Presentation I gave to Delphix Engineering on the value of blogging

1. Private and confidential© 2014 Delphix. All Rights
Reserved
Private and confidential© 2014 Delphix. All Rights
Reserved
On Blogging
Adam Leventhal
blog.delphix.com/ahl
@ahl

2. Why write a blog?
● Blogging is valuable -- for Delphix, for the team, and for you
● Blogging is hard, but not as hard as you think
● How to maximize the value of writing
● Everyone can benefit from having a blog

3. A brief history of blog*.com/ahl

4. Early problems
● Rambling
● Breathless
● Grammatical errors
● At times incoherent
● (Very painful for me to read now)

5. What was good?
● Content I was fired up to write
● Customers were reading what I wrote
● People were interested (mostly about DTrace in the early days)
● I slowly got better as a writer
● Helped organize my thoughts for discussions and presentations

6. More recently

7. Other benefits
● Your blog tells a story of what you’re about
● What do you find interesting? What are you working on?
● Our blogs provide a picture of what engineering is about
● Helps with hiring
● Helps with your personal brand

8. 1. Write what you want to write
● Write on topics that interest you
● Frequency does not matter
● Writing is a slog

9. 2. Know who you’re writing for
● Know your audience
● Who do you want to read your blog post?
● What do they care about?
● Why will they read your post?

10. 3. Everyone needs an editor
● Writing is hard
● Good writing is harder
● Get someone you trust to review your post
● Tell them what kind of review you’d like

11. 4. Keep it simple, stupid
● Complicated writing doesn’t impress anyone
● You are not John Updike (neither am I)
● Overly fancificated language will just lose the reader
● Run your text through a grade level checker (g: writing grade level)
● https://readability-score.com
● http://writingtester.com
● Write so a 3rd grader could understand it

12. 5. Finish it
● Stop fussing and post it
● Don’t worry about SEO, links, Delphix language, other bullshit
● Pictures are more attractive than blocks of text (so toss one in if you like)

13. 6. And finally...
Tweet it!

15. On social media
● I agreed with you, it’s stupid
● But no one is clicking reload on the Delphix blog
● It’s a way to get your content shared
● Engage with people reading your blog post

16. What to take away...
● Form a direct connection with people outside of Delphix
● Customers, prospects, users, recruits
● Be a voice for Delphix
● Build a personal voice
● Promotes organization, clarity
● Writing makes you a better writing
● Right now:
● Go create a blog
● Go create a Twitter account

17. Private and confidential© 2014 Delphix. All Rights
Reserved
© 2014 Delphix. All Rights
Reserved
THANK YOU
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Private and confidential