fter reading my recent post When – and What – to Blog, author Pat Guthrie asked this question:
I'm glad you're talking about blogging. I'm still trying to figure out how to get people there in the first place. I have the blog connected to my website. I've had it up for about a year (maybe a little longer).
I had a "counter" but when I made some updates on my blog, the darn thing disappeared. Still, the weekly updates are not flattering. Few make comments.
I try to keep topics interesting and fun–and varied. Perhaps it was a long space of time when I didn't blog at all (six months or so) ever since, I've had trouble building back my readership.
Any ideas?
Pat – Building a blog audience takes about a year, so don't be troubled if you do not see immediate results. Here are some suggestions to jolt your hits:
- I had a difficult time finding the link on your blog. I kept looking for it in the left navigation buttons. Consider making the link more prominent. Perhaps create one page and link to it with a button that lists all of your social media sites.
- You do a great job on your posts and post more regularly than some. I
would strongly encourage you to post at least three times a week. Posts
don't have to be long, or personal stories every time. You can post
links to interesting stories or Web sites if you like. - Approach authors on your blogroll about guest blogging. This will open you up to new audiences and drive traffic to your site.
- Open your blog up to guest bloggers, or interview other authors about their work. This also opens your blog up to new audiences.
- If you have a new book coming out, start blogging about it. Build up the launch on your blog by having a countdown.
- Talk about writing your novel. Many authors shy away from this because they don't want someone else to steal their work. You don't have to say anything about the plot. Just talk about the writing, good days, bad days, days when the novel placed second to life. Readers like to find out more about their favorite writers and how they work.
- Blog from a characters point of view. Create an original post from the perspective of a character, with a tag line at the bottom about the book they were featured in, along with a link to buy.
- Publicize your blog during virtual book tours and in forums and groups.
- Change up the colors and design of your blog and email fans to check out the new and improved site. Have a contest with a great giveaway to get them to drop by, check it out and leave comments.
- Publicize your blog on swag you use for book promotions, including postcards, business cards and bookmarks.
- E-mail your friends and family, Facebook and MySpace networks with the address. Remind them that you are here and that you have fun life stories to share. This really works if you hold a contest. People LOVE freebies.
- Get a Feedburner account and add an RSS feed to your site. Allow readers to subscribe via email, or in a feed reader. Feedburner will tell you how many people subscribe to your feed and what readers they use.
- Dump the site meter. Google Analytics will do everything you need and more. Here is a great video from Google highlighting this free service.
Good luck!
I so love your blog, Angela! Love all your suggestions and a hint at how to get other people over there by using guest blogs…if you could do a little more homework and find out which bloggers generate more interest, like say the ones who are out there promoting their "appearances," you will not only bring in your regular traffic, but they will generate traffic for you also. I've had it go both ways. I have guest bloggers on lots of blogs. Some generate more hits/comments, some it doesn't make a bit of difference. Find out which bloggers have a devoted following. Might be hard to do unless you can go by their blog and how many people comment on theirs. If you find a blogger who gets a lot of comments and they agree to guest post on yours, I'd say that was a good day's work.
What a great list of ideas! Thanks for taking the time to spell this all out. One thing I have also done is to get google alerts on topics related to my book/blog. Then I have been commenting on some of those blogs since the people would probably be interested in similar topics.
I haven't tried a contest yet, but plan to do so.
These are great ideas. Thanks for sharing them!
Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride
http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/
Thank you angela,
I'm going to start a major overhall on my blog. Definitately get guest speakers to come for an interview. Offer myself as a stop on blog tours.
this has been very helpful and I thank you.
Patricia Guthrie
Waterlilies Over my Grave
In the Arms of the enemy
Good stuff, Angela.
For someone with no blogging experience, the dynamics of the practice can be difficult to grasp, especially when trying to explain the psyche of the average blogger and blog reader.
Gaining an understanding of how and why blogs are read is an important first step in getting a wannabe blogger to that "eureka" moment.
Once the new blogger gets this, your advice regarding easy linking/sharing tools, regular posting of quality content and lots of promotion all make a lot more sense.