Ask HN: My dev blog has 11k followers. I stopped writing it. What would you do?

6 points by zlatkov 10 hours ago | 6 comments

In 2017, I started a series on Medium called "How JavaScript works". The idea was to explain to web devs what actually happens under the hood in the browser. Some stats from the most popular articles (purely organic):

* Inside the V8 engine + 5 tips on how to write optimized code: 488K views / 128K reads

* An overview of the engine, the runtime and the call stack: 423K / 166K

* Memory management + how to handle 4 common memory leaks: 421K / 77K

The blog is at ~11K followers now, almost all developers.

Back then every article ended with a plug for my startup, which was the actual reason I was writing them. My company got acquired, I kept the blog, and I took the plugs out.

When the blog was active, I had a couple of people/companies ask to buy it and a few more wanting to advertise in it. None of it made sense at the time, so I passed on all of it.

These days I don't have the time, or honestly the inspiration, for long-form technical writing like that. But it feels like a waste to just let it sit there.

Blog: https://medium.com/@zlatkov

So what would you do with it? Genuinely curious.

michaelt 10 hours ago |

> I had a couple of people/companies ask to buy it and a few more wanting to advertise in it.

I'm sure it depends on the size of your readership, but in my experience these kind of offers are a drop in the bucket compared to the salary of an expert programmer - let alone someone who's had their company acquired.

I also felt that, just like you recognise that the blog boosted the reputation of your startup, that if a blog with my name on it started pushing snake-oil product or making sketchy SEO posts, that would have the reverse effect.

I'd leave it exactly as it is. If you want to pick it up again in a few years time, you can.

zlatkov 10 hours ago | |

Yes, it was actually what got us the initial waves of high volume/quality signups to our product, so it was indeed important for the company.

brudgers 5 hours ago |

If the information is useful, leave it up because it is useful and the web needs useful information.

If it is useful and you sell it, it will become less useful.

If it is useful and the cost of keeping it online is onerous, perhaps ask for advice here in this thread.

If it isn’t useful, it doesn’t really matter what you do and there’s nothing wrong with taking a willing and informed buyer’s money for something useless.

Good luck.

[edit] I don’t think “wrapping it up” matters much to your readers. People are used to serial creative work dying if for nothing else but Youtube.

Write a wrap up if you want to write a wrap up. It is ok to just move on.

MBCook 10 hours ago |

I think it would be kind to make a post explaining the blog is ending, even if you choose not to explain the exact reasons.

zlatkov 10 hours ago | |

Good advice, and you're right that people deserve it. I never did it because I never formally decided to stop. I just assumed there'd be some form of continuity...

MBCook 5 hours ago | | |

I get that. I suspect that’s how most things end.