How to grow your blog ethically

How to grow your blog ethically 

By Alexander Semenyuk

Hey friends and readers,

I decided to make my booklet, which I published on Amazon, available for paid subscribers on here as well, so I’ll be posting it here in full and cross posting it into the other publication as well.

I have given out many full forever complementary subscriptions to my top readers, so for those of you who have that, I do ask that you please share this post. Would really appreciate that.

Right now I am offering a forever price of 1.5$ a month for my full subscription. You’d get this full booklet, and hundreds of other things I’ve published and will publish.

This booklet has reached #1 in its category before and has great reviews and feedback. Multiple writers have told me that after implementing the things suggested they had a great increase in readership.

Below is the full text, hope this helps you, and I greatly appreciate your support.

Hey friends and readers, 

In this course I will address you in the same manner I have all of my readers on the various blogs over the years. 

Upon other writers seeing my numbers on the blogs I was constantly receiving the same question. 

“How did you do it?” 

My answers were always brief and honest, but I see they were unsatisfactory. So, I decided to fully expand on the answer and really try and help others as far as this topic goes. 

“Ethically” is an important part of the title and we will get into it more as we go, but know one thing. I never support any type of growth that manipulates, uses or hurts others. Being ethical is key to me.  

Briefly about me. 

I am on author of 20+ fiction books, including several award winning books and multiple books that reached #1 on Amazon. 

My first attempt at blogging was on a very simple Wix blog. I had just 50 email subscribers and wasn’t really too focused, or had any type of consistency. Then some close people to me, especially my sister, got me to set up a blog on Medium platform. I learned as I went, and after 8 month on the platform I had 10 thousand followers (different from email subscribers). At this point I learned about Substack and decided to switch. Substack collects emails, so my followers from Medium would not transfer. This was fine, because I saw the huge potential in the platform and knew that I had value to give. Within 3 month I gathered 1000+ email subscribers. The growth has been large and constant. So, let’s break it down step by step of what are the things I believe to be important when you want to become a successful blogger, in an ethical way. 

Know your why. 

Why do you want to start a blog? Did someone tell you you’ll be good at it? Are you inspired by reading other blogs? Are you a writer looking to expand? Do you have a lot of thoughts that need to be shared? Do you want to have an outlet for releasing emotions? Are you looking for more connections? Are you a professional and think you could do great by sharing your knowledge and skills? 

The questions are plenty, yet you must really focus and before you do anything answer your “why” with conviction. You don’t want to start something without having any real vision, or understand  your own thoughts and emotions about it. 

Many writers start a blog in hopes of turning it into a career, but they don’t have the preparation, nor a clear vision needed. 

Answer your “why” and then move to the next step. 

Offer value. 

Next step before you launch is to understand what value you’ll be offering with your blog. What will you add to people’s lives? Can they relate and learn? Will they be inspired? 

Example:

If you go into blogging and write about only your problems without anything else, guess what? Most people will not be interested. 

Now, if you write about your problems, but then give examples of how you are dealing with them, or overcoming. There, that’s a different story. 

This would be a topic to expand upon. You could write about specialists who deal with those type of issues, eventually you could even start a podcast, inviting people who dealt with similar issues. 

That’s just one example how you can add value. 

Don’t ever assume that you know little, or have nothing for others to learn. Each of us can teach others something. Know that you have value and add it into your writing. 

Setting realistic goals. 

Setting goals is important, but can also be discouraging if you set unrealistic goals. How to avoid it? 

Know the platform. Look around the platform you chose to blog on. See how many subscribers people who have been posting for years have. See how many people who have been posting for a few month have. Check writers who are posting on the subjects you’ll be writing on. What is their growth? Who are the most popular writers in those topics and how long did it take them? How often did they post? 

Know the platform. 

This doesn’t mean that you can’t explode and do better than everyone else. It’s possible. 

However, it’s better to be surprised in a good way than in a bad way. 

If you set your goal for first 3 month to be 100 subscribers and you reach 150, you’ll be very happy. If you set your goal at 1500 after first 3 months and get to 150, you’ll be very upset, but you have set unrealistic goals, that’s the issue. 

Always hope for the best, but be ready for anything. 

Who are your readers? 

You are almost ready to launch. Just one more question left before that. Who will be your readers? This is important because it’ll determine many other things coming up, including your set up. 

Are you writing about stocks? Engineering? Fiction? Are teens your main audience? Women? Are you writing for the elderly? 

