Istanbul, Turkey
Someone published a Tweet recently stressing the benefits of blogging on Medium.
I immediately understood why blogging on Medium may not be a good idea.
The very Tweet and blog post lauding Medium offered me a short, sweet, 2 paragraph teaser before:
- blocking the rest of the blog post
- arresting exposure for the post
- alerting me to the fact that I needed to sign up for a Medium account or sign in through my Medium account
Blogging on a free platform like Medium is a bad idea because you need exposure to gain quality traffic and income yet some free platforms like Medium force you to sign in to read articles. I wish not to bitch out The Big M. Folks over there can do as they please. But my job is to provide you with smart blogging tips. Turning away exposure at the nascent step of your blogging journey for reader sign-ups is foolishness to the nth degree. The error makes zero sense, a classic case of blogging self-sabotage.
You need blogging exposure. Yet anyone not signed in or sans account cannot give you exposure.
Think of the Tweet and blog post. The absolutely, positively worst thing you can do is to create barriers to your blog because each barrier accelerates your failure at worst or severely mutes your success. Until millions of readers and dollars flow through your blog you are mad to limit anyone from seeing your content.
Wise bloggers bend over backwards into a blogging pretzel to make it incredibly easy for readers to:
- access
- read
- share
their blog posts.
I want readers to see, read and share my content as quickly as possible as we all co-create our blogging success here at Blogging From Paradise. Pop ups are online suicide in my eBook because a pop up is a barrier blocking readers from accessing, reading and sharing my content quickly. Anything which prevents you from reading my content in a split second is a mistake according to my school of thought and largely, school of blogging teaching.
Look closely at my blog. Visitors instantly access my blog posts. My content is apparent. I place no gates between your eyes and my content. Come and get it. Feast on what I have to offer. This accelerates my exposure gains and credibility increases based on giving the people what they want, pronto, never delaying the process.
Free platforms forcing a sign up or sign in:
- block your content
- create barriers to reading your content
- severely limit your exposure
Think through each block or barrier.
Do you possess the luxury of turning down readers?
Can you send readers packing left and right without suffering from the strategy?
Do you want people to read your blog quickly and easily or do you want them to exit your blog in order to sign up for a free account before accessing the blog post?
Blogging on Free Platforms Is an Expensive Mistake
Bloggers often brag about blogging on free platforms for saving money on:
- a domain
- hosting packages
- a theme
But before bragging about not spending a penny how about spending the next 10 years of your life making zero dollars through free blogging platforms?
Does that sound cheap?
Or does that sound expensive?
Did you figure out how to get back 10 expired years? Did you find the secret to traveling back through those 10 years to relive the 10 years and earn significant blogging income during the decade versus the 0 dollar scenario experienced before gaining access to time travel?
Sarcasm aside, no one gets time back Understanding this simple truth makes time the most valuable currency. When time is gone, it is gone.
Throwing away 10 wasteful years of zero blogging income on a free platform is the most expensive mistake you can make. On an even more bizarre level, bloggers who piss away 10 years of their blogging lifetime making zero dollars on a free platform celebrate saving $200 annually on a domain and hosting.
Granted, you did not lose $200 per year on a domain and hosting but you did make zero dollars during the decade and frittered away 10 years of your blogging life.
How horrible a trade, eh?
Getting back to the free platform signup thingee, trash the freebie platform and damaging barrier to entry today.
Invest in your domain and hosting.
Begin blogging on WordPress Dot Org.
The Solution
Before I wax poetic about the sugary sweet laundry list of reasons why you need to blog on WordPress Dot Org I will save your time with one clear reason:
“You own your blog, make all the rules and cannot get your ass kicked off the platform unless you do something unspeakably ridiculous by breaking incredibly lenient terms of service.’
Basically, minus the beyond rare, outlier cases of bloggers who make cray-cray boo-boo’s, you own your blog, set the rules and cannot get shut down.
Why would you not invest a small sum in enjoying those benefits?
The only reason why you would not: brain fog. Or a brain freeze. Or a brain fart.
Not thinking clearly scares you into valuing the worthless and looking past the critical, important, foundational steps one needs to take to blog successfully.
Owning your blog is one such vital step.
Unless you pay for your domain and hosting you are a user, own nothing and can be given walking papers at any moment.
Conclusion
Stop preventing potential traffic by booting ’em to a sign up page for a free blogging platform.
Invest in your domain and hosting.
Own your online real estate.
Stop turning readers away.
Drive traffic by dissolving all barriers to reading your blog.
