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Hey y’all. I’ve got this problem.
I wan’t to start a writing blog and I have two main criteria.
1. It can’t cost very much. As far as I know, this leaves me with WordPress, but If you know of any other options, please tell me.
2. I wan’t to have two different types of content. Content for anyone and content only for those who have an account. The account is just so I can create an email database for sending out updates to any subscribers. Problem, I can’t figure out if WordPress will allow me to do this. I know I could do it by modifying a WordPress blog or by having a custom made blog, but that would probably violate rule 1.So, here’s what I want to know:
1. Can anyone tell me whether or not WordPress will allow me to create content only available to subscribers?
2. Are there ways I can do this without spending much and without using WordPress?
3. Are there alternative ways to keep in touch with my readers and to send them updates? Maybe through social media? As in, there’s gotta be a way to do this with social media, just how? If there is an alternative, do you think it would be better or worse than what I was already planing?My eternal gratitude to anyone who can help me find a solution.
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You could make the stuff password protected and only send out the password to subscribers on WordPress. I can do that, and I only have a free account. As far as other sites go, I believe Blogger is free.
That sounds great! I’m not sure I know what you mean by “sending out the password to subscribers on WordPress” though. Is there a difference between a subscriber to
Wordpress and a subscriber to my blog?
Anyways, I need to think more about the social media alternative. My dad said if I can get readers to subscribe to me on Facebook, I can post updates that they will automatically receive. I’m assuming most other social media sites allow you to do the same thing. Now, I am thinking that this system might have one advantage. That is that subscribers would be more likely to share my blog with others because they can share my post so easily on a social media site (maybe some of you on social media sites can verify this). The password also has the slight disadvantage that people will have to enter the password to access certain pages. Based on this analysis, the social media route seems to be preferable, but it may have one great disadvantage. That is, “Will people be less likely to subscribe.” I could mention the importance of subscribing on my homepage and on every post, but do you think that would work as well as forcing people to subscribe to receive special content? If someone is consistently on my blog I don’t care so much whether they sign up or not, but if someone is interested, but just keeps forgetting, I really want to be able to send them updates to attract them back.🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢🐢
I use blogger and am quite pleased with it (well, after I figured out everything anyway). With both blogger and (I think) wordpress, you can have a gadget to the side where people to sign up to your blog by e-mail…so every time you post they get an e-mail with that post and can either read it there or go to your blog and read it. Now, of course, that means you have to get people to sign up to get your posts by e-mail if they are interested…
Anyway, I’m not sure if that answers part or any of your question, but that I what I got. As for other social media, Instagram is the other thing I have and sometimes I post on there about new updates on my blog and have a link of my blog in my profile.
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
I suggest going through Blogspot. They are free and really simple to use without sacrificing aesthetics. As for your second rule I’m not entirely sure if I understand what you mean but if I do I would suggest going with a Google Plus account that is attached to Blogspot. You can make the Google Plus private and only viewable to your followers.
HC
The idea with rule two was that I would have some stories that everyone could read and some that would be “locked down” and require the user to be logged in to access them. This would require them to form an account which would allow me to keep them updated. The idea is to make them want to form an account.
Thank you for all your suggestions. They are very helpful.
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Ok I understand now. Yeah I still suggest going with a Blogspot blog and a Google Plus account. 🙂
HC
So here are my follow up questions.
If you were on a blog and you read a few poems, short stories, etc (let’s assume you liked them) and then found that to read the rest you would have to create an account, would you sign up, or just read the public stuff and then move on to something else? If the site allowed you to read all posts, do you think you would be more likely to keep reading? If you were allowed to read all you wanted, do you think you would be more likely to sign up for email or social media reminders?
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I personally would probably not sign up to see more because I’m weird like that. But if I could read all I wanted and sign up for reminders I’d be more likely to do that.
HC
It would depend. I might not sign up simply because I don’t read many stories on blogs even when they are really interesting because I’m busy. Though if I happened to have hours of free time (sleeping doesn’t count) and did happen to read stories on line and like them, then yes, I might create an account. If I could read everything and could sign up for reminders, I’d probably do that, even if I didn’t have time to read everything.
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
If you’re interested in another blog/site building option, I really like Wix. (www.wix.com) They have a lot to offer for free (of course there is the option to upgrade for a price, but I never have) . They have so many options I haven’t had time to figure out how to use all the available resources. I do know that they’re really into allowing social media to be apart of your site and they do have member log in options. You can choose at the start to use a website template and add a blog to it, or start off with just a blog. It’s very simple to use (which is a big plus for me 🙂 and what they offer allows your site to look pretty fancy.
One downer is that I believe in order to have a domain name that isn’t a hundred miles long, you have to purchase a name for a small price, but I haven’t checked that entirely out to understand it for sure.And to answer your follow up question… If I’ve followed a site for a while and find that it’s something I’ll probably continue coming back to then I’d be willing to sign up for exclusive reads.
Though if all the writing is viewable I admit I’m more apt to read more cause it’s easily right in front of me. (okay, maybe I’m just lazy 🙂 but if all the writing isn’t there, and of course I like the ones I’m reading, I’d be too curious to know what I’m missing out on to not sign up!
So I guess either way might work for me.https://rolenahatfield.com/
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