By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin“As an acquisitions editor, you should not be blogging,” one of my
long-term writer friends told me in 2008. I worked inside a well-known
publisher and she believed a blog was a complete waste of my time. I was an early adapter to the blogging
trend. I ignored her advice and I’m
still blogging for many different reasons. Isn’t blogging out of step? Many
writers are still blogging regularly including my long-term friend, Jerry B. Jenkins, who has been on the New York Times list 21 times. We talk about
blogging some in this Master Class interview (follow the
link). In this article I will help you understand why you should be blogging
too.
Pick Your Audience and Focus for
Every Entry
Before you post your first blog article,
you need to determine your audience or readers. Just like no book is for
everyone, no blog is for every reader. You can’t be all things to all readers
and the focus of your blog will be critical to drawing returning readers. For
example, my blog is called The Writing Life because each
entry (now over 1,600 of them) are focused on various aspects of my life in
publishing. I tell personal stories, point out resources and things that I’m
learning. It is not just books but magazine and other aspects of the publishing
business. My focus is broad enough to allow a great deal of variety. It never
grows old to me (so I abandon my blog—which many people do) and I have an
endless supply of material. These aspects are foundational and critical when
you start blogging. Also determine how frequently you can post. If you post
once a month, that pace is too infrequent for drawing readers. If you post
daily, the pace may be too consuming—and you will possibly give up. I decided
to blog once a week and I post on the same day every week. Throughout each week, I have numerous ideas
and I keep track of these ideas (develop your own system to capture them) and
they become articles.
Some people organize a team of
contributors on a topic and rotate article. Others (like me) post my own blog
articles.
Multiple
Reasons to Blog
From my view, there are multiple reasons
to regularly blog:
* Consistency. Blogging is an
easy way to build a consistent writing habit. You can also mentor and help many
others with your blog entries.
* Platform and influence. Literary agents
and publishers are looking for writers (despite their form rejection letters).
Your blog is part of your platform, a way to show your writing skills and
influence others.
* A place to store
your various ideas. Articles for my blog are made quickly and random topics. A
number of years ago, I took those random entries and organized them into a
book. Within publishing we call this process a Blook. My Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams originally
started as blog entries.
* A place to
repurpose my ideas. When I need a blog article for someone else, I often turn to my
blog with a wealth of material. In a short amount of time I can repurpose and
rewrite a blog entry for these needs.
* A way to make
money.
It’s not my first reason to blog but I make money from my blog. Through
blogging, I’ve found authors that publish through Morgan James. I’ve made affiliate
income from my blog and much more. I’ve even got a risk-free eBook called The 31 Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks (follow the link)
for more insights on this topic.
Practical Lessons for Your Blog
Here are several practical lessons I’ve
learned for your blog:
--Get a header or look to your blog which
people will recognize when they go to it. It doesn’t have to be complicated but
should be distinctly your look. You can use a template or get help from someone
at Fiverr.com but do invest this energy into the appearance.
--Add a search tool into your blog. I
picked up mine from google but look for a simple HTML addition that you can add
to help your readers. For The Writing Life, my search tool
is in the right hand column (scroll down to find it). I use this search tool
often when I’m looking for something among my many entries.
--Always include a royalty-free image with
each blog entry. You can’t use just any image you find but should get it from a
royalty-free source (check this link for some
resources). The image gives others an easy way to pass on your articles and give
you additional readers.
--Add a subscription tool to your blog. I
use Feedblitz and have about 500 people who receive any update to my blog
through their email. Use this link to subscribe to my blog.
--Add a ClickToTweet for every entry. There are other tools but I use ClickToTweet and
from monitoring my social media, I know a number of people use this tool. Follow this link to learn how to install it. Make it easy for people
to share your articles.
A key part of the writing life is a word I
don’t really like but actively do: discipline or the discipline of consistently writing. A blog is an
important part of this process for me.
Tweetable:
Are blogs still relevant? This prolific writer and editor tells why he is stillblogging (and you should too). Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)
________________________________________
W.
Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former
magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written
more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s
newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses
worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents,
Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is
located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with
Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.