I started following John Sonmez, AKA Simple Programmer, on Twitter, actually after he followed me. I looked at a few of his tweets and decided that it would be something I would read periodically so I followed him.

When I saw he was offering a free course on blogging, I decided to give it a try. The course was brief and simple, but I think it has useful content and makes it easy to continue blogging on a regular basis. You can read about it here on his blog.

The key to any skill is deliberate practice. The practice and process of blogging on a regular basis gives you lots of good practice writing about, in this case, software development. Because I write a fair amount of technical documentation in my job, and have for many years, I have that under my belt but not something specifically for the public.

I had already set up a blog, but I was not blogging much. I actually became motivated to start blogging again after listening to a podcast by Chris Guillebeau called Side Hustle School. The quote at the end of every episode is, ???inspiration is good, but inspiration combined with action is even better.???

I wanted a process for having a regular schedule for making blog posts. The best thing about the class is that it gets you on track with a host of topics and a plan to blog regularly. This gives you the chance to not only practice technical writing and getting feedback, but also to promote yourself. This is especially good if you are looking at finding a job or promoting your business. It also will motivate you to learn more which in turn gives you more to blog about.

So, check out John Sonmez??? short course. I can???t say I agree with everything in it, or that there is no self-promotion going on there, but it is definitely worth going through and brief enough to be worth your time. Check it out!