When I published my first book, one of the things that most frightened me was doing my own marketing. I discovered the best way to market my book was through social media, and that included a blog. There are many kinds of blogs, from how-to’s to devotionals. Whatever your interest is, there is a blog for you.
5 Tips for Keeping Your Blog Alive and Generating Hits
1.) Post often. For you it may be daily, biweekly, weekly or monthly. It is best to post at least once every week. This will bring your audience to your blog regularly, which will keep your name alive and may even cause you to come up in conversation. Sometimes, just writing a sentence or two, or posing a question for readers to comment on will help you to post more often. Don’t forget to reply to any commenting, even if they are not flattering or are negative.
2.) Write exciting posts. While your posts may range from informative to a simple, light story, you need to make the blog fun to read and keep your readers’ attention. Asking you audience questions can help with this. Keeping their interest and having them ask for more is imperative. Don’t be afraid to add a human element by mentioning things about yourself. Have a critical eye and read your posts periodically to see if your blog is on target and not getting bogged down. One of my blogs is for children, so I have an 8-year-old read it to see if the verbiage is fine, and to see if she understands it and is entertained by it. Have someone from your blog’s audience read it and provide you with honest feedback.
3.) Include pictures and a welcoming background. Pictures catch the eye and people are most likely to read your blog if there is a picture attached. It is also important to make sure your blog as a whole is easy on the eyes – choose lighter to mid-dark backgrounds with text colors that are easy to read. Also, you don’t want to clutter up your blog because if it is too busy readers’ eyes cannot take it all in.
4.) Make your blog easy to maneuver. In other words, make it user-friendly. People don’t want to work hard at finding their way around your blog. List the posts and articles that are on your blog; older posts should be easily accessible. It helps if your blog host has set up the template to include a sidebar.
5.) Use social media. Whenever you write a blog post, embed the link in social media posts on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+. You should post from your social media accounts every day, or at least every other day. You can use sites that help you manage your postings so you can schedule your posts in advance so that if you have a busy week of writing and can’t do social media every day, you have already taken care of it. On Facebook and Twitter, share and retweet other people’s posts and tweets. This will engage them and make them more likely to share and retweet your posts, including the links to your blog. When they do, always “like” or tweet a thank you each time. This helps get your name out there, and getting your name out there is very important to building and keeping your blog. Remember to include relevant hashtags in your tweets so more hits will come your way.
Before I started my blog, I perused several different blogs looking for things I liked and things I didn’t. This helped me to tailor my blog accordingly. I currently host three blogs, two Facebook pages, my regular Facebook account, Google+ and a Twitter account. I have learned things that work well, and things that don’t work so well. Every author is different – make sure that you are doing what you are comfortable with, and what is right for you and your book. God bless you in your endeavor.
Robin Densmore Fuson is the author of Rosita Valdez and the Giant Sea Turtle. She is married, mother of three and grandmother of 11. She discovered her passion of storytelling as a teenager, and from then on she has served the Lord through teaching in the form of storytelling. A few years ago Robin put her passion of storytelling into the written word and self-published her first book in a series of children’s chapter book for grades 3-6 in 2012.
Connect with Robin on the internet:
http://rositavaldezbook.com/
http://www.kidbiblelessons.com/
http://www.robindensmorefuson.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BiblicalCharacterLessonsForChildren
Amen! You hit all the important points right on target. I can’t stress enough how important the things you mention here in your post are. God bless you, Robin.
Thank you, Lyn. I appreciate you taking the time to write your encouraging comment.
You’re welcome. Thank you for the valuable information you are providing for other authors. 🙂
Thanks for this, I just started blogging this week.
Chinmerem Uche, Good luck blogging and have fun!
Hi this is my first attempt ever blogging. What inspired you to blog? What was the hardest part of blogging during your first week?
How does one begin to ‘blog?’ How do you access a facebook page?
WordPress offers some beginners guides to blogging: http://wordpress.org/. And, a Facebook page can be set up through these guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. And, here are some more tips on social media: http://blog.westbowpress.com/?s=social+media. We hope that helps!
Enjoyed your post for Westbow. I noticed you live in Rifle. I lived in Aspen for 16 years. Now in Boulder for 24 years.
Taking my stab at becoming a writer. And I thought the Voice Over biz was hard. That’s cake compared to writing.
