Is Blogging About Code Worthwhile?

When I made my last blog post over a year ago, I stopped because I'd grown disillusioned. What was I actually adding to the worldwide conversation? Given that anyone can set up a blog with relative ease and give their opinion on anything, was anything that I was saying valuable?

I'd started the blog under the belief that, well, if I can't find out how to easily do something online, then I'll make a post about it because someone is sure to stumble on to it eventually. Through Google Analytics though, this is clearly bollocks, because the post with the largest hits, Some SSIS pointers, did so not because of its content but because people were searching for pointers in SSIS, when I was referring to "hints" not the programming concept. It's difficult to get your blog indexed correctly it seems.

If you're one of the, and I use this term with disdain, "rockstar" developers - the Hanselmans, Atwoods and the like, where you have the the traffic, you pretty much get to say what you like, the lesser mortals follow, the higher mortals challenge and some interesting content is the result.

On a small blog like this, where the interaction is non-existent regardless of how useful the content is, I now believe you're better served as an author by spending your time starting a conversation on a site like StackOverflow or Programmers.StackExchange on the topic you're looking to cover. The result is the same if not better - a unique piece of content is created with a far greater chance of it being used by someone who needs it and probably with a better answer too given the community interaction.

So, while I think I'll up the blogging to a broader range of topics, I'm going to shift code related blogging, questions and discussions to a community site. Unless you're a "rockstar" I reckon this is worth considering for your blog too.