How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors

Note from Jane: This post was first published in 2012. I’m continuing to update and expand it to keep it relevant to today’s author.

On April 21, I’ll be offering a live class on blogging strategies that work.

This It will be a strange experience to start a guide to blogging, but I want to save you time, trouble, and heartache.

The average author doesn’t benefit much from blogging.jo

However, blogs continue to interest authors, and be discussed, as a way to market and promote. Because? Because blogs work, if certain conditions are met. The problem is that few authors meet these conditions. This post will delve into what it means to have a successful blog and in a way that is meaningful to an author’s long-term platform and book marketing efforts.

For clarity: I define “blogging” as posting material on a site that you own and control, usually your author website. Blogging is sometimes conflated with writing for other websites or blogs, but that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

Another complication: “Blogging” has become a somewhat outdated term. . Some people use it to describe a practice that is not so common now: keeping a rather personal “log” or journal of one’s thoughts and experiences. Blogging, as discussed here, is best described as online writing that is done for free, or better yet, as an online content strategy where you create articles, columns, interviews etc interesting stories that are shared on social media and discovered. through the search.

What it takes to become an effective blogger

If you consider blogging to be “less important” than your book writing or published writing, you’re more likely to fail. While blogging might be less formal, less vetted, and more geared toward speed reading online or social sharing, getting it right requires the same kind of practice and skill as crafting a novel. You get better the more you do it, but I see a lot of authors give up before they’ve put in enough hours to understand the medium.

Also, to stick with blogging long enough to be worth your while, you have to really enjoy what it means to blog and how writing online can be different from writing in print.

If you treat the practice seriously, all the content you generate for your blog can have another life, in another format or within another post. For example, the best of my blog content is condensed into one book, Publishing 101. That required a lot of editing and rephrasing (online writing can’t be turned to print without a lot of work), but it reflects the value and depth of what’s that appears on my blog.

Blogging is usually easy for nonfiction writers, let alone novelists

Nonfiction writers and pundits have it easy: their topic is lends itself to blogging, especially if they are running workshops or regularly engaging with their target readers. Such writers probably know by heart the most frequently asked questions, the most popular topics, and the problems that come up time and time again. This is invaluable starter fodder for a successful blog: knowledge of one’s audience.

Fiction writers can also have successful blogs, especially if they can focus on a specific topic, theme, or sub-genre. But it can be more difficult for unpublished novelists to gain traction with a blog; only after the novelist has made a name for herself does a blog readership tend to develop. With nonfiction authors, the opposite is true: blogging can help build a platform that leads to a book deal.

This is why blogging advice can be so contradictory and confusing: a lot depends on the genre you choose. you are writing and who you are writing for.

Consistency is critical to effective blogging

There are two types of consistency: frequency and topic.

Frequency: To get any kind of momentum, you need to commit to 2-4 posts a week. Some people can get by with one post a week, but it’s hard to gain traction without volume. Ideally, in the beginning, you should shoot several times a week. The more you blog and the more audience you build, the more you can reduce frequency.

Topic: Think of this in terms of your headlines for your blog posts. If you look at your blog titles for a month, they should convey a strong message about what you cover on your blog and who it’s for. A potential reader should be able to easily tell if they will benefit or enjoy reading your posts on an ongoing basis.

Unfortunately, authors have trouble staying focused and disciplined on a subject or topic, often because they get bored or think readers will get bored. But again, it’s hard to gain traction if you change all the time and aren’t consistent with what you offer.

If you’re interested in blogging, but are concerned about the time commitment, then consider creating a multi-contributor blog. , where several authors of the same genre (or aimed at similar audiences) come together. That helps reduce the load, as well as increase the size of your initial audience, since more people will be marketing and promoting the blog.

It takes patience to build an audience unless you’re already well known.

It can take months before people realize your blog exists. This is not necessarily your fault; there is an incredible amount of noise all around us and enormous demands on everyone’s attention.

