Is your author blog getting crickets?
by Anne R. Allen
You finally did it! You started your author blog. And put up your first post..and the second and third and fourth…
Now…you’ve got crickets.
Nobody’s reading your deathless prose.
Sigh.
Don’t give in to despair. It takes a while to build a readership. Usually a long while.
And please don’t go off and try to follow all those rules for monetized blogs, as I wrote earlier this month. Monetized blogs have a different purpose from author blogs. They are all about the hard sell. An author blog is about making friends. So be yourself and be patient.
Plus there are some easy fixes that can bring in more readers.
I’ve been where you are. For the first six months I blogged, my followers consisted of my mom and my critique group (and I’m pretty sure they lied about actually reading it 🙂 )
When I was reformatting the blog for WordPress a few months ago, I found my journal entry from my blog’s first anniversary in 2010. I was totally jazzed that day because I was up to 36 followers. A year later, I had nearly 1000. Things snowballed from there.
So what happened in that second year?
I learned some new skills and I learned to do stuff like:
1) Visit and Comment on Other Author Blogs
This is the part of blogging that most beginning bloggers skip. Thing is, nobody can follow you if they don’t know you’re there. You have to get out and meet the people who read blogs. Commenting on other, bigger blogs is the best way to that. Here’s my post on how to comment on a blog.
You also want to comment on small blogs like your own in order to network. The people you meet on your “way up” may be the most important people you meet in your writing career. I know people who met their agents, publishers and editors when they were all “baby bloggers” beginning their careers.
Don’t consider your blog socializing time to be “frittering” or time wasting. Your networking will bring big rewards. By visiting and commenting on other blogs, I was invited to submit to several anthologies that jumpstarted my career and got it going again after my first publisher went under.
2) Write Guest Blog Posts
Guest blogging is probably the most effective way to raise your Internet profile quickly. I talked about how to be a blog guest back in May.
To recap that post: Once you’ve visited and commented on some blogs, look to see if they accept guest bloggers. If they do, they’ll probably have a page with “guest post guidelines”. Check them out. If you think you fit what they’re looking for, send a query.
You query a blogger the same way you query any other professional in the industry. Be respectful, concise, and don’t lie. Suggest a few topics you think might fit with the blogger’s topic and tone.
If they accept you, make sure to follow all the guidelines make the deadlines. Once you go live, make sure you respond to any comments you get, promote the post on social media and be sure to thank your host.
My blog went from about 10 readers a week to 100s with one guest post. If you can get accepted by a major blogger, this can be the single biggest break in your career.
But don’t limit your guest posts to major blogs, which are hard to break into. Guest posting for other authors in your genre can do a huge amount to bring interested readers to your blog.
3) Learn Blogging Do’s and Don’ts
Yes, you can blog about almost anything, but it turns out there are some tricks to choosing and presenting your content. Unfortunately nobody tells authors what they are. I learned by trial and error. Lots of error. Here’s some of the stuff I learned about author blogs:
- Do put your name in the header. I did that by accident, but it turns out it was one of my better accidents. Authors are blogging for name recognition, so your name needs to be there to be recognized. If you’ve got a cutesy title now, just add your name. Change “Scribblings and Mutterings” to “Wendy Writer’s Scribblings and Mutterings.” Problem solved!
- Don’t use an author blog as a personal journal of your emotional ups and downs. You want your blog to express your your professional self, not your sweatpants-and-bunny-slippers self. Especially if you don’t have a gift for humor. Remember everything you say is “in public” and the Internet is forever.
- Do make sure it’s interesting to somebody other than your family and that cricket. A great piece on Medium by Ayodeji Awosika this week summed up how to do that: write to entertain, educate or inspire.
- Don’t start one more “how to write” blog, because we’ve got gazillions of them, and they don’t attract non-writing readers. Yeah, do as I say, not as I do. 🙂 I did avoid this with my new book blog. It’s okay to touch on the subject of writing. Just don’t make it your main focus.
- Do write stuff of that’s of interest to readers you want to attract. Check the “also boughts” for your books (or books like yours) and find hobbies or other things that might interest your readers. Writing about your setting, research, time period, genre, etc, are all good choices. (Tip: Interviewing other authors in your genre is a great way to reach your potential readers!)
- Don’t post fiction exclusively. Fiction doesn’t usually do as well as nonfic on a blog, so mix it up. If you want to post fiction or poetry, try it every fourth post or so. See how your readers respond. And don’t compose a fiction WIP on your blog. Your rational self will thank you later. First drafts are sh**ty by nature. There’s a reason we have editors. And some publishers will consider a blogged piece to be “published” so you may not be able to sell first rights.
- Do be quirky and break a few rules. If your blog isn’t like anybody else’s, this is a GOOD thing. The best author blog out there may be Chuck Wendig’s (warning: colorful language). Try being interactive with your reader the way Chuck is with his flash fiction contests and writing prompts. Try running some contests for bad first lines or zombie haiku or whatever. Be creative!
- Don’t start a bunch of blogs whenever you want to write on a different subject. One blog is plenty. It has lots of pages. Use one page for fiction and one for nonfiction and another for stories about your pet gerbil. If you start out with a fantasy blog and decide to write historical romance instead, you can change everything: header, theme, photos. Just keep the url.
4) Learn to Write Web Content
Unfortunately most of the info you find on writing Web content comes from marketers and tech people, not creative writers, and their stuff can be so riddled with jargon it might as well be written in Klingon.
So I’ll try some people-speak here: learning to write for the Web is mostly unlearning. I had to unlearn a whole lot of what I was taught about writing prose back in the 20th century.
- Use topic sentences and avoid cutting to a new paragraph until there’s a new topic.
- Make every word count.
