1) Blog frequently
Most new bloggers dislike hearing this. Trust me when I say that the
struggle for content is ongoing. New bloggers, however, feel like it’s
just happening to them. The truth is, don’t get a blog just to have a
blog. Get it and keep it updated. It’s the quickest way to gaining
traffic. How often should you blog? Three times a week. The best days to
blog? Studies have shown that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are key
days for blogging.
2) Stay on point
I tell authors this a lot: stay on point, stay on topic. Why? Because
if you don’t you’ll lose readership. Once someone commits to your blog
they want to keep reading relevant information. So don’t blog one day
about your book, your speaking, or your mission and the next day share
Aunt Ethel’s pot roast recipe.
3) Plan your blogs
While spontaneity is the catalyst for creativity, planning is a good
way to stay on track. Start to map out key dates that you want to blog
about that have some relation to your topic – this way when you’re at a
loss for topics, you can always pick one from your list of planned out
blogs. Also, consider these topics to blog about:
a) Future predictions: everyone loves these, to the degree that you
can predict market trends in your industry do it, and the readership
will follow.
b) Discuss industry news: what’s happening in your industry that you
can talk about? Even if you’re a fiction writer there’s always
*something* going on worth mentioning in publishing, writing, or
marketing that directly relates to your topic.
c) The elephant in the room: talk about the stuff that everyone is
afraid of. What new trends are emerging that consumers/readers/companies
need to be aware of? What’s next for your market and how will it affect
the industry? How can we keep publishing books when we already publish
800 a day? You see what I mean? Think of things that frighten you and
talk about them. People will respond. Every time I do this I get a ton
of comments on my blog.
d) Write reviews: review other people’s books, product or work. This
is a great way to network and to become a “filter” for your market.
Filter out the new stuff and feature it on your blog (this goes for you
fiction writers too!).
e) Other blogs: what are people talking about? What did your favorite
blog just say? Virtual networking (with other bloggers) is a great way
to grow your content and get to know others in cyberspace. Don’t forget
to link to the blog you’re discussing!
4) Invite comments on your blog!
This is really important! The more folks you can get commenting, the
quicker your blog will get passed around. If you have a “no comment”
feature on your blog, remove it! You want people to be able to comment
and give feedback. In fact, at the end of every blog, why not invite
readers to comment? If you start getting a lot of responses to this,
begin featuring your favorite comments in future blog posts!
5) Comment on hot topics in the news
The quickest way to get traffic is to get your blog featured on a
high-traffic site. But how can you do this? By commenting on news
stories. Most major news sites have a feature that will list blogs that
are talking about the various news stories. Not all blogs get featured
but: a) if your if your topic is related to the story they’ve featured;
and b) you’ve written an insightful post on the topic, you’ll likely get
listed. For an example of what these look like take a peek at a recent
story on CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/09/14/simpson/index.html
6) Digg yourself
Make sure that your blog has a bookmarking feature. Sites like Digg and
http://Del.icio.us
are great places to get started. You can go there, sign up for an
account (very easy to do) and then follow their instructions for
bookmarking your individual posts. This is important! You don’t want to
bookmark the blog but rather, the posts. The posts will then show up in
these sites and, hopefully, other folks will bookmark them as well. Even
if no one else bookmarks your posts, it doesn’t matter. You can still
get traffic by being positioned on these sites. Super simple to do, go
ahead, give it a shot!
7) Twitter your blog
Got something to say? Try microblogging at Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com.
It’s a free service that asks the question: What are you doing now? Go
in, sign up and start posting your messages with links back to your
blog. We tried this and it’s fantastic. You can also blog from your cell
phone and blackberry. You can not only use it to promote your blog but
your book, speaking event, whatever you want. It might sound like a “who
cares” idea, but trust me, everyone’s Twittering these days.
8) Syndicate yourself
Using simple RSS feeds through
http://www.feedblitz.com
you can syndicate yourself and let folks subscribe to your blog. If
they don’t have a way to subscribe to your blog, they may forget you
altogether. Once someone subscribes, every time you post new content it
will notify them. And the best part? Your messages won’t get stuck in
someone’s spam filter. They’ll get the notification, head to your blog
and voila! Your readership stays engaged and growing.
Finally, don’t use an “official” voice on your blog. Pretend you’re
sitting across from your reader over coffee. Talk to them in a more
casual, conversational tone and you’ll not only get more readers, you’ll
likely get more comments too! It doesn’t take much to grow a blog, just
a little dedication and creativity.
Happy blogging!
