A great thanks to Hashnode for giving me a chance to attend this event and learn from the experienced professionals. It was a wonderful experience learning from these 3 days.

DAY -1: Writing to Developers, Session 1: Importance of Writing as a Developer - Ankur Tyagi

Introduction to his journey and how he got started with writing

Ankur is from North India, based in Sweden now. Working as a consultant and doing writing work for almost 3 years. He started his journey as an employee at Accenture, then went on with working in a distributed team of tech in a different company where he started with his writing. During the pandemic, he met various individuals on Twitter and then went on to share his work in public. While in software engineering it becomes extremely important to communicate through writing as verbal communication.

Key Insights from the Day -1, Session - 1 Q&A🗝️

Write When Motivation Strikes

Consistency is important, but don't force yourself to write. Write when motivation strikes. Try to push yourself to different environments and then continue with what works for you. Maybe you can write daily or maybe weekly and try to find your comfortable environment.

Find Your UNIQUE Style

There is never a duplication of ideas, everyone has their style, Find your Unique Style. Technical writing involves code and good experience in a particular tech stack. It needs a more focused and calm mind. In Freestyle writing like sharing your personal experiences don't restrict yourself to characters, Go With The Flow.

Write for your audience

For the length of a blog post or article, define your audience and then go with their requirement. Don't write for yourself write for your audience. To keep updated on ideas use social media platforms like Twitter, and go and see what others are doing in the industry.

Gaining Visibility through Social Media and Cross-Posting

To increase the reachability or visibility of blogs use Cross-Posting. It means while replying to someone or resolving a query add a link to the related blog post that you wrote which can connect to the audience.

As a beginner leverage all the platforms available like Hashnode, Medium, DevTo, Freecodecamp or any other platforms available.

Try what fits you and plan accordingly.

Blogging or Writing is not for everyone, try yourself and if it works well and is good monetize it and move further, if it doesn't do something else which works for you.

DAY -1: Session 2: Leveraging Technical Writing to Land Opportunities and Boost Your Developer Career - Swapna Kumar Pandey

What was his journey like and how did he get started writing

Swapna has been writing on Twitter for a long time, a freelance writer, a teacher, an educator, and a mentor. His journey started in 2006 and ended up being at a senior level until 2016. In 2021 he started to take technical writing and after a year in 2022, he got his first paid opportunity.

Introduction to Writing, and its Importance to Developers

A developer can leverage these skills of writing and land great opportunities in tech.

Similar to the three pillars of democracy, there 3 pillars of Product are (add the image):

• Applications: It brings the product to a reality, which includes processes like development, monitoring, etc.

• Relations: An Interface between Product and End Users like Marketing, DevRels, etc.

• Document: The most important asset for a product without which it cannot sustain or remain for a long period out in the environment.

What is Technical Writing?

Writing or drafting technical communication used in technical and occupational fields, such as computer hardware/software, architecture, engineering, etc.

Types of Techincal Writing:

• Guides / Manual

• API / SDK Documentation

• Training Materials

• SoW (Statement of Work)

• SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)

• White Papers

Formats we can use:

• Textual

• Infographic

• Audio

• Video

Why is documentation important?

What if someone like Pythagoras, Newton, or Einstein wouldn't document their discoveries or inventions? The knowledge that they gained would be of no use to the society.

Without proper documentation for the product or application, it cannot function effectively or be handled by the users. Constant addition of new features, removing obsolete factors and fixing bugs are essential parts while documenting an application. It leads to an easy, comfortable and clear use of the application.

Why should we do technical writing for free or can you monetize it?

You can do it for free but also monetize it if needed or if you want to earn with your writing. You can monetize your work in these ways:

• Asking for subscriptions

• Collaborations

• Paid Content

• Ghost Writing

• Full-Time Opportunities

What are the benefits you get from being a writer?

• Developing Great Communication Skills

• Better Visibility

• Improved Lifestyle

There are some other opportunities you can also get:

• Educator

• Mentor

• Public Speaker

• Celebrity

• Brand Ambassador

How do you improve your Skills?

Improving in any domain requires effort and learning some basics. The basics are:

• What you can write?

  Sharing something you already know, or something that you are working on currently. You can also solve the process of finding a solution to a particular problem

• How can I write?

  Having a good title, take it to the most fundamental level possible for a lamen to understand. Adding images, and GIFs, and making it more interactive to readers.

How to Level Up your writing?

• Connecting with the audience, and taking feedback from them.

• Diversify your field. If you are writing in a particular domain, then try out the stuff related to that so that you can improve and grow from it.

Key Insights from the Day -1, Session - 2 Q&A 🗝️

Visibility takes time

Gaining visibility is a process that takes time. But you can surely use social media, Cold DMs, connect with like-minded people, and take genuine feedback. Posting of good quality matters rather than quantity.

Good Research

We are not the first ones to get the problem or are providing a solution to it. It might already exist. You can try to approach it differently.

Writing something valuable before looking for an Employer

Write on a platform that can spread your blogs to the audience and you can get better reach. The outlining or the structure of your writing must be good so that it is easy as well as engaging to the audience.

DAY - 2: Personal Branding and Community Engagement, Session - 1: Leveraging Social Media for Monetization - Nader Dabit

Nader has worked as a developer, author, and teacher. He is the Director of Developer Relations AAVE & Lens Protocol, Founder of @Developer DAO a developer community. He started his journey in 2013 when he started coding, started going to meetups in 2014, wrote his first blog post in 2016 and also went for a conference talk. Currently working in the blockchain space for about three years now.

Discussing Personal Branding

Does your online presence say who you say you are?

