“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

Hello Dev.to community! This is officially my first blog post on this platform. So happy to be here.

I want to share why I have finally decided to build my own blog.

Over the last few years I have been writing about my software development journey on Medium. A few of my blogs have even been published on FreeCodeCamp's Medium publication. By sharing my experiences I have motivated others to contribute to open source, use awesome technologies like Gatsby, and move forward with their career journeys. This is why I write. So others can become inspired to reach for their dreams and do things they thought they couldn't do.

For a while, I was in conflict between wanting to reach a wider audience and owning my own content. I've realized that we can have both.

Motivation to Move Away from Medium

Everything was going well on Medium until I started seeing banners like these.

Wait what? 0 stories remaining on my free member preview for the month? Medium used to be free and more delightful. Less banners. Less popups. Less clunk.

Things change and that's okay! Thanks to Medium, I started writing blogs. It was my gateway to writing for people on the web. This was my motivation to start thinking about hosting my own blog.

To Host or Not To Host

I kept going back and forth on where I wanted to continue publishing my writing. Should I publish on Dev.to or FreeCodeCamp? Should I continue publishing on Medium because I have the largest audience there? Should I host my blogs on my personal website and cross publish to all of these platforms?

After discovering amazing tools like Gatsby and Netlify that make building a blog site a delight for developers, I found more reasons to build my own blog. And finally after attending my first JamStack conference, I was motivated by the talks to take control over my content.

What I Will Be Sharing on Dev.to

While I'm in the process of rebuilding my website that will hold my blog, I have other side projects I'm working on that I want to share along the way. I am currently doing 100DaysOfSoftwareDevelopment and going through the technical interview process and want to be able to share what I can without letting my website rebuild hold me back. I have found that as a woman in tech, I have a big influence and impact in writing about career development and tech so for now, this will be my focus.

Why You Should Also Start Thinking About Building Your Own Blog

One day Twitter, Medium, and the rest of the social networks might be gone. Along with our content. The content that we’ve put so much energy into and one day might want to look back on. I want to have full control over my content and share it across other platforms to reach a wider audience and inspire many. Own your content and have fun along the way by learning new technologies like the JamStack 😀.

If you want some motivation, I recommend Zach Leatherman's (Creator of Eleventy) Jamstack Conf talk: Own your content on Social Media using the IndieWeb. I think it's pretty funny and insightful.

Looking Forward To Making a Positive Impact in This Community

Share your experiences, perspectives, and values gained with others because you never know how you might impact someone’s life. Never in a million years did I think my writing would inspire others.

Just as we all have something to learn, we all have something to teach.

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." — William Faulkner

Let’s be friends on Twitter. Happy Coding 😀 Oh and Happy #JAMuary