- Don’t put a title on a serious essay that looks like a cheap tabloid headline.
- Avoid repetition.
- Don’t break up a short essay with subheaders
- Never offer an outline instead of an essay.
- Substantiate your information with footnotes.
Unfortunately, the majority of people don’t read on the Internet; they skim.
So throw out the rules you learned in school and use:
- short paragraphs
- subheaders
- sentence fragments
- bulleted lists
- lots of white space
- hyperlinks
- keywords
I’ll be writing more specifically about some of these skills in later posts. Subheaders are especially important.
5) Post Regularly
When I started out, I’d only post when I thought of it. Or when I needed a break from my WIP. Sometimes I’d post two or three times in a week. Sometimes I’d skip a couple of weeks altogether.
Why did it matter? That cricket probably wasn’t watching the calendar all that closely, right?
Turns out it does matter. If people think, “It’s Sunday morning. I’ll go see if Anne has a post up”–and I DO, they’ll start coming by every Sunday. If I don’t, they won’t.
This doesn’t mean you have to write them at the same time every week. And certainly not every day. I still believe in Slow Blogging. Write posts when you have something to say and don’t feel you have to fill the Interwebz with blather.
I write my posts when I feel inspired, then format them and have them ready to go. You can program them to go live whenever you tell them to.
6) Write Grabby Blog Headers Search Engines Can Understand
Robots do not understand subtlety, nuance, humor, or irony. Alas.
But if the search engine robots don’t get our headers, nobody gets to read our posts.
In a recent blogpost on blogging mistakes, Jane Friedman reminded us: “Google and other search engines don’t understand metaphorical or clever headlines, so vague headlines can hurt the potential for your content in search.”
So we now have to write for robots, not people. Annoying, but true.
We also want headers that make clickable Tweets that will snag a reader in the endless stream of content they can choose from.
So how do we do that?
a) Don’t be Generic.
“An Interview with…” Isn’t going to grab people unless it’s “AN INTERVIEW WITH TRUMP AND PUTIN TALKING ABOUT THEIR THREESOME WITH MARINE LE PEN” or something else involving trending news.
So try something more like “[Hot Topic]: [Author X] gives 10 Tips on [Hot Topic]” or “What [Author X] Can Tell New Writers about [Commonly Googled Writing Problem]
b) Make it Tweetable.
That means avoiding enigmatic, one-word headers. I remember the title of an article in the London Review of Books that exemplified the one-word header that doesn’t work well in the age of Twitter. The article was called “Ghosting.” It turned out to be about ghostwriting for Julian Assange, a fascinating subject.
But you wouldn’t know from the title. I figured everybody would think it was about the new remake of Ghostbusters, or dumping your girlfriend by not responding to texts, so I didn’t bother to retweet it. You don’t want that to happen to your posts.
c) Promise a quick read
Everybody’s in hurry online.
In a March 2014 piece in the Web Writer Spotlight, Jillian Mullin wrote:
“Generally, an average web user only spends 10 to 30 seconds reading Internet content. People rarely read web pages word-per-word. Instead, they scan the page for related keywords, bullet points, subtitles, and quotes.”
One of the best ways to let people know you’ve got a quick, easy-scan piece is with a numbered “listicle”. “The 10 Best Ghostwritten Books” or “5 Signs Your Computer is Possessed.”
d) Offer solid, helpful information that’s YOU oriented, not ME oriented
- ME oriented: “I’m Making a Living Writing Now” or “Another Sleepless Night in My New Apartment.”
- YOU oriented: “How to Become a Ghostwriter” or “5 Simple Snacks to Serve at Your Next Exorcism,”
e) Ask a question that stirs curiosity and self-interest
- Try appealing to greed: “Do You Want to Make REAL Money as a Writer?”
- Or paranoia—sorry, but it works: “Is Your Cubicle Haunted?” or “Who or WHAT is Flushing Your Toilet in the Middle of the Night?”
f) Use keywords in your header
What are keywords? They’re the words that most effectively let the public (and the search engines) know what your post is about. Like this one is about 1) blogging 2) Web content 3) authors
So let’s say you’re blogging about how you think your new house may be haunted by the ghost of an elderly lady who died there.
- “Mildred Biggins Walks at Night,” appeals to your storyteller’s instinct, but doesn’t tell us much.
- “10 Signs Your House is Haunted: A Real-Life Encounter with a Ghost” will get the haunted house buffs flocking to your post.
That’s because “haunted house” and “ghost” are your keywords.
In other words, just tell us what it’s about. It’s amazing how often that’s the secret to all this tech stuff. Just say what you mean, mean what you say, and the robots will find you.
Coming up
In August I’ll have more tips for getting more traffic on your author blog.
This week on my book blog, I continue my poison series with a post on the beautiful but deadly Moonflower.
What about you, scriveners? Do you have an author blog yet? Have you had trouble getting traffic? Have you tried any of these techniques?
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) July 17, 2016
This blog is not monetized. The only payment we get is from the sale of our books. Do check out Anne’s book page.
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So many great tips here, Anne. I need to blog more often but I’ve done quite a lot of what you recommend here and I now have followers in Italy! Whodathunk? Guest posts reach quite a lot of folks and I highly recommend them for bloggers with readers in your writing genre. I also do a lot of commenting on other blogs. Mainly because I want them to know how much I enjoyed reading the post but as you mentioned it gives you more visibility on the web. Thanks again. See some other tips I should pay attention to like using key words in my header. That’s something I need to remember. Paul
Paul–Commenting on blogs isn’t just nice for the blogger–it helps you. Every comment gets your name into search engines. The first time I found my name in a Google search it was in a comment on Miss Snark’s blog back in 2007 or so.