Yes, and for that reason you need to keep these points in your mind while creating your online presence on any social media platform:

• You can hire someone to review and recommend updates to your online presence

• Set a clear bio on your profile with a good profile picture

• Get specialized in a certain segment and be known about it

• Add the links to your projects, and portfolios, like Github, etc.

Gaining Online Presence through Social Media

The greatest tool to gain an online presence is Building and Learning in Public. And along with it keep working on these factors:

• Be Consistent.

• Be helpful (without expecting anything in return)

• Be Authentic.

• Be active/engaging.

• Walk the line between being engaging and helpful without being gimmicky.

• Be thoughtful about how you format your writing.

• Leverage other people's networks and audience

Focusing on Content Creation

Going out of your comfort zone is something that can help you be successful over a long period.

How to Create a technical article

• Learn something new

• Create a new project/app with it

• Open Source it

• Document the process in a blog post

• Create a video showing how to do it

Scale your content

• Reuse the content in multiple formats

• Create resources for yourself

• Something which has already been done, do it differently or better

• Blend things to create new content

Key Insights from the Q&A Day -2, Session - 1 🗝️

An effective way to manage social media

First, decide which platform you want to be the most active on. And then once you are established go and redistribute it to the other platforms.

Fill the Gap for the missing content

There is a lot of content out there, but there are still many ways you write or provide content on something which has not yet been solved. Try to reformat some of the existing ones with a new touch. If nothing is ever documented go out and reach the team, discuss with them and create it.

How you can provide good content to the audience: Build In Public

Take time for a project/task you are working on. Share it with other people having similar interests, engage with them and try to learn from them.

DAY - 2: Session - 2: Building Your Personal Brand on Social Media - Ákos Kőműves

Ákos has been programming for almost 10 years. He is a software engineer, an ex-CTO, a freelancer, and a writer.

Why Build a personal brand on Social Media?

Simple tools

• Various tools are available to help you write and grow effectively

• Generating new ideas and great storytelling can make your brand unique

• The quality of your audience is a function of your content quality.

Simple to build

• Impressions: They are closely related to several profile visits. Engaging with like-minded audiences, to tweet about the stuff we are learning or writing about it can make good impressions.

• Profile Clicks: Leverage the people who already have large audiences and engage with them which can in turn bring more people to your profile.

• Decisions: After seeing what you did and how you engaged with other individuals they can decide whether to visit your profile or not. Don't put too much stuff in your bio, make it easy and concise to read for the individual.

In most cases, these three steps occur at a very rapid pace and there is a very high chance of your profile getting built over some time.

No Competition

• Don't forget the Person in the personal brand.

Once you add something personal no one can beat you.

Key Insights from the Q&A Day -2, Session - 2🗝️

Unique Topics or Common Topics

Depends on what you are going for. Both can bring audiences to you but try to solve a problem and bring value

Beware of tricks/Hacks to increase following

Those are the shortcuts that are harmful in the long term, and over time people can lose trust in you and then you lose your brand.

Ignore the Copycats

If your content is getting copied, ignore it and focus on your work. One can steal your work but not the audience you have built.

Promoting your content through platforms and great SEO

Pre-existing platforms give you the advantage of bringing the audience to you and distributing it to them. You can attain long-term traffic through great SEOs by creating titles, subtitles, headings, bullet points etc.

Produce a certain quality and not the best

Creating the best articles or writings is an abstract concept. Try to create something of quality which can bring value to the audience and then move to create the next piece of writing.

Day 3: Monetizing Your Expertise and Exploring Opportunities - Freelance Writing Opportunities for Developers - James Q Quick

James has more than 10 years of experience working in tech, also worked as a developer advocate, went to conferences, and panels and conducted Q&A's. He is a full-time content creator now. A few months ago he joined YT and started creating video content. He built his personal brand through social media, YT and cross-posting. He got into technical writing as a part of his job when he joined Microsoft as a technical evangelist.

Key Insights from the Q&A Day -3, Session - 2🗝️

Niche and generalization of topics

For a topic you want to deep dive into learning something specific, you can target your niche audience, but over time you need to have an idea of the domain you are working on and keep improving it. Switch between the niche and the general stuff you are working on as per the need.

Attracting new clients as writers

This can be done by creating your profile on public platforms like Hashnode, which can bring the audience to you. And also having a certain strong set of articles to show that you can write,

Tips to Improve Productivity and Efficiency

Track and make a note of your ideas for your future reference so that you can refer if you are out of your ideas from your mind. Write something you are excited about rather than writing what you are forced to write for.

Using AI Tools

AI is never perfect so you have to leverage it to your advantage. It can inspire you, enhance your creativity, and help you with certain ideas.

Production through AI needs your personal touch

Even though AI can give you tons of text, don't just ship that directly without any customization. It is needed from the perspective to make it easy for the audience and give it your own style.

Make your writing clear and concise

Attention span is becoming low, so you have to keep your articles scannable to the audience. Make bullet points, instead of long paragraphs.

Technical Writing is going to grow

Documentation is really important for any stuff you are building. So this field is going to grow over time.

Break is important

Breaks are important every day, because if you move away from something for some time and then come back again it allows a new or enhanced approach to things.

Engage in the community and just show up

Being just active in the community, talking with other people, learning from them, and sharing what we are learning can bring you great visibility and tons of opportunities.

CONCLUSION

Writing is one of the most important skills being a software developer. It is an integral part of communication whether you are a fresher or an experienced professional. Being a technical writer you can also land great opportunities by making it a personal brand of your own using social media. Focus on quality rather than quantity. Engage with other people, learn from their work, and share what you are learning on public platforms. Use AI tools to enhance your creativity, and make your writing more effective but also make sure to customize it and give it your final touch. Learning in Public, can build your unique path to success and gain valuable skills.