But if you do a continuous series of impressions over a long period of time on the same topic, then it starts to click: “Oh, this person is blogging and covering this topic regularly. ” Some writers assume, “Oh, everyone knows I’m blogging because I posted about it,” but no. That’s not the case, and that’s why consistency is so important.

Only about 10% of your readers (or even less) will actually make themselves known or interact with you on your blog, for example. which takes a while before you reach a tipping point, where there is a concrete indication of increased activity or interest.

What should you blog about?

The String of events goes something like this:

1. An author’s book is nearing its publication date (or perhaps the author is trying to secure a traditional book deal). She knows she needs to market and promote the book and/or build a platform.
2. Finds (or listens to) advice that blogging is a good way to get #1.
3. She Question: What am I blogging about?

My unproven theory: We have a lot of bad-writing authors on their blogs because of this series of events.

So how do I does this answer the question? , “What do I blog about?”

Well, if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn’t be blogging. In that, my position is somewhat stubbornly zen: if the action is too forced or contrived, the blog may be doomed from the start. The best bloggers have rarely been told to do so. It is not an activity into which perpetrators should be dragged kicking and screaming. Nor should you feel that it is a burden to have ideas; Ideally, your problem is having too many ideas.

However, I don’t want to be totally defeatist here! I want to encourage experimentation. If you can approach blogging because it sounds like fun, then let your imagination run wild about what you might write about.

Here are several models to consider, based on how challenging I think they are (assuming you want your blog to “ worth it.”

Easy: The Literary Citizenship Model

If you’re new to literary citizenship, you can read more about my views here. It basically means celebrating and calling attention to authors, writing and books, the things you presumably love and want to support. This model is ideal for novelists, memoirists, and unpublished poets.

Blogging with the intention of promoting literary citizenship opens up many possibilities for publications, including:

• Book informal recommendations or reviews
• Q&A or interviews with people in the community (usually authors)
• “What I’m reading now” post types and other “media consumption” lists ” where you talk about what things you are viewing, saving, listening to, collecting, etc.

Key benefits: You are building a great network of contacts as you build a excellent content on your site. All authors love to get noticed (or find a new admirer) for their work.

Where the problem lies: There is a lot of literary citizenship activity online, in many shapes. Getting a large readership will require a unique angle or twist, though this is true of any blogging endeavor.

Easy-Medium: Writing for Other Writers

Here’s what what I do. Many authors have considerable advice and knowledge for others in the field, and the audience of aspiring writers and established authors is massive. The downside: Connecting with other writers doesn’t necessarily increase your readership; you end up in an echo chamber with other writers.

Key benefits: If you already teach writing or mentor other writers, you probably have some content that you can repurpose to fuel your first few blog posts. Initially, you won’t run out of ideas and your early readers will share their valuable tips on social media and help you build a traffic base.

Where the difficulty lies: In my experience , burn. After a few years, it’s hard to keep things fresh and interesting.Your readers, as they go along, can also outgrow your blog.

Easy-Medium: Write in your field of expertise

This is the best option for anyone who writes and publishes not fiction. It works wonderfully with prescriptive or procedural nonfiction categories, and it can work with memories as well. For example, if you’re writing a memoir about addiction or caring for aging parents, your blog can offer information and advice (and stories) for people going through the same thing.

Key benefits: You are likely to be intimately aware of your readers’ needs and can quickly find content that interests them. If you teach or speak, you’ll also have content that can be easily repurposed for a blog.

Where the difficulty lies: Some categories are fiercely competitive, like travel and cooking. You may need to do some work to find an angle or voice that stands out.

Medium: Behind the Scenes

You can write about the investigation, the news, or current affairs. events that play a role in the construction of his books or other works. You can also develop contests and events that focus on reader participation, such as having readers name the characters in your novel, pick the best cover, etc. Presumably, readers will enjoy learning more about the context and ideas that affect your writing and engaging in your future work.

Key benefits: For most writers, it feels It’s natural to discuss the things that influence your work, and you’re likely to discover and engage your biggest fans.