Keywords are more vital than we think. They can get you on the first page of a search if they represent a niche.
Blogging consistently is good, but not essential. All blogposts are good, and they add up. I know you blog on Medium, which is the hot new platform right now. Getting on Medium is more likely to raise your profile than any other blogging platform, I think.
Excellent advice! So many new writers tell me their publishers are insisting they start a blog. (I of course tell them your great line about building a time machine to go back to 2005…)
I think it takes a different skill-set to write a blog, than to write fiction. These are great tips!
Melodie–It’s true that blogging is very different from writing fiction. It’s also very different from writing traditional nonfiction. It needs to be casual and conversational. It has more in common with stand-up comedy than it does with writing academic papers. Not everybody is cut out for it.
My line about 2005 had to do with making money with an author blog. I think a new author blog can still do well today as long as you’re clear in your expectations. It’s about interacting with readers, not selling to them.
Anne, every time I read your blog I end up with at least one palm-print on my forehead for mistakes I’ve made and a good list of ways to improve my writing, marketing or blogging. I’m consistently awed by your consistency in blogging valuable writing advice. Thanks for all the great tips and for supporting others through your experiences, good and bad. 🙂
Eldonna–Thanks for visiting! Yeah. Ruth and I say “we made the mistakes, so you don’t have to.” We have made a lot. And we’re constantly learning.
The Internet is still young and things keep changing. What worked 10 years ago doesn’t work now. Early bloggers were told to blog multiple times a day with short, under 300-word posts. These days, people would be furious to get all those notifications or to click through to a post that consisted of a couple of sentences.
So we all have to keep experimenting and sharing what we’ve learned.
And don’t think you know everything about blogging because I just learned a couple new things here today.
Consistency makes a huge difference. Some people aren’t and it can be frustrating. I’m every Monday morning except for IWSG week where you get me on Wednesday.
Alex–Amazing that I taught you something new! You’re the blog ninja!
My father, a Yale Classics professor, used to love to quote Emerson, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” so for years I thought I needed to be spontaneous and quirky and never do the same thing twice.
But later I realized that a foolish *inconsistency* is much more of a hobgoblin and I stopped fearing routine.
The truth is that routine gets things done. Without routine, I’d still be scribbling away at a few poems and short stories and I’d never have finished, much less published, 10 books. The routine of producing a blogpost every week (now two blogposts every week) helps keep that routine anchored. I’m sure you find the same thing works for you.
I dearly love blogging and I learned so much from you Anne. My biggest problems, I think, are that I don’t really have a sole focus (more like a sneaky agenda. No I’m not telling). Also, I’ve put so many themes together that there’s one for every weekday now. So by doing one or two a month I have the pace down pretty well, but the expectations of a certain day aren’t there. Ah well, maybe over time I’ll start retiring some themes and honing down. Thanks as always!
Will–I think you’re doing your blog just right. Keep things fluid. Anything that’s of interest to readers of high fantasy is fair game. Sneaky agendas are good. 🙂 All you have to do is choose one particular day to post. Not to write, just to post. The rest can be done automatically. You can always add a bonus post or two if you have extra stuff to say.
A+++! Excellent! 🙂
So, Anne, re Vlad, Le Donald and Marine, who was on top?
Ruth–Haha! Hmmm. I don’t know. I think I my money might be on Marine. In a nice leather outfit, maybe?
Hi Anne! Great tips, as usual.
I’ve been blogging for over four years and my site traffic continues to grow at a decent rate. From my experience, you’ve nailed the main points including consistency. I post every Saturday morning at 8 a.m. PST – religiously – and I swear that took my site traffic to a new level.
Also, I started with short posts of about 500 words but for the past year I’ve switched to longform content of 1500 – 2000 words and I think it’s better received. You & I were cross-commenting recently about the short/long forms and you equated the article length to what can be read during a coffee break. Good advice.
One other thing you covered – and I think is crucial to take into account – most people scan-read on the net. It’s vital to break up a post so it’s not a long running paragraph. I think a rule of thumb is no more than seven lines in each paragraph and vary the presentation with font changes and include images.
Oh, and good point about commenting on other blogs. It’s a great way to shamelessly self-promote however, personally, I’d never stoop to that 😉
Garry–The recommended length of a blogpost has changed. Ten–maybe even five–years ago it was 300-500 words. Now they say the ideal length is 1500-2000–“coffee break-length”. When people click through to a site, they want to be able to stay a few minutes and if there’s not enough content they feel a little cheated.
But on my new book blog, I’ve kept the text to about 600 words, and i have a lot more images. That seems to be working too. I think anything over 300 words can work, It depends on audience expectations.
The number one thing is to break up text. Speed readers only read the first couple of words plus the last word of a paragraph, so more paragraphs give more understanding.
Even if you’re not promoting your blog in a comment, your image usually leads to your blog, so that’s a backlink that helps search engines find you. And people can find your blog through your image. A major plus.
Anne – what a great community of commenters you have here! Such good advice to “comment on other bloggers’ posts.” I’m going to check out the blogs of the people who commented here. Some of you will have a new follower soon! Good luck to everyone! Writers tend to be some of the nicest people – helpful, generous with advice, and happy to pass along lessons learned. We need each other.
I spent years in the crickets department and had the humiliating experience of taking a blogging class and having everyone drop off my blog within two weeks. The course was for writers, and we were all supposed to be cheerleaders, post comments, and whatnot. Evidently, mine wasn’t that interesting to them. Though in hindsight, I’d stopped posting writing how-tos entirely, and they probably dropped off once they realized no how-tos (curiously, a couple have come back and followed the blog now).
