Why not piggyback on powerful writing platforms, instead of struggling with tech?

There are no less than a million blog posts, gurus and mentors out there telling you about blogging, how to monetize and have a passive income.

This blog is not about how to relax on a beach with a laptop but for people who are genuinely struggling to kick start a blog, hassled with technology, love writing but have been procrastinating.

Some reasons below, why you should continue reading my blog:

• I had no writing experience until 2017 (only emails)
• Had no clue about this big bad world of blogging
• Technology and its tools just overwhelmed me
• I kept delaying blogging..

Now, if you can relate to any of the above scenarios, you should read the rest of my blog.

Couple of weeks back a business acquaintance called and asked for my advice on how I started my blog.

I was flattered and during the discussion, a structure emerged on how I approached writing, and blogging in specific.

Sharing the exact thought process— no holds barred…!!

4Ws and 1H

Start with this table, you may just jot it down in your notebook. But it’s essential that you do it.

Good old management tools come handy.

(The bullets in bold are my reasons)

Why should I have a blog?

1. Want to be of service
2. Build authority
3. Monetize
4. I love writing
5. I want to be famous

Who will I serve?

1. Entrepreneurs in the tech and outsourcing domain
2. Entrepreneurs struggling with sales
3. Techies struggling with sales
4. Introverts struggling with sales

Where will I find my ideal readers?

1. Quora
2. LinkedIn
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. Personal network
6. Communities

What should I write about?

1. “How” questions from your audience
2. “What “ questions
3. “Why” questions

When should I publish?

Decide on a frequency which isn’t very aggressive nor very scarce

How will I let them know?

1. Social media
2. WhatsApp
3. SMS
4. Email

Theory of natural evolution in writing

Research says, humans choose the “path of least resistance” when faced with challenges.

I knew I had to write someday if I had to build authority and genuinely help people.

My thoughts were —

1. What is it that was the closest to writing emails? Not too long, concise and with brevity.
2. How can I avoid setting up domain, tech stuff and all that heartache involved in setting up a “blog” ?
3. In short, can I piggyback on some in-built platforms that already have an audience and the tech built in?

I thus found Quora — the most underestimated social media platform with the potential to upstage Google.

So, if you are an expert in your field, and you want to flatter yourself with questions from genuine seekers, you can easily drown yourself at Quora.

When we choose a difficult target to hit, we give up, just like why we hate going to gyms and quit. Instead, pick something easy like strolling and then keep pushing yourself to do harder things like cross fit.

Quora was “strolling” for me.

Below is the food chain of writing and the theory of natural evolution

Quora answers >> Quora Blog >> LinkedIn publish >> Medium.com and then >> Own blog>> E-book >> Book

1. Quora

The strategy for Quora:

1. Create a detailed profile

2. “Knows about” (right pane) has to be about your relevant fields

3. Choose “spaces”

These are like communities discussing a specific topic.

You can show off your skills with some like minded audience.

4. Start with “Answers”

Here is now Quora will prompt you to pick up questions from people, on your subject.

Golden tips on how to answer questions

• Be very genuine
• Don’t be very short or overly long
• Have lots of bullet points and
• Lots of external links
• Put photos in your answers
• Be very consistent in answering
• Make a google doc / Word document on repetitive questions
• You can connect to your twitter/ facebook accounts, so any answer you post in Quora is automatically published in those as well

This is what happens when you are consistent in helping people with their questions.

PS: most of my lead generation and subscribers to the email list have their origination in my Quora answers.

Someone reads my quora post, checks out my profile, visits my linkedIn profile and blog, signs up for my newsletter.

Bonus materials:

• Serious advice from “the legendary Neil Patel” on using Quora can be found here.
• Indepth Quora strategy from Sumo.com here

2. Quora blog

Good thing about Quora is that along with short and medium content, it allows you a full blown blogging platform.

So no more buying domains, setting up tech, WordPress and all that jazz !!

So are you ready to write long form content and go full out?

How to start a blog on Quora:

Step 1: Go to your profile and click on blogs.

Step 2: Now scroll down and click on create a blog.

Step 3: Enter the description and name for you blog and click create.

Step 4: Create a blog post. …

Step 5: You’re done

Here is a link to my blog SalesDawg within Quora.

