Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers discussion
Suggestions for starting a blog
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Amanda
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Sep 20, 2017 07:21AM
Hi my name is Mandy and I'm looking to start a blog. I was just looking for some suggestions on which platform people like best, different ideas to help increase a following. Things like that. In particular I want to know from the perspective of a blogger, which platform is easiest to work with. And from the perspective of a reader, what makes you want to follow someone's blog. I have been reviewing fora while, and I want to take it to the next level. I want it to look professional. I will probably post mostly reviews and some giveaways. So please, any helpful suggestions are very appreciated.
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Usually, I try to introduce myself when starting a blog. Then, I post some poems that I have created or short stories. I also try to let people know about book and author updates.
I have Blogger but I know other people use Wordpress. I was considering changing to that at some point if I can persuade myself it does more than Blogger does.
I've got a few blogs I've written on my author home page - (if anyone wants to go and have a nosy) but I'm quite inexperienced in this sort of thing, so I don't think I'm getting as much out of it as I could.
Yeah I'm hopeful to hear good ways to get connected to other bloggers and readers. I know people love giveaways.
Amanda wrote: "What do/don't you like about blogger?"I actually like blogger. It's easy to use. I haven't really done much with it other than set up some links and blogged. Other people's Wordpress efforts look better than my blogger. I suspect that's because I'm not really sure what I'm doing.
I also cut and paste my blog onto the Goodreads site for no other reason than I can!
I've not seen an ability to link to GR, the other two are easy.
Amy ! My blog is linked up with g+, LinkdIn, FB and twitter.My GR blog is linked up with Amazon author page. Is that OK?
I picked Blogger because it didn't seem to involve learning anything to begin. I also turned off all monetised advertising because that annoys readers and slows loading on smart phones. Since that, I changed the theme/style and some things that used to appear on my front page are no longer showing (e.g. followers). I've tried and failed to add widgets, so it still looks spartan. Generally, I'd rather write than learn website design.If you are reviewing, you will find that all your followers are either (a) authors you have reviewed or will do soon [on your TBR list], wanting to see the review of their own book, plus (b) other bloggers who are unlikely to be interested in reading your reviews and just want to be followed back. Bloggers comment on each other's posts and often mention their own site to increase traffic. Genuine members of the book buying public who follow your site and want a recommendation are close to mythical. Another author following your site might buy a book though.
To increase followers, encourage authors to post links to your reviews of their books on social media. If you are lucky, visitor numbers will shoot up if someone on Twitter with a lot of followers posts a link to your website. Do "stars" have time to read books though?
I've heard it quoted that 95% of book review bloggers give up within three years (can't quote the source). This could be (i) because authors innundate you with review requests and you can't keep up [restrict the type of books you accept in a review policy], (ii) when you can't write new material fast enough to keep the blog alive, (iii) when your blog is written by a single person and life changes for them - how busy they are outside the blog and (iv) when people call it a day because they are writing and posting but no one appears to be reading or leaving feedback.
Search engines will list your blog higher if your posts are over 2,000 words and you put up at least two of those per week. Mine average 1,600 so fail this test.
Several people writing one blog is probably the best way to keep it going for years. I expect I'm doing lots of things wrong and am only writing because of my compulsion to write, so genuinely hope most bloggers are more positive about it than I sound in this post and I hope you get a lot out of it. The authors really appreciate the service and send such kind messages. One even sent me virtual flowers, pictures from their garden. Some authors will want to meet up and socialise with you, so you might want to think in advance about how to manage that.
Would you like some brain candy motivation? To experience this feeling, review new books, not famous ones with hundreds of reviews already: Occasionally you'll find a writer who is undiscovered and quite brilliant, so this job is like beachcombing for endless hours and checking every pebble until the moment when you find a very rare and shockingly precious stone of a book, unreviewed, all but unread by human eye and which will haunt you forever.
Prakash wrote: "Amy ! My blog is linked up with g+, LinkdIn, FB and twitter.My GR blog is linked up with Amazon author page. Is that OK?"
I would say you've done a good job there. I manually post mine. I should get around to linking it to places. I can merely share the posts.
