Ask HN: Do you write your own content?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8311509

by mrconkle • 12 years ago

8 8 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Most of us are very tech savvy but if you're like me an average writer. Do you write your own blog posts, website pages, email newsletters etc? Or do you freelance it out?

iancarroll• 12 years ago

Certainly my own blog posts. Copy for homepages, I tend to outsource editing. I'm probably going to have to outsource non-technical support articles too.

mck-• 12 years ago

I think the good side-effects of blogging or writing in general makes it worth your time and effort. It will make you a better coder for one, since it's both about elegance and readability, and expressing your thoughts structurally.

So my answer is yes :)

BorisMelnik• 12 years ago

Yes. I've been a student of programming and design for over 10 years, but I've found I really love to write. The great part about writing technical content is the research involved. Sure you can just slap up a few paragraphs and publish it, but a truly successful post in my eyes has solid references.

gadgets152• 12 years ago

I do both on my blog ( http://upgadgets.com ), write my own and outsource some. The issue here, is just continuity and keep doing it. Make sure if you are outsourcing your articles to do the following:

1- Posts should have relevant pictures/video attached (Go to google > images > usage rights > and choose rights accordingly)

2- Make sure you read the articles afterwards to check any errors

3- Have a list of articles you want to write about each week and send them to your freelancer

4- Even better, if your freelancer can come up with ideas for your Blog posts

5- Compensate your freelancer accordingly (ie bonus if articles are really good)

6- Hire more than one freelancer if you want continuity. If one of your freelancer goes on holidays or is not interested anymore, you should have a backup ready.

quantisan• 12 years ago

Writing is a skill. If you don't work on it, you will always be an average writer. The question then, is do you treat writing as a means to an end or a skill to be mastered?

I've been writing my own blog for 7 years. It still takes me at least half a day to write each of my posts (about 500 words). I post infrequently because of that. After all these years of writing on my blog, I only have a couple hundred subscribers. If I outsource it to post more regularly, would I be more efficient and effective? Probably.

The thing is, my writing is noticeably better over the years. I started out just brain dumping ideas and try to slip in screenshots whenever I can so my posts didn't look too pathetic (e.g. this one in 2008 http://www.quantisan.com/trade-of-the-day-bailed-out-of-a-wr.... Nowadays, I do the opposite. Getting your idea across simply and effortlessly for the reader is most important (e.g. this one from March, http://www.quantisan.com/more-problem-solving-less-solution-...). In recent years, my posts are getting more likes, more shares, and have been on HN a couple times.

Writing is like programming. Anyone can do it but to be good at it, you need to keep doing it and put in the effort to improve. Or, you can spend $300 for somebody else to do it for you.

gadgets152• 12 years ago

How do you deal with continuity and being able to write articles weekly?. This is my biggest problem, if you are not dedicated and have other side projects, it will be very very difficult to sustain. Users want fresh content and will quickly disappear if you are not dedicated.

garysvpa• 12 years ago

I let the expert do that for me. I freelance it out.

mrconkle• 12 years ago

Hi Gary, curious as to what freelance service you use?

Ask HN: Do you write your own content?

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