Blogging has lots of benefits from programmers and technical people. The benefits include right from learning perspective to have a passive or may be an active source of income. But most of the programmers are always in double mind whether to start own blog or write as guest blog.
I have done both and would like to share my thoughts and experiences with both of them.
Pros and Cons of Guest blogging
Writing technical article for already established websites like codeproject.com, csharpcorner.com and many more caries its own benefits and drawbacks.
Pros:
Lets start first with benefits of writing technical articles for other websites or blogs :
- Its very easy to write guest article. You have to just submit your article written in word and you are done.
- These websites are already well established and have a large following. As soon as you are done with submitting your article, you have a large audience. Many people can review and read your article. You don’t have to put extra effort to promote your article.
- There is no need to do extra stuff of promoting your content across social media platforms. As it will be automatically taken care by teams of those websites.
- No need to take care of SEO and keywords as these websites are well establishes.
- There will be quick reviews and comments to your article.
- You don’t have to spend any money.
Cons:
There are many cons as well to write for these big websites.
- As there are hundreds or thousands of writers for these websites. You won’t be recognized very easily. You will be lost in the sea of many programmers. And you are not making anything for you. You wont get a sense of ownership. And may be you be quickly loose the interest.
- The learning curve is very gradual. This can be a pro or con based on your interest. As you are just writing an article, there is no need for you to learn anything about blogging, wordpress, SEO or many more things.
- You are helping some one else to create a brand of themselves.
- There are very good chances that they won’t pay you or you definitely cannot make income by guest blogging. Though there are web sites which pay you to write. But they are very less.
- There will be lack of flexibility. You can’t write just any other article. Some websites have good review system where they can even reject your article.
Pros and Cons of owning your own blog
Owning a blog and writing article for your blog has many great benefits. And very less cons. I don’t even consider these as cons.
Pros:
- You are making a brand for yourself. Though it may take some time and lots of effort but the results are rewarding. People will start recognizing you by your blog. And there are very good chances if you are appearing for an interview, the interviewer may be a reader of your blog.
- There is a learning curve attached with creating your own blog. I will consider it as a pro. You have learn about wordpress, hosting, google analytics and many more things. I found it very interesting.
- You may get direct job offers, contracts or direct interviews.
- You can earn a good passive income. Eventually this income can be good amount and helps you in maintaining your life style.
- You are the owner of the blog and you can decide the look and feel of your blog.
- You can make your own community.
- The article can be a small tip or big finding. You can write anything which you think would be useful for your user.
Cons:
- There is small cost you have to pay to maintain your blog. Though there are free options available but you wont get the flexibility and sense of ownership will be missing.
- You have to spend extra time.
- There won’t be many readers initially. Tough there are very better ways to improve the readership. But it will take some time.
- You have to be really consistent and passionate, otherwise your blog can be just another blog getting no attention.
Blogging come with many benefits like having many job offers to getting higher raise and recognition.
I would definitely suggest anyone to create your blog and reap the benefits. At the same time I can suggest to write guest posts but to promote your blog.
Conclusion:
If blogging is in your mind and you want to take your career to next level, you can refer this article to weigh the pros and cons of guest blogging or owning your blog.
You may need to take care on these five things before stating a blog.