Do experiment and have fun doing it. Three years ago, when I was still struggling to reinvent myself, I tossed up a couple of posts. I have a top ten widget on the blog, and I noticed one day that those two posts kept showing up as #1 and #2. Those were both military topics, and ones I honestly thought were kind of routine (hair for women; uniforms for women). The uniforms one has dropped off, but the hair still shows up. And those formed some of the direction I ended up going–and I turned it into a book that I released as well.
Linda–That is a great tip: check your stats to see what people are reading. It isn’t always the post that gets the most comments that is really the most popular. Post more on those popular topics and you’ll find your core audience, as you did.
Those reciprocal cheerleading blog visits and bloghops only work for a quick jumpstart,. Everybody will quickly go their separate ways. That’s when you have to find your own audience, and it sounds as if you did just that.
GREAT article. Spot on, every word. Sharing!
Another tip I’d throw in the mix is to make sure you have an attractive graphic within the post, possibly even with your headline written across the image. Really helps pull in those social shares, especially on Facebook and Pinterest (my personal favorite.)
Thanks for the tips!
Tracy–I don’t put text over my images (don’t know how), and I’ve been able to have a popular blog without that, but I do agree that images are more important than they used to be in the era of Pinterest and Twitter images.
The image that’s important for shares isn’t your interior image, but your featured image. At least if you use WordPress. That’s what gets picked up by Twitter, FB and Pinterest. Interior images do draw the eye through a post, but I don’t use them and i t doesn’t seem to have hurt traffic.
My position has always been that a writer writes, so a writer blog should feature writing rather than photographic skills. But that may not matter any more, since Pinterest and Instagram have no text at all. We may all be composing wordless graphic novels someday.
Anne, Love your idea of posting quick reads with tweetable headlines and key words. My blogging grows slowly but surely as I head into my third year. I have two blogs: a weekly one for readers of my kid lit tales and a second focusing on tuts and how-tos for Indie writers, where I post less often. I think of combining them but hesitate because they appeal to two different audiences.
Cat–I’m torn on the multiple blog thing. I used to say you only need one blog, full stop. But since almost losing this one, I like having a back up. This means two blogposts a week, which cuts into my WIP time.
I may pull back the book blog to twice a month. I hear you about the different audiences. A how to writers blog isn’t as good for selling your books, so you and I may both need to have the two blogs, alas. 🙂
There is oh so very much I need to learn. Thanks for ticking away – once more – at a bit of it.
cs–Some of this stuff is time-consuming and we have to weigh the pros and cons of putting in the extra time. Usually it’s worth it, but every blogger is different.
I’ve been following your blog for quite a while now, and I never fail to learn something new. My blog-crickets this week pointed out to me that even though I find speculative fiction fascinating, blogs on the topic can be hard to find! The genre we write in can create crickets of its own, but your post encourages us to hang in there and be patient. Thanks!
Carol–When you write in an unusual niche, you may have to do quite a bit of Googling around to find your peeps. If the big names in your genre don’t have blogs, it may be hard to find them, but they’re out there. You might find them at Goodreads. (Just don’t tell them you’re an author. Go to talk about Margaret Atwood or Ursula LeGuin or some of the classics. Once you make friends, you can mention your blog.)
Or you could start a debate about the definition of spec fic vs. science fic. Or why when you Google Speculative Fiction, only Science Fiction comes up (which just happened to me.) That should get some people wanting to jump into the fray. 🙂
Yes, patience. Plus a lot of exploring.
Great tips! I have to work on using keywords and being more “tweetable.” After reading your post, I am happy to say that I am doing more than 50% of these so I guess I am gradually assimilating your advice.
Well, Anne, here I am at the appointed time, notepad at the ready. You are far too savvy for your suggestions on blogging to be anything but true and useful. But so many suggestions are contradictory. DO make your blog interesting, and DO be quirky–but don’t forget to write for people who don’t read. And throw out everything you’ve been taught. Why? Because, as a blogger, you must avoid headers that are subtle, nuanced, humorous or ironic–because you aren’t writing for people, silly, you’re writing for robots.
Even so, I will see what I can do. I acknowledge changing times, but I don’t like them.
I forgot this. Relative to guest posts, I published four of them at the time my last novel came out. People liked the posts and commented in sizeable numbers, but these posts did nothing whatever to move the needle on sales. IMO, only someone prepared to send out many guest posts over time, preferably to the same sites, is likely to get very much bang for the buck.
Barry–The robots are part of our reality, alas. If we want to be in the search engines, we have to acknowledge that’s how we get there. There are lots of things we Boomers don’t like about the 21st century, but if we’re not going to lock ourselves in some 1980s fantasy world, we have to learn to deal with it. Personally, I hate mobile phones. I loved living in a world when a weekend was a weekend and nobody could get hold of you unless you wanted them to. But that world is as over as hoop skirts and high button shoes.
So we write our headers for the robots. And format our posts for the skimmers.
But our content can be as quirky and fun as we want. Look at Chuck Wendig. He does a great job of covering all those bases and still comes across as his own weird and wonderful self.
About guest posts–I didn’t say they make a lot of book sales. But they can drive new traffic to your blog, especially if you talk up your blog in the post.
I’m not looking for a publisher for The Inspector Gilles Maintenon Mystery Series, so I don’t have a problem publishing some of it in serial form on my blog.
I break a lot of rules. I also have reasons for doing that, which I will share some other time.
Hey, at least you got a comment out of me!
Louis–That’s right. If you’re planning to self-publish a book, and it’s polished and edited, there’s nothing wrong with publishing it as a serial on your blog. Some people say you’ll do better to put it on Wattpad or serialize it in short ebooks on Smashwords, but I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
With short stories, I think writers might do better not to publish them on a blog, because that usually means you can’t enter them in contests. But serializing a novel or memoir is fine if you’re planning on self publishing.
