Have you just written your book and wonder what to know next? I was at that point just six months ago. I had read about how successful bloggers are in driving readers to the website, and I wanted to do the same. Since I had experience with the Internet and even had a personal blog, I was ready to tackle blogging about my book. I soon found out that I was no longer in the kiddie pool as far as blogging goes—I had jumped head first into the deep end of the Olympic-size pool. Fortunately, I quickly learned to swim, but it would have been easier had I had a couch to teach me the basics before I took the plunge.
Setting up a blog is simple; just google “How to set up a blog” for instructions that even the most technophobe can follow. There are even Youtube videos that take you through the process step-by-step. But I caution you to take a deep breath and think before you create the blog. Had I done that I would have saved myself a lot of grief.
What I learned is the importance of having a strategy, what some may call a marketing plan or author’s platform. Prior to creating a blog, I should have determine what type of blog I wanted, what was the purpose of the blog, and how often I wanted to blog. Had I done this, I wouldn’t have made the mistake of starting with a simple blog, and then realizing that I needed a more robust one. It was a pain to switch over and I had to have someone else do the work for me. I switched to wordpress.org (from wordpress.com); it suited my requirements best.
I started out with one webpage; I now have two, a webpage for my book and one for me as author. I decided on two webpages after realizing that what I wanted to blog about did not always relate to the book. Additionally, I foresaw a conflict with other books I might publish. Once again, by not having created a writer’s strategy or platform added a lot of work. See Yikes! My identity crisis resulted in the three faces of Jane: the personal, the public, and the book.
One tip that I have is to create a domain name that is meaningful, one that people can easily recall. If you are planning other books, purchase domain names for those as well.
Before you start blogging
- Determine who your ideal reader is. Visualize the reader so that your voice and tone becomes authentic. This was difficult for me. For over twenty years, I wrote as a technical writer—third person, imperative mood. I found that by imagining I am talking to someone over a cup of coffee helpful. Can you see me sitting at a table with you?
- Determine what you will write about. See yourself as an expert. You just wrote a book and have your own perspective. Use your expertise and your unique point of view to help people solve problems. Don’t reiterate what other’s are saying, be your authentic self. Make your own niche and people will love for it.
- Determine how often you will post, set up a schedule and stick to it. Respect your readers by beings consistent.
- Set milestones by which to measure your success. If you don’t do this, you won’t know if or when you are successful.
Once you have a blog…
- Post content on it. Make sure the content is engaging and meaningful. Focus on the reader and how you can help them.
- Post consistently. The more often you post the better the search engines will find you…somewhere around 12 post/month is the first hurdle. Are you prepared to create content that often? The content must be engaging and meaningful for your readers, not drivel.
- Get traffic to your blog. This requires using social media, writing post on other people’s blogs, being engaging and consistent in the content, and persistence. It takes time. Some people like Danny Iny, the Freddy Krueger of Blogging have mastered blogging and I recommend following him. I have learned a lot from his webinars, emails, and blogs.
- Check your milestones. Are you getting the results you want. If not, alter the plan.
- Believe in yourself. You
Sound like work? Yes…and it should be part of every author’s platform! Writing a book is only the tip of the iceberg. Promoting the book is 90% of the your work. Fortunately, once everything is in place, it does not have to take up 90% of your time.
Are you ready to start your blog? When you do, sent me a link to it. Have additional things to consider? Leave a comment.
