So You Wanna Build an App
I get a lot of emails like this:
Hi! I built an app. Can you take a look at it, give me your feedback, and then help get the word out to your readers?
Technical Blogging and Writing
Creating, publishing, organizing, and improving technical written content.
20 associated posts19 primary posts
Helping Software Vendors Talk to DBAs
Software vendors have a wide variety of clients: Some clients don't have any IT staff at all, and just outsource everything. The client wants to hand an installation manual to their contractor and say, "Build whatever the software vendor wants." Some clients have a full time sysadmin or two, and those sysadmins don't really know…
T-SQL & Development
[Video] Building a Brand By Sharing Your Work
You've got a good job, and some spare time. You're thinking about giving back to the community by blogging, presenting, live streaming, or working on Github projects - and you'd like to make your next job search easier. Let's talk about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ3TuMM4cEQ
Use “We” Not “You”. #tsql2sday
For T-SQL Tuesday this month, Louis Davidson suggested we give our past self some advice.
I'd tell myself, "Use 'we', not 'you'."
[Video] How to Use ChatGPT to Write WordPress Blog Posts
Today's live stream was a little different: I demonstrated using the Aiomatic WordPress plugin, ChatGPT, and Azure Open AI to write blog posts. I showed the kinds of content it writes, the kinds of blog post content it doesn't include, and taught you how to identify meaningless word salad blog posts written by people who don't actually know what they're doing.
What It Takes To Write Two Blog Posts
This week, I published two blog posts:
How Bad Statistics Cause Bad SQL Server Query Performance
How Scalar User-Defined Functions Slow Down Queries
T-SQL & Development
DBA Training Plan 23: Congratulations! Now, It’s Your Turn.
I bet you think you suck at databases.
You're sitting there on your computer, reading all kinds of blogs, watching presentations online, and you're thinking, "Everybody knows more about databases than I do."
How We Write
The four of us were talking about the writing tricks we use, and we thought you might enjoy hearing our styles. How Brent Writes I use RememberTheMilk.com to track my blog post ideas. I can use it from anywhere via a web browser, phone app, whatever. I can tell when I'm in the mood to…
Book Week: The Politics of Writing Books
This week, I've talked about the economics of writing books, interviewed Robin Goldstein about The Wine Trials, and interviewed Tom LaRock about his upcoming book. This week I'm finishing off the series with my thoughts about the mental costs involved in writing a book. First Things First When my book contract with Wiley/WROX was initially…
Book Week: The Economics of Writing a Book
This week I'm focusing on books and the book business. Today I'll be covering the money thing for authors, and tomorrow I'll be reviewing a book I like for both the content and the business. Enjoy!
Now that I'm holding a physical copy of our book in my hand, the pain of the experience has started to fade, and I can write about it with an open mind.
How to Use the #SQLHelp Hash Tag on Twitter or Slack
You've got questions, we've got answers.
No, not Radio Shack - Twitter and the SQLcommunity Slack. Right now, no matter when you're reading this, there are people on Twitter who can answer quick questions for you. Thanks to an excellent idea by Aaron Nelson (@SQLVariant), it's even easier now. In this post, I'll show how to ask questions and how to answer them.
How to Ask #SQLHelp Questions in Slack
Blog Better Week: Strunk & White’s Elements of Style
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. So far I've talked about why you should schedule blog posts, how to write a product review, how to spice up your blog with pictures, and how to get people to find you online, and today I'm wrapping things up with a book recommendation. My next series in a couple of weeks will focus on social networking basics.
Blog Better Week: The Basics of SEO
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Yesterday I kicked things off with why you should schedule blog posts. Tomorrow I'll break some bad news to you - your blog is boring.
I blog to help other people.
Blog Better Week: Building Your Blogging Momentum
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Enjoy! Tomorrow's post will show you how to get people into your carnival booth - I mean, web site.
The question bloggers ask me over and over is, "How do you blog so often?"
How to Pick Blog & Presentation Topics
Stumped about what to write about? Not sure what to talk about to your local user group?
I bet you're focusing on the presentations you would ATTEND, instead of the presentations you would GIVE.
T-SQL & Development
How to Start a Technical Blog, Part 5: Blog Etiquette
Enough with the technical details - let's talk manners.
Give People Credit and Links
If you hear about something from somebody else, credit 'em. The internet is huge, SQL Server is huge, and we all get help to find the stuff we need to do our jobs every day. We find stuff through other people, and it helps to credit those people.
How to Start a Technical Blog, Part 4: WordPress Themes
In my series this week on how to get started blogging, I've touched on the business of blogging for yourself, why you should use Wordpress and how to configure it, and the best WordPress plugins. Today I'm going to focus on look and feel. WordPress uses a "theme" system to bundle images, CSS files and…
How to Start a Technical Blog, Part 3: WordPress Plugins
Part 1 explained the reasoning and decisionmaking process, part 2 recommended using WordPress, and in this entry I'll talk about what WordPress plugins I use here on BrentOzar.com and what they do. FeedBurner FeedPress Gets You RSS Stats Some of your readers will subscribe to your blog using RSS feeds. I won't explain RSS here,…
How to Start a Blog, Part 2: Configuring WordPress
In part 1, I talked about the basics of why you might want to blog for yourself (instead of a third party) and how to pick your domain name. In today's installment, I'll cover what blog software you want to use and how to configure it.
Use Self-Hosted WordPress to Run Your Blog
There's a bunch of ways to get your domain name up and running on the interwebz, and I think WordPress is the best because:
T-SQL & Development
How to Start a Blog
So you've been reading blogs for a while, and you want to know how to start a blog. It's really easy, it pays off long term in your career, and it's a great way to meet awesome people. I'm going to tell you all the things I wish somebody would have told me way back when I got started blogging in 2002.
