There are many reasons to blog – to provide yourself with a
forum to air your thoughts, to promote yourself as a writer, to teach your
expertise, and sometimes even to make money. Each audience will come to your
blog-site with different expectations; if you want your visitors to keep coming
back then keep writing what they want. Decide
what you want (or need) to write about, settle on a theme and a schedule and
then stick with it. There are a few user friendly (and often free) blogs like
Wordpress and Blogger.
Basics of blogging: Hook your reader with the first sentence.
Write a draft blog post and then edit – cut out unnecessary introductions.
Start with the main point of your message. Avoid using passive words and sounding
uncertain. Try to keep your sentences and paragraphs brief and avoid losing
your reader’s interest. Use real language, don’t use fancy jargon that might be
over the head of your readers or that you yourself don’t understand. Speak to your
audience, the audience that you are hoping you are attracting. If you are
writing for scientists it is okay to use scientific terms, but if you are
writing for the general population, write as if you were speaking to your friendly
neighbors.
If you are writing a factual blog post, do NOT guesstimate statistics;
be sure to attribute factual statements to a reliable source. “Experts say that
an approximate…” challenges readers to question whatever you are saying; use
(for example) “the Metropolitan Society of AutoMakers estimates that the
average family…” to present believable text. Using bullet points and lists help
make the message in your post clear. Do your research before you start writing
your post and it will show. Make sure your headline is brief and effectively
captures the message of your blog; use a subtitle if necessary. List keywords
in the post tags so search engines can find you.
If you are using your blog to promo your books don’t make it
a run-on advertisement – as a matter of fact you should never actually say “Buy
my book”. Choose excerpts to post. Write a blog about something in your story
that ties it into a current event or a holiday. Interview a character. Post the back-story (why you wrote the book). Think
outside the norm. It’s okay to post buy links for a book after the post. Make
sure you allow visitors to leave comments with as little effort as possible and
always comment back; you can delete spam, but interaction with your audience is
extremely valuable. List keywords in the tag section so search engines can find
you.
Build your following by writing guest posts for other blogs
(find blogs in your subject and query the host to find out if they accept guest
bloggers) and by inviting guests to your blog. Cross-promote the other writer
and/or the blog you are appearing on. Do not re-blog your guest post on your
own blog (at least not within a reasonable time period), you will be denying
the host of extra traffic. Visit and participate in other blogs, most blogs
allow you to post a blog link, use it so people can follow you back. Join Blog
Hops for the opportunity to interact with other writers and attract more
readers.
Writing Exercise: The
phone rings and you answer, it’s another telemarketer. What was he trying to
sell you? Write a brief paragraph telling us what the sales pitch was and what
he said to you every time you said you weren’t interested.
Writing Prompt: Make
a list of 15 to 20 keywords about topics that interest you and see where a
search engine (like Google) takes you when you search each one.
Challenge Assignment:
Visit and comment on at least 10 blogs.
