A Post a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay

Well, I’m not sure how much truth there is in that, as I have been posting at least once a day recently and find myself laid up at home with a stomach virus. But I am sure you get the point.

I have been reading on a lot of blog recently about how important it is to post every day. I have been trying my very best to do this, and over the last few weeks I have forced myself to write something every day. With Friday as the exception as this is solely for Fiction, and last week I had nothing.

While I have certainly seen a rather sharp rise in my stats as the days have gone by, I am often found myself asking the questions, or rather making the statement. I am a writer, not a blogger.

Could these daily posts I am writing be spread out during the week, say one day on one day off? There has to be a balance right? I mean, let me break it down.

Do I enjoying blogging? Hell yes, it is great fun, and at time can be very therapeutic.

Is blogging taking up a lot of my time? Yes and no. The posts themselves don’t take too long to write, but most of the time I have a really small window to get all of my writing done in. So yes, I could argue that blogging every day it removing key writing time from my schedule.

Is blogging raising my profile? Without a doubt. My stats are small compared to a lot of others bloggers I know, but they are not only consistent but also increasing at a similarly consistent rate. Which I see as growth and a sign that I am doing something right.

Am I making many sales as a result of my blogging? At the end of the day, that primary goal of any writer, indie, traditional, or as my, 100% solo published, is to sell books. We build an author platform, gain recognition, but at the end of it all, selling books is they key to being able to quit the day job and write for a living. On that scale, I have to say no. I am not making many sales via my blogging. I am sure there are some, but my sales are so low that the actual figures are unimportant.

On the note then, should I be spending more time on marketing? Yes

Why don’t I? Because I have no clue where I am, what I have to do or how to do it. Plus, I have $0.00 to be able to invest. I live from paycheck to paycheck and most of the time the last week of the month is tighter than tight. We pay the bills and buy the groceries, but anything above that is just not an option.

So what do you do instead? I blog… hmm, I see where this is going.

At the end of the day, I do enjoy blogging, but I am, and always will be a writer. I understand the importance of having a blog and an author platform, and in essence, blogging is marketing. Only rather than marketing my book, I am marketing myself.

I have always worked on the theory of ‘if I have something to say, I will.’ However, I will not force myself to post every day if I cannot think of something useful to say. Besides, I have a novel and two short story collections to finish editing, and am more than aware of advantages of having more than one novel / collection available.