Blogging for Fun and Profit

This is part of a chapter of The Author’s Marketing Handbook called Blogging for Fun and Profit. I think it’s probably one of the most useful to anyone, not only writers. I’ve cut out a few paragraphs for the sake of brevity, and it’s written in my less-than-formal style.

One thing I’ve noticed is that writers don’t seem to know what to blog about, and advice on that is not always very helpful. It’s a question I was asked by a few authors in the context of marketing, so obviously it had to go into the book provided I could say something useful on the subject. When I got to thinking about it, I noticed a trend in a lot of popular and viral content online, and this section was the result. 

What to Write About?

And now we get to the million dollar question. What do you write about? You’ve probably heard everything from ‘post book reviews’ to other, more nebulous advice like ‘blog about what you know’. In any case, the fact remains that your awesome stuff won’t be so good at drawing people to your website if it’s not the right kind of awesome stuff, or if it’s too similar to the supposedly awesome stuff that every other aspiring author is churning out.

I’m not going to tell you what to write. I’m going to tell you how you can figure out what to write in order to pull in your readers.

Information versus Attraction

The rule of thumb that I use for picking out the right kind of topic is information versus attraction. What this means, in general terms, is that you do one of two things when you’re blogging:

You present something that your readers don’t know in a format that they’re familiar with.
You present something that your readers do know, but in a format that they don’t expect.

This probably sounds a bit weird, but here’s an example: let’s say you’re a sci-fi writer. You know all about alien species from various sci-fi shows, books, movies, whatever, and your target audience is familiar with them too. You write an article describing a well-known alien race in the style of a Richard Attenborough documentary, complete with funny accent.

The result is something your audience knows all about, but presented in a format they don’t expect. It’s probably absurd, if you’re a good writer, and it’s something they’ll want to share and talk about

Here’s another example: let’s say you’re a financial writer. You know all about the stock market, and the nuances of trading. Your audience doesn’t know what you know, but they’d likely be interested in learning more. You write in a straightforward journalistic style on some lesser known aspects of short selling.

The result is something your audience doesn’t know, presented in a familiar manner. It’ll get shared around if the info is useful.

At this point, you’re probably wondering why you don’t present something unknown in an unexpected format. Well, it’s because of the last factor that muscles in between information and attraction – familiarity. If you give them info they don’t know, in a format they don’t expect, then there is no familiar hook to get them reading at all.

General Ideas and Examples

Here’s some ideas on things you can do. If you’re a sci-fi writer, how about doing a series of book reviews as if they were written by HAL 9000? If you normally talk about the creative process, how about describing the things that inspire you in the tone and style of an epic mythology? Do you have another hobby that you could combine with writing – like, say, using your skill at cooking to recreate dishes from well-known fantasy settings?

If you write chicklit set in the 1920’s that’s aimed at housewives, how about a series of articles on the fashion of that time? If you write alternate history novels, how about something on whether the Germans would have won WWII if they had developed the iPhone sixty years ago?

If you have a more analytical mind, commentary on various aspects of publishing, writing or your chosen genre can be a great idea – if you have something new to say about it. Some authors like to talk about why vampires are so popular, or what plugins they’ve found useful on their websites, or the effects of copyright law. Short stories can also be a good choice if you’re playing to your audience’s tastes. If you normally write time travel sci-fi, how about a story that uses a well-known plot but involves a dinosaur gentleman in ancient Greece?

Why the Usual Stuff Doesn’t Work

It’s pretty clear why things like book reviews or articles on writing just don’t attract the same kind of attention. No, it’s not because they’re badly written or boring. It’s because they’re usually not providing any new info and they’re usually in the format of ‘blog post written from my perspective’. There’s no hook there, and no hook means little or no attention and probably no book sales.

Here’s an experiment you can do at home, kids. If you’ve got a blog, and you were sensible enough to install some form of tracking on it, check out your most popular posts and analyze them from the perspective of information versus attraction. Are they saying something new in a familiar format, or do they provide familiar info in a new format or style?

Then, with those two things, in mind, ask yourself: can they hook your target audience?