Breaking rules is great if it’s working for you. Quirky is good.
Thanks for the comment!
When I write a story to submit, that is a conscious decision before I even write it.
Great advice as always. I made sure I’d done everything on your checklist. Woohoo! I’m on the right path. My FAVE advice is the sub-heading. LOVE them!
I also might add some strategies that are working for me: after you post a new blog, hit your social media outlets with a notice that you’ve posted a NEW blog post!
Use pictures that you can then pin on pinterest that take readers back to your blog and don’t forget hashtags or at least key for pinterest. They work great there!
Post an excerpt on google + with a link to the rest of the blog. It helps your google rankings
Use external links to expert sites (helps your SEO)
Use internal links to other of your own blog posts or site pages
Have a call to action question at the END of your post! Enable comments, this also helps SEO
I hope these things might help you, too 🙂
Swivel–Thanks! These are all things that I will be talking about in the second part of the post.
Except the part about sharing on social media. I thought that was obvious, but I suppose some people may still not be doing that.
I’m not aware of special Pinterest hashtags though. In fact, I’ve never seen a hashtag on Pinterest, because there are no words on Pinterest. I’ll have to look into those. I’m still not sure how Pinterest is supposed to help people find the written word, since blogs are all about text and Pinterest has no text. I have lots of pictures of books there. And cats. But they don’t do much to drive traffic to blogs that have words in them.
People search Pinterest by words in the description. For example I will post pix on my blog and then directly pin from my blog to one of my boards. In the description part, you can write whatever: I’ll write stuff like:
“Inspiration for June’s character.” or “inspiration for 1940s setting.” etc.Then I add hashtags #Vintage #1940s #WWII #Dance
Some people use hashtags, some don’t, but the boards pop up in searches. Also, Pinterest sends weekly updates of similar boards and pins. Who knows who’s seeing your pin that’s connected to your blog. Right?
I get a lot of traffic daily from Pinterest since its evergreen. I have boards for each of my books that I post inspiration pictures to. I know other writers who have “costume boards” that they post historical fashions that they use in their novels. Stuff like that. 🙂
I’m sure it’s more helpful for some genres than others.
Tam–Great tips! This stuff will be really useful for my new book blog. I had no idea Pinterest used hashtags. I love how I can learn as much from my commenters as they learn from me. Thanks a bunch!
Terrific LONG article (I read every word) with a listicle title … way to show us how to do it!
dehelen–We write “coffee break-length” posts here, since we only post once a week and it’s what our readers have come to expect. A great deal of what you do on your blog will come from what works for your readers.
Anne,
I love the simplicity you spell out in this post. I find myself reaching for flashier, more high-tech ways of luring in traffic, when the solution is right in front of me. Consistency, patience, interesting content, and being more involved with other bloggers will pay off. Thanks for some excellent reminders.
Karen–Some people consider using subheaders and keywords to be too “high tech” and others consider networking to be beneath them. But in the end it’s all about balance.
Some people find writing posts ahead of time beneath them. I suggested to someone complaining about blogging cutting into her writing, and she furiously informed me she was “not a hack.”
Linda–Oh, pu-leeeze. That b**** simply defined herself as a amateur. These are the people who spend 100K of their parents’ money to get MFAs so they can be baristas for the rest of their lives while they wait to be “inspired” to finish that narcissistic novel nobody would read anyway. Some people really, really want to be punched in the face, don’t they? 🙂
Excellent as always Anne! Here are two picture analogies to add to your bag of tricks. Don’t be the little girl in Kindergarten standing in the corner with her arms crossed across her chest saying “No one will play with me.” Go ask someone to play – as you point out, people don’t know you are blogging until you tell them.
Second picture – your blog is not a billboard and is not a monologue by that boring prof from university. If you think of your blog as a conversation with friends over a cup of coffee your tone changes and is likely more welcoming. People don’t want to be lectured to – they want to be your friend.
Looking forward to next week 🙂
Barb–Love the picture of the little girl in the corner who says nobody will play with her. I know lots of bloggers who do just that!
And yes! An author blog is for making friends, not for pontificating or saying “Mommy, Mommy, look at ME!” It needs to be YOU oriented, not ME oriented. Be friendly, not professorial. 🙂
Brilliant advice as always, Anne. I wish I’d known it when I started out. These points can also help bloggers to be realistic. When I started out I kept measuring myself against big bloggers with huge numbers of followers or hits, even those blogging about completely different (and more popular) subjects such as fashion or parenting. It was pointless and demoralising and as soon as I stopped doing it the blog began to make sense. Blogging also became something which stood on its own, quite apart from the writing I was doing, which was enormously freeing. In many cases if authors blog more with blog readers in mind, than book readers, they find their niche more easily and are more successful.
Tara–Your blog is one of my favorite examples of a great writer’s blog. It’s always entertaining. But it would be silly to compare it to a fashion or parenting blog. A writer’s blog is a s different from a commercial blog as Granta is from Vogue.
But you’re right that online readers aren’t the same as book readers. Or a lot of people who read online don’t read more than a handful of books a year. You hope they will read yours someday, but meanwhile you have to write for their reading habits, which are not a book reader’s habits. I think you do that very well.
Hi Anne, I try to do as you suggested, except I am not consistent. Oh my, I need to work on that for sure. Thank you for another informative post. ?
Tracy–Sometimes it’s just a personality thing. I’ve always lived in organized chaos. I’m a Pisces but I have a bunch of Capricorn in my chart. Astrologers tell me that means I have an inner banker that keeps me organized. Haha. Some people may not have consistency in their stars. 🙂
As always, good instruction, now if I would only follow through on it. I am conflicted on something perhaps you can help with. An author website/blog vs a book series website/blog. Have one book up on Kindle, BN Nook, Smashwords, etc. This is first of projected five book series so I had thought I should do book website which would (hopefully) lead to better sales over time. But now I feel like an author website is more appropriate.
Any recommendations?
Thanks and keep providing your wisdom, someday it is bound to sink into this Baby Boomers’ thick skull.
David–Author website, definitely. That gives you so much more room to grow. It can be all about your series now, but later… who knows? You can go anywhere you want.
I’m a big fan of free blogs, as you’ve probably gathered. You can start with a free WP blog about your first book and the projected series–But call it “David Olsen’s Books” or something with your name, not the book name. Then expand onto different pages. Then as you get more readers (and subscribers–those are so important!) you may want to make it into more of a static first page website, but it can still be on WordPress. But it doesn’t have to cost you anything right now.
Thank you,just the advice I needed. Betcha didn’t know you were a source of ‘Round-to-its; did ya?
David–Best of luck with the author site. Now aren’t you glad you didn’t get “round-to” the book site and you saved yourself the trouble?
I love blogging — created my author blog in the fall of 2010. Loved your tips, Anne. Especially the ones regarding headlines. Boy did I need to read those tips. Looking forward to your post in August.
Leanne–Headlines help so much. Back in 2010, we had a lot less competition on Twitter. Now we kind of have to invent “click bait.”
I find this very helpful, Anne, since I had my website redone and I’m trying to attract readers. I began blogging (again) every week but stopped a few weeks ago because no one was commenting. Come to find out, Google Analytics showed me there were people dropping by and reading, just not commenting. It’s hard to figure out what to write about but your suggestions are great. Thank you.
Patricia–Traffic and comments are actually two different issues. Most of the heavily trafficked blogs have very few comments. (Like Jane Friedman and The Book Designer.) I think people see them as more informational than interactive. Asking the right questions may help with the comments. Also being more “us” and less “I’m up here and you’re down there.” Not that you’re doing that, but some of the big blogs have that kind of professorial stance.
Anne, I am gobsmaked by the intensity of information on this one post, specific, esay to put into practice tips any blogger can follow. The comments made by others was icing on this cake and your comments to the comments added bonus information. By the end I felt like I had attended a day long seminar without the cost, or having to get out of my chore jeans. I am a new writer (went back to school at the age of 55) and so appreciative of people like you who are willing to share so much. I will be back again and again.
Donna–Welcome! I’ll be putting all this blogging wisdom together into a book which will be coming out early next year. It was supposed to be coming out this August but my whole schedule got put back 6 months after the blog got hacked and we had to move (twice!) but things seem to be settled down, so I’m back to working on the blogging book as well as my next Camilla mystery.
The blogging book will be aimed at authors just like you who don’t want to spend all day playing “cool” tech games and just want to get the word out about your books and ideas in the easiest way possible..
While wearing sweatpants and bunny slippers, but sounding totally professional 🙂
Gd stuff here…I’d deffo echo the ‘don’t make it too long’ post..especially for guests! I’ve had to cut 3 pages of text down to one! People don’t have time!
Carol–It’s important to put the requested length in the guidelines for guest posts. I’ve got one due today that’s only 600 words. I usually write 2500 words. Cutting it down to 600 is hard work! But that should be done by the guest, not the host.
Our readers expect longish posts, but other blogs like short and sweet. I keep my book blog at around 600. It’s all about what your readers want.
Thanks again, Anne. Frankly, I don’t know how you do it. You are a gold mine of information each week, and yet you write whole books and short stories. Bravo. Do you ever sleep? Eat? Waste time? If so, you must live in a part of the world where there are seventy-six hours days. Big hugs.
Jarlene–Haha, sometimes I don’t do it. Getting to a breaking point here today. Something’s gotta give. If I don’t get to the grocery store, I’m going to be feeding my critique group stale breadcrumbs on filthy plates. Must make some time. Not quite sure where it will come from. 🙂
Great post! Every Monday I learn something new from you, Anne. Thanks for sharing 🙂
The A to Z Blogging Challenge in April really helped me to get more readers (and followers!) on my blog. Though most of the other bloggers didn’t stick around after April, I made a couple of new friends who visit regularly. Proving your point that reading other blogs and commenting on them pays off.
I’ve found using hashtags in my titles help to promote my blogposts on Twitter – #amwriting #amediting #amreading #folklore and #FolkloreThursday seem to be quite popular. (WordPress automatically publicises my posts.) One hashtag is more than enough to get the needed attention on Twitter 🙂
Now to try some of your tips for more traffic…
Ronel–Bloghops like the A-Z challenge are fantastic for networking and building traffic. If you can take the time to do one of those, that can do so much to raise your profile and make friends for life. Congrats on doing that!
In my second part of this post, I’ll be talking about using social media to promote your blog. Hashtags are huge for promoting on Twitter.(although I find them kind of annoying on G+ and FB) #amwriting and #writetip are the ones I find most useful for promoting this blog on Twitter.
But we need to be careful not to overuse hashtags. I get so annoyed with people whose profiles are nothing but hashtags.
I completely agree, Anne. Too many hashtags are enough to create headaches 😉 Looking forward to your next post.
I see that your ideas are working for you, huh? And Chuck Wendig? Uh, yeah, colorful, innit? (Actually I love his stuff and thanks for pointing me to him a while back!)
Steve–We have had our ups and downs with this blog. There was a time when our Alexa rating was under 100K. Now it’s around 300K, but that’s still very good for an author blog. We lost a lot of readers when we moved twice in six months, but we’re slowly building again.
