Since starting at 10up, I’ve been spending more and more time writing on this personal blog. It could be that I don’t have any real obligation to write for a company blog (Buckeye was small enough that I felt a sense of “well, if I don’t write for the blog, Tori will be the only one!), or the increased visibility through my new network of friends and colleagues.
More likely, the daily exposure to Eric Mann, who is an advocate for regular blogging and had a streak of 365 consecutive days of blog posts in 2014 is to blame (if in doubt, blame Eric). I’ve also been reading Chris Lema’s excellent blog, which just makes me feel like a slacker by comparison.
I enjoy writing (and love watching my Google Analytics numbers climb and hear my phone blow up with retweets and favorites on Twitter), but I don’t think I’m a daily blogger kind of person.
My most popular posts have always been those that have been born out of frustration: “I can’t find a good resource on X, guess I’ll just have to do it myself!” or “this is totally convoluted, so I figured out an easier way and wrote about it” have been the mantras behind posts like Keeping WordPress Under [Version] Control with Git, Laravel Application Environments without Hostnames, and Quick Tip: Restrict a WooCommerce Shipping Method to the Contiguous United States. These represent problems that I’ve faced and, if traffic is any indicator, other developers are facing, too.
I want to keep the blog useful, without bogging it down under too many opinions or business advice I don’t know that I’m qualified to give. After all, I can speak from my experiences, but that knowledge has all come from reading about and working for other people (my general business minor notwithstanding).
There will be housekeeping-type posts like this from time to time, but I don’t mind a low pages per visit number; what matters to me is helping people solve problems by offering up solutions or workflows that have worked for me. I’d rather have posts from SteveGrunwell.com appearing high in Google search results or linked to from Stack Overflow answers than maintain a daily—or even weekly—editorial schedule.
I love writing software and helping people. This blog exists at the intersection of those two passions, and I hope to keep it that way in the new year. That’s also why I’m hoping to attend and speak at even more conferences: the more I can teach, the better I can help other passionate developers grow.
If there’s something you’d like me to write about, I’m happy to consider suggestions. One of the constant rules of software is that you know more than you think you know, so I’m happy to offer any insight on topics that I may find trivial but could be helpful to others. Please drop me a line in the comments or through my contact form.
Oh, and one more thing: look for a new design on this site sometime this year. I’m not committing to any sort of timeline, but the more traffic I get the more embarrassing this site (which was ported to WordPress from my original hand-built design from 2010) feels. Simplicity’s always the goal, but a refresh is in order.
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