The easiest way to drive traffic to your blog is to make it easier for us to find you. I’d also add here to make sure your follow button is visible. If I can’t even find the follow / subscription button obviously I can’t follow your blog.
Tag: blogs
Newsletter, Blog, or Both?
Authors, check out these articles. I totally agree with having both a blog and an email newsletter. Further, I think an email newsletter will outdate Facebook, Twitter, and also your blog! If these go down in any way, you always have an email list. Even though people can subscribe to the blog via email, there’s a deeper personal connection with someone via the email list. Most of the people who follow your blog probably barely read your posts. While this can be because they follow too many people to support every blog they are subscribed to, an email list really narrows it down. I also wouldn’t complain if your email list is small like mine. The benefit of this is that you’ll have a higher open rate because these are the people who really enjoy your work. They are, as the article elaborates on, your real supporters. The people who, when you release a book they will (wait for it) buy it!
If you do have an email list, pay attention to open and click rates. This narrows it down even further. Of the 100 subscribers to your email list, how many of them open the emails? This is your real number. Or even if you have 3,000 subscribers, how many open your emails and click on your links? These are your real numbers. Also, I would try not to be all “businessy” (Made up word) in your emails. Personally, I try to be as genuine as possible. Emails are personal and the people who are subscribed are people who have already read your posts, and probably some of your books too. This means they are subscribed because they are looking for something different. They want to get to know the real you. Again, they’ve already read your blog posts so there’s really no reason to recreate the wheel. Make your email list feel special. Oh and another thing, email lists and newsletters are excellent for people who are not into technology! They may not like your FB, follow you on Twitter, or follow your blog BUT they will open your emails!
Read The Article Here: Newsletter, Blog, or Both
Here’s another good one: 5 Reasons Every Blogger Needs an Email List
AND here’s another: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Newsletter and Email List
Get to know the real me: Click Here.
Why Your Book Isn’t Selling
Excellent points. I loved all of them. I always enjoy Kristen’s posts because they’re so real: Straight, no chaser: “Thing is, we don’t care about you or your book. We didn’t want to see that crap in our feed, we sure aren’t going to subscribe to a blog/newsletter that is nothing but self-promotion.”
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Original image courtesy of Juhan Sonin via Flickr Creative commons.
The writer’s worst nightmare. You researched, you wrote, you finished, and then published your book. You wait for the sales and……….*crickets*. This is something that can happen to any kind of author, traditional or nontraditional. We think we have a hit on our hands only to later be checking it for a pulse.
What happened? Why is the book just not selling?
The Market
Remaindered Titles
In the not so distant past, there was only one way to get published and that was traditional publishing. Though many authors cheered when they were finally able to cast off the chains of New York, let’s at least respect that agents and editors might have known a thing or three about the book business.
Writers would often get vexed at the stack of rejection letters, believing they couldn’t actually write well. This was…
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How To Blog In Your Sleep
- Go to your WordPress dashboard
- Draft a post
- Schedule the post for 2am
Scheduling posts can be helpful for many reasons. Here are mine:
A World of Difference
The people who read your blogs literally come from different parts of the world. While the sun is shining where you are, the moon is glowing where they are. While you are bedding down, someone is getting up. While you are making coffee, someone else is pouring a goodnight scotch….we get the point. Scheduling posts to publish all hours of the night (OK, maybe not all hours) gives others an opportunity to see them early on who live in a different country. You may say, “They’ll see them anyway won’t they?” Not necessarily. It depends on how many blogs they already follow. We’ll all see it at some point, but there’s no guarantee. Keep your posts fresh by considering those who are not where you are.
Consistency
Consistency is difficult when you first start to blog. Even if you manage to go ahead full steam, at some point there’s going to be a burn-out. At the same time, you know that consistency is something that is needed to grow a blog and to keep it running. If you’re super busy, it helps if you create a schedule where you’ll have posts being published even on those days when you’re not at home. You can blog when you’re sleeping, when you’re driving, or when you’re flipping burgers! Plus, people will think your a superman or woman, which is somehow relevant.
Vacations / Breaks
If your addicted to updating your blog and you really don’t want to miss your regular posting days, schedule posts to go out during your breaks and vacation times. For instance, I enjoy writing / blogging, but it’s not the most important thing in my life. I, like many of you, actually have one outside of this blog. That said, I don’t blog on Saturdays. This doesn’t mean there’s nothing being published on Saturdays! If there’s something that needs to go out on Saturday, I schedule my Saturday posts so I don’t have to log in and focus on that during my break time.
