It's been a month since I started blogging at hashnode, and oh boy has it been a thrill. in this article, I would like to share some of my experiences with you.

Hello everyone 👋, This would be my first ever review on hashnode 😊, and I think I might commit to doing this. As should every writer to serve as a way to keep track of their progress.

You know to look back at it on days where you are feeling like an imposter, and just be grateful of how far you have come along.

How It Started

A Passion for writing ✍:

I've always had the desire to get into writing, this desire of mine was what motivated me to start writing articles around mid-February as a means to share my knowledge to those that need it, contribute in a way to the dev community, solidify my knowledge of web development and build a reputation for myself.

Well you can't write a book without some papers right. So I looked online for blogging platforms I could join to achieve this( I didn't have the strength to build and maintain my own blog plush I wanted to focus solely on creating content. and that's when I found hashnode 😍 The Best Free Blogging Platform Ever!!.

Writing Highlight

The highlights of my writing journey:

There were a lot of ups and downs, but in summary, I did write 6 articles, with 1: Introduction To Git In 16 Minutes having over 5k views on hashnode. and earning me over 80 new Twitter Friends 😍. Still can't believe it 😄.

And my article Getting Comfortable With CSS Selectors (Part 2) being featured on hashnode best articles of the week 💖

Things I Had Done

Some notable events that happened within my first month of blogging:

• I made my first money from my blog. thanks to the amazing people at hashnode and buymeacoffee.
• got listed among the top writers of march and earned 6 coffees from hashnode ☕😍.
  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/molipa/c/1296410
  Thank you Hashnode 🙏.
• got two of my articles featured on hashnode
• meet an amazing and supportive friend Jome Favourite😄.

Future Goals

In the coming up months. I hope to:

• Buy a custom domain and link it to my hashnode blog.
• Start a weekly newsletter for devs.
• Follow the tips Catalin Pit shared in his article How To Make Money With Technical Articles As A Developer and start applying and writing for paid technical articles.
• Connect with more amazing writers, here on hashnode.

Lessons I've Learned

My advice to new bloggers

Reading this article, you might think, oh my, technical blogging is great!! I might get into it myself. well, that's awesome! go get it!😄.

Gif from tenor.com

Well before getting into it head-on. there are a few lessons I've learned from blogging, that I wish someone had told me earlier on, that I would like to share with you.

Your First Draft Isn't Your Last Draft

I know we are just want to sit on a chair and come up with a perfect 2000 words article at a go 😄.

Gif from tenor.com

Understand that your first draft isn't your last. It mustn't be perfect then and make 100% sense at a go. Pour out everything you know and as you keep writing you will automatically filter out the chaff and have a piece.

Be The Mentor You Wished You Had

You know how hard it was for you to finally come across resources that helped you to fully understand that programming concept you were trying to learn. well that's the same way your readers feel, they too are confused about this programming concept and you are in a position to be the mentor you never had to them. When writing, you are trying to explain that concept in a way that will leave your readers more or less knowledgeable on the topic.

Introducing The Flash ⚡🏃‍♂️

Let's say we are transported to the flash universe. and in that world, the rule is that after writing your article about a programming concept you understand now. It would travel back in time to your past self who didn't understand that programming concept 😏.

Now I want you to imagine this whenever you start writing. this way it would be way easier to always have your readers in mind.

Here's a trick I use:

If after writing you don't see your past self in the flash world understanding it, then please restructure it again, always have your past self in mind who didn't understand this concept that you are now a pro in when writing.

Do it cause you love it

"it is the ultimate luxury to combine passion and contribution. it's also a very clear path to happiness'" - Sheryl Sandbreg

A Personal Story 👦

After the Easter holidays. I started the hashnode's #2Articles1Week challenge in an attempt to solidify my technical writing skills. After publishing for the first week, it became increasingly difficult for me to keep writing articles with my usual passion of sharing what I know. So I started writing just to publish more articles. Not for my love and passion for helping and explaining concepts to people. But just to increase the number of articles I had and win the challenge 😞.

Well long story short. It didn't work out.

Doing this, I slowly lost my motivation to write, felt like a total fraud, and I couldn't even come up with words to write about. Well eventually I realized this, fixed myself together, and went back to the amazing self I once was 😁

What I'm trying to say is, in your writing journey never be in a rush to jump out and publish an article on this trending topic that you think will get you the traffic you need. The self-satisfaction of knowing that you genuinely put your energy/time/passion into this article to help someone somewhere understand something better is 100% better than the number of likes and traffic you see the article get. believe me when I tell you that, your passion to share will eventually pay off 😉. so keep doing it for your love.

Final Words

In summary, It's been an educative experience for me. I started earning a little, discovered a few more ways to make extra bucks, all while doing what I love - helping people understand some programming concepts 😊 and meeting some amazing creators.

Lastly, in no particular order, Thanks to Victoria Lo , Jome Favourite, Edidiong Asikpo, Catalin Pit and Tracy Nuwagaba, thank you all for either being friends, inspiring me, or taking your time to explain some concepts to me. Let's do more in the future 💪.

Now you know more about me. feel free to introduce yourself or something about you in the comments 😊. I'd love to know you all better

If you read this far, there's nothing more I would like than we become friends on Twitter.

And if you don't have a hashnode blog yet, starting one is as simple as ever. Click on this Link to join me on hashnode and kickstart your blogging experience.

I hope you enjoyed this, Thanks so much for reading!! ❤ And keep on coding! 👨‍💻.

If you found this article helpful, please like and share it!: