How to become a blogger and how a blog differs from a column

If you want to understand how to become a blogger, first decide what you are building: your own platform or an author identity inside someone else's platform. A blog gives you control over the channel, design and rules. A column in a publication gives you an existing editorial context, but you must follow that publication's rules. The two routes can work together.

Your own platform: everything is yours, including the audience problem

On a blog, you choose the subject, frequency, format and distribution method. Nobody rejects a post because it does not fit a section. But nobody delivers readers automatically either. The first months can pass with almost no feedback because search engines and people still have little to associate with your name.

The advantage of a blog becomes clearer over time: the archive, subscribers and format remain under your control. The disadvantage is equally long-term: you are responsible for distribution, the technical side and the credibility of the platform.

A column in a publication: the audience exists, the rules are not yours

A publication already has a name, feed, sections and an established reader expectation. Your article enters that context, but the publication does not become your personal website. It may restrict length, subject matter, links and advertising.

In a direct-publishing model, an external author starts publishing after one-time approval. One article goes to one publication, external addresses are not used in the text, and direct advertising is not accepted. The author receives an author card and a page collecting their columns.

How long until the first thousand readers?

There is no universal number, and promises such as “a thousand in one month” depend on the topic, platform and any audience you already have. Growth on your own platform may take months or years. A publication gives an article access to an existing feed, but that does not mean a thousand personal subscribers for the author.

Measure more than follower count. Look for returning readers, comments that engage with the subject, invitations to discuss your ideas, references to your work and people continuing to the next article.

Money without illusions

Most new blogs generate no meaningful income for a long time. Advertising, subscriptions, consulting or products begin to work only after trust and an audience become stable. Do not build your first ten articles around monetisation. Readers first need a reason to return.

This publishing platform does not pay authors. Its function is different: it gives you a signed column in a real publication. If your goal is to earn money from writing, a separate model is explained in article No. 16.

Combining a blog and a column

Do not publish the exact same article at multiple addresses. Give the formats different jobs. Put a complete, self-contained column for a broad audience in the publication; use your blog to continue the subject with working notes, extra data, answers to comments and more personal details.

If your rights allow republication, you can technically copy the text, but identical pages compete with each other in search results. An announcement plus a new development of the topic is usually more useful than a full duplicate.

A plan for this week

1. Describe your blog topic in one sentence. 2. Write ten possible future headlines. 3. Choose three formats: short post, long article, column. 4. Publish the first self-contained piece. 5. After a week, judge not the likes but whether the process is repeatable without burning out.

Starting checklist

• the subject is narrow enough to be recognisable and broad enough for at least 20 articles;
• the publishing rhythm is realistic;
• you understand that a blog and a publication provide different kinds of audience;
• the first articles are useful without monetisation;
• one text is not mechanically copied to every platform;
• income is not promised before stable readership exists.

Borrowed audience and owned audience

A blog and a column have different attention economics. On your own platform, readers come specifically to you, but you must first bring them there. In a publication, the reader is already visiting a particular medium, so your article has a chance to be noticed alongside other material. This is borrowed audience: it does not belong to the author and is not obliged to follow them elsewhere.

That leads to a useful rule. Do not judge a column only by how many people subscribed to your blog afterwards. The column may work perfectly well as a self-contained piece that strengthens your name and creates a public archive. Your blog is better suited to topics that need continuation, updates or a direct relationship with a regular audience.

One subject, two formats

Suppose you write about home gardening. On a blog you can keep a month-long diary with photos, daily notes, answers to questions and changes in care. For a publication, the same experience can become a self-contained column: “Why beginners overwater plants after repotting and how to avoid it”. A reader does not need to know any previous posts to benefit.

This is not duplication. You are using one body of experience for two different tasks. One format builds an ongoing relationship with a recurring audience; the other answers one finished question. If the subject genuinely belongs to your field, there will be enough material for both without copying text.

Do not confuse frequency with consistency

Consistency means a predictable working rhythm, not compulsory daily publication. If you can publish one substantial article every two weeks for a year, that is more sustainable than twenty posts in the first month followed by silence. Choose a pace that leaves time for subject research, facts and editing.

If the audience does not grow, do not change topic every week. First look at whether readers return and which articles they finish or discuss. A small audience that recognises the author is more useful than a random spike around one post. Growth becomes sustainable when each new article continues the promise of the previous ones.

Where to publish

A blog works best where you control the archive and can return regularly to the same audience. A column belongs in a publication when the topic matches its readers and benefits from editorial context. The two channels complement each other when each receives a genuinely separate piece.

What Columnist provides

After approval, an author can publish a column in one publication available in their language without waiting for an editor's reply. The text receives a date, section and author card, while the author's publications are gathered on a separate page. The service does not pay for articles and does not allow a column to be used as an advertising channel. It is a publishing tool, not a ready-made blogger business model.

Start with one complete article and publish your column through Columnist, address columnist.mib.news.

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