The Value in Blogging as a Web Professional

Jun 30, 2010 | Comments Off

Take it from a guy who knows a thing or two about not having enough hours in the day, it is nearly to impossible to “squeeze in” all of the things you would like to, in that measly 24 hour window we are all forced to work within.

I am probably the only web developer I know with any amount of experience (15 years) that hasn’t maintained a professional blog for any real amount of time. Lately, I have been thinking more about this and about how, in the past, I would simply chalk it up to, “I don’t have time”, but excuses like that simply aren’t good enough anymore. A professional needs to make time for their blog. Not only is it a great creative outlet (win, win! for us creative types) but it builds in us a tremendous value for our clients, as well. This not to mention that the contribution that blogging has made to the webdev community, and the internet, as a whole.

I’ve decided that I will, henceforth, be taking the time to write with regularity, and I plan to use this blog as a tool for communication and education. I want to bridge the gap of understanding that currently exists between Client and Developer.

I believe that it is the responsibility of the web professional to communicate as clearly and effectively with their clients as possible. It’s our job to explain things in easily understood language. Clients won’t need to know every single technical reason why Flash isn’t a good idea to use on a website or how cool HTML5 is or why open source is the way to go. Clients will need to know, however, that they have a resource in you for easily comprehendible information – information they will need in order to make informed decisions that will ultimately affect their bottom line (and your paycheck as a developer).

Technically speaking, what we do as web developers is complex work. We possess skill and experience and knowledge that will only be increasingly more demanded as the web continues to grow and offer up never-ending streams of new business ideas. As a professional, I say that when we take the time to blog, we are building value and trust in our working relationships.

We should be sharing our experience and knowledge with others, especially with our clients, and even though almost everyone else is doing it, I personally don’t think very many are doing it right – or at least as well as they could.

Unarguably, the client deserves our best. Clients deserve value for their dollar and in our shaky economy, everything that adds value counts in a big way. The time taken to create and maintain a professional blog is time well spent for you and for your clients.

Enough talk. Time to write.