Creating a Content Web
How I have (attempted) to tie together my Medium, Substack, and Gumroad content with a new website
One of the biggest challenges in trying to create an online brand is connecting your content from disparate platforms and sources.
The rise of third party digital publishing platforms, increase in social media platforms, and expansion of e-commerce sites have created an unprecedented opportunity for non-coders to create online products and communities.
However, most writers (myself included) didn’t start out with a detailed roadmap outlining the optimal structure for success and plan for the expansion of their brand should their content be successful.
Most writers likely started off with a free blogging platform. They focused on creating useful or entertaining content. They weren’t intentionally building, what I refer to as a content web.
A content web is a series of interconnected platforms or websites, promoting not only an author’s specific articles, but their custom products and services, as well as building a content creator’s personal brand.
In my case, the initial platform I started publishing content on was Medium.
And even when focusing on just one platform, it took me a while to find what I liked to write about.
However, as I gradually created useful content (about digital marketing, entrepreneurship, and writing on Medium), I began to experiment with creating other types of content.
Much of this content covered similar topics, but was displayed in a new medium (i.e. the creation of YouTube instructional videos).
I’ve started (and in many cases deleted) over 50 Medium publications, to properly organize my content and collaborate with other writers.
The main publications that developed during this period were:
While they all cover unique topics, they are all more or less an extension of my underlying interests in digital publishing platforms, marketing, and tutorials based on my own trials and errors as an internet entrepreneur.
However, these connections were not readily apparent when I was writing most of these articles. It was difficult to see how all this could be connected together.
I had all the right pieces, but they were not properly linked together, creating a sense of chaos and confusion over which project to prioritize.
This is why I always encourage writer/bloggers to keep experimenting with their creative endeavors.
The path to financial success in the passion economy is typically less clear than earning money through traditional work.
For the longest time, I assumed I did not need a separate website to link my content together.
However, as I have expanded the offering beyond publications, into newsletters, digital downloads, and subscription services, it became apparent that I was going to (at least try to) build a website linking some of these articles, platforms, and products together.
My hope is that this website will be a useful repository of blogging knowledge, tools, courses, and resources. Ideally, the new Blogging Guide website will help create a content web. Once users are enaged with one product or service, they can be gradually introduced to related products, services, or my “Blogging Guide” brand.
This is similar to a content funnel which is a system that introduces new leads to your business through different types of content. These leads are then converted into possible customers by progressively “funneling” them through more types of content.
The key difference is that a content web aims to draw in people who are interested in supporting your creative endeavors, not because you convince them that they need or want your service or product (as is the purpose of a content funnel). The leads from a content web are people who support the community you are creating. They choose to support you because they want other community members to benefit from all the “free content” you produce, or sponsor the production of further “free content” to the vast majority of users.
Creating The Website
In 2020, it is pretty rare to find a two word .com domain that is neither previously registered nor expensive to purchase on the secondary market, especially if your keywords are common and broadly applicable.
I did want the domain to match the site name, so my new website was called Blogging Guide with a .org Top Level Domain (https://bloggingguide.org).
Website Name: Blogging Guide
URL: www.bloggingguide.org
The new website was created using WordPress. Actually, I am still working on the website, although it is live.
Even though I plan to produce most of my future content on third party platforms (Medium and Substack), it is nice to be able to organize this content in a central place.
If I didn’t organize the content, it is very possible that readers would stumble across content out of sequence, leading to a high bounce rate.
For example, if someone searches for “medium writing tips” or “Best Blogging Platforms” in Google, I want to make sure they find my articles addressing these questions, as opposed to the landing page to my Substack newsletter which discusses these topics and indexes well.
Perhaps most importantly, the vast majority of my content is free, so I don’t want to confuse readers who may think they need to subscribe to my newsletter in order to get the answer they searched for.
Conversely, I only want to emphasize the sale of a very specific digital product if I know that a reader has read all my free content and understands that by becoming a subscriber to my newsletter, they will get the digital download included for free as a bonus.
The Role of My Substack Newsletter
I try to give away as much content for free as I can to readers before they subscribe. And for those that do subscribe, I try to bundle all my premium content together, making it a great deal.
This is almost certainly not the most lucrative approach. Selling each product individually and then cross selling other products to this same group of identified “high target” buyers would be the go to strategy if I were trying to eke out every dollar from users.
However, my main focus in content creation is to try to create value for users. Not only does this seem more ehtical but it is actually more effective, in the long-run.
Not only does this foster better relationships with readers but it allows me to build an online brand that has value beyond the sum of the products available for sale.
This is not to say that I don’t intend to monetize the content I have spend countless hours creating , I certainly do— but I want to do so in a way that leaves readers and customers happy.
If they appreciate my work, then I give them an easy way to support me through my newsletter.
Yes, the newsletter itself contains valuable subscriber-only posts.
But many of my subscribers support me because of the free content that I have created/continue to create for themselves or others. They are supporting me in my creative endeavors, just as Kevin Kelly posited in his influential 2008 essay on his concept of 1,000 True Fans.
This model makes me feel more comfortable as a creator, and removes the annoyance of asking for contributions or abstract financial support (i.e. always asking my readers to “support me on Patreon” or “buy me a cup of coffee”).
The Blogging Guide website is not intended to outrank my existing content; rather, the goal is that my existing readers will have a well organized overview of all the different but related topics that I explore.
The website could lead to someone buying a one off download or subscribing to my newsletter, but the main focus is creating and aggregating valuable blogging content and resources, in a single place.
Integrating Content, Platforms, Products, and Services
Some third party platforms and products already have some form of integration.
For example, Gumroad is one of the supported Medium embeds.
But there is no way to link dozens products, services, and content without creating your own self hosted website.
Creating Blogging Guide as a central site for all related topics across all platforms does require significant time and effort.
Platforms like Medium, Substack, and Gumroad all are popular because they streamline the process of creating a sleek, modern, and reliable web pages.
However, by using WordPress to create a self-hosted website, I can control which content is featured, how I want my content organized, and choose who has access to my content.
Takeaway
Even if you didn’t set out to create the perfect content web, you can organize and aggregate products, articles, and services hosted across numerous third party platforms.
While I have only just begun creating Blogging Guide’s website, I am already benefiting from taking the time to see how my existing content actually fits together.
This may seem obvious in hindsight, but for many writers, it is difficult to see how all your unique creative content can fit together, so that it is both useful to readers and properly rewards you as a creator.
So even if you don’t create a self-hosted website to help organize your content, there is still tremendous value in periodically examining the content you are creating and looking for patterns or synergy that you may not have considered when creating each separate article, product, or service.
Until next time!
Casey
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