introducing the blogging for devs community

Hey friend,

I hate starting this email on such a grim note, but it's the truth:

Most beautiful, baby blogs born into the world today are destined for failure.

According to the New York Times, over 95% of blogs are abandoned within their first year. A recent SEO study by Ahrefs also found that 90% of pages online never receive a single visitor from organic search.

Blogs don't fail because the author didn't migrate their tech stack often enough, or lint the code like their life depended on it.

Most blogs fail because blogging is an ultra-marathon and the author gave up after a lap around the kiddie pool.

Not because they're lazy, bad at writing, or don't have what it takes.

But because blogging can be kinda lonely. It's genuinely hard to know if you're heading in the "right direction" when you don't have peers and people with experience to talk about it with.

It's why I'm BEYOND excited to fully share what I've been creating lately (along with over 200 subscribers from this newsletter) —

Introducing the Blogging for Devs Community 🎉

It's a supportive community of over 200 developers, tech content creators, and indie hackers who want to grow their blogs through collaboration & feedback.

And as a way to say "Thank You", I'm offering a 25% discount to the first 250 founding members. Early adopters and people open to try new things are what make this community possible.

(As an FYI, that does mean there are fewer than 100 discounted spots left as of January 2021.)

Besides being a place for thoughtful discussions, finding collaborators, and getting support and feedback, we're also running regular events and workshops.

Some of our upcoming community events include:

• Expert Sessions with Eve Porcello, Steph Smith, and Josh W. Comeau
• Content Planning Workshops for your blog, product, or freelance business
• Accountability Groups for devs publishing and meeting 2x per month

Plus all our past events are recorded, captioned, and available in our Video Library for later.

I'm super excited at all the resources, knowledge, and amazing people that are coming together inside the community.

One thing you've noticed by now is that access to the community is not free.

Even though I'm sure most of you can understand why, I wanted to take a second to share my thinking on this.

People value what they pay for.

That's why paid communities are more active, engaged, and full of quality discussions, even though they tend to be smaller. And I want Blogging for Devs to be a friendly community for motivated bloggers.

More importantly, I want it to be a safe space where you can share your work and ask questions without fear of being judged. Making it a paid community helps me do that.

I also have to make this sustainable for me. There is no corporate sponsor or mystery patron behind Blogging for Devs. Lastly - I'm excited to be able to pay guest experts and contributors for their work, too.

There has never been an easier time to reach thousands, or even millions of people, with your writing and ideas.

So long as you don't give up, or spend too much time on things that won't work.

A community can be a huge part of helping you get there. I know that because it's what worked for me.

So this is my personal attempt at making that difference and cultivating an environment that helps a group of people build successful blogs. I'd love for you to be a part of it.

Here's a link to learn more about the community and see if it's the right fit for you.

Have a great day, talk soon!

@monicalent

P.S. I want to make one thing clear.

The paid community isn't a replacement for the email course & newsletter, but an extension of it.

Regardless of whether you decide to join the community, I'm still happy to send this newsletter, receive your emails, chat about your blog, and try to help how I can.

After almost 6 months of running Blogging for Devs, the fact that I now have "something paid" does not mean I'm going to start spamming you and trying to sell you stuff all the time.

It simply means that I'll now have the resources to create more amazing content for you, and invite speakers I wouldn't have been able to invite otherwise.

If you think the community might be a fit for you, here's a link to join and grab one of the ~100 remaining Founding Memberships with a 25% lifetime discount.

If you're not ready, or think it's not the right fit, no worries. I'll see you on Friday for the next newsletter :) Til then ✌️