m glad you liked my Elon Musk post, I didn’t just write it for the controversy, but that was a nice bonus.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a genuine comment!
Do you always cross-post (with canonical_url) the full contents of the article from your blog to dev.to? How has your organic search traffic responded?
I have only been posting excerpts here, without using canonical, and I'm thinking about changing strategies.
Yes I always cross post with full content and canonical. As for the organic traffic, obviously it’s suffered. But that’s more from me distributing dev.to links instead of my personal site links.
I just realized the network and distribution is much better here than it is for my unknown blog. If I didn’t answer your question, please let me know!
I've been engaged and worked as a copywriter in my previous job. So yes, gaining popularity is about 50% quality of content (it doesn't always have to be GOOD, just interesting for somebody), 40% constancy of publishing and 10% engagement and sharing.
You did an amazing job. Copywriting is hard and laborious but once the wheel starts spinning it gets easier.
From the developer side, as a newbie, I always feel that I don't have anything as interesting as anybody else. Or just that I do not have enough authority to write about something. But as you perfectly said, it is all in our heads.
Dev.to community is welcoming, patient and friendly :)
Great write-up, Ryland. I've also recently started "putting myself out there" and it is pretty intimidating at first having my name attached to things.
Being consistent and just trying things seems to be the most important lesson. You really do never know what is going to resonate with the crowd.
This is definitely great information! Thank you for Sharing.
As a current student about to graduate and wanting to get into more meaningful positions as well as be a constant learner, I've been trying to figure out what mediums I was going to start using. Dev + Twitter has been something that I thought would be a great place to start. Thanks for sharing your experience! It was encouraging.
These are great insights! I've been wanting to get into blogging but wasn't sure how to get started or if I would be credible... I suppose credibility comes from just putting yourself out there and putting in the work.
Just get yourself out there. That’s the hardest part and once it’s over it’s a bit exhilarating.
Credibility comes a lot easier from blogs than from twitter because of the average length of content.
Thanks so much for the positive feedback, glad I was able to provide value.
I'm curious as to why you did this. What are you hoping to achieve by getting a lot of followers?
First and foremost, the last 1.5 months really helped me overcome some of my social anxiety.
Long term, I want to be very successful in business and a key component is having a large reach (followers). I could wait till when I need it to start the process, or I could get it over with now.
I also really believe that I have a unique and important view point to share with the world. More than that, if I can help others avoid making mistakes I had to, that would be really great. I really strongly believe that nobody has to lose for you to win. So if others can use my story to “win”, that would be wonderful.
Thanks for sharing!
It seems you focused on reddit, twitter, medium and dev.to. Did you also try linkedin?
If not, why?
This is awesome. I'm starting a month of "learning in public" today and this will probably help a lot - similarly looking to create a small following.
Did you see any patterns associated about WHEN in the day you put posts up?
Cool article! A lot of great insights! I loved that it is so much in depth with all the numbers and goals and everything 🤗
I was wondering about your personal blog, do you post twice(one on dev.to and one on personal blog) or have some sort of setup, tooling or maybe API integration to avoid double labor? 🤔🙂
Great article, Ryland. I love the story-telling and the concrete advice.
You said that you don't enjoy the blogging/social media process. This makes me curious: why do you dedicate your time to it?
What I enjoy/don't enjoy doesn't dictate my life. I didn't like or eat vegetables for most of my life, but I realized that was a shortsighted and irrational decision so I made myself change. I see this very similarly.
Sorry for the late reply, I hope that answered your question. Thanks for the great comment!
Thanks Ryland! This explains why the non-enjoyment doesn't deter you from blogging. But I am still curious what drives you to write and to promote yourself as a writer.
It's a skill I have, and others don't, and that's a strong differentiator in a capitalist economy. I definitely see myself writing for the rest of my life, just not as a full time thing.
Documenting a learning or growing process is an important skill for any developer. Having said that you just gained a new follower. 👍
I appreciate the follow and the time you took to leave this positive and insightful comment.
Thanks for a good article!
Can you share ways how you collected these statistics? Last time I checked there was no open data from dev.to
Amazing
Thanks :)
A lot of honesty over here, great post!
Thanks :) Glad you liked it.
This is probably one of the best posts I've read in a while!
Well written, to the point and articulate.
U sir are gifted
So glad you liked it. Thank you for giving me specific feedback because it helps to know what part of the articles worked!
Great article! Just one question - what did you mean by "outlines" when you mentioned writing outlines as part of the conclusion?
Great question. I might write another post about it.
The basics. Most people start writing a post by sitting down at the computer and typing out paragraph 1 and then 2 etc. Obviously it’s possible to do it this way, but what often happens is that without planning, halfway through you realize something isn’t going to work. Maybe the paragraphs don’t flow as well as you like.
In my experience, this uncertainty is actually a big time waster. To solve this, I start every post just by putting the titles of the sections. That way I no longer start from top to bottom and figure it out as I go, but instead sort of “connect the dots” between sections.
Depending on the size of the post, I sometimes even put a few high level bullet points in each section. When it comes time to write that section, I simply turn each bullet point into a stand-alone paragraph.
I hope that answered, if not please tell me. Glad you liked the article, thanks for asking a great question too!
Wow this is an example of meticulously and strategically well planned work. Quite impressive 👏👏👏💪.
Thank you. I did really work hard but it seems to have been worth it. Glad you enjoyed my work!
Interesting insights, thanks for sharing it.
Of course! Glad you liked it.
Really great article. Keep up the good work
Thanks for reading!
as someone who is similarly wary of social media, I really appreciate this write up!