Backfire – Of course, all things come with a fine print don’t they? If you’re really trying to break, stay away from the blog. The reason is because though you scheduled a post, you’re still likely to get feedback such as comments that will draw you back into the blogosphere. Though, if your really smart, you’ll just turn off your phone.
Goals
It may be good to schedule posts when you’re seeking to establish yourself as a blogger. When you first start a blog, you may have a goal that is different than when you have been blogging awhile. For instance, when I started The PBS Blog, my goal was to publish at least 3 posts a day. This was because I was, as a newbie, seeking to reach a certain goal. Right away I knew I wanted variety so my schedule went something like this:
- Article
- Poetry
- Inspirational Quote
Every night I’ll draft my articles for the day (which ranged from Self-Publishing stuff to general life stuff), my poem, and an inspiring quote. My goal was that though I love writing, I didn’t want this to be a strict writing blog which means I wanted to attract readers beyond that niche. I have a life outside of writing and things to share outside of it too. Right away I wanted to showcase variety to build a readership that included a wide range of people. Yes, weird people need love too.
When you first start to blog, you may also have a certain goal that, after blogging for awhile, may indeed change. After blogging for about a year, I didn’t schedule posts in this way anymore but it did help me to:
a. Get into the habit of blogging
b. Reach my goals
I wanted to exceed the 300 follower mark in the beginning at a nice pace. By nice pace, I mean within the first 3 months so I was reaching for 100 new followers a month. It sounds like a lot now but it really wasn’t hard thanks to scheduling posts! After reaching your goal, you may not have to post so much because your foundation is under you. For me it was important to reach that follower mark to establish myself as a serious blogger and it was something I obligated myself to. I thought, as someone no one knows anything about, I have to get a good foundation under me. After this it was important to create new goals because obviously, I wasn’t trying to stop there. So I started to incorporate special themes into my blog (Like Movie Night Friday and Black History Fun Fact Friday) and participate in blog challenges (Like Writers Quote Wednesday and Writing 101). All in all, like starting anything new, it’s going to take work in the beginning but afterwards you’ll find your groove and settle into a more natural schedule.
Critique a Piece of Work – “A Raisin in the Sun”
I love experimenting with symbolism and imagery in my writing and in my poetry. Last year, I participated in a Writing 101 assignment that asked us to Critique a Piece of Work, in which I shared my thoughts on Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool”. I thought that would be fun to experiment with again today.
Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” is the classic play by Lorraine Hansberry that was performed on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. A Raisin in the Sun is a piece that is loaded with symbolism.
To start, heat from the sun is very intense and it drains just as much energy as it gives. It is exhausting and causes death to those who cannot escape a temporary refuge away from its obvious danger. While some sunlight causes plants to grow, too much sun can be destructive.
Raisin
Raisins come from grapes that are dried out by the sun. The sun sucks its moisture and nutrients until it has withered dramatically. However, dried grapes writhe and get small, but they do not turn to mush and rot. (Which is totally awesome. I love raisins!)
A raisin in the sun is symbolic of a family’s dreams under the intense struggles they must endure to reach it. It symbolizes that the family’s dreams and hopes for a better life will never dry up, but more importantly, their dreams will never rot despite the intense struggles they are under.
The Plant
The plant that Mama keeps near the apartment’s sole window is barely surviving because it lacks adequate nourishment. Yet she is completely dedicated to the plant and lovingly tends it every single day in the hopes that it will one day be able to flourish. This is by far the play’s most overt symbol because the plant acts as a metaphor for the family.
Cockroaches, Rats, etc.
These creatures heavily reinforce the Younger family’s undesirable living situation.
Sunlight
Hansberry writes about sunlight and how the old apartment has so little of it. The first thing Ruth asks about in Act Two, Scene One is whether or not the new house will have a lot of sunlight. Sunlight is a symbol for hope and life, since all human life depends on warmth and energy from the sun. Light is also symbolic for truth. It is the truth that truly sets a people free.
Inside Historical Fiction with Anna Belfrage
Anna Belfrage provides insightful advice for Historical Fiction writers. I also find this information relevant for all authors in general.
#BeWoW is Back
Yayy, #BeWoW is back! It’s been awhile since I’ve drafted a “Be Wonderful on Wednesday” post. I really enjoy writing on the prompts! Special Congratulations to Ronovan Writes for his new laptop and to the Blogging community for banding together and helping him out. I do not have a #BeWoW post for today, I plan to publish one next week time permitting. I just wanted to give a special post highlight for Ronovan.
The PBS Blog 