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The Writer’s Blog Workshop Series Lessons: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

Lesson Two:

Blogs are like books–tastes are subjective and individual. For example, romance novels aren’t for everyone. In fact, every romance novel isn’t for every romance reader. Some romance readers love paranormals, others don’t like them at all. Same for westerns or medievals or romantic suspense or erotic romances. One type of book, or even one author, doesn’t please everyone. You don’t write to please everyone–you write to please a certain readership who enjoys the type of books you enjoy writing. Writing books you enjoy writing is one of the keys to writing success. Your own enthusiasm about your stories is what reaches out to readers through the pages of your books. If you loathe paranormals and force yourself to write one, it’s not likely to be your best work and not likely to end up appealing to readers of that subgenre. Your lack of enthusiasm will show. In the same way, no blog is to everyone’s taste. There are certain things that are a turn-off to most people–such as, over-the-top personal details or offensive tirades. Then there are the things that are more subjective, up to personal taste. Some blog readers enjoy amusing tales about children or pets, while others won’t enjoy that at all. Once you get past basics like avoiding offensive tirades or revealing embarrassing aspects of your personal life, you reach a subjective ground where you must determine–what interests you? What are you enthusiastic about? You are the one who is going to write this blog on a daily or semi-daily basis, and if you don’t enjoy the topics you’re writing about, your lack of enthusiasm will show and attracting a blog readership will be difficult–just as it would be difficult to sell a book you weren’t enthusiastic about writing.

Using my own blog as an example, I write about topics that interest me. I write about my kids, my cats, my travels, cooking/baking, life in the country. I enjoy photography as a hobby and I post a lot of pictures. (Rarely do I post an entry without a photo–images are attractive to readers.) I post occasional entries about my writing life, but don’t discuss writing in a technical way or in any great detail on my blog. I write paranormal romantic suspense. What do kids, cats, travel, cooking/baking and life in the country have to do with that and how does a blog discussing those topics have anything to do with promoting my books? In “traditional” promotion, a writer’s first thought might be, for example, something like an ad in Romantic Times. A blog is not an ad in RT. A blog is a non-traditional method of promotion that is both more powerful than an ad in RT and completely different.

To understand how the things I write about in my blog relate to promoting my books, let’s go back to the purpose of a writer’s business blog. Why do I have a blog? To promote my books and to enhance name recognition. Who am I trying to attract to my blog? Readers. Who are my readers? Primarily women. What are women interested in? A multitude of topics, and among them are topics that I am interested in. (Hey, I’m a woman!) Can I please all the people all the time? No, but I can write enthusiastically about topics I’m interested in, and attract women readers who are interested in at least some of those same topics. (Notice the variety of topics I include in my blog–this widens my audience potential. I don’t just talk about cats, or just talk about kids, or just talk about travel, etc.)

So how does talking about these seemingly unrelated-to-my-books topics promote my books? By building regular, steady blog readership on topics that I can enthusiastically write about, using enough variety to attract as wide an audience as possible, who are then exposed on a regular basis to my name. Over and over and over. My name. My latest book is quietly sitting in the sidebar with a handy Amazon link. Menu buttons invite visitors into other areas of my site. Readers will not return over and over to my blog to hear me drone on about my books. They won’t volunteer to look at an RT ad every day. (What’s in it for them?) Self-promotion exhausts interest quickly. The self-promotion in my blog is very subtle. My purpose is name-building. I know from past experience with my website that readers visit my site–how do I get them to stay, to spend more time there, to return over and over so that they don’t forget my name and don’t forget when my next book is coming out? The blog! But they won’t return over and over to hear me babble about my book. They return because they are interested in the topics I discuss, they enjoy the pretty pictures, and they become part of the community of my blog. Regulars comment daily or almost daily, while others lurk. Lurkers are also valuable traffic. Even if they don’t comment, they are also exposed to the same subtle promotion that active commenters are exposed to. And lurkers, by the way, are more attracted to blogs with comments–activity generates interest. A blog community takes time to build, It’s neither quick nor easy, but it is worth it. Including questions in every blog post, if possible, is a good way to draw out comments and build the community feeling.

Remember also that most readers have limited or no interest in writing organization politics or such things as character arcs. This is where you will have to decide if you are blogging for other writers or for readers. The answer to this for you may be determined by whether or not you are published or unpublished. As an unpublished author, first and foremost you want to build a blog that is active–activity (comments) will attract readers later on when you are published. You may want to develop a balance that includes topics that attract other writers while also developing your style of topics that interest you personally. When you make that first sale, you will have an active blog ready for readers. (And you can work to attract readers even before that first sale–contests in which you give away an occasional book, particularly a signed book by an author friend–are a great way to do that, for example. Another way is to post occasional interviews with published authors.)

Truly, a blog is a magical thing–what other promotion is available to a writer that requires so little money and yields so much exposure? Now, what are you interested in writing about regularly on your blog? Think about the topics that interest you. Remember that you can’t please everyone. What can you write about with enthusiasm and authenticity and, if possible, humor? What is the balance you see for yourself between writing and other topics, based on where you are in your career now?

12 tips to sum up:

1) Have a purpose for your blog–and don’t forget it.
2) Know who your audience is–write to them.
3) Be approachable–keep your ranty opinions to private emails with your friends.
4) Ask a question in every blog post! Entice activity (comments).
5) Be authentic–write about topics that interest you if you want to interest someone else.
6) Be patient–a blog readership isn’t built overnight.
7) Set a regular schedule of posting that fits your life and be consistent about it. (Every day, every weekday, every other day–are good examples of a schedule. Update frequently enough to maintain interest and traffic. Posting only once a week is probably not enough to build a blog readership. People have short attention spans.)
8) Build a blogging circle–exchange comments and support.
9) Write short posts–did I mention that people have short attention spans?
10) Don’t get too personal–keep your embarrassing secrets to yourself. Unless they are just Really Funny. Then you might want to post them.
11) Following up on #10–be funny! People love humor.
12) Have fun! If you aren’t having fun, you’re doing it wrong.

The Writer’s Blog Workshop Series Lessons: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

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Tags: How to Blog, The Writer's Blog Workshop //