At Hashnode, we are always on the lookout for ways to uplift existing writers. Thus, with this article, we start another initiative whose purpose is to give a platform to Hashnode writers.
Each month, we invite the top five authors to answer a series of questions. We hope that by sharing their answers, they can help others.
May's top five authors are (in no particular order):
Thus, let's see their answers.
1. How do you stay consistent with writing articles?
Ayushi Rawat's Answer
Documenting my work helps me learn better and what is a better way to document than Blog. My self-commitment draws me towards continuous learning and exploration and at Hashnode people encourage each other to write better.
Victoria Lo's Answer
Writing articles is a commitment and a habit. In order to write consistently, I make time to write everyday, at least a few sentences.
Gradually, the habit sticks and it became automatic to write everyday, without even thinking. Just like how one would sleep everyday, writing articles everyday is the same for me. I just do it without much planning or thought into it. It has now integrated in my daily life. Without writing, I feel my day has not completed.
Alberto Bonacina's Answer
To be honest, it's often very complicated because I have a full-time job, a family, and a young daughter so there isn't much free time. But over the years I have found the right balance between all this and I am able to dedicate time to my passions including writing on the blog to share my path and my knowledge with others. Operationally speaking, I use a mix of Raindrop, Notion, and Todoist to organize my work and stay consistent. I use Raindrop as my bookmarks' manager where I have specific folders for the various topics I follow, Flutter above all, but also Javascript, Android, and the tech world in general, when I find something useful that I want to read I save it in Raindrop so I can come back when I have time. Notion is the knowledge database of my articles; I have a Notion database where I keep the ideas for the next articles saved and for each one I store: sources, ideas on drafting, links for further reference, platforms where I will share the content, publication schedule, progress phase and much more. Finally, I use Todoist to mark deadlines and articles' publication dates on social networks. All this more or less is my workflow and the way I found to never lose inspiration and give myself a path to follow.
Sandeep Bonagiri's Answer
I consider writing to be a form of exercise. Every day, we all require 30 minutes of exercise. As a result, I set aside 30 minutes each day to write. Exercise is only beneficial if you do it on a regular basis. It's the same with writing. I follow the techniques below to keep my writing consistent.
- Create momentum and make sure you maintain it
- Produce as many ideas as possible.
- I schedule time for content creation and polishing.
- I do my writing in bunches. It as it is easier to learn technology in short blocks
- Also,complex solutions are typically made up of smaller solutions, also make our explanation clearer and more likely to read by a larger audience
Ken Bonny's Answer
I read, reread and rereread until I'm satisfied. I set a quite high bar for myself. This also means that I disappoint myself quite a lot. I've also learned to use that feeling to read it again and think of what can be improved. As a last step, I let my wife read it a final time so she can suggest a different sentence structure, point out typos and offer other improvements.
2. How has blogging helped you personally or career-wise?
Ayushi Rawat's Answer
Blogging helps me in multiple fronts. It enhanced my capability to convey substance in a few and simple words. This habit of writing has led me to YouTubing and it brought a drastic change in my communication aspect.
Victoria Lo's Answer
Writing is the best medium for an introvert like me to express my thoughts and opinions. It not only has helped me establish a platform that represents my personal brand/identity, but also opens many opportunities for me to interact and engage with the community, while staying fairly in my comfort zone.
Another huge benefit I’ve personally experienced through blogging is visibility. Like Bill Gates said, “If you don’t exist online, you don’t exist at all.” I’ve received more job offers ever since I’ve started blogging. In fact, I was recruited for my current job at PayPal. The recruiter discovered my blog, and she was very impressed with my work ethics, communication skills and consistency that can be seen from my articles.
Finally, what I got most out of blogging are the amazing people I met so far. It is difficult to imagine that I can be here, answering these questions, if it weren’t for blogging. It is more difficult to image that I can be friends with the Catalin Pit, Tapas Adhikary, Megha Pathak, Chris Bongers, etc., if I hadn’t started blogging.