Where the problem lies: You can quickly run out of material or have no a very high frequency of publications. Or you may be dismissive of the idea of ​​involving readers in your work. For unpublished novelists, this approach is challenging as people are unfamiliar with your work and may not care about your process (yet).

Difficult: personal essay or daily life

Some writers find success with informal missives that discuss everyday events or reflect on their personal lives. This could also involve regularly posting specific media, such as photos or videos.

Key benefits: Can be a good practice or creative outlet, especially if you’re committed to blogging in a schedule. Fans of their work may enjoy the privacy (though some authors prefer an air of mystery).

Where the problem lies: Not everyone can write entertainingly about themselves themselves (and some do not want). For writers who are not yet well known, it will be difficult (if not impossible) to interest others in the details of your personal life, unless you are a superlative writer.

This is not an exhaustive summary. list of what you could write on a blog, but it gives you an idea of ​​the most common options.

Think hard about how you can bring your own voice or perspective to a topic, topic, or subject without repeating what you already is there. This is easier said than done. It took me 18 months to find the right angle, to realize that I do best when I focus on business advice and digital media topics for authors.

The most successful blogs have an angle and a very focused appeal. to a very specific audience. This makes it easier to attract attention and build a community around common interests or perspectives.

No one should blog in a vacuum

Before you start a blog, identify the other key people who are already blogging in your area: the influencers. Start reading and sharing her content, and comment on her blog. Eventually, if possible, you should write a guest blog for them. View other bloggers not as competitors, but as members of the community who may eventually become supporters of your work. If your blog is of high quality and generates conversation, you are likely to be recommended or send traffic to you. So identify notable players in the community or people you’ll want to build relationships with over time.

Choose the Right Blogging Platform

The best platform to use is to use. for your author website, don’t be tempted to build your blog elsewhere. You want everything under one umbrella for search engine optimization and long-term marketing strategy. So, for example, if you have an author website on SquareSpace, start your blog there; don’t start one over on WordPress or Blogspot.

If your website’s platform doesn’t support blogging, then it may be time to switch platforms. I talk about the basics of authoring websites here.

If you don’t have an author website, or if you’re doing a multi-contributor blog, I recommend using WordPress. It is well supported, continuously developed, and runs about 20% of all websites today. This is my step-by-step guide to hosting your own website or blog, which takes no more than 10-15 minutes.

Before you launch your blog

Before you start, consider the next.

• Blog title and tagline. There are no hard and fast rules here, but it should be clear to new visitors what your blog is about and what they are going to get out of it. If your blog title is metaphorical, clever, or you’re unclear on the topic of the blog (or if it’s just under your name), add a tagline that counts and sells the angle. Even Michael Hyatt, who is very well known right now, has a catchphrase: “Your Leadership Mentor.”
• Readability. If your blog is primarily meant to be read, then don’t hinder readability by making the text too small, too tight, or (worst of the worst) white type on a black background. Keep in mind that ads or a difficult-to-navigate layout can also hinder readability and lead readers elsewhere.
• About Page or Timeline. If content of your blog is interesting, people will want to know more about the person behind it. Don’t make them look for this. Create a separate page and be sure to include a way to contact him.
• Comments. You should develop a policy for how you will handle or moderate discussions. Will you approve all comments before they are published? Will comments be automatically posted if they are not spam? An open comment policy that doesn’t require you to log in helps you get more comments, but you’ll want to make sure you receive email alerts when new comments are posted, in case you need to remove any unwanted or inappropriate content that happens to pass through. Fortunately, major blogging platforms (such as WordPress) help you optimize your comment system to automatically eliminate spam activity. If you have any problems, please install Akismet, the industry standard plugin for removing spam comments.

How to create quality posts that get read and shared

Quality can be a soft term; A lot depends on what your audience or readers consider “quality” or what type of content they find attractive. The better you know your audience, the better your posts will be.

However, here’s how to make sure your posts are more likely to be engaged and shared.

