If you’re looking for a reliable place to publish your work online, you’ve probably come across tons of advice, all of which seem to contradict each other. To make matters worse, most of the articles you’ll come across online will try to push you toward using certain platforms or services over others. Sometimes the articles will even go so far as to say that you need to use a certain service in order to have a successful blog. It’s no wonder so many new bloggers get confused and end up using the first blog platform or service that they happen to stumble upon.
Instead of getting overwhelmed by all the advice out there, let’s take a closer look at how you can share your writing online successfully. To do this, let’s first define what we mean by sharing writing online.
Sharing Writing Online
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I am a huge proponent of creating content that is designed for sharing. This content is often referred to as microblogging. Microblogging is a form of content that is ideal for sharing on social media channels like Twitter and Google+. The great thing about microblogging is that it is extremely easy to share and consume. This content isn’t designed for SEO purposes or to draw in an audience; it is simply meant to be shared!
If you’re looking to share your writing online, here are a few tips to help you along the way:
Find Your Niche
The very first thing you’ll want to do is find your niche. Now, this may seem like an obvious point to make, yet so many new bloggers neglect it. When you have a clear understanding of your niche, you’ll be equipped to choose the right platform and tools for your blog. If you aren’t sure what your niche is, ask yourself these questions:
- Where do I fit in?
- How can I be different?
- What makes my work special?
- What knowledge do I have that others don’t?
- How can I use my knowledge to help others?
- What skills do I need to become successful?
If you can clearly answer these questions, you’ll be on the right track to choosing the right platform and tools for your blog. Remember: your purpose is to educate and entertain your audience, not to draw them in.
Choose The Right Platform
Once you’ve found your niche, the next step is to choose the right platform. There are plenty of blogging platforms out there, and while some are great for personal blogs, others are designed for more mass distribution. Not sure which one to choose? Here are a few tips to help you along the way:
- Look for a blogging platform that is easy to use.
- Consider whether you want to use a free or paid platform.
- Decide whether you want to use a WordPress or Blogger platform.
- Decide whether you want to use a hosted or independent blog.
- Consider the amount of features you need.
- Look for a blogging platform that is secure.
- Check out reviews of the platforms you are considering using.
When choosing a blogging platform, it’s important to keep in mind a few things:
- Ease of use
- User experience
- Features (i.e. the amount of features available)
- Cost
- Reliability
If you’re looking for a free blogging platform, the best choices are WordPress and Blogger. If you’re looking for a more seasoned alternative, consider moving to a hosted platform like HubSpot or Squarespace.
Make Sure Your Content Is Consistent
With your blog now having an established audience, it’s time to start thinking about making sure your content is consistent. After all, the more you post, the more you’ll have to work on maintaining consistent quality. Consistent quality is extremely important, whether you’re a pro or beginner blogger. It means you’re putting in the same amount of effort whether you’ve got one post or one hundred! As you get more experienced, you’ll be able to tell when something is lacking in quality and will be able to bring it back to the forefront of your mind. For now, make sure that you work on eliminating spelling errors and inconsistent capitalization. Does this sound like a lot of work? It is, but it’s worth it in the end. Consistent quality blogging is what will set you apart from the rest and earn you rewards from your audience.
Use Digital Marketing To Grow Your Blog
Just because you have a blog now doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. Even well-established blogs need to continue expanding their audience and growing their following. To achieve this, you’ll want to dive into digital marketing. Digital marketing is essentially the use of digital tools to drive people to your blog or website. Most large blogs and websites implement digital marketing in one form or another and use various tools like SEO, social media, and email marketing to achieve their growth. If you’re looking to grow your blog, the first step is to determine which platform would be best suited for your niche. Once you have that platform chosen, it’s time to move on to the next step.
Build An Email List
One of the most effective forms of marketing is email marketing. Not only do you get to segment your audience based on the content they have previously engaged with, but you can also use email marketing to gently push people to take further action. You’ve probably heard of email marketing done incorrectly, but it’s important to understand the power of this tool. Just like with any other form of marketing, you want to use email marketing to grow your blog. To do this, you need to start by setting up a simple email marketing list.
You can use a service like MailChimp to quickly and easily setup a list of email addresses. Once setup, you’ll be able to send out regular informative emails tailored to the audience on your list. You can even use MailChimp to create autoresponders so that when you send out an email, another pops up automatically. When someone signs up for your email list, they’re acknowledging they’re interested in what you have to say and want to hear more.
Get A Professional-Looking Blog
Now, this may seem like a no-brainer, yet so many people don’t put into practice what they’ve learned. To have a successful blog, you’ll want to make sure that you have a professional-looking blog. There are plenty of free blogging platforms out there, but for the most part, they’re very basic and don’t offer much in terms of design templates or colors. If you really want to go the extra mile and get a truly professional-looking blog, you can always hire a designer or get a premium theme from a company like StudioPress.
The great thing about having a professional-looking blog is that it takes much less effort to maintain. When you have a well-designed, easy-to-use blog, it’s basically just a matter of logging in once a week or every other week and doing some light posting. Of course, this may not be possible for everyone and may require more dedication, but for the most part, having a professional-looking blog doesn’t require much more than time and some willpower.