Geshan's Blog Newsletter Vol2 Issue 3 - Side income for software engineers
Hello!
Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter, Happy new year 2022. I hope this email will be better than the past 2.
This is the third issue which will have a post about how to have a side income with writing as a software engineer and the regular links of the month towards the end. Won't it be great to earn some extra $$ this year? Let's get rolling!
How to generate a side income by writing as a software engineer
Writing is one of the most important skills we will need as software engineers. As Karl Hughes puts it very well, you should write to increase your level of influence. He also has some more tips on writing for software engineers on FreeCodeCamp.
As I have mentioned in the first newsletter, writing is one great way to build your personal branding and establish yourself as a "thought leader" in a desired space. Other good side in addition to being better at explaining things with writing is you can earn money doing it. It will take a bit of time but it is surely possible. Let's dive a bit deeper into this:
Start a blog on your own domain
As seen above, it would be best to create your own domain and set up a blog with something like Stackbit or put it on HashNode. First start writing on your own domain (get one for free or invest like $10 a year on one).
Make sure of 2 things, first you are adding valuable content of good length (1000+ words) and second you have a cadence -- it can be each week or each month but have a predictable cadence.
Always remember to use something like Grammarly to keep your content typo and grammatical issue free. And yes target at least 10 posts in a year, 2022 just started so it is a good goal to have for the year.
Crosspost to get more exposure
Once you have some momentum, crosspost/repost to reach a larger audience with a canonical URL back to your original post. Crosspost only after 4-5 weeks of your original post to get the most SEO benefits to the original post.
Be strategic about it, cross post on Dev.to, Hackernoon and popular tech medium publications with 50K+ followers for more reach. You can start earning by joining the medium partner program. Don't expect too much, if some posts are really popular you would make $100+ in a month.
Invest some time on SEO
If you are serious about writing, try to spend some time to learn SEO. This free video series by Sam Oh from Ahrefs is gold class information.
Main mind shift needed here is write about what people are searching for in the topic you know about. For example if you have been doing PHP for last 5 years look for keywords your site can rank for in top 3 or first page of Google to get more traffic related to PHP.
Make good money writing for publications
When you have your brand in a good place and at least of couple of great posts online. It is time to approach some publications that pay anywhere between $100-600 per post. You can find a long list of publications that pays for technical content.
The general vetting process is they ask for your previous work samples, if you have published in a place like Hackernoon where an editor edits your content before going public you have a good chance of getting selected.
Some publications I have written for include LogRocket (pays $350 a post) and Honeybadger blog (pays $500 a post). You can try other publications too from the above Who pays tech writers website. Once you have 2-3 publications you write for, other publications might approach you too for some writing gigs.
Not easy and quick money though
It is not going to be an overnight thing to make like $4K a year side income by writing. You will need to invest time and sharpen your writing skills, best of luck!
Blast from the past
Geshan's blog has been online for 15 years now, there are many posts from the past that will be helpful for you. Here is one from 2013:
Working as a software engineer for a dev shop with projects Vs a product company
I wrote this when I worked for a product company for the first time after working for a dev shop doing multiple project. It should help you if you are looking for a new job or your next step in your career.
5 links of the month
Here are some links that you would possibly like:
- Postgres with Docker and Docker compose a step-by-step guide for beginners - Using Postgres database with Docker and docker-compose
- How to write better technical content - Following the writing theme, it talks about being consistent and organizing well.
- Working with Product Managers: Advice from PMs - Great tips collected by Gergely (the pragmatic engineer). This is must read for all software engineers.
- Finally — the end of JavaScript! - Fun read, conclusion: it will take a long long time for JavaScript to end.
- Great engineering teams focus on milestones instead of projects - This is a great read on where to focus as software team.
- Bonus: What Every Programmer Should Know About SEO - Keeping the writing and SEO theme alive, this is an insightful post.
Thats it for this edition, see you in the next one. Keep visiting Geshan.com.np.
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