Advance Your Career

Blogging can advance your career in multiple ways. Improving your skills, as just discussed, is the first way. But there’s much more to it, depending on your current position and ambitions.

As an Employee

Blogging can help you land a better job. It can facilitate the process in two primary ways.

First, your blog advertises to the world that you exist. Prospective employers may come across a particular blog post and be impressed by your depth of knowledge and your personality (remember to have a distinct voice that shines through in your writing).

A post on my programming blog helped me land my current job at IBM, and I often receive job offers from some of the most popular tech companies in the world as a result of my blogs and social media presence.

Second, your blog acts as a sort of résumé/curriculum vitae. A blog can give you a much more detailed outlook on a person’s interests, attitudes, and skills. If your blog is highly compelling and you come across as a friendly, approachable expert, your chances of getting hired when you apply for a job or when someone finds your blog are much higher.

If your main goal is to find a better job, place a LinkedIn button/badge and a link to your printable résumé on your sidebar in a spot that’s easy for visitors to quickly notice. If you have other relevant or important presences online, such as on StackOverflow and GitHub, link to those or embed badges for them as well.

In fact, if you’re a student or are unemployed at the moment, don’t be afraid of placing a call to action, such as “Hire me” or “Give me a job,” within your navigation bar, sidebar, and so on. Then link to a sales page, where the thing that you’re selling effectively is yourself.

If you suddenly become unemployed, you can also consider making a post announcing that you’re now available for hire.

Write a nice landing page that details what you are looking for, and be sure to include links to your résumé, projects, open source contributions, and so forth. If prospective employers think you’d be a good match, they can use the contact form and details you provide on the page to get in touch and discuss employment opportunities with you.

I would argue that a compelling, popular tech blog and a solid social media presence are one of the easiest ways to secure a job in today’s economy.

As a Freelancer

Blogging can aid you as a freelancer by helping you find more clients and even command higher rates. The way you go about it isn’t all that different from the role of a job seeker.

You still need to blog on subjects you intend to be hired for as a freelancer to showcase your expertise in the process. For example, if you’re an Android OS freelancer, you’ll want to focus on writing about developing Android applications in Java or Kotlin. Don’t just talk about it, but show code and HOWTO material that clearly demonstrates your mastery of the subject.

If you can score a domain such as [TOPIC]freelancer.com or similar, you’ll position yourself ahead of the curve. Even if you can’t, make sure that your blog does a good job of selling you and your expertise to both humans and search engines. Your theme keyword could be Android freelancer, for example. You’ll want that same keyword throughout your blog, even if the site is actually located at firstlastname.com.

For example, your home page’s title could be “John Smith’s Blog—The Adventures of an Android Freelancer,” with the latter portion becoming your tagline, even if your site URL doesn’t mention Android.

As a freelancer, aside from making it obvious that you are indeed a freelancer, you need your “Hire me” call to action to be very prominent. In particular, the sales page for your services needs to be specific. Don’t say vaguely that you’ll do anything; instead, try to be specific about what you specialize in and what you’re good at.

Above all, don’t waste yours and other people’s time. Include your rates. You’ll spare yourself the grief of dealing with low ballers, and you’ll attract qualified prospects who are serious about hiring you for a given assignment. If you don’t have a set hourly rate, provide a range or starting price point. For example, a designer may say, “Logo design starts at $2,000.” Naturally, the higher your prices, the more impressive your portfolio and services need to be.

Your contact form should have a series of fields to collect information about a project, in case a prospective client wants to get the process started right away. Also include your information, such as your location, (business) phone number, email, and so on.

Another important point for freelancers to remember is to leverage guest blogging on other peoples’ sites if your own blog isn’t that well known. Guest blogging requires work, but taking advantage of large audiences on other blogs and online magazines can truly make the difference between a continuous stream of clients from the very beginning or a long dry spell as you gradually try to grow your own blog.