You’ve been working hard writing your latest book or have a great idea you want to share with the world beyond TikTok land. You are wondering what your best avenues are for getting the word out, right? Well, welcome to the internet—easy and yet so hard!

Having easy access to millions of readers across the globe is great, but it’s just potential. Your post can go viral and be seen by millions of viewers, or it can sit like ice cream on a scorching day and disappear in minutes – never enjoyed by anyone. What to do?

Blogging Still Rocks

To begin with, every writer should have a blog or website. It’s the most potent, consistent, and reliable way to attract and capture readers for newsletters and repeat visits. And if you ever wondered how to start a blog from scratch in today’s market, it’s not hard!

While adding your wisdom to the blogosphere, you might even make some money selling your products – or collect passive income from traffic to your well-designed and maintained site. Plus, it’s fun.

Blogging also teaches structure and consistency because you’ll need to make regular entries to your site – it’s what your readers are waiting for and what they expect. The best part is that you’ll learn discipline, and at the same time, you’ll be free to write what you want, not what someone else demands that you write.

Social Media Keys

There are many ways to stay in touch with the masses, but the biggest audiences on the web are Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp. Twitter may still get headlines, but its viewership is only about 15% of the top three. Other top ten audiences include TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, which means most information is shared in video form.

Videos are great if you are spreading your wings to new Apps or trying to hit new audiences. They can drive traffic to your website or even your blog, so having a video hosted on YouTube on your blog can be very successful. Still, keep in mind that the key to social media is consistency. A tweet might not be attractive to a massive group, but if you tweet regularly, some tweets (or videos, articles, etc.) will hit the sweet spot and drive your readers.

The other thing to remember is that different Apps have different demographics, so you’ll get different results. Don’t waste all your time or marketing dollars on a single platform unless you know it targets the group you need!

Addressing Web Traffic

There’s a frustrating truth to web traffic every writer eventually learns. No matter how well you write, you’ve got to catch regular viewers to be successful. Once they get to your site and see how wonderful you are, they can sign up for email notices (I love WordPress for its easy capture of viewers) each time you post a new page or blog. But you have to get them to your site! It’s a Catch-22 situation. You can’t capture them if you can’t get them to your site!

Fortunately, almost any blog-hosting site will provide some free publicity, but you’ll still need to rely on social media for any other free exposure, which takes time.

My best advice is to print out a blank monthly calendar and fill it in daily with at least one social media provider you link to your new content. You don’t need a new blog daily, but you must tell every outlet about your latest post.

The calendar will keep you from spamming any platform, and you’ll know which one to go to each day, which makes the process fast. Just be consistent. If your writing is fun and engaging, you’ll get readers who will join your email group, sign up for newsletters, and even share your posts with their friends. The harder you work, the luckier you’ll get!