This is an excerpt from How to Make a Living with your Writing, out now in ebook, print and audiobook editions.
In previous articles, I've talked about ways to make money by attracting people to you through content marketing – providing education, inspiration or entertainment for free so that people will then go on to buy your books, products and services.
You can use your writing as content to attract customers and it costs time, not money.
There are plenty of ways to attract people through paid advertising and I cover that in How to Market a Book.
Here are some of my top tips for content marketing in particular, based on the last eight years of blogging, podcasting, doing videos and social media.
Understand the why behind what you're doing
Many people will start a blog, a podcast, a video channel or a social media account and later will question how they can ‘monetize' it. If you start by considering the following questions, it will help you later:
- Who do you want to attract?
- How can you educate/inspire/entertain them?
- What do you want them to DO next, for example, subscribe to your email list or buy a product?
- How does this contribute to your income streams or your other definitions of success?
- Is there a point?
Model others
We all start out knowing nothing and we learn from those we find and resonate with. I’ve modelled my site on specific successful bloggers over the years, as well as emulating authors with incredible businesses in order to shape my own.
So, subscribe to blogs, podcasts or videos that you like, consider why you are attracted to them, work out how the people involved engage an audience and how they make a living, and what you like or dislike about what they do.
Then figure out how it fits with what you're doing. Write your thoughts down and let new ideas spark from there.
If you're serious, own your own site
Many people start out with free websites, like WordPress.com or Blogger.com but you will soon run into problems with what you can and cannot do.
Also, a free site is ultimately out of your control and can be taken down at any time. The same applies if you build your platform on Facebook or other sites that you don't own. Things can change and you won't be able to do anything about it.
But setting up your own site is easy and cheap these days. Check out my video tutorial with step-by-step notes on how you can build your own site in under 30 minutes: www.TheCreativePenn.com/authorwebsite
Design for mobile and ease of use
Make sure that you use a mobile-optimized theme for your site as Google now penalizes websites in the search engine if they aren't. For ease of scanning, use plenty of white space and sub-headings within your articles.
Build your own email list
Give away something of value that people actually want, whether that's a free book or a video series.
Then communicate to your list regularly with education, inspiration or entertainment that resonates with your brand. If you can build a list of people who open your emails and love hearing from you, then you can definitely make a living this way.
Create excellent content
There's enough crap content on the internet, so make sure your stuff is authentic and real. It doesn't have to be an original topic but it does have to be your take. There are content creators who put out new stuff every day, but there are also people who write big meaty articles sporadically and do very well that way. There are no rules.
Be personal and authentic
Share your personality and your story. More than anything, people crave connection and I've found that the more personal I am, the more my content resonates with people.
From a reader's perspective, over the years I’ve unsubscribed from blogs and podcasts that have no real personality. The ones I have stayed with, the people whose books I preorder and support, the ones whose podcasts are a must-listen, are the ones I feel that I know. This is the model I try to use myself, sharing my failures as well as successes.
Create focused content within your niche
This may actually fly in the face of the last point! I see it as sharing authentically but within the boundaries of what your audience is there for.
So even though my site, The Creative Penn, really is about me and my journey as a writer, I don't share everything about my life unless it relates in some way to my audience. I keep the site focused on writing, creativity, publishing, book marketing and entrepreneurship, because that's my promise to the audience under that brand.
On my fiction site, JFPenn.com, I don't talk about publishing or book marketing because my readers don't care about that stuff. Instead, I share my research for my books and pictures from my travels.
Balance consumption and creation so that you never run out of ideas
When you read a book, take the thoughts you had and write a book review or a lessons learned article based on that experience. Or go to an art gallery and then write something about it.
You need to consume in order to fill the creative well with new ideas, but you also need to create or you will have nothing to sell or share online.
Understand that copywriting is not the same as writing books
If you are a fantastic fiction writer, it doesn’t mean that you will be a tremendous blogger straight away. The focus of copywriting is getting people to take action, whereas writing books is usually about the recipient passively consuming. You need to understand the psychology of people’s attention, how they scan for what they want, how headlines work and much more. I recommend Copyblogger.com for great info on this.
Link freely to others and share traffic
Generosity and social karma fuel the online world, at least in my experience! It's all about linking to each other within blog posts and social media. This enables stronger connections between peers who may also cite you in return. It also gives you credibility as a good source of curated information.
This is essentially how I have used Twitter for years, with a large proportion of my tweets sharing other people's content.
Use images and visual media
It's a busy internet out there with lots of options clamoring for attention but a powerful image can cut through the noise. There are lots of options for royalty-free images and you can also use Canva.com to freely create amazing graphics for your website and social media to make your content more shareable. Videos can take this even further, bringing your words alive with your smile and your personality.
To comment or not to comment?
The number of comments on a post used to be a strong measure of engagement but with the rise of social media, the conversation may happen elsewhere. I am far more likely to share posts and comment via Twitter than on a blog these days. I still have comments on TheCreativePenn.com but I've turned them off on JFPenn.com.
Let it go if it's not working
I've started five different blogs over the last six years and now only retain two of them: TheCreativePenn.com and JFPenn.com.
The others lasted three to six months and I let them go because I ran out of content and I just wasn't passionate enough about the topics to continue writing.
Multiple blogs can take up considerable time, so I only recommend more than one site for regular content if you have clearly defined separate audiences.
Give it time!
I started TheCreativePenn.com in December 2008 and it took about four months of blogging every two days before I saw any traffic or comments, and about six months more before I felt that it was a blog with anything to say.
But in 2010, the site was named one of Problogger's Top 30 Blogs To Watch and then every year since 2012, it has been in the top blogs for writers and self-publishers.
Time in the market and consistency are critical, whether that's writing your books or blogging, videos or podcasting. The longer you commit, the more it compounds and the better the results.
This is just a start, but if you want more on marketing, check out my book on the topic, How to Market a Book, available in print, ebook and audiobook editions.
This is an excerpt from How to Make a Living with your Writing, out now in ebook, print and audiobook editions.
