What’s the most common advice about building an audience or growing your followers?
I’ll tell you.
It’s to be consistent.
- Write more
- Publish more
- Comment on people’s stories
- Share your work on social media
While these are all excellent pieces of advice, they are generic and don’t focus on making you stand out among creative writers.
The number of content creators, including writers, has grown significantly. There’s high competition to become the best among others doing the same.
People won’t follow you if you keep doing what others are doing. They have seen and read the same crap everywhere. So, why would they follow you? There’s no reason for them to make the extra effort and hit “follow.”
By this, I do not mean you should aim to create something unique every time. It can be more difficult. However, there are a few phases of writing that’ll help you build an audience of over 1,000 in significantly less time.
Phase 1: Write
Begin by writing about whatever you want. This stage is for learning and building a habit. It’s about showing up, writing, publishing, and doing all the generic things.
Forget about focusing on a niche, although that’s what they tell you. Instead, you should write and explore multiple categories before you decide what you want to write about.
You indeed get seen when consistently writing, publishing, and commenting on people’s posts. However, there is a difference between someone seeing your work and following you. Just because someone sees your work doesn’t mean they will follow you.
For instance, I read a lot of articles. But I don’t follow many writers, even though I find their work excellent. The article must be exceptional and provide extra value for me to check out the writer and follow them.
Don’t expect people to follow you just because you showed up and published more articles.
Phase 2: Building an audience
Now that you have built a habit and learned the importance of consistency, it’s time to level up your game.
You need to provide extra benefits to the readers. How do you do that?
You give away freebies in exchange for their emails. Building an email list is the number one way to grow your audience. You must do that from day one. Whenever you write a story, provide a link where the readers can sign up to learn more about you. It’s best when you add a freebie to the subscription process. Freebies can be e-books, guides, templates, checklists, short courses, or a list of ChatGPT prompts.
Again, just because you add a link doesn’t mean people will subscribe. Most of them will ignore it. A few will click to see what it’s about. Only some will send their emails to you. Now, your job is to get the reader’s attention and make them click the link. Then, when they find your website or landing page, you need to make them sign up. You can’t let those who clicked the link leave without taking action.
Learn how to write intriguing copy so readers will only leave after signing up for your email list.
I’ve written a detailed post on building an email list and growing your audience. Here’s the link to the article.
Phase 3: The secret strategy
If you think you don’t write well, there is a secret strategy for getting the reader’s attention. You only need to learn to do this well, and the previous phases will make more sense.
Learn to write good headlines. The title of your stories or posts is your most underrated asset. If you can only write good headlines, it will make 90% of the readers click on your story and read it. Headlines can make a significant difference whether you are writing a sales copy, article, or social media post.
When you can crack a good headline, people will click it. Now that they have already seen your work, they will read it. Then, it’s your job to hook them to sign up for your email list.
When you have an email list, you have a loyal audience that will help you earn money through various sources, such as products/services, affiliates, courses, ads, or paid memberships.
However, I must warn you that just because you can crack spicy headlines doesn’t guarantee you will grow your audience. You must also write genuine stories that will help readers. Your goal should be to add value, not just use clickbait to get their attention.
Summary
- Write more. Although this advice is cliche, it works. Publish more to be seen more. That’s step one.
- Build an email list. Get people to subscribe by giving away freebies and other exciting stuff to improve their lives.
- Focus on headlines. If you can master headlines, you can get more subscribers and sales. It’s the most underrated secret to success as a writer.
