How to write technical blog posts

This note summarises key points from videos and readings on crafting effective technical blog posts.

How to write technical blog posts - talk by Quincy Larson

This presentation was given by Quincy Larson the founder of freeCodeCamp. He worked as a journalist for about 3 years and as a teacher for 10 years. Technical blogging was critical to freeCodeCamp’s early growth as a community.

The goal of the video:

To give you the tools and confidence to write technical blog posts people will actually read.

To do this a technical writer requires:

• Substance
  • Write something that matters. All the buzzwords in the world can’t save your writing if it doesn’t have substance.
  • Do your homework. Know the topic you’re writing about and what’s been written about it.
  • What’s missing? Once you’ve done your homework, figure out what’s missing.
  • Substance takes hard work. Expect to put an hour or more into every minute the reader will spend reading.
• Packaging
  • Package that substance for consumption.
  • Packaging is very important.
  • What is packaging?
    • Headline
    • Images
    • Formatting
    • Platform
  • A good headline makes all the difference. All about 90% of people will ever read. Empires have been built on the backs of headlines. Anyone ever heard of Buzzfeed?" If you’re going to fine-tune one aspect of your story, make it the headline.
  • Humans are visual creatures. “A recent study found that 86% of top blog posts include at least one image. On average, they have at least one image for every 350 words.”
  • Break up text with subheads, pull quotes. Avoid large clunky sections of text.
  • Where you post your writing makes a big difference.
• Publicising
  • Where do you put it and what do you say about it?
  • The last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time. Publicising your work is the last 10% and is going to take 90% of your time.
  • It’s a lottery. You don’t have control. But you have to play to win.
  • Distribution channels:
    • Hacker News
    • Facebook groups
    • LinkedIn (if you are desperate for views)
    • Use other people’s audiences e.g. Medium, Forbes, TechCrunch

But it’s all been written before

That’s not true, there is always a new angle Quincy says. There are so many permutations based on:

• Experience level
• Level of detail
• Language or technology specific
• Difference example application of concept
• Humor

Always a way to make original spins on old topics. In fact, Quincy finds that most articles are written from a beginner “Hello, World” prospective or “I have been coding for 10 years”. So there’s a gap in the middle for intermediatory takes.