I’ve tried out different tactics with my new book blog and brought the Alexa from 13 million down to 1 million in 6 months with once a week posts of about 600 words, so it can be done. I’m not Chuck Wendig, but then, nobody is Chuck Wendig. 🙂
I remember back when I tried to post everyday- years ago. UGH. Way too much to keep up with. But I’m finding a rhythm now. 🙂
Libby–Posting everyday is just not possible for an author-blogger. I hate it when people say we should. If blogging is the only writing you do–fine. But if you blog to support your books–there lies madness. Once a week is plenty. How much writing can you do if you’re dead? 🙂
Exactly! And that’s why I do once a week at most now. Plus, who has good content five days a week? Super hard to do.
Great advice, Anne. I particularly agree that commenting on other blogs increases traffic to your own site.
Depending on genre or the type of nonfiction a person is churning out, Facebook groups can be a valuable source of traffic and can attract new loyal readers. Since I’m writing 19th historical fiction, I joined 4 or 5 groups and post to them whenever I have a new blog post (if it’s pertinent and adheres to the group rules, of course). Offering relevant comments or just liking other postings also builds rapport with potential readers.
I also found reviewing books in Goodreads, particularly those in my own genre, generates traffic. I’ve joined a few Goodreads groups but have to admit I haven’t followed through on that angle. Two social media networks seem to be my limit.
Keith–Facebook groups are useful, but we have to be careful. I used to post links to this blog in a lot of writing groups when people asked a question and I had a blogpost that answered it.
Then some creep reported me for spam. All links to this blog were blocked on FB for about a year. A real hassle. So we have to be very careful not to put in too many links to a blog from our FB groups.
Ditto Goodreads. There are many anti-author vigilantes on the site, so we have to be very, very careful we’re wearing a ‘reader-reviewer” hat and not an “author” hat when linking to our blogs. Otherwise we can get hate mail, one-star review swarms, death threats or other attacks from the anti-author bullies.
Not having time for Goodreads may have saved your posterior. It can be a dangerous place.
Please write 5 Simple Snacks to Serve at Your Next Exorcism!!! I think that’s something we all need to read.
I really floundered about what to write about on my author blog. I posted fiction, the odd book review, and stuff that caught my fancy, and I tried those ‘this is what I learned from writing’ posts…but it wasn’t until I discovered the #FolkloreThursday hashtag on Twitter and started writing articles for that that I feel my blog really ‘grew legs’.
Now I’m not stuck for topics, people actually tell me they enjoy those posts, and they link back to the fiction I write. Win!
Icy–Haha–I’m glad somebody got my little joke. I think that would be fun, wouldn’t it? a some little Devil’s food cupcakes, maybe? A plate of ghost-shaped sugar-cookies?
I think you did it just right. You experimented with different topics, went out and explored rather than just sitting alone in your blogspace…and found a topic that worked to promote both your blog and your book subject matter. Bam!
Great little success story. Thanks for sharing.
I do have an author blog and use just about all those techniques. I haven’t don’t any guest blogging. Oh and Chuck Wendig makes me laugh with is colorful posts.
Southpaw–Guest blogging is a plus, if you can make the time. Which reminds me–I’ve got a guest blog due today! Ha. Must run….(Yes. Chuck is hilarious. And he can say some pretty powerful things, too.)
Chuck does know how to deliver a message! I have to get up the courage to guest blog. 🙂
If only I had this post when I started out. I wrote daily posts for six long months before I got comments! That’s a looooong time. I am just stubborn. Still there are posts where the cyber-cobwebs gather. We’re in this for the long haul, right?
rxena–That’s true professionalism! You just did it. And those posts aren’t wasted. Even though people didn’t comment, the search engines noticed. And the ones that didn’t get any hits can always be recycled.
I often find some of our old posts that didn’t get many hits can be dusted off and repurposed. And none of that time was wasted. Writing is always good practice. Congrats. Now you can relax and cut back to once a week and get back to your WIP. I’m sure your blog will continue to grow!
Tip number 1 is 100% true! Commenting and visiting other blogs has brought people to mine and helped me make connections with other writers.
Patricia–I think visiting other blogs is the single most important thing a new blogger can do to boost traffic. It can help in dozens of other ways, too, as I’m sure you’ve discovered.
Anne,
Thanks for your tips. I’ve been writing my author’s blog on my website for a year. I haven’t done much on the “do”s but I have avoided the “don’t”s.
For example, instead of posting fiction on my blog, I have a separate page on the site I call the Mascot Serial, which is a serial about the adventures of the impressive non-human creature that adorns the header space on the site. N.K. Wagner, editor of Page and Spine ( http://www.pagespineficshowcase.com) suggested that.
Now that I have a little more guidance for the blog I’ll employ some of those! I’ve emphasized entertaining reading mostly. I’ve discussed all genres of fiction and giving historical and trivial information, and evaluations, on many of the novels and series in several genres. I even discuss a few films in the sf/fantasy genre.
You may (or may not) remember that I first contacted you to get some advice on using song quotes in my novel. You gave me some great info. Funny thing: I took your advice and wrote my own “lyrics” to replace the copyrighted ones…and then eliminated them all together. At the moment a small indy publisher and I are working on the final edits before publication. So, thanks for the help!
Fred Waiss
waiss@centurytel.net
http://www.fgwaiss.com
Fred–Congrats on taking the comment plunge! You brought up a good topic: it’s smart to discuss other media that touches on your genre, like film. I know that Alex J. Cavanaugh reviews sci fi films on his blog and that has got him lots of readers for his sci fi novels. You can go in a number of different directions with an author blog.
That’s so interesting about the song lyrics. So many authors think they can’t live without quoting famous song lyrics, but often we find we don’t need them. Glad to hear you got to that point. And congrats on your upcoming launch!
