How to Start a Cybersecurity Blog
Part 1: Deciding on a blog host platform
Quick backstory: I’m one of the cybersecurity instructors at a local community college based in the northern Minnesota town of Duluth. I’ve had the privilege of guiding new students through our programs required Intro to Computer Foundations course this year. Part of what I try to impart on the students are real world tips to bolster their resumes when they don’t have relevant work experience to list. Blogging is almost always the first item I talk about…yet I don’t have one myself…time to change that!
Millions of job openings!! Six figure starting pay!! Unlimited vacation benefits!! 100% remote work!!
All of the above things are communicated to prospective students when looking at cybersecurity as a career path. Cyberseek, a “project supported by the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE),” developed an interactive map showing statistics on job openings specific to cybersecurity roles which shows the supply of cybersecurity workers as “Very low.”
This is great an all…but I don’t have any computer experience and just know that restarting my computer fixes the issue 95% of the time. Who would want to hire me with my resume full of non-IT job roles and responsibilities??
Enter the “manufactured experience”…AKA create your cybersecurity portfolio (blog)!
Blogging…in the era of social media, 24/7 news, and the Internet being more and more accessible…is an easy and FREE method to get some experience to show prospective employers you know your stuff and deserve a shot.
Again…that’s great and all…but I didn’t come here to listen to you rant…I want to know how to get in on this Golden Age of Cybersecurity.
This will be a multi part blog covering some of the basics on how to get started writing a technical blog
Picking a Blogging Host/Platform
Doing some quick Google searches for “best blog host” or “starting a cybersecurity blog” will come up with thousands of results…hopefully including this one you’re reading (or here’s one comparing views on different platforms, and one on getting started blogging). In reality, the goal of this series isn’t to give you a formula to maximize your search engine optimization or ways to boost your clicks…we’re just trying to get a portfolio built that you can show future employers as a replacement for years of industry experience.
For myself, it came to three general options
- LinkedIn — the Facebook for business professionals. Otherwise known as, “thousands of potential networking/job seeking opportunities.”
- Medium — Platform built for blogging and sharing stories. Spoiler alert…I picked this one.
- Hosting your own blog — Get your own domain and host a blog on it (Wordpress is a common option).
There’s definitely hundreds of other options, but these were the three buckets I came up with.
I’ll leave you to research the pro’s and con’s for each, but for me it came down to a few factors as to why I chose Medium as my initial blog platform:
- Free…well free like social media sites are “free”.
- Pre-built audience/integration…if you link to your Facebook/Twitter page, there’s integration built in
- Easy to use editor that creates visually pleasing content on mobile or PC
There’s pluses to all of the above, and I’ll likely move towards hosting my own blog (or restarting my now defunct blog), but at this moment in time Medium best suits my needs.
Cross posting (ie Simple Amplification of your Blog)
So you’ve settled on a blog hosting solution…or have you?
Even though I’ve chose to utilize Medium, that doesn’t mean that’s the only way to get my blogs out. I also will be posting a link to this blog post on:
- My LinkedIn page
- My professional Twitter account
- Reddit’s /r/sysadmin
- Various professional groups chats on Slack and Discord
All of this in a simple effort to get the word out and solicit feedback to improve on future blogs. This also serves as a way to network and get your work in front of as many potential employers as you can. SEO and other marketing tricks can help increase your influence…but I’ll let you Google that and post your tips in the comments.
Have I mentioned networking lands job opportunities yet??
Blogging serves another purpose, aside from building and experience portfolio. Having an active blog will help build your network in the cybersecurity world…and knowing or getting noticed by people will result in job interviews. I can 150% guarantee that!