• Don’t be afraid of length. For some strange reason, people started to think that the ideal blog posts are 500 words, even less. That is simply not true. In fact, when it comes to search ranking, Google looks at the substantive nature of content and will rank your content lower if it seems superficial. Social media is often best for quick sharing, short comments or short statements, or anything worth no more than a few hundred words. The most successful posts on this site are often over 2,000 words long. However, the longer the content, the more readable it needs to be, which brings us to the next point.
• Improve scannability. Most people skim the online content and do a very fast search. judgment call as to whether it deserves closer attention. If so, your content may be saved for later, or readers will slow down and read the content cover to cover. To easily scan your content, add subheadings, lots of paragraph breaks (one-line paragraphs are acceptable), bulleted or numbered lists, bold entries, whatever you need to make your posts easier to understand and see if they are valuable. .
• Add at least one image. You’ll notice that I always start posts with an image. Psychologically, this generally enhances the perceived value of the post; Furthermore, these images are extracted and used when the post is shared on social media. It’s okay if the image isn’t directly related to the content; It can be metaphorical, as long as it is attention-grabbing or colorful. Blending in is the opposite of what you want. (You can find many free images to use on VisualHunt.)
• Ask a question at the end. If you want people to actively participate in the comments, you’ll do better if you end the post with a question, where you ask people to share something specific about their knowledge or experience. Active comments are generally considered a good thing because they increase the time people spend on your content, which is a signal of engagement to search engines and therefore contributes to a better search ranking for your blog.

Your Post Titles Are Critical

If people only saw the title of your post (for example, on Twitter), would they feel compelled to click on he? Remember, the title is often the only thing people see when they browse online and look at search results, so it’s one of the most important factors in getting your post read. Here are some considerations:

• Is the title specific and clear? There is very little room to be clever, cute, or abstract with blog post titles. Also, for search engine optimization, you need to think about the keywords that belong to that title that will help people find your post.

Cross the line into clickbait when the headline doesn’t deliver on the promise it made, or if the headline is too sensational to get clicks.

• Does the headline offer a benefit? We all have time and limited energy to consume online content, so we are always thinking of WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?)

Here are some actual blog post titles I helped an author improve, to be more specific and attuned to keyword research.

• Original title: Total randomness, mostly involving books that aren’t mine
• Enhanced title: My Summer Reading List: Books I Loved (and Books I Still Waiting for Me)

• Original title: Turn, Turn, Turn
• Emproved title: What if you fear the changing of the seasons?

Key content refers to any article, post, or page on your site that consistently drives new readers to your blog, usually through search or referrals from other sites. Cornerstone’s content is often a complete and definitive piece that addresses a frequently asked question, topic or issue, or features a very popular author or something in popular culture that is frequently searched for.

The Cornerstone content on this blog can be seen just under “Most Popular Posts”; each pointing to my 101 posts on how to publish.

Sometimes the core content can be a manifest or a PDF download. Chris Guillebeau is well known for 279 Days for the overnight success that drew thousands (if not millions) to learn about his blog and message.

If you are a nonfiction writer , this probably comes naturally: Create a 101 guide, FAQ, or tutorial related to your topic or expertise—something people often ask you about. (My most visited resource on this site is Start Here: How to Publish Your Book.)

If you’re a novelist, this strategy may require some creative thinking. Consider the following:

• If your book is strongly regional, create an insider’s guide or travel guide for that particular region. Or think of other things in your work that might inspire something fun: a collection of recipes; a character’s favorite books, movies, or music; or what research and resources were essential to completing your work.
• Create a list of favorite readings by genre/category, by mood, or by occasion. Link to current events or “like” media whenever you can; For example, if you write romance and you know your readers love The Bachelor, create a list of books that fans of the show would enjoy reading.
• If you have a strong vocational activity (or former profession) that influence your novels, create FAQs or guides for the curious.

Having even one piece of foundational content greatly reduces the burden of driving readers to your site through new content . If it does its job, the cornerstone will bring in a steady stream of new readers over a period of weeks and months, some of whom will become loyal fans.

