My 9-Step Plan as a Beginner to Start Writing, Build an Audience, and Stay Consistent

Simple Steps to Kickstart Your Writing Journey and Grow Your Audience.

Hey Friends!

Are you just starting out as a writer and wondering how to build an audience from scratch? 

You're in the right place! Although I initially started writing here just for fun and to sharpen my skills, writing with a clear goal in mind could be beneficial to measure my growth. That’s why I’ve decided to focus on growing an audience and seeing where that journey takes me. 

So, this article will concentrate on the "growing an audience" part—because I know many of you are on the same journey!

Step 1: Identify Your Reason for Writing
Ask yourself: Are you writing for fun, to grow an audience, or to sell something? This decision will guide everything else.

Is it for:

• Fun 

• To grow the audience for whatever reason or

• To sell something 

After deciding which one of these three you can then proceed to Step 2

Step 2: Decide When to Write

• For Fun: Write whenever you feel like it.

• To Grow an Audience or Sell: Write daily, or at least once a week to stay consistent.

  • I found out that it really helps to schedule your writing within your day to stay more committed.

Step 3: Decide Where to Write

• For Fun: Anywhere! Personal blogs, journals, etc.

  • Mostly for personal writing, I write in my journals but sometimes, there are pieces that I would add to my “to write” things in my Substack account as well. P

• To Grow an Audience: Focus on platforms with existing traffic

  • This is because it's easier to attract readers on these platforms.

  • You learn a lot here about writing since you can interact actively with a lot of readers and writers

  • You can also join and build a community.

  • There’s just so much to discover in these types of platforms than just being isolated and most importantly I find it more enjoyable and encouraging to write when seeing other great writers as well.

• To Sell: Use business blogs, newsletters, or product pages.

Step 4: What to Write About

• For Fun: Whatever excites you.

• To Sell: Write about your products, and services, or share marketing tips relevant to your audience.

• To Grow an Audience: Stick with 2-3 topics you know well and write consistently. Watch for what your audience engages with and just keep doing that.

  • For now I have a couple of niche I listed and I would like to try out. I have decided to write 5 articles under each niche and see which I would continue and stop

    • I would decide based on, which of them are best in performance but with also consideration of how easy is it for me to write about them. This last bit is important so that I can make sure that I can really stay committed in the niche that I am writing under.

Step 5: How to start? Start with Commitment

• Just write. Don’t worry about perfection early on. Treat this phase as experimentation.

  • So far, if I take the quantitative feedback of my work normally, I would get discouraged and think that this isn’t probably working. But because I am allowing my self to think that it’s fine as these first couple of months is about experiment, I can work better without those worries.

  • Acknowledging and actually recognizing the lessons that writing consistently gives you can honestly help you stay more committed as much as outside validations.

Step 6: Build Credibility Slowly

• By writing regularly, you become more visible as a credible figure in your chosen topics. Over time, you’ll attract more readers and favorable algorithm boosts.

Step 7: Stay in the Game

Ensure your writing is both relevant and wanted by your audience.

Writings that provide value to people are what you should be writing about and of course, to make your readers want to read your work you should not suck at writing itself. 

Improve Your Writing and Stay on look out what is relevant.

Step 8: In Promote Yourself Smartly

• Promote your content by still providing value.

• Engage with other users in the platform you are in.

  • In Substack, I found it effective to interact with other users in their posts specifically through notes. 

Step 9: Monetize or Not

Consider options like ads, sponsorships, affiliates, paywalls, products, ghostwriting or other services. However offering your work as totally free is as good.