Comment by Ramiro Berrelleza on "Medium vs Devblog by Hashnode - which one is a better blogging platform for developers?"

I like to use medium mostly because of the insane reach it has, not because of the editing tools or the look and feel. My current workflow is to write the post on my blog (so that I own the domain and the source of truth) and then syndicate the content to other platforms like Medium, Dev.to or Hashnode.

I value the "you own the content" approach, and that's why I want to own my own content. I use jekyll/gatsby + github pages. It supports markdown, is pretty accessible to most developers, and other than the custom domain, it's free. How do you see this model compared to what the Hashnode developer blogs offer?

I think there's viability in a blog platform for developers, both from an audience as well as from the tooling (e.g. writing code snippets in medium is a PITA). But I'd be particularly concerned with the long-term viability of your blog platform. If you don't plan to have a paywall nor ads, how are you going to ensure your users that it will be around for the next 10 years?

Hey Ramiro, that's a good question. Here is what I think.

We're not positioning hashnode.dev purely as a tool to create a blog. We are offering a product + community. Here is why I think hashnode.dev is superior to hosting a blog on GitHub pages:

GitHub pages is meant for static blogs. So, naturally no comment support. If you are writing stuff on your own domain, you will eventually be indexed on Google. When people discover you on Google and come to your site they can't interact with your content. You can use something like Disqus, but that's limited in many ways and is almost always an afterthought. Also, there is no markdown support and syntax highlighting. With hashnode.dev you get built-in commenting facility with markdown, live preview, rich embeds and syntax highlighting. We are even considering adding a "guest comment" option so that visitors can leave a comment on your blog posts without having a Hashnode account.
GitHub page don't have drafts feature. You have to use a tool that supports live syncing of drafts or just periodically commit stuff on GitHub. I think that's counter productive. We automatically save your stuff and let you work on multiple drafts.
If you use hashnode.dev, your blog automatically gets various useful features of Hashnode such as reactions, comments, save for later, follow/following etc. It's no more a static site. It's full-fledged blog that gives you independence.

Moreover, we give you an option to download all your content (with all the comments) -- so there is no risk. If you have been publishing on your own domain and Hashnode goes out of business (although highly unlikely) it won't have any impact on your SEO juice.

The point I am trying to make is you retain the domain + content all the time while enjoying the benefits of a dynamic blog. So, why have a static site with limited options?

As far as the business model goes, we don't think it's possible to charge developers for a blog. We also think it's unfair to put things behind a paywall. So, that forces us to explore different business models where both Hashnode and the individual bloggers get the benefit. Fortunately, we have raised sufficient money and have some time to think through this and implement a business model which empowers all individual bloggers. We don't have to resort to ads in order to survive next 10 years. We just have to do things a bit differently. :)

What do you think? I would love to know your opinion -- we are willing to listen to the community feedback and align our plans accordingly. :)

According to me, both blogging platforms are best. I'm using both platforms for development. I think we should not depend upon one platform, we should follow both platforms. Through this we got vast amount of knowledge from both.

Sandeep,

Forgive me but your replies to the questions "How do you actually make money" sound like the answers of a politician when asked a question they cannot answer.

What I think I have deciphered the case to be that you raising enough money to operate for a while but still have not yet found a viable business model that can sustain you indefinitely, but that you think (hope) you will be able to figure one out.

Did I get that correct? If not, can you provide specific details about your business model, enough that it would satisfy anyone who might consider investing their time in blogging on your platform?

Mike Schinkel, How are you doing? We have been operating for last 4 years. Initially our thought process was that we would delay the business model until we acquire a large user base. It's 2019 and we believe that it's time we made serious efforts to turn profitable -- or at least start generating considerable revenue. Yesterday, we had a major discussion about business model and plans for profitability. Those who have been on Hashnode for some time know that we like to build with the community and keep everyone in the loop. Once we develop a bit more clarity, I'll create a post on this topic and outline our plans so that everyone can chime in and give their feedback on our potential monetization plans. :)

Thank you for the details.

Looking forward to learning how you plan to be profitable. Selling to developers in a world of open-source and lots of free information online is very difficult. You will need a good plan. The only models I have seen work are advertising; for which there is huge competition; selling to enterprise, which requires a good strategy and a strong sales team, or leveraging the developers in some way companies that want to hire them like StackOverflow does and/or via some development marketplace like Upwork, Freelancer and CodeMentor.

Best of luck, it will be interesting if you can find something viable that is not in one of those categories.

Appreciate you taking the time to answer this Sandeep Panda!

I think you have a point about giving you all that you need in a click (comments, drafts, previews, certain SEO optimization). I believe giving it all of this in a super-easy to consume way is what allowed Wordpress to become the giant they are today. Something like that but extra-focused on the developer use case could be very interesting indeed.

Moreover, we give you an option to download all your content (with all the comments)

This is a great move, it would definitely be a blocker for me.

RamiroWould you like to give it a spin and see how it works? I could use some early feedback. :)

let's do it Sandeep Panda!

Ramiro Berrelleza Awesome! You can access your blog here: ramiro.hashnode.dev

Feel free to play around and let me know if you encounter any issues or have any questions. :)

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