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I'm a solutions engineer lead, GitHub Star, Director of WomenDevsSG, and co founder of ragTech. I work at the intersection of tech, systems, and leadership, and this blog is where I share my journey through all three. Expect honest reflections, real experiences, and thoughts that are still forming rather than polished career advice.
It made me clear what I want to do with my blog. Thanks 😊
I am going through your series..... and I am not skipping a word cuz it's so true... thank you for sharing your experience Victoria Lo
Thanks a lot Sourabh Mandal! Hope my articles were helpful :)
Thanks Ayushi :)
Not Identifying Bottlenecks
Totally agree with this. Once we identify the bottlenecks, it's easier to tackle them and hopefully find a solution.
This really is a great article, thank you very much!
I've also written down my thoughts about reasons to write as a developer, maybe this is a nice add-on read :)
Thank you for sharing Victoria.
A possible blogging mistake is never publishing drafts because they look too mediocre.
Yes that's a good one! Thanks for sharing :)
No problem! And thanks for your wonderful article :)
Thinking you are a bad writer
The same problem with me...but after reading this article I will start my blogging journey soon....:)
It's wonderful to be a tech writer but writing is not for everyone. This series features a collection of articles on tips on writing/blogging and getting started for new dev bloggers.
Over the weekend, I was watching some TED talk videos when I come across this talk by Mark Rober on the Super Mario Effect. It was such a fascinating concept to me - one that I have never actually thought about but is ever-present in my daily life. A...
How to Install Skills + Installing gog skill + Setup workflows
Part 1 - Intro to OpenClaw + Setting up on Oracle Cloud Free Tier + Connect to Telegram
And what The Human Condition taught me about slowing down
Beyond the ethics and environmentalism, Karen Hao’s exposé reveals the chillingly brilliant, multi-move strategy of AI’s quintessential architect.
How the system really works, what most people miss, and how to make opportunities find you
Hello everyone! Welcome to another article on Victoria's Blogging Tips. First of all, I'd just like to say thank you to those who supported and enjoyed this series. I'm glad that writing articles on blogging can help some of you get better or even inspired to get started on writing a blog.
In this article, let's take a look at some common blogging mistakes that I observed beginners often make.
This is probably the most common reasons why some developers don't want to start a blog. They doubt their writing skills.
If you have read my article on Why You Don't Have to be Good at English to Start a Tech Blog, you will know that not all dev-bloggers are that great at English too.
As one of my favourite quote by Zig Zaglar goes,
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
We are still learning as we write on our blogs. And learning how to explain things in writing is always a lifelong lesson. There's always room for improvement. So don't make the mistake of giving up too early or not even starting just because you think you are a bad writer.
A few of you have personally reached out to me and asked me how many articles should you publish a week. My answer to that is always...
"It depends."
Because every blog is not the same. Most beginners are concerned with numbers: how many articles to write per week, how many views to get per article, how many hours to spend on each article, etc.
Focusing too much on numbers in the beginning of your writing journey can quickly drain your motivation, especially if the number doesn't meet your expectations. Instead, focus on building good writing habits first and then naturally, you can figure out the numbers.
It takes a lot of time and commitment to start a blog. Starting one without really understanding why you want to write can keep you from maintaining your blog in the long run.
After all, having a successful blog may be a rewarding experience but it is definitely not easy and may not be for everyone. So as a beginner, knowing your WHY can achieve 2 things:
I absolutely love the way Anita Ihuman summarizes what successful blogging means to her in this article. I agree with her definition and her article really resonates with me. Please check it out!
Whether one is a beginner or not, it is always helpful to listen to feedback. Not only will you improve, but you will also be able to find an audience/niche based on the feedback you receive.
If you have not received feedback, it's a good idea to reach out to some amazing bloggers on Hashnode who will be more than happy to share some advice with you.
This was personally my biggest mistake when I started my blogging journey. Spending too much time brainstorming ideas or editing your drafts or cover images - basically "bottlenecking" the writing process, is a huge mistake.
A typical technical article should take about 2-4 hours on average. If you spent a lot more time, ask yourself:
At which aspect of the article is time most spent? Research? Writing?
For example, when I was starting out, I remembered my bottleneck was editing my drafts. I wrote a lot of drafts, but they never got published because I spent too much time continuously editing them to be "perfect". Once I've identified that this was an issue, I looked for grammar tools to help me speed up this step.
If you can identify which step in the writing process that you spent unnecessarily so much time on, you can make some effort to improve on that. Therefore, becoming more efficient to write and publish articles.
And that's all for now! Thank you for taking the time to read this article. If it is helpful, please like and share it around. Also, feel free to share any blogging mistakes you've made when starting a blog in the comments below. That way, we can learn from each other. Thanks and cheers!