Alberto Bonacina's Answer
I've always had a passion for sharing my knowledge and helping others, especially since I was kidnapped and captivated by the open-source philosophy and Linux at University. A few years ago I had a blog where I published articles and tutorials on Linux, then I moved on to more "computer science" and less Linux stuff topics, but writing articles has always helped me to understand and deepen what I was talking about, to organize my ideas to be able to convey them in the best way for others. From a career point of view it did not help me directly, in the sense that I never got a job from my articles, but surely the knowledge I gained by writing my articles was very useful in my working life because it often allowed me to solve problems faster or be asked in some decisions because it was clear that I knew the technologies involved.
Sandeep Bonagiri's Answer
Increased credibility as a technology professional, as well as the ability to expand my professional network I also feel that keeping a professional blog can help you learn new technologies more rapidly because you'll have to arrange and explain the technology you're writing about, and other IT experts will provide comments on what you write.
Your technically focused blog highlights the technologies you are familiar with, your understanding of how they affect the businesses you serve, and your willingness to share your knowledge with others. As a blogger, this has been a positive experience for me.
Ken Bonny's Answer
In the short run, it didn't do a whole lot. After I've written some things down, I started pointing recruiters and possible clients to check the quality of my work. This helped me to land a few jobs. It's also helped me think about problems and put them in words. Which is harder than it sounds. It forces me to think deeper about a problem and come at it from different angles. I believe this has made me a better developer.
There have also been times where I've been asked to write about a product in exchange for a subscription for a year, for cash and for "exposure". It depends on the product if I will accept that. My day job pays more than enough and I do not want to sacrifice my integrity. My reputation is worth far more than a single paid promotional post.
Unfortunately there is also a downside of having a blog. I've had arguments with customers about whether I could write about a certain technical subject. I've only trashed one post and that is because the team lead at the time came with a very good reason. These arguments only happened twice and I have posted the other post. The client at the time wasn't entirely happy, but they realised later that nothing bad happened and their fears were unfounded.
So my blog has been a positive influence, but there are a few downsides too.
3. What would they like to see on Hashnode in the future?
Ayushi Rawat's Answer
I first heard about Hashnode through Twitter, and it has grown rapidly since then. Hashnode continues to impress me with new features, bootcamps, and hackathons to keep developers motivated to write and build new projects. It helps me to stay up to date with the latest work in tech.
Victoria Lo's Answer
Hashnode, right now, is already amazing. I’d like to see more ingenious ways Hashnode can evolve to facilitate more interactions and build a close-knit community. The Life at Hashnode series, Happy Hours and hackathons are some great ideas that has successfully engaged the community and built relationships with the developers and writers. So more such initiatives would be something I look forward to from the team.
Perhaps another aspect I’d like to see is more customization. A friend brought up a great idea for her Hashnode blog’s look the other day but unfortunately it’s not feasible currently. More customization not just in terms of the look of the blog, but also newsletter messages, newsletter frequency, scheduled posts, co-authoring an article, navbars, an AMA section in our blog (maybe), allow writers to create their own challenges and share with the community to join, and direct chat to interact more with readers (like LinkedIn chat). These are just some suggestions from me as a Hashnoder 😊
Overall, I’m always excited in whatever new feature Hashnode brings into the table! Yayy!
Alberto Bonacina's Answer
I think Hashnode has come to an incredible point in functionality and customization and every time I read something new in the changelog I am more and more amazed. But I remember that some time ago there was a poll on Twitter on the same topic and I think I answered more or less with two things: greater personalization of the blog home such as the possibility of having 3/4 columns as a grid of the articles and not only the 2 current ones and the possibility when writing a post, even only in the desktop view or as an optional choice, to combine the editor interface with that of the preview in order to immediately understand how the article will be formatted. These are two features that, from my point of view, would put the icing on the cake. But I am absolutely sure that in the coming months you will be able to amaze me once again.
