Main Benefits of a Technical Blog

This blog is a special edition because it is my 100th blog! I will explain what this blog has given me in the past five years. If you are planning to start a blog of yourself, you may use this list of benefits in order to get you motivated to get started.

1. Introduction

In the beginning of September, I already celebrated the fifth anniversary of my blog. Now I publish my 100th blog and I am pretty proud of it. It seems not so long ago that I started my blog, but on the other hand, it also feels like I am doing this for a long time. At least, I cannot imagine a life without my blog anymore. In the beginning, I really suffered of the imposter syndrome: I posted blogs, but did not let anyone in my direct environment know that I had a blog. After a few months, I let this feeling behind myself and let the world know that I write technical content. In those five years, I only had one or two negative comments, but many positive comments and I really do not bother about the negative ones. In the next section, I will try to list some of the benefits of a technical blog and if you would like to start with a blog yourself, do read Why Start a Technical Blog. Enjoy this post and up to the next five years!

2. Benefits

Gain knowledge, share knowledge, be visible

2.1 Knowledge

The main benefit is acquiring knowledge. I have noticed that experimenting with some technology gives you good insights but it is different when you also need to write it down. When you write it down, or need to explain it, you have to dig a bit deeper in the technology. It pushes you to go one step further.

2.2 Sharing Knowledge

A side benefit of acquiring knowledge is that you can share it. Although it is a consequence of acquiring knowledge, it deserves its own mention because it is evenly important. Even if one person has got some benefit by reading your post, it was worth writing and sharing. I often refer to my own blogs when I need to explain something to colleagues. If I did not write it down, I always have to transfer my knowledge verbally. Besides that, I also need to remember what I investigated a few years ago. My memory is not that good but I can remember that I wrote a blog about the topic. I even read my own blogs again now and then.

2.3 Visibility

Here we have the imposter syndrome again. Do not be afraid to be visible. It will bring you only advantages. People will appreciate what you are doing and will know that you learn many new things. It is also beneficial for your career and open doors that otherwise remain closed. Opportunities will pass by as long as you blog consistently.

3. List of Blogs

As a bonus, you can find a list of all the blogs I have written the past five years, ordered by oldest first.

1. First blog post
2. Connect with git repository in Android Studio
3. Combine git repositories
4. Installation Eclipse with Java 9
5. Versions Maven Plugin
6. Java 9: Introducing JShell
7. Java 9: Collections, Streams
8. The Scrum Guide 2017 update
9. Java lambdas revisited
10. Java 9 Modules introduction (part 1)
11. Java 9 Modules with IntelliJ and Maven (part 2)
12. Java 9 Modules directives (part 3)
13. Maven git commit id plugin
14. Spring WebFlux: Getting started
15. Spring WebFlux: a basic CRUD application (part 1)
16. Spring WebFlux: a basic CRUD application (part 2)
17. Spring Boot Actuator in Spring Boot 2.0
18. Project Lombok: Reduce boilerplate code
19. Build and deploy a Spring Boot app on Minikube (part 1)
20. Build and deploy a Spring Boot app on Minikube (part 2)
21. J-Spring 2018 impressions
22. Introducing Red Hat CDK
23. How to version your software
24. Deploy to Kubernetes with Helm
25. Create, install, upgrade, rollback a Helm Chart (part 1)
26. Create, install, upgrade, rollback a Helm Chart (part 2)
27. Git LFS: Why and how to use
28. How to Solve Your Java Performance Problems (Part 1)
29. How to Solve Your Java Performance Problems (Part 2)
30. Speed up Development with Docker Compose
31. Secure Docker in Production
32. Setup Jenkins CI in 30 Minutes
33. Check Docker Images for Vulnerabilities with Anchore Engine
34. Anchore Container Image Scanner Jenkins Plugin
35. Docker Layers Explained
36. First Steps with GCP Kubernetes Engine
37. Deploy Spring Boot App to GCP App Engine
38. First Steps with GCP SQL
39. Automatic Builds at Your Fingertips With GCP Cloud Build
40. Spring Boot and GCP Cloud Pub/Sub
41. Book Review: The Phoenix Project
42. Google Cloud Vision with Spring Boot
43. Discover Your Services With Spring Eureka
44. Kafka Messaging Explored
45. Kafka Streams Explored
46. Kafka Streams: Joins Explored
47. Devoxx Belgium 2019 Impressions
48. Hack the OWASP Goat!
49. Introduction to Spring Kafka
50. Create Fast and Easy Docker Images With Jib
51. Skaffold: k8s Development Made Easy
52. How to Use the Jira API
53. Book Review: The Unicorn Project
54. How to Mock a Rest API in Python
55. What Is Your Test Quality?
56. Mutation Testing With SonarQube
57. Easy Database Migration With Liquibase
58. Easy Integration Testing With Testcontainers
59. Automated Acceptance Testing With Robot Framework
60. How to Write Data Driven Tests With Robot Framework
61. Create Custom Robot Framework Libraries
62. J-Spring Digital 2020 Impressions
63. Parallel Testing With Robot Framework
64. Java Streams By Example
65. Getting Started With React
66. How to Deploy a Spring Boot App to AWS Elastic Beanstalk
67. How to Deploy a Spring Cloud Function on AWS Lambda
68. How to Create an AWS Continuous Deployment Pipeline
69. How to Create an AWS Continuous Deployment Pipeline Cont’d
70. How to Start Contributing to Open Source
71. Getting Started With RSocket Part 1
72. Getting Started With RSocket Part 2
73. How to Monitor a Spring Boot App
74. Why Start a Technical Blog
75. Improve Your Robot Framework Tests With Robocop
76. Automated Pen Testing With Zed Attack Proxy
77. Automated Pen Testing With ZAP CLI
78. Automate ZAP With Docker
79. Automated Visual Testing With Robot Framework
80. How to Create an AWS EC2 VM
81. How to Create an AWS ALB and ASG
82. How to Deploy a Spring Boot App on AWS ECS Cluster
83. What’s New Between Java 11 and Java 17?
84. How to Deploy a Spring Boot App on AWS Fargate
85. How to Create an AWS CloudFormation Fargate Template
86. J-Fall 2021 Impressions
87. How to Use Amazon SQS in a Spring Boot App
88. Jenkins Multibranch Pipeline and Git LFS
89. AWS Lambda Versions and Aliases Explained By Example
90. How to Secure AWS API Gateway With Cognito User Pool
91. Generate Server Code Using OpenAPI Generator
92. An Introduction to AWS Serverless Application Model
93. How to Get Started With Vaadin Flow
94. An Introduction to AWS Step Functions
95. How to Manage Your JDKs With SDKMAN
96. How to Generate Fake Test Data
97. How to Setup an Ansible Test Environment
98. How to Pass the AWS Certified Developer – Associate Exam
99. An Introduction to Ansible Inventory