Disclaimer: Honestly I am yet to reap any huge dividends from publishing within Quora however I do that to be consistent across all platforms.

Also once my main blog was down, I was able to redirect my audience to Salesdawg — t was like a BCP — business continuity plan.

3. LinkedIn publish

If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, then…..shame on you. Please build one.

How to start publishing on LinkedIn

1. Drop down your profile, on the right you will have “Posts and Activity”
2. Once there you can see “Drafts” to your left

This is how your blank blog page will look. Go ahead and start painting your empty canvas.

Golden tips on LinkedIn publishing

1. Be intentionally long and yet valuable
2. Use lot of images, links and reference materials
3. Use great headline and sub heading
4. Keep the language simple yet direct
5. Lists and “how to” works really well in LinkedIn
6. Always share your LnkedIn writings on other social media platforms
7. Give credit to others’s content

This is how my blog at LinkedIn looks like:

Bonus materials

• Want to know if your headline will fly? I use the Co-schedule tool to give you a score.
• I love Noah Kagan and all his stuff. You can find in depth strategy on LinkedIn publishing Here

4. Medium.com

After a couple of years of solid writing on Quora and LinkedIn, this was a well-deserved self-graduation.

Medium.com is a self style social journalism and enjoys a 25 million plus readership including paid memberships.

It pays writers who have serious following and consistent in a given category. You can read more about it here

You can choose interest areas based on authors and publications (see top panel)

Good thing is that you can either start drafting directly on medium.com or import it from your Google doc or Word document.

Golden tips on medium.com writing

1. Again, always be genuine
2. Write directly to your audience
3. Avoid self promotion
4. Really great headline and sub title
5. Great images
6. No call to actions please
7. Very simple language
8. Credit other authors and provide links

Bonus tips :

• You can submit your own writings on other publications within medium. You can find great publications by using the drop down list by clicking on your profile photo.

If your writing has the edge and addresses a specific audience, go ahead and be brave.

• You can create your own website (trust me) within medium, all paid for!! Click on “New Publication”

• Publication within Medium will look something like these below:

Bonus materials

• Want to have the best copyright free images. Head over to Unsplash and don’t forget to credit the source
• Tim Denning is an amazing person and drops huge value bombs. Read his in depth strategies on not only writing but making money on Medium.com here

5. If you must have a blog

Now we can’t avoid the dreaded topic of not having a blog. Can we?

When I say blog, it means a standalone website, with your own domain. Like my own blog

The advantages of having your own blog

1. You aren’t restricted with other platforms’ compliance and policies
2. You can do lot of selling, pop ups, banners etc on your own blog
3. You are in absolute control of your content
4. You build more credibility

Steps to having your own blog

1. Book your domain at godaddy (you can choose wherever you wish to)
2. Link the domain to WordPress.com templates (I use a free WP template)
3. Buy hosting (you can choose from godaddy as well. I use A2hosting)
4. Create some pages like About Me, Blog, Contact Me
5. Start writing
6. Start promoting your pieces of content

How I promote my blog pieces

This requires an entire blog by itself with extensive strategies however I have listed a few

• Email to my network
• WhatsApp broadcast
• Share it on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Bonus tip:

You can use an automation tool like Buffer to post content in all social media channels in one go.

Books and e-books

Sorry, this blog can’t go on forever.

Publishing books, according to me, is the epitome of one’s writing career.

I always believe that the day I have a book published, I can die peacefully.

Although I have some lead generation strategies using e-books. How to create ebooks and promote them. Strategies and mistakes. In the next blog please..

In closing

Write, if you must, I think I have laid out simple but powerful platforms with inbuilt audience and technology inside them.

All you have to do is sit on your computer and just bleed!

So no more waiting around, pick a platform and show the world what you have got inside.

Karmesh, is a Side Hustling Dad, Intrapreneur, author and a blogger on unorthodox sales strategies for tech companies. Lives in Mumbai, loves food, fast bikes and cars.

Get his free E-guide on Getting BPO Clients — click HERE

Connect on any of the below platforms:

Karmaworks.co | LinkedIn | Quora | Medium | Twitter | Facebook | SalesDawg Blog