Blog

Working on Nebulab

Everyone is free to contribute to our blog, a self-organized initiative for people that like writing.

The blog is our way of contributing to the software industry as well as a way of making ourselves known to potential clients. Moreover, writing is also an excellent way to deeply understand topics we are studying and to have clarity on problems we are facing (for example, Investment Time projects make for excellent articles!).

If you want to write an article, but you're struggling to find the right inspiration or idea, note that we have a #blog channel in our Slack that you can and should join if you're working on or plan to work on the blog. It's a fantastic place to get some feedback, suggestions, tips, or just the occasional confidence boost! You can also talk to your manager, of course. Anyway, even if you don't master the "art" of writing blog posts (or, at least, not yet!) give it a shot. It can be challenging, but it is definitely gratifying! And as we said, you can always count on the team for help.

If you have a blog post idea, but you can't write it yourself because you don't have the time, just put it up on the #blog channel. Maybe there's someone else who can bring your idea to life.

Writing & Publishing Process

You don't need approval to write a blog post, just follow these simple steps.

  1. Open a PR using the dedicated blog post template. The template is filled with all the instructions you need to take your blog post from idea to publication.
  2. Write the article following the guidelines in the repository. If you feel you need some help to get over writer's block, reach out to your teammates using the #blog channel on Slack and someone will be happy to give you some advice.
  3. When a draft of your post is ready, ping your teammates on the #blog channel to request feedback on the content you created and review it to correct any errors and typos.
  4. After the article has been reviewed and adjusted, ping #blog again for the marketing tasks.
  5. Once the cover image and the latest SEO refinements have been implemented, your blog post is ready to be merged and scheduled for publication.
  6. After the post has been scheduled for publication, access the Social Media Editorial Plan Board and create a new card from the existing [Blog Post] template. Write in the card a description of up to 200 characters and move it to the Waiting for approval column. Board editors will be notified, will review the content and schedule it for publication on social media.

Remember that you, the author of the article, are responsible for the entire publication process, so don't forget to follow your post's progress until its publication, even in phases that do not concern you directly.

Guidelines for writing

Here are some tips for writing good articles:

  • Keep it short. The ideal article is 400-600 words long. Longer articles are beautiful but they are time and effort intensive - they should be the exception, not the rule.
  • Stay practical. There's no need to overdo it and get philosophical. Write about an issue you have faced recently or a new tool you're experimenting with. If it helps others, it's fair game.
  • Get it done. It's easy to obsess over small details if you're not used to writing. Even if you hate what you wrote, finish it and get someone to review it.
  • More tips can be found in our article template.

If you follow these rules, you should be able to produce an article in 8 hours. If it's taking longer than 8 hours, you should probably reach out to your manager, who will help you figure out any issues you might be having!

Useful resources

Here are some useful articles on writing compelling technical blog posts:

If you need more guidance on a specific aspect of blogging, feel free to ping #blog!

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