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I worry that too often startups and developers write off content marketing as "more 500 word fluff blog posts". As devs we have a tremendous advantage in that

I worry that too often startups and developers write off content marketing as "more 500 word fluff blog posts". As devs we have a tremendous advantage in that we can build tools as a form of "content engineering" that easily have 10 to a 100x the impact of just writing articles. An article that gives advice and a tool that actually helps you put that advice into practice while seemingly related - in terms of execution are in wildly different categories in people's heads. I'm deep in the mix of this right now and the one tool we have on our site [1] has about double the traffic of our dozen (well written, authoritative, 1500+ word) blog posts combined [2]. I always hear from other developers that they aren't good at marketing. I'm telling you - this is like a freaking marketing superpower. 1 - https://sendcheckit.com/subject-line-analyzer?ref=hn https://sendcheckit.com/subject-line-analyzer?ref=hn 2 - https://sendcheckit.com/blog?ref=hn https://sendcheckit.com/blog?ref=hn

smc90 9y ago
While I do think sharing specific "advice into practice" is super valuable and something developers can uniquely do, I strongly believe a lot more developers could and should write more about the bigger/broader trends connected to what they're doing, seeing, etc.: unique vantage point, early too. [For example, in this case I asked and edited Mikeal Rogers (who was involved with Node then) to speak more broadly about a broader shift in identity for developers and open source (i.e., the bigger trends): https://www.wired.com/2013/03/github/ https://www.wired.com/2013/03/github/]
smc90 9y ago
Personally, I think developers are the best writers/ content marketers -- when I was at WIRED, I regularly mined forums and community groups to spot talent. For one thing, a lot of developers are natural advocates for a point of view, and for building community, and starting/hosting conversations, and content marketing is a natural extension of that.
jeffnappi 9y ago
You hit the nail on the head. At ClearVoice we are building a content marketing platform and marketplace. We've mostly been focusing on non-technical content, but I am keenly interested in producing high quality articles with well thought out technical solutions. Not all companies have engineering talent that are also interested in writing, so something like ClearVoice could be used to have 3rd party technical writers provide the content around each company's tools.

smc90 9y ago

While I do think sharing specific "advice into practice" is super valuable and something developers can uniquely do, I strongly believe a lot more developers could and should write more about the bigger/broader trends connected to what they're doing, seeing, etc.: unique vantage point, early too. [For example, in this case I asked and edited Mikeal Rogers (who was involved with Node then) to speak more broadly about a broader shift in identity for developers and open source (i.e., the bigger trends): https://www.wired.com/2013/03/github/ https://www.wired.com/2013/03/github/]

smc90 9y ago

Personally, I think developers are the best writers/ content marketers -- when I was at WIRED, I regularly mined forums and community groups to spot talent. For one thing, a lot of developers are natural advocates for a point of view, and for building community, and starting/hosting conversations, and content marketing is a natural extension of that.

jeffnappi 9y ago

You hit the nail on the head. At ClearVoice we are building a content marketing platform and marketplace. We've mostly been focusing on non-technical content, but I am keenly interested in producing high quality articles with well thought out technical solutions. Not all companies have engineering talent that are also interested in writing, so something like ClearVoice could be used to have 3rd party technical writers provide the content around each company's tools.