Fwd: Here’s how I began contributing on Forbes…

Hey all -

Hope you had a great weekend. As some of you know, this month I started contributing to Forbes. (See my articles here!)

Since starting, I've had some people asking me how I did it -- how I went from writing on my own site, learntocodewith.me, to writing on a major news publication.

The short answer? Through a connection.

The long answer? Over the past several years, I've been cultivating an online presence in the "learn to code"-slash-"digital skills acquisition" niche. I started out writing guest posts for free, then worked my way up to bigger and better sites, all the while building connections and credibility in the industry.

Through one of those connections, I got an introduction to an editor at Forbes. They had me submit an initial piece as a guest writer, and after it performed well, I was offered the opportunity to write regularly, as a contributor. Naturally, I accepted!

So, it was a long journey, and it involved investing time and taking risks without knowing if there would be a reward. But nobody can just wake up one day and write for a major publication - or land a job at a top company. It takes effort, persistence, networking, and hard work.

But you know where it all started?

With developing an online presence.

My online presence -- my website, my social media profiles, my guest posts, etc. -- helped me build the valuable connections, which, among other things, led to the opportunity at Forbes.

Later this week I am publishing a new blog post about why having an online presence matters in your job search, and I'll reveal the most important thing you can do to start building yours.

Stay tuned for it.

- Laurence


P.S. Can't wait to read the post and want to start building your web presence right now? Sign up for my free portfolio course to get the ball rolling. Because as you'll soon see, having a personal website or portfolio is an integral component when forming your digital identity.

Popular posts from this blog

Fwd: Why should you care about marketing as a techie??

Image
You may believe that as a web developer or designer you don't have to worry about marketing. After all, why would you? You're not a salesperson, you don't want to work in marketing, you don't have your own business and may not ever plan on starting one. You just want to work in engineering or design -- a technical role. But if you think you don't need to market yourself, you're wrong. Every person (and company) needs to take advantage of marketing today. Because even if you have all the skills and experience required for a job, it doesn't mean you'll get it. You can spend years getting more skills, more education, more certificates, more credentials, etc., but they won't magically catapult you to a better job and higher salary. In today's ultra-competitive world, across business models and industries, marketing is everything -- whether you're marketing a business, your services, or yourself for a job. It may not be fair, but the fac...
Read more

Fwd: JavaScript libraries and frameworks you should know

Image
As a new developer, or if you're learning JavaScript for the first time, the number of libraries and frameworks you can use can be daunting. How do you know which to learn first? Which will be most useful in your coding career? In this guest post, Erik Hanchett gives us an overview of his top ten JavaScript libraries and frameworks. Here are the libraries and frameworks you'll learn about in Erik's post: jQuery: An Old Classic (But Is It Obsolete?) Underscore and Lodash: Utility Libraries D3.js: For Graphing and Visualizations React: Facebook's Favorite Library Glimmer.js: UI Components for the Web Bootstrap: For Those of Us Who Dislike Design Angular and AngularJS: Google's Framework Ember.js: The Batteries-Included Framework Aurelia: The Forward-Looking Framework Vue.js: The Progressive Framework
Read more

How to land a dream opportunity in tech

Image
A few days ago I talked about knowing when you're ready to make money with your coding skills. (TL;DR - as soon as someone is willing to pay you.) I also touched on the importance of putting yourself "out there"—in-person as well as online. And when it comes to landing the BEST opportunities in tech, I said: "You don't get dream jobs by applying to them. Let me repeat that: you DON'T get dream jobs by applying to them. You either network your way in, or get discovered." Today, I would like to elaborate on this. 1. Networking" (or relationship building) your way into a dream job Definition : Connecting with people one-on-one, building a relationship over time, and providing professional value to one another. These people connect you with their connections, and as a result expands your professional network. Here is the critical component of building a network: you give value first. What I mean is you don't come running out of th...
Read more