Hello World? – Nicolas Santos

Hi there!👋 I think this is the classic first entry on a developer blog with the classic title.

This is just a little post about why I think personal branding is important, why I created my blog on my personal site instead of using some of the recognized websites like dev.to or medium, some of the blogs that I follow and inspires me on my daily day with new knowledge, and finally the reasons that motivated me to do this.

Why using a personal site instead of recognized platforms?

I asked me this question a ton of times, why you have to invert your time in creating a website from the scratch, trying to optimized to be at least competent in SEO subjects, and publish your articles integrating complex(currently with the correct tools, not some complex as we knew) workflows for updating your page.

Well... why not use both? For one hand you can have your own personal page where you can show custom content(In this case I used MDX for rendering this post, so I can embed React components) with the styles and different layout's that do you like and adjust to the article content, and by the other hand, you can publish the same articles with a Canonical URL to your personal page on several content platforms. Yes, is extra-work but IMO is a great way to generate content and focus on assorted target audiences and distribute your content knowledge to more people.

Why personal branding is important?

I consider personal branding does the same job for a person as branding for the companies. Assuming that blogging, open-source, video-tutorials, and what-ever kind of content you generate that reflects your work and your knowledge, is a great approach to show others and most importantly learning on the road.

Who else does this?

One of my favorites blogs without question is Robin Rendle blog. Their essays and the way that he does is an amazing example of how to transmit complex concepts smoothly.

Apart from that here's the list of the people blogs that I like to reading carefully

But why am I blogging?

As Quincy Larson described in their talk (How to write technical blog posts) there are many reasons for write technical posts

To impress future employees
To apply recently learned knowledge
To share your insights with other developers
To build your reputation and become a thought leader

Finally, he concludes that it doesn't matter why you're blogging.

And I agree.