How to write a great developer blog
In a previous article, we covered 5 great reasons why you should start a developer blog. That’s all well and good, we hear you say, but how do you make a good one? With that in mind, here are 8 things you should keep in mind!
Understand your audience
Frequent readers will notice by now that we start a lot of our guides with this point, but it is an important one to restate. If you don’t know who you are writing your blog for, it will be very difficult you to make sure that you are producing great content. For example, your blog might be for gamers, so your content might be about cool game features. On the other hand, it might be for other developer, in which case you might talk more about how you overcame certain technical challenges etc.
Keep your studio brand in mind
A developer blog is one of the ways in which people can get to know you and your studio. If you haven’t read it already, one of our earlier posts teaches you how to create your brand. Once you have this, keep it in mind every time you post. Consistency is one of the most important things for consumers when interacting with any business (purchasing, customer service, advertising etc.) so make sure you don’t change your personality each time you post!
Be concise
Chances are that you tend to not read really lengthly articles online, so don’t assume that your readers will. Keep it short and sweet.
Be easy to read
This is important both in terms of the layout and style of your site, as well as the language used. Make sure that your text is clearly defined from the background (black on white tends to be best) and make sure you are doing as much as possible to use language that your target audience will understand.
Be regular
Even if it’s just a short update, write a post as often as you can. One a week is good, but more is better. Also try to publish your stuff on the same day(s) each week. People will be more likely to revisit if they know when to expect new content.
Use media where possible
Text and only text isn’t the worst thing in the world (especially for a blog), but if you can put in a screenshot, artwork, piece of video etc. then that’s really good. Don’t worry if this isn’t something you are able to do all the time, but if you can then certainly do!
Test, learn and change
Make sure you have installed an analytics tool so you can keep an eye on your visitor numbers. Google Analytics is one of the most popular of available packages, plus it’s free and easy to use. Keep an eye on which of your posts generate the most visits and where that traffic is coming from (Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, search etc.). It might sound obvious, but if something causes relatively high interest, do more of that. If something causes relatively less interest, do less of that.
Respond
Assuming you have comment enabled on your blog (usually advisable so people can get involved), make sure that you respond to as many questions, queries and general greetings on your blog. No-one likes to be ignored, and that commenter will have made an effort to interact with you.
Summary
Writing a blog might seem like a daunting task to begin with, but a lot of it is down to experimenting and learning from the results. Just have a go and keep the above in mind, and you’ll already have made a huge step forward!