Knowing who you’ll be writing for is crucial to your set up. Let’s see why. 

Set up and launch 

Making a first good impression in blogging is just like in real life. A great start will give you momentum. 

(If you didn’t set up well before. You’ll benefit from this as well at any time. Once you make these changes, simply reintroduce yourself to the community.)

Start by looking through all of the settings and learning about what you want turned on and what you do not want. 

Replace all automated messages with your own. 

Next step, photo. 

If you want the best impact, show who you are. Show YOU. Not animated characters, animals, etc. People will relate to YOU. Make sure the photo is clear and says something about your personality. 

Are you a big coffee drinker? Have a coffee mug. 

Also, remember we spoke about your audience. Are you trying to connect with teens? Professionals? Stock interested individuals? Your look in the photo will say who you are trying to connect with. 

This also goes for the image and name you’ll choose for your publication. The best names for publications are short and to the point. They represent something about you and what you are offering to others. 

For example, mine is called “Lighthouse.” 

I love lighthouses, so it’s personal. Also, lighthouses represent a guiding light, and often are associated with spirituality and faith. This is largely what I write about, hence it makes perfect sense. 

Color themes of your page will also play a crucial part. Study what each color represents. 

Usually skin ton colors are more neutral and  are best if your goal to have a very diverse audience in age. If you go with very vibrant colors, you’ll be targeting a younger generation, but might not be appealing to the older. 

So there once again we go to “Know your audience” from before. 

Now, image for your publication. It should be simple, clear and professional. Don’t overwhelm readers with too much information in the image. Make sure it makes perfect sense with your title. 

Next, sections that talk about you, who you are. 

There is the short description, which people will see first. This should be something that will in a few sentences say what value you offer and something personal about you. 

In the longer section you can discuss yourself and your blog in as much detail as you’d like. 

Now that you are ready to launch you got one more thing to prepare. 

Introduction post. 

You don’t want to launch a blog and tell everyone about it without a single post or article written there. 

This is where your introduction post comes in. 

In this post you will tell readers three things: 

Who you are. 

Why you are writing. 

Why should they subscribe. 

Now, have it saved and ready. When you think it’s time, make the first post and invite all your friends and family. 

It is time to dive into the blogging community. 

Random or scheduled? 

Now that your blog is live and launched, you can decide if you want to create a specific posting schedule or if you’ll be vague about it. 

You must understand one thing. By vague, I don’t mean post whenever, you still have to be consistent, but you can leave some flexibility. For example, instead of saying “I’ll post every Tuesday and Thursday” you say “I’ll post twice a week, but not sure which days.” 

You’ll still be posting twice a week either way, but not scheduled.  

This should be based on your personality. Some people like to be more strict, while others want to feel more freedom. Don’t force it. Trust your gut. 

Next aspect of posting is frequency. There are many arguments about this among the bloggers. Fact is, it once again goes back to “know your audience.” 

Does your audience like your posting frequency? Ask them. Do they want more or less? When I asked my readers if I’m posting too much, the vast majority replied saying they either like how it is or actually would prefer even more. This gave me confidence about my posting frequency. You won’t be able to please everyone, but you’ll have a core set of fans that you should pay attention to and value their opinion. 

Being part of the blogging community. 

This part connects to - you guessed it, knowing your audience. However, in this case, I really am talking about KNOWING. Taking an interest, interacting. 

People are not objects. Every person has a life story to tell. They all have feelings, trauma, joys, sorrows. Remember this well and always when interacting with others, and yes, if you want to grow your blog, you must interact with others. 

During my blogging journey one of the greatest benefits has been meeting very interesting people with whom I often end up having much in common. Building real relationship is an awesome part of blogging which should be embraced.  

Learning from others, which ever subject it may be, is important also. 

So, what are the specifics of interacting. 

First thing that’s an absolute must is replying to all the comments you receive. If you don’t even engage with your own readers, how can you expect to grow and to build any relationships. People who do this are often viewed as self centered and disinterested in others. Are you trying to give value to others or do you just want to use others? Big contrast there. Make sure you are giving, not just taking. It’s a give and take relationship and a genuine one. 

Secondly, read other writers articles which you find interesting and if you feel really strongly, besides liking those, you can also leave thoughtful comments.  

