Struggles of Digital Publishing Across Multiple Platforms

Casting a wide net for SEO: A Nightmare turned Dream Come True

On Saturday morning, I woke up and had breakfast. In an attempt to check my Author website and catch up on emails, I logged into my Wordpress account. I created phoebeglen.com about three years ago with the help of a friend, and although I haven’t posted to my blog quite as often as I used to, I still try to have an archive of material, and post as I feel inspired.

My friend who helped me set up the website had a Business Degree in Marketing, and advised I should post my blog posts to my website, and another platform. I chose to cross post to Medium, and also attached a link to my new material on Facebook and Twitter over the years.

On that morning I had a rude awakening, as I had learned (without warning) that my Phoebe Glen website via Wordpress had expired!

I immediately thought something was wrong with my computer. No need to panic, yet. Then I asked my tech savvy partner to check it out, and he came to the conclusion that I could try to recover it, but it seemed fruitless. I was so disappointed. Even after he was able to recover some of my posts through WayBackMachine Internet Archive, I felt a bit of loss of identity with my digital eviction.

It was then that I mentioned I had posted the majority of my work on Medium as well. He highlighted the importance of redundancy, and helped me turn this sense of loss into an opportunity for change.

As a result I became a member of Medium, which is super affordable. On top of having my writings saved, it has a lot of other perks: reading Ad-free, keeping my privacy private, access to every story, and a network of writers. Plus I am now able to receive monetization for my writing contributions.

Turns out that ‘nightmare’ I had about SEO paid off in more ways than one.