Building An Audience… What do I blog about? #buildingaudience #amwriting
Welcome back everyone! Today, I’m going to talk about blogging. I’m not going to go into setting up a blog, as there are plenty of excellent posts out there that explain how.
Blogger vs. WordPress.com: A Complete Comparison
How to Set Up a FREE WordPress Blog
Today’s post is about what to blog about. One of the keys to building an audience on your blog is to post regularly. But if you don’t know what to blog about, that can be a daunting task.
Remember what I said last week about using your common interests to find your audience? Well, blog about things that you enjoy. Share your interests, hobbies, favorite books, movies, food, and more.
Here are SIX things you can post on your blog on a regular basis:
1) Your personal story – Your readers are going to want to know more about you. Share why you started writing, what inspired your current work-in-progress, research that you had to do for your story. If you’ve received rejections, or revise and resubmits, what did you learn from them? Though, do not use this type of post to bash anyone. Keep it positive and show your growth in this industry. Make this a weekly or monthly post that includes updates of your progress as well.
2) Share your work – There are many weekly author memes that give unpublished and published authors a chance to share their work. And if you interact with the other participants, you can make some great friends and connections. Here are some that I know of:
Tantalizing Tuesdays (write a story based on a picture)
Hump Day Hook (any genre – one paragraph)
Horny Hump Day (sexy romance – 3 sentences)
Three Word Wednesday (write a short story based on the three words posted)
My Sexy Saturday (any romance – 7 words, lines, or paragraphs)
Science Fiction & Fantasy Saturday (no adult content – 4 to 10 sentences)
Saturday Spankings (no more than 8 sentences)
Weekend Writing Warriors (all genres – 8 sentences)
Sunday Snog (kissing scene)
3) Popular lists – Post your own comprehensive list about something that you enjoy; movies, music, books… There are some regular ones you can be a part of as well.
Top Ten Tuesdays
Thursday Thirteen
Friday Five (can’t find a signup, but you can do your own on your blog)
4) Invite your favorite authors to visit your blog. This isn’t always possible, but it’s worth a try. You never know who may say yes.
5) Host book tours – There are many book tour companies in need of hosts. All you have to do is sign up with the company as a host. They will send you emails about the tours they’re looking for hosts for. Often, they’re also looking for people to review the books. If there are some that catch your interest and are similar to what you write about, sign up for the tour. (Each company is different in how they want you to sign up.) Here are some of many of the tour companies I know:
Sizzling PR
Buy the Book Tours
Goddess Fish Promotions
Writer Marketing Services
Bridging the Gap Promotions
Book Monster Promotions
Shades of Rose Marketing
CBLS Promotions
Bewitching Book Tours
6) Get involved in Writer and Blogger Challenges – I haven’t done any of these, but I know many authors who have, and they make great connections each time.
A Round of Words in 80 Days
Blogging from A to Z Challenge (April)
National Novel Writing Month (November)
Camp NaNoWriMo (April & July)
Blog Every Day in May
Ultimate Blog Challenge
There are many other things you can blog about, and if you think of others, please leave them in the comments below.
Schedule:
August 9 - Intro & Knowing Your Audience
August 16 - Blogging
August 23 - Using Yahoo & Facebook Groups with author Liz Crowe
August 30 - Twitter
September 6 - Facebook with Tawania from Wicked Readings by Tawania
September 13 - Pinterest with author Desiree Holt
September 20 - Google + with author Fierce Dolan
September 27 - Goodreads with author Cassandra Carr
