Moving from journaling to blogging is an essential step in personal development and establishing your own business. Because journaling is a private reflection on one’s perspectives, challenges, and aspirations in life.
Blogging, on the other hand, is inspiring others and, at the same time, putting yourself out there for public scrutiny and criticism. And when you blog on the internet, you write for people and machines, aka search engines, that will crawl and rank your web pages according to what they find.
This is a follow-up article on a previous post dealing with how to proceed when unsure what business to do. And it then introduced affiliate marketing as the business model of choice.
Most introductory books on affiliate marketing will talk about setting up a website and choosing affiliate products first. Then, down the line, talk a little bit about how to write for the internet and structure a sales page.
Here, we want to focus on writing first. Why? Because writing is not only a critical skill for succeeding as an affiliate. But because writing is also a great personal improvement tool. And while there is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich, be sure to make your quest for money a wholesome one.
Becoming an affiliate marketer allows you to study and reflect upon whatever you chose to be your area of expertise. And then you can share your insights with others and get rewarded in the process.
But it is vital that you provide value to others and only promote products that you know well and can truthfully endorse. Otherwise, you are just another online sales agent. And won’t reach the full potential that affiliate marketing can offer for your personal and business life.
From Journaling for Personal Growth to Writing for the Inspiration of Others
People start journaling for multiple reasons. And let’s call any writing about oneself for personal reflection journaling here. Also, journaling is just a more modern term for keeping a diary. And whether one is writing for psychological or entrepreneurial reasons, the purpose is adding reflection, understanding, mental clarity, focus, and connection.
Ryder Carroll’s popular ‘Bullet Journal Method‘ book has the subtitle ‘Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future.’
These three elements of journaling succinctly entail the breadth of personal writing: One may be writing a journal for its benefits in dealing with anxiety, depression, and stress.
Have you ever tried a gratitude journal to lift your mood? Highly effective!
Or one may be keeping track through writing to introduce a sense of accountability and time management in life.
And then use the insight for executing plans in the future. Effective journaling leverages all the benefits of writing as the personal development tool it is. In its most potent sense, journaling is writing your own story.
And when you consistently write your own story and use journaling to direct your life, two things will happen over time:
First, you will be more in touch with yourself. And there is a good chance that you develop a sense of your authentic voice and, therefore, more substantial confidence.
Second, you will become more skilled at the craft of writing. As with all the exciting journeys in life, we can’t imagine at the start where a regular writing practice can take us.
And when authenticity, confidence, and the ability to write join forces in you, something magical happens. You have successfully used writing as a critical skill to elevate your personal life.
Also, you are now ready to make money online with affiliate marketing.
How Writing for the Web Is Different
Writing copy for the internet is different than making an entry into your diary or writing a book. In line with Marshall McLuhan’s dictum, ‘the medium is the message’ our writing for the web has to comply with the nature of the internet.
Online Content Needs Visual Structure
Most people prefer manageable chunks of information that they can digest fast. Hence, short paragraphs with plenty of headlines and visual elements for easy skimming is often preferred over lengthy and monotonous-looking text.
Headlines Have to Capture Attention
Now that headlines ought to trigger interest, this is true for any writing. Every author knows that it is the title that sells the book.
But within the context of the internet, headlines become even more critical. Because in writing for the web, there are usually many more headlines as paragraphs tend to be much shorter, often not more than 300 words.
Hence, headlines need to be both action triggers and markers for structure. Especially in the context of a web page that displays multiple articles at once, titles and headlines compete for eyeballs. So, a compelling headline on the internet has to ‘convert.’
Think in Keywords
A keyword is a word that references and describes written content best. Let’s say you want to write an article about journaling and writing for the web. Then it would be best if you thought about how your potential readers would search for this topic on the internet.
As it turns out, people search for ‘from journaling to blogging,’ which therefore is the keyword of the article you are currently reading.
Writing and Search Engine Optimization
A keyword is the search term you want a particular article to rank high for search engines. As a result, the chosen keyword needs to be present on the web page.
And the keyword needs to be present in such a way that a search engine’s algorithm assigns your page the highest possible rank on its results page.
Search engine optimization is the art of understanding the criteria that search engines use to rank pages and then optimize your pages accordingly.
If your web pages rank well in search engines, your website will receive a lot of visitors. And a lot of traffic translates to revenue with the right monetization method.
Progressing from Journaling to Blogging Is to Move Others
When shifting from writing for yourself to writing for others, you set out to make an impact. Now you are in sales. You aim to capture and to keep attention. How?
By attuning to the perception of other people. If you want to persuade, you need to be empathetic. Journaling is like cleaning your own house. Blogging is providing stones so others can build their house.
And when writing for the Internet, we need to follow the technical rules of this medium. Thus, Blogging is the ideal playground to develop our writing skills further and generate income at the same time.
