Blogging is one social media tool that a writer can, and should, add to their author platform.
Why blog?
Blogging is a critical tool for an author to have as part of their marketing platform. Most publishers will want to know if you blog, so if you are thinking of being traditionally published it’s definitely something that you should be doing. Remember to post interesting and fun topics that enable you to connect and engage with your audience and provide them with value.
Most authors’ goals for blogging will be that they want to get their readers to know them. Also, connect and engage with their readers. The word ‘engage’ is really important as you must be careful not to blog constantly to market your books or make it all about you.
Robyn’s vision of success for her blog was:
“I want a professional, but friendly and fun blog that promotes thought and discussion, and connects others in the young adult reading/writing community.”
Audience
It’s also important to blog about issues that are relevant to your readers ie if you write about romance then you should blog about romance. If you’re a thriller writer than you should write about thrilling (!) stuff.
Bear in mind the age of your audience. If you write children’s books then your blogs should be about things that interest children (and written with appropriate language) or draw the attention of the adults that will buy your books.
Think about what your audience would find fun, valuable, and what they’re interested in (movies, songs). Writing down your reader’s profile will help you keep your blogs focused.
When Robyn started blogging she wanted:
- To share information
- To find out what others were thinking
- To promote her books
- To connect with other writers.
Blogging Websites
The best and most popular websites for blogging are either WordPress or Weebly because most of their themes are free, and easy to use
What do I blog about?
Blog topics are numerous and can include everything from posting a short fiction piece, subtly promoting your upcoming book, interviewing a reader or another author, book reviews, talking about the setting of your latest story, or describing your writing process.
How long should a blog be?
Any length you’d like, however, try not to make it too long. People have limited time these days and you need to get to the point quickly.
How often should I blog?
Most sources suggest once a week if you want to keep yourself in front of your readers without being annoying, but don’t under estimate the time it takes to write a blog. Robyn normally spends four hours on blog writing, which includes finding appropriate photos.
How do I structure my blog?
Elements:
- Topic – Remember the audience
- Post Title – Would this headline interest or excite me enough to click through for a look? It’s important to use appropriate keywords so that when people put keywords into a search engine like Google, your article will hopefully appear somewhere on the first page.
- Images (300 x 200) pixels
- Opening paragraph with a hook
- Body (250 words in total)
- Provide links to your other posts
- Conclusion
- Call to action – Get your readers involved and encourage them to comment on your blog by asking them a question about the article at the end.
- When you’ve posted your blog on your website make sure you also post it to your other social media feeds – Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter etc
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If you are already blogging how has that helped you as a writer in terms of connecting with your readers?
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Robyn Bennett, lives in Blenheim on New Zealand’s South Island. Her writing partner Bob Boze lives in the South Bay area of San Diego. Both are published romance and non-fiction authors, editors, speakers and bloggers. Together they have over twelve published works and are collaborating on several more novels, short stories, articles and other works.
Bob and Robyn also offer a variety of writer and business services through their business website, Writing Allsorts. To learn more about them, their published works and the services they offer, go to https://writingallsorts.com/