2000 words Faith? Wow. I'd fail that test too. I understand the necessity of having a blog as an author. I don't blog as much as I used to. I also don't read other people's blog because of time. I'm utterly put off by long blog posts though. 2000 words is what I'm writing or Radish Fiction each week. It takes me hours. Also this following people are supposed to have... nah, not me, not on Blogger.
Mod
Brilliant! I agree. I have found the most extraordinary friends that way- what I mean to say is that the books become my lifelong buddies.
Amanda wrote: "Hi my name is Mandy and I'm looking to start a blog. I was just looking for some suggestions on which platform people like best, different ideas to help increase a following. Things like that. In p..."Hi there,
You have asked the holy grail of questions "how to increase the number of blog followers?"
If you read articles by the experts they'll tell you that, you need to define your ideal follower. Who is this person? What does this person do? etc etc But most importantly, why should this person follow you? What problem will you be solving if following you is the best way to resolve that problem?
There are lots of bloggers out there already. What is your unique selling point? What is it you have to offer that other bloggers don't?
As your post is on Goodreads, I can make the assumption that you want to be a book blogger. As the person above already mentioned, you are very likely going to get a lot of authors as website visitors for the simply reason that authors can never get enough book reviewers.
If you reach out and connect with other bloggers and maybe join link parties and/or blogging communities, you are very likely going to get a lot of other bloggers as website visitors. New bloggers are in the same position as you and understand that the more visitors who visit their website, that stay on their website will help to reduce their bounce rate and consequently contribute to the increase in their Domain Authority.
Both bloggers and authors are likely to leave comments on your blogs. This is actually in their own best interest, especially for blogs that have the commentluv plugin activated.
Hosting giveaways is good but other than just posting the giveaway on your blog, what is your strategy for promoting the giveaway? What will you do to let people know about the giveaway? Why would anyone be interested in taking part in your giveaway? I mean, if you go on Amazon, there are lots of free books to download? So what is special about your giveaway? What will you offer people that they are unlikely to get anywhere else?
When you are able to answer these questions, you are very well on your way to increasing the number of followers you have. The more people that visit your website, the greater the probability that some of them will subscribe to your mailing list.
Also, make sure you have an exit intent pop up to remind visitors to subscribe. I personally hate pop-ups that pop up immediately you visit the site. Another thing you can do is to have Facebook pixels embedded in your website. This way, if you ever consider taking out Facebook ads, Facebook will automatically show your ad to previous website visitors to remind them of your blog.
Carole wrote: "Would you like some brain candy motivation? To experience this feeling, review new books, not famous ones with hundreds of reviews already: Occasionally you'll find a writer who is undiscovered and..."what a nice gesture, Carole..
Mod
I could read anything she writes 24/7. She is so eloquent.
I don't remember who advised me of this, but I think it's good advice, so I'll relay it. Ask yourself some questions.Is this something you would continue to do even if you had almost no one reading it? If the answer is no, don't bother starting.
Whatever you choose for a focus, do you have enough material to keep going for at least three years? If the answer is no, don't bother starting.
Just those two questions. I'll add a couple other comments. There are a zillion blogs. While you could start Just Another Blog, better would be to find a particular niche. The narrower the niche, the tougher it will be to find material, but that algebra remains constant.
Generalizing wildly, Blogger is easy to get started but you top out pretty fast and it's hard to make it look really good. Wordpress is harder, but there's almost no limit where you can take it. Both are free, but Wordpress has a pay option for when you want to get advanced. Also, at the free end, there are scads of pre-made templates you can use. There are also any number of very inexpensive designers you can hire (see Fiverr, for example) who can get you up and running for very little. I started with Blogger. Were I starting again, I'd go with WordPress.
As for your questions Ellis, I think I am good. One thing unique to my blog is The Traveling Book (once I pick a good enough book and have a few blogger friends who would like to participate.) It's always been something I've wanted to do, so I figured I might as well organize it myself. I want to thank everyone for the advice as you all have been a tremendous help. The blog is officially up and live if anyone would like to check it out.
www.devouringbooks2017.wordpress.com
I have some follow-up questions though.
How do I find/follow other blogs. And also does anyone know how to add stars, for like a star rating?
I post my blog directly to my website, which is wordpress.org hosted and I have another blog which is on wordpress.com (not related to my writing) but I am fairly new so don't have a lot of tips!
