Are you thinking of blogging? by Susan Sanderson
Why blog?
Blogging is a way of setting oneself writing targets. It can also be a way of promoting books or services, such as editing or any other business. Writing a blog post is no use at all (except for writing practice and perhaps learning the technicalities of formatting and publishing a blog) if no-one reads it.
How to promote your blog
It is important to let people know about your blog. They may find it from Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms, where you share the link to your posts. Many authors have a regular newsletter, which gives their subscribers news in addition to their blog’s content.
A post I wote for Sue’s Trifles is now out of date – Google+ was withdrawn some time ago and the post40bloggers’ submission scheme also ended.
One important thing to do if you blog (particularly on WordPress) is to set up a Gravatar, which will appear whenever you like or comment on another blog. The Gravatar should be connected to your blog, so that others can find it. (If you don’t know how to do, this try searching the internet!) My Gravatar is in the illustration for this blog. Hubby took the photo some time ago. I have a more recent photo of the same object. Existing bloggers, has my autumnal owl visited you blog and left a mark?
The picture on the left shows how it has weathered.
Blogging events and link-ups
One way to increase the traffic to your blog is to join in with groups of like-minded people, who post about particular topics and visit each others’ blogs leaving encouraging comments. Some of these have a ‘linky’ where you enter details of your blog to connect it. There is always a closing date for these.
It is possible to have your blog listed on Bible Gateway’s Blogger Grid. Once it has been approved you can use the hashtag #bgbg2 on social media to connect it with other blogs written by people who ‘blog intentionally’. Your blog does not have to consist entirely of biblical content to be approved.
The Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge continues, but only attracts hundreds of bloggers rather than over a thousand at its peak. Now is the ideal time to look at this challenge. The sign-up list will appear on 30th March. Very short blog posts are acceptable, even a haiku a day. It is possible to build up a readership from many countries by interacting with AtoZers.
The challenges set by WordPress’ Daily Post were discontinued, but some bloggers have organised their own challenges. There are challenges for writers and for photographers. The Insecure Writers’ Support Group (IWSG) is popular. Five minute Friday is another popular challenge and Cee Neuner has a list of challenges.
Some links for poets are on the ACW website. You may know of others. If so, please comment.
Book review blogs
Writers are encouraged to read. (Try stopping some of us!) So reviewing books you have enjoyed is an option for your blog. It is also possible to sign up with some book promoters to receive advance review copies (ARCs). Some Christian publishers offer giveaways on Twitter. Entering does not guarantee a free book, but I have been lucky more than once.
Book review blogs or blogs which sometimes include book reviews include my blog, Sue’s Trifles. Other book bloggers I know of are Rosemary Johnson, Ken Powell, Maressa Mortimer, Shaz Goodwin and Clare Weiner. Of course there are many more.
I wrote about blogging for my post ‘Why blog?’ on More than Writers in January 2018. Some of the information there is no longer correct in similar ways to ‘Why does nobody find my blog?’
An earlier post of mine was Reading and commenting on blogs. Remember blogging is social media!
If you are short of ideas for a blog, reviewing books could be the way to start. Happy blogging!
(And if you were expecting a post for the middle Sunday in Lent, it just happens that I wrote one for this blog in 2019 - Mother's Day or Mothering Sunday.)
Susan always wanted to be a writer. In 2012 she revived her interest in writing with a blogging project to collect the kinds of sayings, which were much used in her childhood.
Susan experiments with
factual writing, fiction, humour and poetry. She does not yet have a book
to her name. Her interests include words, languages, music, nature study and
gardening She has experience of the world of work, being a stay-at-home
mum and an empty-nester. She is active in her local community and
Church. She and her husband live in
Follow her on Twitter
https://twitter.com/suesconsideredt
Sue's Trifles and Sue's words and pictures
Thanks for this interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouragement.
DeleteWow Susan!! This is so educative and informative. It will make blogging more meaningful for people like me, now that I have heard about ' Gravatar'! ACW should kindly set up an events day just for the A to Z on blogging. Still struggling on many areas but now, I have hope this will soon change reading your post. Thanks so much for this post! Blessings.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found it useful, Sophia. The A to Z challenge is not connected to ACW, but one or two ACW members have taken part. It would be good to have more this time.
DeleteGreat post. Thank you for the mention!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Shaz.
DeleteUseful stuff here, Susan. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your encouraging comment, Sheila.
DeleteThank you, Susan - some useful links there to tempt me.
ReplyDeleteHave fun with them, Dawn!
DeleteSome really good advice here Susan. I've been intrigued recently about people who blog about books for publishers in the run up to publication. I would think that could be a good things for some writers to do for lots of reasons.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Deborah. I have done that occasionally, but usually the books are in digital form, which I find difficult.
DeleteSo helpful, Sue. The world of blogging certainly opened up lots of opportunities for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ruth. It did indeed!
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