The Work Behind A New Path

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

It begins with a dream and a goal. Since 2004, I’ve been blogging each week in these articles about The Writing Life. It’s grown into a large body of work and I’ve been recognized as one of the top 27 content writers with millions of blogs. About 400 people get these articles on their email and many others read it online. Yet I want to reach more people. How can that happen?

The first step is to create a plan, and then execute your plan, test it and keep telling others. I began to look for new places and ways to tell others about how to subscribe to my blog.

For example, I am active on Facebook and I’ve joined a number of private groups. Overall I do not actively post in any of these groups. I read their posts but do not issue any of my own. Some of these groups are small and others have thousands of members. I crafted some words and worked on refining them off and on for several weeks. Finally I settled on these words:

“Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA”

Notice my straight-forward explanation and I send the reader to a single place. Also each time I used an image to draw the reader’s attention to my words. 

Some of my posts to these groups posted immediately. Others required an administrator to approve them. For some of these groups with administrators, my post got rejected because they saw it as an ad or spam or overly self-promotional. A couple of administrators rejected my post but pointed out a different place I could post my words. The rules are different for each group but overall my words have gone out to many different writing groups and I will see if my campaign or effort increases my number of blog subscribers (my goal). 

Also my campaign is not limited to this one strategy, I’ve written a short email that I will be sending out to my newsletter list as another tool to use in my campaign. 

Some of these efforts will work and some will fail. From my years in publishing I have learned this simple truth which is pointed out in this quotation from P.T. Barnum: “Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.”

If you don’t try, then it will not fly. What area of your writing do you want to grow? Your newsletter list? Your speaking engagements? Your radio interviews and podcast interviews? Or maybe it writing articles for print magazines or your next book with a publisher? 

The key is to create the goal, then plan how to reach a new audience. I hope the details of how I’m trying to grow my blog subscribers is helpful information to stir your own action and application to your writing life. It’s not easy and takes planning, execution, failure then adjustment. It does not happen without your actions. What area do you need to do this type of work and follow a new path for your own growth? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

How can you reach a new audience and new readers? This prolific author and editor writes about the work behind a new path in this article. Read these details. (ClickToTweet)

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