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How to Write a Blog: The 12 Dos and Don'ts of Writing a Blog

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DirtyMartini
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Good post LadyS, and yeah, I can tell you from someone who has spent way too much time in writing groups in the last year and a half that blogging is a hot topic, and one of the most debated actually...

That point about limiting word count recently was brought up by C Hope Clark in a recent newsletter...she basically made the point that if you have a page of great content, you're better off posting it a couple of paragraphs at a time every few days or so, rather than post the whole thing at once...

One thing everyone agrees on is that blogs take a lot of time, and regular posts, to build a following...too many people blog for a couple of months, see they only have a dozen followers and then give up...

Another thing you have to remember, is just because you get large numbers of people to your blog...and there are analytical tools that will give you the numbers...does not mean the people visiting your blog are the people who will be buying your books...

One person over in the extremely active thread "What's the best way for writers to promote themselves" in Books and Writers Group on LinkedIn made the comment that she gets the most blog views when she posts pictures of her chickens...the problem, of course, is that people who come to view her chicken pictures are not necessarily the same people who might want to buy her books...which she acknowledges, btw...

And a common mistake too many writers make is that their blogs seem to be geared towards other writers rather than readers...if you write books about magic, for instance...your blog posts should be about magic...not writing about magic...make sense?

Anyway, just a few things I've picked up...and I won't say anymore...especially since I don't actually have a blog myself...
I once knew a drinker who had a moderating problem...

MissAdventure
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Good article, Lady S.
It's always a relief when you read something like that and can check off, yes, done that, and that, and so on. Confidence boost aside though there were some good tips.

That point about limiting the word count is a bit lacking in context. I mean shock, sometimes people will want to read something as long as 500 words! To me, that is short. I choose to limit my word count to under 1000 words on my blog because I know I personally am more likely to read something I can finish in 10 minutes and balk at long pages full of text.

Quote by DirtyMartini

One person over in the extremely active thread "What's the best way for writers to promote themselves" in Books and Writers Group on LinkedIn made the comment that she gets the most blog views when she posts pictures of her chickens...the problem, of course, is that people who come to view her chicken pictures are not necessarily the same people who might want to buy her books...which she acknowledges, btw...

I know that feeling. On The Great Escape we have this one picture of a false perspective room that I snagged off the internet and used to illustrate a point about perspective in writing. We get tones of search hits because of that picture.

Granted 90% of them bounce, but the odd one or two might see the items in the side bar and think, "ooh, that looks interesting." So, while I wouldn't extol it as a tactic, consider it like footfall. Plus the more traffic the site gets in total, the better it's search rating, and the more chance people will find it when searching for things you are selling.

Quote by DirtyMartini

And a common mistake too many writers make is that their blogs seem to be geared towards other writers rather than readers...if you write books about magic, for instance...your blog posts should be about magic...not writing about magic...make sense?

I get your point, but I'm not sure I'd leap to calling it a mistake. Certainly not in the beginning anyway.

If you write fiction, what you write about are characters and storylines, not topics of interest. I could blog all day about my characters and the world they live in, but if no one has read the book, they aren't going to be searching for that. They aren't going to be interested in it.

Writers ARE readers. In fact, any writer who doesn't consider reading widely and creatively to be part of the job is kind of deluding themselves. It would be like trying to make movies without having watched any. You need to know and understand your medium.

So, if you can attract writers to your blog, you're automatically attracting potential readers.

Plus writers are more likely to seek things to read off the beaten track. I mean, take this community for instance. How many of the members here are purely readers? How much non-member traffic do we get? The idea that there are potential readers out there, looking through the internet for stories to read... well it doesn't really happen.

Unless you have an established fan base of readers, a blog about the content of your work is not going anywhere. So why not use it to network with other writers, maybe sell them a few copies and get them to recommend you to their friends?
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DirtyMartini
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Quote by MissAdventure

Unless you have an established fan base of readers, a blog about the content of your work is not going anywhere. So why not use it to network with other writers, maybe sell them a few copies and get them to recommend you to their friends?


I wasn't necessarily thinking about blogging about the content of your work...when I used the example above, the writer who writes about magic, the best thing generally would be to write about magic since that's what your readers seem to be interested in...not necessarily about the content of your books on magic, you want your readers to go out and buy those to find out what they're about...

I was trying to find a recent piece C Hope Clark wrote...I sort of have a real high regard for what she writes...can't really find exactly what I was looking for but noticed she has a section about blogging on her blog...

Still can't find the article of hers I wanted though...
http://chopeclark.com/category/blogging/
I once knew a drinker who had a moderating problem...

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