Sandeep Bonagiri's Answer
Monetize option for articles (Offer paid subscriptions)
creating and selling subscription plans. This lets loyal readers buy access to exclusive content.Of course, some of your content should remain free - after all, readers will want to explore your blog before deciding whether to buy. But you can supplement the freebies with in-depth posts that offer exclusive insights subscribers would be willing to pay for.
Blog Customization options(theme change( free or paid), Giving flexibilty to customize Header Menu and categories so the user can navigate easily )
Ken Bonny's Answer
In terms of features, I would like the ability to plan when blog posts are released. Right now, I can backdate my posts, but I would like to indicate that a post should be released on a certain date and time. Besides that, auto posting to social media, reddit and hackernews. Currently, it gives me convenient buttons after I publish a post, but I'd love to see that automated. Automate all the things!
In terms of content, I have to be honest and say that I'm not really keeping up-to-date with what's happening in the HashNode ecosystem. I'm too busy with my work, my blog, a side project (which I'll write about soon) and then there's life in general. So unfortunately that doesn't leave a lot of time to read other blogs. I do make time for some very specific ones (looking at you Troy Hunt, Maarten Balliauw and Jimmy Bogard) and the occasional recommendation by friends and coworkers.
4. Would you recommend Hashnode to other people?
Ayushi Rawat's Answer
I strongly recommend Hashnode to every developer. Starting a blog at Hashnode is just a few clicks away. I have referred over 100+ developers till date.
Victoria Lo's Answer
Is there a reason why I would not recommend Hashnode? Hashnode is a fantastic platform that empowers developers to write their own stories, experiences and knowledge. It is not far-fetched to say that writing at Hashnode has changed my life for the better. So yes, I’d recommend it. 100%!
Alberto Bonacina's Answer
Definitely! As I said I have already had a blog on WordPress in the past where I published articles and for a few years I also wrote on Medium, but I think in Hashnode I have found my spot and platform's characteristics allow me to concentrate on writing without thinking about many little things when you have a blog (updates, security, hosting, domain, SSL, etc...). Unfortunately, in my direct circle of friends, there are no people who have a passion for writing but I hope over time I have brought some readers to Hashnode thanks to my articles and some of these have found the impetus to jump into the fray.
Sandeep Bonagiri's Answer
Yes I strongly recommend Hashnode to other people
Hashnode user friendly UI helps developers write better articles has always shipped many features to help authors write rich articles
I personally like the distraction-free Hashnode markdown editor,sync indicator, draft sharing controls, Pin Widgets to the Top Of All Your Hashnode Articles Automatically, Profile page.
Ken Bonny's Answer
This kind of depends if the person understands markdown. I love the ease of writing, just jumping in a blog post, adding some _, * and ` to get some nice looking content. When I'm writing large posts with a lot of markup, I tend to copy-paste the content between Visual Studio Code (with markdown plugins) and the HashNode editor. This is what I find refreshing: HashNode does one thing and it does it well. It displays the content of my posts and it does it fast.
Personally, I like that I can jump in from any machine (laptop, desktop, phone) and start writing my thoughts down easily without some big editor that takes up half my screen. Unfortunately, that is also what is keeping me from recommending it to my friends. When I use the button to put text in bold, it adds ** around the text, when I put a hyperlink somewhere, it adds a lot of characters and shows the url. I've shown some less technical friends this platform and they didn't seem to get what all of it was or how I could find it easy to use.
Yet, I don't want to lose this editor to a more fancy version where urls are underlined and bold text is actually bold. I know the platform will need it to attract a wider audience, but I hope they'll go the route of reddit where I get to choose between a markdown editor like the current one and a "fancy pants" editor.
Conclusion
It's a wrap! I hope you enjoyed the answers from the Hashnode writers!
We are looking forward to seeing what you think!
Would you like more articles like this? Let us know in the comments!
![[Changelog]: New additions to Docs by Hashnode, new design components and bug fixes.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.hashnode.com%2Fres%2Fhashnode%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Fv1728048920904%2F8f588270-5d7f-4082-b431-35cab56747ed.png&w=3840&q=75)