Whether you're a doctor, nurse, or just somebody with a passion for healthcare, blogging is an excellent outlet for your abilities. Better still, medical blogs have the real potential to help readers and even change their lives. Blogging in any category is a crowded field, though, so here are some tips to help you find your voice.
The world of medical blogging is nearly impossibly vast. You need to identify and write within a specific niche to stand out. Remember that blogging is a long-term commitment and successful blogs sometimes post multiple times per day, so it pays to pick an area that you're passionate about. Specialism is important too. If you have a history in pediatrics, it makes little sense to start a blog about arthritic care for the elderly. Readers are astute and will quickly look elsewhere if you aren't an expert in your field.
No matter how great your content is, it's no use if nobody finds it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of enriching your content with search engine-friendly elements like keywords and links to help it rank higher in search results. Although the basic principles of SEO are fairly simple, the process itself is extremely complex and nuanced. Implementing SEO incorrectly can even have a negative effect, causing your site to appear lower in search results. That's why so many bloggers seek out professional medical SEO services to work on their content. These services ensure proper optimization, a healthy link profile, and more eyes on your work.
Queries from readers and patients are the lifeblood of your blog. Not only do these questions give you easy writing prompts and topics with which to populate your blog, but they help to build a relationship with your readers. You give your blog a more personal feel by answering queries and concerns, which encourages readers to return for later posts. Building a loyal audience is one of the most difficult tasks for any blogger, but answering queries and letting users choose the topic of the day helps.
Some people blog purely for pleasure and the love of writing; others seek to turn their hobby into a career. Monetizing your blog has the additional benefit of giving you more free time to write, and there are quite a few ways to go about it. Affiliate advertising for medical products is one route, but you can also sell your services as a guest blogger if you're a medical professional. PPC adverts and writing an eBook based on your content are popular monetization methods too.
Social media has been one of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog for years, and that fact doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. Although social media algorithms have tightened up on how much organic (free) reach you can hope to achieve, there's still plenty of scope for connecting with readers without paying for adverts. Maintaining a routine post schedule, replying to all comments to boost engagement and mixing mediums (image, video and text) will all help to grow your follower count.