Blog Writing for Developers

Robin Moffatt

whoami

  • Robin Moffatt

  • DevRel team @ Confluent

  • Blogging since 2009, over 1.5 million page views

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rmoff.net

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Disclaimer

What we’re going to cover

  • Why?

  • What?

  • How?

  • Other things that don’t fit into interrogative adverbs!

    • Platforms and Tools

    • Reviews

    • AI

Why

blog?

Because you were told to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Share

  • If it was useful for me, it might be useful for someone else

  • Sharing is caring

Learn

  • If you can’t explain something, do you really understand it?

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Benefit

  • Your product

  • Your employer

  • The community

  • You!

What

to blog about?

The Good

  • If I found it interesting, perhaps someone else will too.

Jason Sudeikis Yes GIF

Common Problems

Maybe it’s a docs gap…maybe it’s a blogging opportunity :)

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New tool

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New technique

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Handy tricks

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Meta-posting

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Navel-gazing

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Patterns from https://writethat.blog/

  • Bug Hunt

  • We Rewrote It in X

  • How We Built It

  • Lessons Learned

  • Thoughts on Trends

  • Non-markety Product Perspectives

  • Benchmarks and Test Results

So if that was the good…what about…

The Bad

  • Low‑quality, SEO‑driven content

  • Marketing copy

  • Listicles

Note
These are 'bad' if you’re writing for developers.
Robert Downey Jr Shrug GIF

The downright ugly

  • Rage-baiting/engagement-hacking

  • AI slop

Note
No caveat here. Just don’t do it.
The Office no GIF

How

to blog?

  • Structure

  • Dimensions

  • Process

Structure

  1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them

  2. Tell them

  3. Tell them what you told them

See also: Hero’s Tale, Inverted Pyramid.

How much to cover

  • Sometimes less is more

    I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.

The Perfect Happy Path

blog content1.excalidraw

Reality

blog content3.excalidraw

Latent Value

blog content4.excalidraw

Key Dimensions of Writing

Process

JFDI

08

Platforms & Tools

Self-hosted

Blog-as-Code

  • Static site generator e.g. Hugo

  • Free hosting e.g. GitHub Pages

https://github.com/rmoff/rmoff-blog/

Hosted

  • Medium

  • dev.to

  • Substack

Tools

  • Obsidian

  • Images

    • CleanShotX

    • SnagIt

    • Shottr

Using AI in blog writing

Concepts & Research

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Rubberducking

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Clarity

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Reviews

This is the draft of a blog article I am about to publish.
I would like you to concisely list the following:
- any typos. check what I give you five times to make sure
  you have caught everything.
- any factual errors or inconsistencies

Your primary responsibility is to catch typos and errors.
I write in en-gb.

Do not report on the use of `automagically`.
This is a good word.

Please also provide a very brief summary of the
readability of the article.
My voice is a technical yet informal one, aimed solely at
a developer audience. I use colloquialisms and snark.

Using AI to write posts?

No.

Ship It?

🛑 Not yet!

Practicalities

  • Before you send it anywhere…use a spell checker! 🙏

  • Use Google Doc in suggestion mode

🔗 Converting from AsciiDoc to Google Docs and MS Word

Principles

  • Be clear what you’re asking for in the review

    • Copyediting vs Technical review

  • Respect the reviewer

    • Don’t be precious—but don’t lose your voice

#EOF (almost)

  • Decide why you’re writing

  • If you want to develop as a blog writer, find an author you like and ask them to mentor you

  • Don’t polish too much; no-one’s going to read it anyway ;)

  • Start, today!

Resources

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