Thanks for the great advice! I moved from a free WP site to my own domain. Up to a whole 7 followers now, but I’m going to try some of these ideas.
Acch. Technology gets me everytime. I just posted under the old blog site, where I am blogging through Revelation- that may not be for everyone.
Rose–Your image takes you to Gravatar, which should link to your WordPress site. I’m not sure if it does, but they usually do. I’m not sure what Revelation is. I’m not terribly techy, which is why I tell people to go with simple. This is a WordPress.org site, but I have help. I couldn’t manage it by myself. 🙂
Wow, so much information all in on spot, Thank You! I’m on WordPress and use them for my website as well. Man, is that hard to figure out and ‘they’ told me it was easy. Just launched my first novel, LIGHTED WINDOWS; learned tons of stuff but there is always more, gag. If you have time, yes I know that was funny, but stop in and give a wave if you get ’round to it 🙂 http://www.melodyslark.com. Thank you so much for such excellent advice and direction!
Melody–You may be able to consolidate that blog into your website and save some bux and steer your traffic all to one place instead of fragmenting your audience.
I apologize if I gave the impression that the reason to comment on big blogs is to get bestselling authors to visit your site. Just responding to comments here takes a huge amount of time and we need some time to write our books and eat and sleep and stuff 🙂 Besides, that’s not something that’s going to help you all that much. Your networking should be with other debut authors.
The reason you want to get your name on a big blog like this is to get into search engines. When you comment here, your name links back to your blog or website and that gets the attention of Google. Because we’re on Google’s radar, this is going to raise your profile in a big way. Click through to my post on “how to comment on a blog” for a lot more info on the subject.
Best of luck with your debut novel!
Why oh why can we not edit out comments?? WordPress seriously!! Sorry, “all in ONE spot” I will now go hang head in shame or not. :>
Too funny. I’m so bleary-eyed, I read it as “one” and couldn’t figure out the problem. Haha. 🙂
All good tips. I am using most of them, but a few I didn’t think of before. Thanks!
Don–Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve looked in at least twice before and found this very interesting, but didn’t comment as it seemed you had so many. Now I’m back and decided to comment. I like blogging, but I hate it that I’m so busy with a day job (see Make Mine Mystery blogspot today). Posting on blogs take a long time for me. I don’t ever prepare comments ahead, but if I’m the guest or doing the post on any blog I do it well in advance and I can tell you, I question that I’m a writer sometimes with how long that takes me. I’m not any sort of expert yet at this, but I do make connections this way.
Linda–I think it takes all good writers a while to write something well. The definition of a “hack” is somebody who dashes something off without putting real thought into it. I only post twice a month because I take several days to put together a post. I know Ruth puts lots of time into hers too.
i remember reading a quote from Lawrence Olivier about how “when you no longer feel stage fright is when you know you’re washed up as an actor” or something like that. If you don’t feel it, the audience doesn’t feel it.
I know that marketers and social media gurus will tell you to just act like a robot and feel nothing and barrel through 1000 tasks a day, but that’s bs. Be real. Do what you can. We’re creating art here. Art is about being human, not trying to be a machine. Thanks for de-lurking!
Excellent advice as always, Anne. My posts tend to run around 1500-2000 words. I don’t want my readers feeling cheated, especially since I only post once a week. OMG, I missed the moonflowers on your poison series? Jumping over now.
Sue–Publishing industry insiders like Jane Friedman say 1500-2500 words is ideal for a blogpost now, so you’re doing great. And posting once or twice a week is now the accepted norm for an author blog. So you’re doing it just right!
Thanks for visiting my Moonflowers post. I’ve just posted a new one on the much mythologized Mandrake.
Thanks for all your comments, everybody!
As a poet looking to expand and drive more traffic to my poetry blog, I found your post very helpful. I will definitely be coming back to your blog. Have a great day.
I realize I’m coming to this late (long-time lurker, first-time commenter), but I saw this post just now thanks to Twitter. I found the tips above very helpful (and have just read your ebook on creating and maintaining an author blog, which has helped me rethink the way I blog).
One question I have, based on a new plugin for WordPress I just learned about, Tweetily, is whether you automate the tweeting out of older blog posts? I’ve been thinking I have a few posts that still stand up (I blog sometimes about pop culture, etymology, Norse myths, and music) but have not approached re-publicizing those posts in any kind of organized way.
I’m hesitant to go ahead and automate tweeting older posts, though, because if a post that really doesn’t stand up (eg. was based on a specific event now past, or something) got tweeted out, I think that’d look pretty stupid. Do you have any advice about tweeting links to older posts?
Don–Thanks for de-lurking! I’m so glad to hear my book is helpful. I don’t automate anything. I do all my own tweeting with my own little fingers. 🙂 . When an old post like this shows up in multiple tweets, it’s because some reader has discovered it and decided to share. (And sometimes I link to relevant older post in a new one–and that can revive it.)
If you have a full time day job that keeps you from getting to Twitter at regular intervals, then automating tweets is probably a helpful thing, but I prefer to go to Twitter several times a day for a quick check of my notifications so I don’t miss any real communications. Then I’ll add some Tweets or simply retweet something.
You definitely want to be careful about what gets auto-tweeted. Don’t randomly tweet old posts for just the reasons you mention.
Thanks! Yes, I think I need to curate the old posts (maybe after revamping them a bit — I knew very little about headings, alt attributes, etc. for years, and I’m sure my old posts show that), and look into a good method of scheduling tweets. I used to use a third-party software for that a few years ago, but I stopped when it became a paid-only service.
David–Or you can repost them with slight changes in title, add headers, do some SEO and they’ll register as a new post. Then share to Google Plus, which will get them into Google faster. (All tips you’ll find in my book, The Author Blog.)