Building a Foundation on Your Own “Land”
A Requirement for Writers (If You Want a Make a Career Out of It)
Hi Brian, thanks for your thoughtful and considerate response. If the only metric — or even the most important metric — was views, I might agree with you. To me, that’s only the starting point. A handshake, a nice-to-meet-you. I can’t get to know you without at least seeing a piece you’ve written.
The issue is that if you want to do anything more than that, it’s on the platform’s terms — not your own terms. For instance, just a small example — I am able to “help” you (and anyone else interested enough to read this) by offering you my collection of why Medium is awesome and a good part of a content strategy for writers. Via one click. This is possible with Medium too, but harder to do.
It’s a Choice Though — Hobby or Career?
Your point about smaller scale is a good one — and Medium could be a great way to start building an audience. Cool that you’ve had success. But at some point, if you want to get serious about a writing career, you need a platform. For instance, a publisher won’t take you seriously without it — and it’s more than just an audience that reads your stuff. It’s about having a durable asset — a measure of your sales potential. Here’s more about that in a piece that generates about 5–6 new sign-ups per day for a set of free email lessons:
Like you, I don’t do much promotion on this either — just (hopefully!) helpful advice and some good solid SEO. A small percentage of those folks make it all the way through the lessons with enough trust in me to make a purchase.
That’s using content strategy to drive a business outcome. To your point, this may not be for everyone. You have to find what works best for you and your audience — I only offer this as one path that works for me so that others can benefit too.
If you want a behind-the-scenes look at how I designed the plan around the lesson sequence, here it is:
All the best to you, I will certainly follow your writing — and I hope you continue to have success!
Sincerely,
Michael