Just wanted to say hi…
Frank Eriksen, Aspen is beautiful. I lived in Littleton, Aurora, and Centennial areas for over 30 years. I miss the big city but this is where I am now, new husband new life so to speak. Rifle, or small town living makes it easy to find those quiet times with no interruptions for writing. :)Writing is good but does take more work than people imagine. It is more rewarding than people know too. Hang in there and keep at it.
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How do I start blogging? I am missing out on a lot of opportunities that come through blogging. Thank you.
Pearl Nsiah-Kumi, Thanks for your comment. On a previous comment, Jodi Baker has given some solid advice of where you can go to get help learning and setting up your blog. There are many host sites out there. When you find some blogs you like you can scroll down to the bottom and see who the host is and go from there. I use WordPress for one site and blogger for the other. You will want to figure out a domain name and its a good idea to purchase it.Then go to the host site you want to use and set one up. I hope this helps, Robin
Thank you Robin for your tips. Should I keep a seperate Facebook account for my blogs?
Juanita, Keeping a separate FaceBook page is a great way to advertize your skill, profession, and work. As a writer you will need to have exposure. In in other words, “sell” yourself. There are many avenues for this and a FaceBook page is one of those. It can be very useful. I post on my regular FB page, author FB page, and my blog FB page all at the same time. I have different followers on the different pages on Facebook. You can look at my author page:
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobinDensmoreFuson and my link to my facebook blog page is at the end of my article. I hope this helps. Robin
Thank you for these 5 tips. With all my research I am hearing the same thing, which is good. That means the info is correct. Basically, blog often and blog well.
~Tammy
Hello Robin, I really enjoyed reading your article & have been writing a book since my pregnant mother was killed by a drunk driver when I was 16. I started writing my book, because when my pastor saw me crying during the service, he came over & shared Roman 8:28 with me that says All things work together for the good of them who love the Lord & are called according to His purpose.
OMGoodness…When he shared that scripture with me, the Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of my heart & I felt SOOOO much love & consolation, that it filled the void my mom & my sister’s death had left!!! I wanted to share my testimony with the world about how having a relationship with Jesus, would fill ANY void in their lives, so that other’s would seek having a relationship with Him too!!!
Then a bunch of things happened & I got pregnant & started college after I had my baby. Then when I was in my 3rd semester of college, I was hit by a pizza delivery driver that was passing the car that I’d seen when I was crossing the street.
Then I was with my mom the whole time I was in a coma for 23 days. I wanted to stay with her, I mean I begged & pleaded, but she said I’m supposed to use the experience to make Jesus real to people by writing and sharing my testimony.
Then Jesus has allowed me to experience & conquer so many trials, you wouldn’t even believe some of the things I’ve been through, it’s UNREAL, but I think that Jesus has allowed me to go through all of these experiences successfully, to enable me to be able to minister to more people that “We can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you”!!!
Kimberly, thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. What incredible experiences you have gone through! I am encouraged that you have let the Lord use these to strengthen your relationship with Him. I joyfully sense the touch of the Lord on your life and the message He has given you. I’ll pray for you as you share your testimony to others and that the Lord will use it in other peoples lives. Keep up the good work and glorify the Lord in what you do.
Please take the time to look up these verses. Hebrews 13:6, Philippians 1:6,Romans 8:37, Isaiah 43:2
I hope they are a blessing to you, Robin
Thank you SOOO much for your word of encouragement, can you believe that my ex-husband deleted my hard drive even though he knew I had been working on my book since I was 16? That just showed me that the idea of me sharing my testimony about how Jesus has revealed Himself to me through my trials, scares the devil, because he knows that Jesus is coming back soon, so I’m sure he’s going to be VERY upset when people can see Jesus at work in my life & want to learn more about Him huh?
Kimberly, You are right, Satan hates it when we share the good news of Jesus. I’m sorry you lost the work you had compiled for so many years. I’ve been afraid of that, so I back them up and make hard copies.
Keep telling about the Lord and let His light shine in your life so others can see. I hope you will take the time to rewrite your book. Who knows, it may be better this time around. :0 God bless you! Robin
Hello Robin, I was just going through my emails & saw this. Have I previously responded to it? I ask because you said that you wanted me to share more about Jesus, & there’s a TON to tell you, but I’ll do that in the morning. Good night, sweet dreams
Kimberly