You have a burning desire to write but don’t really know where to start. Maybe you have a pitch for an upcoming blog post and need some quick inspiration or maybe you just want to write a few short stories to see how it feels. Whatever your reason for wanting to write, you’re sure to find the inspiration you need in the form of an online magazine.
Let’s explore how to start writing online magazines, shall we?
Find Your Niche
An online magazine is usually a digital publication that lives within the realm of the Internet. What this means is that the content is either published on the web or connected to the web through some sort of linking mechanism. This content can be accessed from any device with an Internet connection, including smartphones and tablets. As a result, an online magazine truly is a magazine designed for the digital age.
If you’re looking to write an online magazine, the first thing you need to do is find your niche. What is your niche?
In the world of digital marketing, a niche is a “small section of the market for a product or service to which you are specializing.” For instance, if you’re a financial guru who specializes in helping customers navigate the turbulent waters of investing, you may find your niche in the online magazine world to be money management. Or if you are a food writer who focuses on gluten-free diets, you may find your niche in the world of dietary supplements to be gluten-free diets. In each case, your niche is the topic you will focus on within the content of your magazine. Once you find your niche, you can use this topic as a springboard to write an article on any number of related topics (e.g., a piece on investing in cryptocurrency, followed by a piece on the best cryptocurrency to invest in).
Find Your Audience
Just like any other type of magazine, the key to writing an online magazine is attracting an audience. How do you go about doing this?
One of the best things about the world of digital marketing is the ability to identify an ideal audience and speak to them directly. With an audience analysis tool like HubSpot’s Content Optimizer, you can enter a couple of keywords and get a high-level overview of your current audience and the most optimal content for your website.
In the example above, we can see that HubSpot’s Content Optimizer picked up on our keyword “cryptocurrency,” and in turn identified a group of people who were already interested in learning about cryptocurrency. If we click on this segment, we can see that there are currently 38 customers who are within this group. If we wanted to learn more about cryptocurrency and see what sort of content these people are interested in, we could click on this segment again to get a more detailed look at this audience.
As you can see, this segment represents a group of people who are already interested in cryptocurrency and have a high degree of interest in learning more. What’s more is that you can use this detailed look at your target audience to learn more about what they want and need from your content. This sort of analysis will help you determine the tone and style of your content, as well as identify content that is most relevant and helpful to this audience.
Define The Goal Of Your Magazine
If you’re writing for the web, your article’s goal should be to generate web traffic, either through organic search or paid traffic, depending on your article’s purpose. When you write for an organic audience, you’re reaching people who are already searching for the topic you’re writing about. When you write for a paid audience, you are reaching people who have heard of your product/service and are now being monetized through ads. However, it’s important to note that you don’t necessarily have to choose between the two. You can use a tool like Google Adwords to easily reach a monetized audience through paid traffic, without having to worry about whether or not your readers are finding your content organically.
Research The Topic
As mentioned above, your article’s goal is to provide valuable information to your audience, which usually means that the content should be informative, concise, and well-written. To achieve this, it’s important to do extensive research into the topic you’ve chosen. This is particularly important for topics that are highly technical in nature, such as web design, programming, or marketing.
When performing research, you should always keep in mind the reader. Who are you writing this article for? What do you want them to get out of it? Consider the following:
- The article should be informative, concise, and well-written
- It should be easy for readers to understand
- The information should be current and up-to-date
- The article should not be overloaded with words (less is more)
- The article should reflect your expertise
- The article should be suitable for sharing
- The article should not be blatantly commercial
- The article should not be overly dependent on marketing terms
- The article should be accessible to people with limited knowledge
- The article should be visually appealing
- The article should not be unnecessarily lengthy
- The article should include an author bio
Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start to build out an outline for your article, using one of the many free article writing tools out there, like WriterForComicSands or Rewritten. These tools will help you pull together content that is optimized for search engines and create an engaging narrative that draws the reader in and keeps them coming back for more.
Create A Workflow
We’ve established that a successful article, no matter if it’s for an organic or paid audience, needs to be well-researched and have a clear goal. However, what separates a successful piece from a piece that simply meets the minimum requirements is the work that goes into it. A well-written piece is easy to read and comprehend, but it takes a lot of thought and an organized approach to put together. This is what creates value for the reader and makes it special. You want your readers to feel confident that what they’re reading is worth their time.
Curate And Organize A Link-Tree
Writing an article for an organic audience is a bit like planting a garden. You want to make sure that you’re putting in the right tools and fertilizer to grow a good plant. Just as you would with a vegetable garden, you want to make sure that you’re connecting the right articles, blogs, and websites to your article. This will not only give you credit for the information you share, but it will also help your article stand out among similar content.
To get started, create a link-tree from the most relevant, high-quality sites, blogs, and forums that are related to your niche. This is easier said than done, so it might take you some time to figure out which sites are most relevant to your niche. When building out your link-tree, make sure that the websites, blogs, and forums that you choose to include are reputable and have a good standing in their respective communities. This will give you the boost you need to get started.
Find The Right Platform
Once you’ve started to curate your link-tree, you’ll want to find the right platform to publish it on.
There are a variety of platforms for online magazines, with the most popular ones being Blogger, Medium, and WordPress. Each of these has their perks and quirks, so it’s important to do your research before making a decision. After all, your article’s success depends on you.