7 Ways Bloggers Can Successfully Write for Change

Your published work—including blog posts—can transform you into a change agent. When your words get read, you have an impact on your readers’ lives that ripples out into the world.

As a blogger, you are a change-maker. Your words possess power, as you’ve likely heard before:

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu or The Conspiracy

“Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Your blog alone can serve as your pen or goosequill. However, you can also expand your blog into a book by booking it or blogging it. Or take your blog topic and write something new; use your blog and its audience as your marketing and promotion mechanism for your book, cause, mission, or movement.

Bloggers Make a Difference

Now it’s time to take these quotations to heart, and “author” change. Write and publish blog posts and books that inspire and motivate your readers to do something different and beneficial.

As a blogger, you are in a unique and powerful position to make a difference. You can speak your mind, state your case, and stand up for what you believe via your written words. And you can publish those words on your blog as well as in a magazine, ebook, or printed book.

In fact, you must publish your words if you want to write for change. Otherwise, no one will have the opportunity to read them, and, therefore, they won’t have an impact.

What’s Your Mission?

Many bloggers feel they have a mission to accomplish. You can call this a cause or a purpose, but it probably feels like an internal push to be of service and make a difference with each piece you publish. You might even want to expand it into a full-blown movement, enrolling others to act on your advice.

What cause would you like your work to support? Whether you write for publications, publish fiction or nonfiction, or produce posts for your blog, your published words can support that mission.

Your blogging also can help you fulfill your purpose. Indeed, your writing may stem from a deep-seated desire to do sacred work in the world. You may feel you have a God-given mission, and every post you publish helps you accomplish it.

Maybe you’re passionate about saving the whales, feeding the hungry, or protesting legislative issues. Or you want more financial support for libraries, stricter food packaging guidelines, or a higher minimum wage. Possibly you wish to raise humanity’s level of consciousness, make meditation part of every school’s curriculum, or help women stand in their power.

Awesome! Sit down and start writing blog posts…and publishing them. That’s how you can make a difference.

Of course, you can join a march or protest, if you like. You can make phone calls, too. But don’t forget to use your gift—the ability to write—to affect change.

How to Write for Change

If you would like to write for change, here are seven ways to do so that include, but go beyond, blogging. However, each one offers an opportunity for you to send people back to your blog to learn more about your mission.

1. Be a journalist. Study the research. Dig up the facts. Interview the experts. Then write an article that supports your point of view or that shares information that can help bring about the desired change. Get your articles published in a major magazine or newspaper. Then watch for the ripple effect. Also, use some of the information you gather for blog posts. Or, be sure you sell only first rights to the publication; then you can repurpose the entire article as a blog post on your site. Ask for your short bio to include a link to your website and blog.
2. Share your opinion. While most newspaper articles are written objectively, the Op-Ed page offers you a place to publish your opinion. Additionally, many online and print magazines allow opinionated pieces. Write for your local or a national newspaper or send your work to magazines that might be open to publishing a mission-focused article. In this way, you can reach thousands…even millions…of people with your message. Again, be sure the piece includes a short bio with a link back to your website and blog. And the opinion you share should be echoed on your blog. If you have only sold first rights to your piece, repurpose the entire op ed as a blog post on your site.
3. Blog about your cause. A blog allows you to become a citizen journalist. You can write posts based on facts and studies, or you can blog from your perspective on a topic. If you publish posts often and consistently on this one topic, Google will boost your site in the search engine results pages quite quickly. Before long, your work—your message—could be read by 100, 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 people (or more) per day. That’s a lot of impact! And don’t forget that you can also extend your reach by publishing guest blog posts on other sites.
4. Write letters to elected officials. If your agenda is political, use your writing skills to craft persuasive letters to your elected officials. You can share them on your blog or social media accounts and ask others to copy and paste your words into their emails to government representatives. Your finely crafted correspondence could be just what everyone needs to effect the desired change.
5. Write social media posts. Social media might be one of the most powerful tools in a blogger’s toolbox. If you have a way with words, what you post as an update on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, BlueSky, or Instagram could go viral. That means what you say gets read by millions of people in very little time. There’s tremendous power in a viral social media post. But, even if what you write gets seen by only a few hundred people, you can influence them to get involved in your cause. Of course, be sure to share your blog posts on social media sites. This should be done with a link back to the post. Once readers arrive on the site, they should see a way to subscribe to your blog or newsletter. As your subscriber list grows, so does your ability to drive change with your audience. Your email list also allows you to market a book about your cause to potential readers.
6. Publish an ebook. If you can write a blog post, you can write an ebook … especially a short one (4,500 to 10,000 words). Write an ebook to inspire the change you desire. Publish it on Kindle. You can give it away or sell it, but if you promote it well … give it to journalists, radio show hosts, or podcasters. As a result, you might find yourself dubbed an “expert” and a bestselling author. Bestseller status means your book is getting read by a lot of people. In turn, it results in a more significant impact. You can even blog your ebook. Or look at your blog and find a few blog posts on your cause or mission; revise them to read like an ebook.
7. Publish a book. Books wield enormous power. That’s why people try to ban those they feel are making a huge difference—ones with which they don’t agree. With that fact in mind, write a full-length book—a novel, parable, or prescriptive or creative nonfiction book, for instance—that inspires the change you want to see in the world. Authors are seen as thought leaders and influencers, which helps you advance your cause. And there is no better business card than a paperback or hardcover book. As a blogger, you already have a massive amount of content you can use as you create your book’s manuscript, or “book” your blog. Of course, you can start a blog with the intention of blogging your book as well.

You may think of other ways to write for change. Indeed, opportunities abound, and new ones appear all the time, such as creating a newsletter on Substack. So grab those that most appeal to you or that help you reach the most people. Write and blog for change, and make a difference as a writer.

Are you blogging or writing for change? Tell me why in a comment below. And, please share this post with a blogger who might benefit from reading it.

Also, be sure to preorder your copy of Change the World One Book at a Time: Make a Positive and Meaningful Difference with Your Words here—and receive a free bonus course!

 

Photo courtesy of evgenyatamanenko.