Blogging has become a great option for writers/authors to begin their career, no matter what is the subject of their interest. In the digital world, blogs pave a pathway for aspiring authors and writers to communicate with their target audience without having to wait for approvals. But it is not just for fiction writers, researchers too, blog! Shocked? That’s correct, blogging is becoming a very popular medium of disseminating research, talking to people in the community and reaching out audiences, whom you may not otherwise have access to, with regular journal call for paper. It’s a great way to share your knowledge, discuss new ideas, and become successful as an academician and research writer. In fact, blogging in academics, can itself become a successful career.
Here are 9 ways in which you can build your career as an academic blogger-
Don’t Start a Blog to Get Rich Immediately- Blogging can be life-changing, it can add much meaning and substance to your work and ideas. However, nothing clicks overnight except for lotto. Therefore, with blogging too, you have to be patient. You have to work extremely hard with regularity to become successful with blogging. Firstly, understand the benefits of blogging to set an objective for yourself; i.e., why are you blogging! It is because blogging helps you connect with your readers, brush up your writing skills, discover more literature gaps in your field, improve your communication skills and makes your research more shareable with tweets, likes, shares etc. Hence your writing gets noticed through social media network which takes time to develop as a chain reaction. If you keep doing regularly, you build upon that network, the network gives back advertisement and sponsors, which again give back earning. So, you can’t start earning millions immediately, it takes time, so set your expectations right.
Choose the Right Topic- A lot of bloggers imagine that they have to be ‘original’ with their topic to start writing. That wastes hours of Google Search and an additional layer of research to discover something that is undiscoverable. But, trust me, there is no need to invent all the time. If there are some good research works and academic posts already on your topic, that’s a good thing. It means that the respective topic is gaining public interest, people care about it. Choose it, write it and build upon the existing ideas to get noticed easily. An already popular topic will attract attention much faster through Googling than something which is totally unexplored. Also, be precise and clear about the topic you want to write. You can also choose to write a summary of what you have learned from a recent conference, but the idea should be direct and clear. Do not overlap multiple topics into one blog post.
Choose an Effective Title- For an academic paper, title reveals what the paper is about. Often in journal call for paper, submissions get rejected if the title is complicated and unclear. So, use easy, crisp words to create your post title. You may use technical terms related to the content of your research blog, to let the audience know what the writing is about. However, the idea of the blog should come clear, direct and accurate. The title should straight away give an idea about what is the objective of the blog, or what has been found, to establish what. Snappy titles e.g. ’10 tips on ….’, ‘5 things I learned about…’ can often appeal to the time-short reader.You can also put your title in question form like, “What is the effect of climatic alterations on the Polar regions?” Then basically, your research question can become your title to intrigue interest.The readers usually select a blog with its title, so make sure they find it relevant and interesting.
Choose the Right Platform- Once you know your topic and what you want to get out of writing the blog post, choose the platform which will meet your aims. Don’t be conservative in posting on your blog platform alone. Explore pages and websites that allow external bloggers to share their thoughts; check for their popularity and readership. The Thesis Whisperer, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Regional Studies Association Blog are just examples of such platforms. Feel free to blog on such various platforms to get noticed faster. Do you want to allow for discussion and engagement? Write for a blog which allows for comments – though make sure you’re prepared to respond to these. Do you want to reach a particular audience? Then write for a blog with that readership.
Know Your Audience- This is key to all research works; writing for the right audience. You must know who is the targeted reader/stakeholder of your research. A businessman won’t be interested in a research on Shakespeare. So clearly blog only on those places which are accessed by your target audience. Use citations and hashtags in your writing which will optimize the search for that specific audience group. This helps you develop your title, content and also resonate better with the audience.
Make It Visual- In the digital world, you cannot write a post in black and white, and become successful. It needs to be attractive. Images and videos are the best way to attract readers’ attention to a post. Same goes for academicians and research writers. Use graphs, relevant videos and images in your blog to grab eyeballs. This will improve readership, citation and circulation of your post.
Translate Your Language- An academic blog post is different to an academic journal article. Often, they are intended for a wider audience, including those outside of academia so you need to tailor language to your audience. As journal and blog editor Per Carlbring notes, “do not use unnecessary technical expressions – it’s a difficult art to explain complicated principles in an easy way.” Also, you need to be concise. You need to communicate your objective, findings and results within a specific word count and space, therefore, language modification is required because blogs are much shorter than journal call for paper articles.
Include Your Social Media Handles and Keywords- Include links to your other social media accounts, whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other academic networking site – helping build up your online research profile. Doing so in an academic post can be tricky, but you have to carefully incorporate these digital strategies to make your blog successful. Use hyperlinks on relevant words and phrases that can take audience to a different post of yours on the same idea. Use appropriate keywords developed from SEO to make your blog more visible in audience search.
Keep the Big Picture in Mind- Your academic blog is a publication, so make sure to use appropriate citations, bibliography and credit acknowledgement wherever required following APA/MLA guidelines (if your post is a research paper). This is to avoid conflicts of interest, keeping in mind the intellectual property rights. Citations will also help improve the circulation of your post. Also, be aware of your digital footprint; whatever you write becomes permanent almost always. These days it’s not uncommon for employers to look up potential candidates online. So, ensure your tone is professional and don’t include anything you wouldn’t want to be quoted on. Write what you truly know, and what you can vouch for. Speak your mind, avoid gimmicks, and be courteous to anyone who comments or responds to your blog.
