Main image of article 5 Ideas for Programmer Self-Promotion

If you’re a software developer on the hunt for a full-time job and/or contracting gigs, how do you build a reputation and get your name out there? The social-media ecosystem is a mess right now, and it can seem difficult to stand out in a crowded field—according to one 2021 report, there were some 24.3 million active developers worldwide!

Keep in mind that self-promotion isn’t just for the self-employed: building a robust network of contacts can help you land future jobs and promotions. My best-ever programming contract came about because a recruitment agent came across my website and offered me a position.

If you’re just stepping into the self-promotion game, here are five ideas to try. The first three are pretty common, but the last one isn’t.

Create Your own programming or software blog or newsletter

Register a domain, find cheap WordPress hosting, and buy an SSL certificate or use WordPress.com. That's around $15-$20 a year for a .com domain and $6 for a cheap SSL certificate. You can get website hosting from $5 a month upwards.

Once you’re set up, you need to install extensions for SEO, search engine submission, caching, showing code listings, security, analytics and a few other features. You can find all those in the WordPress Admin, on the Plugins tab (just click ‘Add New’ and search).

Now you just need to add programming content and eventually you will start to get visitors. There are a number of programming blogs, so try and stand out from the crowd—consider breaking down a unique project, or your approach to debugging, or anything else that’s especially “you.”

Once that's up and running, consider adding a newsletter; people are inclined to read something that arrives seamlessly in their email. Just make sure that newsletter concept delivers interesting insights, or you’ll end up in their junk-mail folder.

I started a Turbo Pascal newsletter a decade or two back, and one of the people who signed up for it eventually gave me a two-year programming contract in the City of London. That one thing dramatically changed the course of my life.

Create open-source software

Find a niche that interests you and not too many people are engaged in. How about creating open-source software for A.I. control of a drone (set a destination and have it figure out a safe way to get to that target, safely avoiding trees and other obstacles)? The goal is to make yourself a recognized name in a particular niche; if you want inspiration, consider Linus Torvalds, who was interested in operating systems… and leveraged that into founding Linux.

You can also build a reputation by participating in open-source projects via GitHub and other platforms. If you’re helpful and come to the table with solutions to problems—or even if you’re willing to do a little bug-hunting—you can build up connections and a reputation as someone who gets things done.

Create programming books/eBooks/training courses

For many years, whenever I heard the name Ivor Horton, I'd think the Learn C++ books; similarly Charles Petzold for Windows programming and Michael Abrash for graphics programming. But these days, the sheer number of programming books on the shelves means you really need to focus on relatively unexplored areas if you want to establish a reputation as an author/trainer: for example, there are lots of books out there on Python programming, but far fewer on a brand-new programming language.

Alternatively, you could create training courses. It’s about the same effort as writing a book or eBook, and websites like Udemy simplify publishing and finding people who want your course.

Create your own programming language

This is a better way of getting your name known, but it’s a lot harder than writing a book. There's two parts: designing a programming language and then implementing it. Famous names who have created programming languages include John G. Kemeny, Niklaus Wirth, Dennis Ritchie and Bjorn Stroustrup (for creating BASIC, Pascal, C and C++). If that wasn’t enough, there's Guido van Rossum for Python, Larry Wall for Perl, Walter Bright for D and Rasmus Lerdorf for PHP.

Coming up with a new usable and different programming language is definitely not easy; but rest assured, if it catches on, your name will live forever!

Conclusion

Doing something you enjoy can pay off sometimes in ways you never anticipated. Whether you opt to tutor other developers, work on an open-source project, or even do something crazy like come up with your own programming language, the trick to promoting yourself effectively is putting yourself out there as a knowledgeable source, one who’s approachable. If you can do that, you’ll begin to network in ways that could open up lots of opportunities.