{"id":2271,"date":"2013-06-24T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.simpleprogrammer.com\/?p=2271"},"modified":"2018-01-28T13:35:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T18:35:23","slug":"3-easy-ways-to-market-yourself-as-a-software-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simpleprogrammer.com\/3-easy-ways-to-market-yourself-as-a-software-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Easy Ways To Market Yourself as a Software Developer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you want to get a better job?\\n\\nWant to make more money?\\n\\nPerhaps you just want to get a promotion at your current job or open more opportunities.\\n\\nGood, you are not alone.\u00a0 Who doesn\u2019t want to make more money and be more successful or have better opportunities?\\n\\nThe problem is most software developers don\u2019t realize that they always need to be actively marketing themselves.<\/strong>\\n\\nI\u2019ve written before about how you should be selling yourself<\/a> and how everything is about selling<\/a>, but part of selling successfully is marketing.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

1. Start a blog<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nI\u2019m going to start with the most obvious thing and it really shouldn\u2019t take you much convincing, since you are reading my blog right now.\\n\\nThe easiest way to showcase your abilities and knowledge in the software development field is to create a blog.\"Keyboard<\/a>\\n\\nA blog allows you to show the depth of your knowledge much better than you could\u00a0 possibly do in a resume or in a short job interview.\\n\\nHiring software developers is a gamble because anyone can make up some experience or pretend to know how to program.\u00a0 A candidate for a software development job can even memorize common interview questions or be exceptionally good at interviewing, but it is pretty hard to fake a blog.<\/strong>\\n\\nMore importantly though, since this post is about marketing yourself as a software developer, a blog puts your name out there in the search engines for a variety of topics.\\n\\nAll kinds of opportunities have come my way via my blog.\u00a0 Almost every major advancement in my career over the last 3-4 years has in some way been a direct result of my blog.\\n\\nDo you know of any \u201cfamous\u201d software developers that don\u2019t have a blog?\\n\\nPerhaps you do, but there aren\u2019t many.\u00a0 So it goes to show you, if you want to get your name out there, it is essential to have a blog.\\n\\nStarting a blog is pretty easy.\u00a0 In fact, if you are reading this post, there is a good chance you\u2019ve already started a blog, but perhaps you haven\u2019t seen much success from it.\u00a0 That is probably due to the hard part about blogging, which is keeping up with it.\\n\\nAnyone can start a blog, but to be successful at it and to really see its benefits, you have to be consistent.<\/strong>\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t mean you have to blog 3 times a week, but it does mean that you have to be blogging at some regular interval and you have to keep it up for a long time.\\n\\nAn easy way to get started is to use a shared hosting plan, like the one I am currently using at BlueHost, to create a simple WordPress site<\/a> very quickly for a very cheap price.\u00a0 If you get bigger, you eventually might need to scale out, but this is a good and fast cheap way to get started.\\n\\n<\/p>\n

2. Build a network<\/h2>\n

\\n\\nSelling is easy if you don\u2019t have to sell.\\n\\nWhat I mean by this is that it is much easier to \u201csell\u201d a product into an existing audience than it is to go out and look for people to buy your product.\\n\\nNo one wants to be sold anything, but people like to find solutions for their problems and help people they like.\\n\\nSo what does this have to do with marketing yourself?\\n\\nWell, the next time you need a job or you are looking for a new opportunity, or even if you planning on selling a product or starting your own business, don\u2019t you think it would be great if you could just reach out to people who already know and like you rather than cold calling recruiters or sending out impersonal cover letters en masse?\\n\\nThe best jobs I\u2019ve gotten in my career and every good opportunity has been the result of someone from my network either bringing the opportunity to me or helping me get my foot in the door.<\/strong>\\n\\nI am actually working on a product right now that will help software developers learn to market themselves and when I launch this product I\u2019ll already have a large audience of potential customers from my network.\"Fotolia_48083232_XS\"<\/a>\\n\\nBuilding a network isn\u2019t difficult, but it takes time and it does take some effort.\u00a0 Networking is not about finding out what other people can do for you, but finding out what you can do for other people.<\/strong>\\n\\nThe easiest way to build a network is to start helping people and taking an interest in what they are doing.\\n\\nYou should have the mindset of always networking.\u00a0 Every new person you meet, every person you interact with online is potentially someone who can become part of your network.\\n\\nYou also have to get out, meet and interact with people, both offline and online.\u00a0 There are many ways you can do this:\\n\\n<\/p>\n