If you’re very serious and strategic about it, I recommend read How to increase website traffic.

Make browsing and sharing your posts easy

Some blogs have such a minimalist design that it is difficult to see the big picture of what you offer the blog. While there are benefits to a minimalist design, I get more engagement by having a sidebar that offers tools to navigate my blog history and the hundreds of posts found here.

• Calendar/archive. People new to your blog may want to search your past posts. Make it easy for them to do so by offering a publication calendar or archive.
• Search by category. Blog content should be organized into 5-10 different categories that are of high interest to your audience. For example, if people read an interview or book review on your site that interests them, they might want to search for all previous interviews or book reviews. Make it easy by categorizing posts correctly and making categories visible with posts.
• Most popular posts. For new readers of your blog, it’s helpful to have a consistent box or sidebar that tells readers what your most popular posts are.
• Sharing feature. strong> Make it easy for people to share your posts on Facebook, Twitter (or just about anywhere else) by adding share buttons to the bottom of your posts. This functionality is usually built into most blogs.

Improve the visibility of your content through search engines (SEO)

Search engine optimization search actually requires its own publication.However, you’ll be doing a good job with your SEO if you:

• Use WordPress or Squarespace, which are already optimized for search.
• Make sure every post is categorized and tagged appropriately.
• You think about how readers would search for your content and incorporate those search keywords into your post title, post subheadings, and more. If your site is self-hosted, then install WordPress SEO by Yoast, which will give you the tools and education you need to optimize your content for search.

If your site is self-hosted, then You must have Google Analytics installed. If not, get started today – it’s free and easy to set up. After Google Analytics has collected at least 1 month of data, take a look at the following:

• How are people finding your blog? Through the search? Through your presence on social media? Through other websites that link to you?
• What search words bring people to your site?
• What pages or posts are most popular on your site? ?

If you know the answers to these questions, you’ll be better able to decide which social networks are worth your investment of time and energy (at least when it comes to promoting blogs), who else on the web might be a good partner for you (who is sending you traffic and why?) and what content on your site is worth further development (what content will bring you long-term visitors?).

Create lists or round-ups on a regular basis

A very popular way to let people know about your blog is to link to other blogs. If you can do this in a useful way, that’s a win for you, your readers, and the sites you send traffic to.

In the writing and publishing community, weekly link roundups are very common. (See Elizabeth Craig for an example.) You can create such lists or roundups on any topic or category that interests you enough to remain dedicated, enthusiastic, and consistent for the long haul—at least six months to a year if you like. you want to see a tangible benefit.

Conduct regular interviews with people you love

Believe it or not, it’s rare to find an informed, thoughtful, and caring interviewer and series of interviews. .

Think of themes, hooks, or angles for a series of interviews on your site and run them regularly, but only as often as you have the time to invest in a quality, well-researched interview. . These series also offer you a great way to build your network and community relationships, which has a way of paying off in the long run.

Be a guest on other sites

Always Being a guest or appearing on other websites, that’s an opportunity to have multiple links to your own site and social media accounts.

A meaningful guest post means featuring sites that have a larger audience than you , but they must also have readers that match their work. If you need a solid introduction to guest posting, check out this excellent post by Copyblogger. If you’re not the type to write guest posts, then consider proactively offering to be interviewed as part of other bloggers’ interview series.

Whenever you appear on another site, always promote the interview. on your own social networks and create a permalink from your own website.

Above all: you need patience

This is what my blog traffic looked like in its early years.

1. December 2009. That’s when I started using WordPress on this domain. I was posting 3-4 times a month.
2. Mid 2010. That’s when my traffic reached about 100 views per day.
3. January 2011: began a weekly series on my site, unrelated to writing and publishing, that included mother-daughter interviews.
4. July 2011: it was then when I started writing and posting regularly to JaneFriedman.com (instead of Writer’s Digest).

After about two years of consistency, I hit about 60,000 hits a month.

.