What does it mean to have a platform? Why is it important?

Have you ever walked down the sidewalk and noticed someone playing and singing? Or maybe you’ve heard someone speak passionately on a topic they love and a crowd started to gather around them?

A blog and email list is a platform much like that.

It’s a place to ‘stand’ and talk to those people who want to hear what you have to say.

It not only makes sense to have a blog as a writer, but it helps to grow your platform. The larger your platform, the more people you can reach with what you have to say.

My Blogging Story…

I started my first blog 3 1/2 years ago. I didn’t have a regular schedule. I just began blogging whenever I felt like it. Which is quite normal for many writers when they get started. However that blog and the one after it, ended in failure.

There were so many details I didn’t understand. I didn’t know how to reach out to others through blogging. These were simple details that I missed out on, that would have made my blog much more effective.

For instance, I didn’t create anything free to offer readers as an incentive to sign up and I didn’t have a newsletter that offered them great resources and free offers. Also, one of the key things I missed out on, was really listening to people who were connecting with me.

Through my many mistakes in blogging and reaching out to others, I learned a few things. I hope you find these steps useful to you as you set out on growing your own blog and email list.

5 Steps to Set Up Your Blog & Email List

Originally I started out creating a blog with Blogger.com, because a free blog was all I could afford. If that’s where you’re at, it’s a great place to start. You can also use WordPress.com as another free option.

However – as I learned much later – I was being limited by using a website I didn’t own. I was limited to what I could add to my website – I couldn’t use plugins – to help it function better, and I was limited by content as well. Also, I didn’t realize when I use a free website, that if they want to shut me down one day, I wouldn’t have any say in it. Without warning all the blogposts I wrote, could disappear without a trace.

So that’s why I wanted to set up my own WordPress site. Here’s the steps I took.

1. Set up your Website. If at all possible, set up your own wordpress.org website. WordPress.org works great to have your own email signup form. There are a number of ways to add sign up forms to your blog. I use SumoMe and I really like it. Copyblogger has a great article on 3 simple strategies to reach more people on your blog. At the end of the day, it’s really about having the freedom to add email signup forms where and how you like. Some people like to add the form to the top of their webpage or you can add your signup form to the right hand side of your website – like the one I have on this blog.
2. Find an email service provider. An email service provider will deliver your emails, newsletters and blog broadcasts to your readers. Most service providers have great customer service support. I use Aweber and they’ve been really helpful. Other email providers are also good. If you go with Mailchimp, your first 2000 subscribers are free. Other providers are iContact, Constant Contact and Get Response. In the end, the most important detail that matters is that you can add people easily to your list and send the messages you need to connect and give great information to those people who want to hear what you have to say.
3. Create a Sign-up Form. Like I mentioned in the first step, it’s really easy to create your email signup form. I use Aweber to the create the form that you see on the right hand side of this blog. I also use SumoMe at the top of the page as well as for a form that pops up once a week. I’m still tweaking this – still learning. but I like using those tools so far.  At the start of this year, I decided to start offering a Library of free stuff, which I will keep adding to. So far it seems to be what people like. A key to choosing what to give your blog readers, is to start listening to what they want from you. When you hear what they ask about a lot, or what they struggle with, if you create a resource that helps solve their problem, you’ll make your readers happy. Or if you’re a fiction writer, offering your blog readers a free novella or the first three chapters of your book, is a really great to add more readers to your email list. At the end of the day, a happy reader is what you want.
4. Create an Automatic Reply Message for Subscribers. This is sometimes called a autoresponder message. (Look back to step #2 for a list of some service providers). This step is important because you want to be able to thank people who sign up to your email list and you want to use the autoresponder to deliver your free gift. It’s great when you begin to really connect with your readers and your emails become conversations with a good friend. This is the best part of writing the email messages.
5. Start to give the link to your book out to readers. If you’ve written a book that you’ve published on Amazon and other digital retail websites, it’s great when you can use your book to link people back to your website. On the back of your book, you can put a CTA(call to action). Think of what your readers wants when you’re writing your CTA. What would compel them to go to your website at that moment and sign up for your email list? Also, double check that your CTA link is clickable. There aren’t many people who will take the time to go to their computer and type your URL into a web browser. They want to get to the link as fast as possible, right from the ebook they’re reading. If you’re writing your book using Scrivener, this is easy to do. You just highlight the text you want to link, go to Edit, click Add Link and type in the URL. Then test the link to see that it works, and you’re good to go.

Once you’ve gone through the steps, your email list should begin growing. It might start off slowly, but if you add the different tools and your content appeals to your readers, it will keep building.

The beautiful thing is, the reason your readers have joined your list in the first place is because they were interested in what you had to say. So you don’t really need to be bashful about letting them know when you have a new book finished. And it’s awesome to begin to get to know and bond with your readers.

I hope these steps have simplified the process of reaching more readers for you.

What have you struggled with as you’ve tried to grow your email list? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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