10 Tips for New Bloggers

Recently two different people asked my opinion concerning blogs. Are they necessary for authors? What to write about? How to get followers/traffic?

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I get more traffic now than I did when I started out in 2004, and I've picked up a few ideas along the way. First of all, I don't believe blogs are absolutely necessary for authors. If keeping a blog feels like working on your taxes, don't do it. Life's too short. But if you do want to blog, the following tips may be helpful:

1) Content: People read to be entertained or informed, so if your blog posts manage to do one or the other (or both), you've done it right. How you do that is up to you. But beware-- if all of your posts are blatantly self-promoting, it's off-putting to readers. In my case, I believe my blog  primarily attracts writers since my most visited blog posts include those on publishing on CreateSpace and tips for marketing ebooks. That's fine with me. I'm glad to help out other writers, and my blog still helps me maintain a wider web presence for those readers who Google my name or search for the titles of my books.

2) Frequency: There's no hard and fast rule about how often bloggers should post. I believe it's important to do it regularly, whether it's once a month or once a week. I try to do it once a week. Sometimes I manage it, sometimes not. I don't lose any sleep over it.

If you get on a tear and write three blog posts at once, space them out so that they post, say, once a week for three weeks instead of three days in a row. Some hosting sites, like Blogger, allow you to upload numerous posts at the same time and schedule future release dates and times.

3) Visuals: People love visuals--photos, embedded videos, book covers, graphs etc. Don't overdo it, but if you can insert a relevant image to break up a large block of text, it's probably a good idea.

4) Titles: You can title a post whatever you want, but remember that certain words are optimal  in search engine results. Thus, it's better to title a blog post "Karen McQuestion wins the Pulitzer Prize," than "Hey guys, I won a really big prize!"

5) Length: Short is fine. I've had blog posts consisting solely of a photo with a caption. Determining the right length for longer posts is trickier. Unless it's really compelling reading, I'd stay under 800 words. Keep in mind that your audience is reading off a screen.

6) Appearance: Make sure your font is a readable size. Avoid dark backgrounds or anything that would make the reading experience difficult. The population is aging and so are our eyes.

7) Identify: A short bio at the top of the page is helpful. Oh, and a link to your website, if you have one, should be in the same area. Don't make people hunt for information. They may lose interest and wander away.

8) Interact: You can post a poll or ask a question of your blog readers. Part of the fun of blogging is finding out who's reading your blog and hearing their thoughts. Make sure your blog doesn't make them jump through too many hoops to leave a comment. Again, people will wander away...

9) Links!!! This is my number one pet peeve when I visit other people's blogs. I'll click on someone's name in the comments and it will take me to their blog. I'll read a post about their book and it sounds interesting, but if there's no link, I often let it go at that. That's a lost sale for the writer. If you have a book, make it easy for people to find your book. If your blog has the capability, put your book covers on your blog as clickable links, like I do in the right hand margin. If you can't do this, put clickable links at the end of each post. And when you mention a book in the body of a post, like for instance, Easily Amused, make it a link, and be sure it's an obvious link. Make it a different color, or bold it if you have to. And every single time you mention the book (Easily Amused) link it again. It seems redundant, but on a subconscious level, it makes an impact.

And since we're talking links, I think that when you link to other sites/blogs it's important to include the name of the author and the site name in the link, instead of just saying something like "here's an interesting article." It's nice for Google purposes and it's also good to give credit where credit is due. Your blog is not an island.

10) Numbers: If you're doing a listing, people seem drawn to numbers, especially a nice round number like "10." See if you can work that in somehow.


And that's everything I know about blogging. Does anyone have tips I may have overlooked? Feel free to chime in with a comment.

Thanks!

Karen