Third, support others. You don’t have to be the biggest giver, but you should make an effort to help others, especially those who are supporting you. This can be done by sharing their work. Encouraging them and also recommending their work to others. Help without expecting anything in return. Remember, real connection, those who are meant to help you will do so genuinely. 

Dealing with bullies and attacks. 

You might think this does not apply to you, however, it does to every blogger. Some more than others, but it’s good to be ready. There will always be that someone who has nothing better to do. If it’s jealousy, or personal trauma, it’s not really important in the sense to what we should do. It’s easy to have a passionate reaction to someone attacking you. If you do that, you’ll lose precious time and you’ll also be affected mentally in a negative way. You have several options that are better. 

First, make one comment back and no more regardless of their reply. 

Second, ignore it. 

Third, delete their comment. 

Four, block or ban them. 

Here is my personal strategy. I always reply to see if I miss-understood the comment, once I see the person is up to no good, I block them and delete their comments. One thing I don’t tolerate much is someone attacking other readers on my page, you shouldn’t either. This may lead to them associating bad experience with your blog. Block that individual immediately. You must do what’s best for you and your readers. 

Strong and respectful. 

Now that we talked about bullies, let’s make sure that you’re not acting like one also. There has to be a delicate balance between strength and respect. If someone comes for a discussion and is not insulting, treat them with respect and kindness. This does not mean to bend your beliefs for someone, you can stand firm while being respectful. Avoid attacking others, especially their personal beliefs. Always build your argument based on respect, common sense and logic. 

Personal things. 

How about sharing personal things? 

People love it. They want to know you better, especially if you want them to pay for your work. You can use tools such as “Notes” on Substack, or shorter email messages on other blogs to share some personal things about you. 

Make about 10% of your blog personal. 

“Notes” on Substack works like Twitter or Facebook status. You can post photos, short messages, opinions about current events. 

On other platforms you can create a personal message for your readers once every two weeks, or once a month. 

How you view others. 

Your inner attitude towards others is even more important than what you show. Even if you are kind on the outside to others, but have no real desire to contribute on the inside, eventually you’ll drop the mask and it’ll all come crashing down. 

The lesson here is simple. Be yourself and do not view others as means to an end. View them as people not as items. 

Consistency and perseverance. 

Different people have different views on what success means. We talked about expectations. However, we would all be lying if we said we don’t want more readers and would mind more income. 

Sometimes there is a rare occurrence of a big viral hit. If this happens to you, all the steps still must be followed, or it’ll simply die down. Use the momentum. 

Viral posts are extremely rare for beginners. Focus on healthy organic growth of your blog by doing everything we discussed. 

Great growth and experience with blogs don’t happen overnight. Just like with any work, there must be a genuine good effort put in and eventually there will be various benefits. 

Besides money and subscribers you can also expect possible connections that will help you with your other projects. 

For example, I met some people interested in co writing books. I also met people with a lot in common and I learned a much from others. 

All great things. 

Burn out. 

This is a common thing with majority of bloggers. Burn out can happen to anyone, but there are also ways to get through it and recharge. 

One, instead of creating new material spend time sharing older posts and interact with others. 

Two, tell your readers you are taking some time away from the blog and do something relaxing, perhaps in nature, get your eyes away from screens. 

Three, post very short posts, simply to stay engaged, readers will be fine with it, they know you. 

The gifts. 

Who doesn’t like gifts? 

You might think that your writing is already enough and your large amount of work is a “gift” enough, but those who pay for your blog don’t share that view. They literally pay to read your work, there is no extra. An extra would be you giving something unexpectedly. Do you have a kindle book? Send it over. Perhaps make a post thanking some specific people and creating a special message. 

Write poetry? Write small poems for your biggest supporters. 

Art? Draw something small for your biggest supporters. 

Extra effort goes a long way. 

Now, there is one person you might be forgetting when it comes to gifting, you. 

You can give yourself a gift everyday, it’s how you view things. 

That hot cup of coffee, that’s a gift, sit down and enjoy it without worrying about anything. 

A walk or a run, that’s a gift. 

A cookie from a bakery. 

A tiny sticker that you find funny. 

Give yourself small gifts and rewards. 

Enjoy the journey. 

It’s impossible to always be positive, but remember that it is up to you to have more highs than lows. Every time you feel low, remember that there is a high coming. The sun goes down and comes up. Every night will have a dawn. Every storm will have an end. Just as your every worry will pass. 

You can do this. 

God bless, 

Alex.