Hello, buddies! Coming up with topics for blog posts is easy for bloggers. But for those of us who end statements with semicolons instead of periods, it can be easy to feel like we suffer from writers’ block😥 Never fear! There are lots of places to look for inspiration for blog posts and this is one of them!

Actually, you may have clicked on this post expecting only Ideas. Yes, we talk about them here but not only ideas! Scroll down!

1. Your personal challenges

We all go through common and individual struggles in our own journeys. Reflect and share what those struggles were and provide tips on how you overcame them.

Topics on challenges faced by programmers can include: feeling a lack of progress, feeling like quitting, the struggles of job hunting, imposter syndrome and all other various struggles we face.

If you’re presently going through challenges all the more reason to write about it! You can also get engagement from others going through the same and exchange your experiences.

As an example, let's get a Victoria Lo's one - From Blogging to YouTube: An Introvert's Huge Challenge. So remember that your personal challenges may have great things others can learn. Always share, share & share! No matter how small the challenge is, just share it!

2. Complete program tutorials

Developers write code, so what better source of a topic to get ideas from than the programs you’ve written.

A blog post on a complete program tutorial is centered on taking a working program and breaking it down to an explanation of how it works to allow someone to understand how the program was put together.

These types of blog posts are a great way to exchange technical knowledge and provide other developers with practical working applications as a reference for their own projects.

3. Opinions and recommendations

These are posts on a particular topic around software development that are mostly inspired by your opinions and thoughts.

Take a look at the programming languages you use, or the tools, frameworks and technologies you’re involved with. It’s likely several of these topics are a source of discourse within the software development community.

Regardless of whether there is a consensus on the topic or not, could you provide your view on it? Formulate your thoughts on such topics into words and turn it into a blog post!

Example - 5 reasons why you should use Codewell for your next portfolio project by Hunter Trammell

4. Your field of specialty

It’s likely many blog post ideas for developers will source from experiences working in a particular field in software development. If you have a specialty area then take that as your gold mine for topics to write about.

Starting with an area you’re familiar with can also make it easier to write about as you’re talking about a topic you already have some decent knowledge about.

In my case, my field is the game industry so some of the blog posts on this site are inspired by specific topics on game design/unity.

Example - Modern Full-Stack Developer Tech Stack 2021 by Andrew Baisden

5. Personal and career growth

Developers need to make a living too, so we can all relate to learning more about how to grow personally and in our careers.

Reflect on things in the past that has helped you grow in competencies that may not be directly technical related. These can be soft skills you’ve focused on developing or any career-related tips for surviving in the tech world.

As an example, see how Andy Griffiths is sharing his journey fromHigh School Dropout to a designer in a developers world 🤩

6. Introductory posts

These are simply introductory posts written to help someone new to various categories of software development such as a programming language, developer platform, API, framework, utility and so on.

Think of all the things you use now or used in the past and write a post about them targeted for beginners.

Not only will you be helping out someone else who is new to it, but you’ll also be refreshing your own knowledge!

Example - Golang for Frontend developers | Beginner guide to Golang by Deepak Vishwakarma

7. Your perspective on a common question

If you blog or thought about starting you’ve probably told yourself at some point, what’s the point in writing about X topic? You may think the internet doesn’t need yet another blog post on that very commonly asked topic or question.

But you know what you’ll come to realise when you start to write about such topics? There’s always room for more opinions, insight and comments on a topic, even if it has been answered a billion times already!

Don’t be afraid of taking a super common topic or question and writing your own spin on it. Answer the question from your point of view and maybe someone out there will benefit from your method of explaining or the unique insights you may have on that subject.

8. Advice for newbies

Look back at your journey and what it took to get to where you are now. Everyone will surely have more than a few pieces of advice to share for their past selves.

This is really how we can use our own experiences to help others go further and reach where they want to be quicker. Write several blog posts centered on your journey reflections and what has really helped you.

If you consider yourself a newbie you can still write for other newbies! (By the way, I like to think we are all newbies, just on varying levels 😋😋)

As a newbie to something, your advice may even hold more weight since it’s likely something you’ve just gone through and can articulate it better to those also going through similar struggles.

It's just like Obayuwana Paul's article - 5 Mistakes you should not make when starting your career as a software developer

9. Trends and news in the software industry

The software industry is constantly changing and it’s always a good idea to stay on top of what’s going on.

Be one of the blogs that offer up to date information about the latest trends and activities in the software world. To do this effectively, you’ll need to carry out some research and keep in touch with the latest news.

Choosing to write about current topics, of course, has the advantage of keeping you personally up to date with the industry.

Example - Top 10 Technology Trends of 2021 by Muthu Annamalai Venkatachalam

10. Write about whatever inspires you!

It’s not always easy to write about a topic that has both criteria of something people are searching for AND what you actually want to put effort into writing. You’ll likely have those weeks when you just can’t come up with something.

At times like this, I encourage you to write about whatever you feel like!

It’s your blog and your space. While most of the time we try to please our readers by giving information, tips and advice that will help them, sometimes it’s okay just to ramble about whatever comes to mind.

Of course, still try to write about something somewhat relevant to your niche. It’s not recommended for a majority of your posts to be completely random if your readers expect your posts to fall within certain categories.

Once in a while though, it’s okay to break from posts that are geared towards a particular audience. You may even be surprised when some of your ‘random’ posts end up getting more engagement than the ones you spent carefully planning ✌

So buddies, that's it! Thanks for reading and Happy Coding!

PS - I won't be able to write an article for at least 2 weeks 🤧 I feel covid dancing in my lungs 💃💃 Stay safe, take care!