In the 21st century, it’s no longer optional to have a blog. All authors need to have a blog to promote their books. Before we go any further, let me expand on that a little bit. Every authors needs to have an active and relevant blog. That means there should be fresh and interesting content on the blog at least 2 – 4 times a week.
What is a blog?
Originally a blog was simply a way to communicate with friends. Four or five years ago I started a “blog” to post a novel I was working on and to share it with friends. Today blogs are a great way for authors to build a brand and establish a promotional platform for their books. You can use a blog to help potential readers get to know the author behind the book and to learn more about the books you write. Non-fiction authors can use a blog to share their writing style and it is a great way to build your credibility when you write about the topics in your books. Think of it as a cyber sales person who is representing you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. What does your cyber salesman say about you and your books?
Choose a Blog Platform
To get started, you can easily set up a free blog on www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com, each of these services offer free blogs. You click to “join” and the website is set up in a way that makes it very easy to set up a simple blog. Follow the directions and you can start blogging in minutes. Over time you can learn ways to fine tune your blog and to customize the layout or you can hire someone to set up a blog and to teach you the best ways to use that blog to promote.
For authors who are less tech savvy, Blogger is very easy to use. For authors who have more computer and internet experience, WordPress is a great free platform. Each of these sites gives you a blogspot.com or wordpress.com address, but for $10 on Blogger and $14.95 on WordPress, you can chose your own domain name to use.
How to use a blog?
A blog can include information about your writing, how you write, how you develop story ideas and why you’re qualified to write your books. Non-fiction authors can use their blog to build their credibility with potential readers. Take the opportunity to show people that you have something beneficial to share. You can also show that you have the background and knowledge to help them. Fiction authors can share insider details about their books, the characters, the setting and many other parts of their books. You can also share writing and promotional tips with others. These are just a few of the unlimited number of ways you can use a blog to promote yourself and your books.
Promote your blog
Just starting a blog is not enough. Once you have a blog and once you start blogging on a regular basis (at least 2-3 short or long blog posts per week), you need to list your blog in blog directories. Two or the many directories include: www.blogcatalog.com and www.Technorati.com . Go to both of these sites and register for an account. Once you have an account, you can submit your blog(s) to the directory. This is a great way to help more people find your blog. Think of these like a “Google” for blogs.
Your blog address should be listed on your author business cards, linked to your website, included on your social media profiles, included anywhere your author bio is posted and listed in your email signature block. These are a bare minimum of the places where you should list your blog address.
It is also very good to register your blog with www.feedblitz.com or www.feedburner.com and place a subscription block so that interested readers can subscribe to your blog. This means that your subscribers will be notified about each of your future blog posts. It’s a great way to stay in touch with interested readers.
These tips are just the beginning of your blogging journey. But it is a promotional journey that you need to take – you and your publisher will be happy that you did.
About Nikki Leigh
Nikki Leigh is an award winning and best selling fiction and non-fiction author. She has over sixfteen years of promotional experience. This background has been helpful with her book promotion and her new promotional venture, Promo 101 Promotional Services which offers many online promotional options. Her promotional books – Book Promo 101 and Book Promo 201 lets her share many of the things she’s learned. For details about Nikki Leigh, visit http://www.nikkileigh.com. For detailed promotional and virtual blog tour information, visit – http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/. She also has a blog where she posts a wide variety of promotional articles – http://promo101tips.wordpress.com/ – check the category list for any specific topics that are of interest to you. For full details about Book Promo 201 – www.nikkileigh.com/book_promo_201.htm
Filed under: author credibility, author promotion, blog promotion, book promo 101, book promo 201, sell books | Tagged: article writing, blog setup, blog to promote your book, blog to sell books, promote books |
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This is terrific advice and one that was pointed out to me at last year’s MUSE Online conference – I now maintain an author blog AND an author website & each links to the other.
Blogging is a wonderful way to get the buzz going before a new book comes out and gives readers a chance to “meet” and interact with (through comments) the author.
Thank you Nikki for great advice.
Thank you for your comment Chelle. In this day and time – authors just need a blog. You know how much I use blogs 🙂 I wanted this to just spell out the basics and get people thinking and commenting 🙂
Nikki Leigh