How to Show Up in Different Places

As writers, we need to show up in different places. If you are reaching the same people over and over with your message, you will not expand your reach and audience. I believe each of us need to consistently work at reaching new and different audiences with our message. In this article, I want to give several specific ideas about how to reach new areas of the market.

Before I give you the specific ideas, there are some basic steps that every author needs to take first. The first step is to create a giveaway or a lead magnet. It can be a free ebook or audio file but something which has value to your target audience (something they will want). You need to set up this giveaway on a website where you capture their first name and email address (which adds them to your email list).

The next step after setting up this giveaway is to learn how some simple HTML which gives a clickable link when you show up in these places. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then click this link and get a single page about creating clickable HTML that I've written). Otherwise you put the effort into showing up—but don't gain any help for your bigger goal (finding new subscribers to your email list). I'm encouraging you to work smart with this larger goal in focus as you show up in these various places.

Make Relevant Comments on Blogs

Most blogs allow you to make comments. I have the comments turned on to monitor on my own blog because often the comments are simply not related to my post and SPAM. When you comment, add to the article with some additional content. As you write a relevant comment with some additional aspects to the post, you will add value to the blog. In addition to your relevant comment, add the HTML link to your free Ebook or some other valuable tool. Make this link clickable and it will be kept (not marked as SPAM) and you will have created another link on a different location where you can get sign ups for your newsletter list. The key word is “relevant” with your comment. Do not SPAM or that impression will also be made.

Actively Participate in Email Discussions

I'm on some writer email lists where I contribute. If I do, as with commenting on blogs, I do add to the content of the discussion (otherwise you are writing spam). At the end of my post, I make a point to include a link to my website. You can be strategic about where you send people with this single link.

Write an article for a Guest Blog

You can also write an article for another blog. This week I exchanged emails with the editor of a well-known writer blog and in her response, she encouraged me to write another article for them. I seized the opportunity and did it. Other blogs include guidelines in their blog about how to become a guest blogger. Look for those guidelines, follow them and send in your article. In the article include some clickable links to your free giveways and you will add more people to your email list. A related way is to become a regular contributor to a blog or website. For the last several years, I've been writing an article once a month for Writers on the Move and here is the link to one of my recent posts as an example. 

Become a regular contributor to a newsletter

 I have a couple of newsletters where I am a regular contributor. They use my complete articles in their newsletter and are grateful to get the content. I am not paid for this work and I don't write original material for them. Often I will lightly rework an old article from my blog. It could be something I wrote several years ago. I give it a new opening sentence and title, then I skim the article to make sure there is nothing that is dated in it (and if I find something I rewrite it). I have set reminders on my phone to send this material every month to these newsletters. They are not a huge time commitment and I make sure each one includes links to valuable content for that reader (yet clickable links for the reader to get on my newsletter list).  

What are the ways you show up in different places? Are you using clickable links in these places which lead people to your free resources (and signing up on your email list)? Let me know in the comments below.

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Learn four ways to show up in different places and achieve some of your goals from a prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)