Get Your Blog Working for You

By M.J. Moores on September 3, 2015 • ( 0 )

Publicity Tip #101 ~

Exactly what does having a blog do for you as an author? Not much if you don’t pay attention to it, and little more if all you do is talk about what events you’re attending or have attended.

We draw people in who are interested in what we have to say.

A good blog doesn’t necessarily have 1000+ followers… it’s a place where like-minded readers and colleagues come to hang out for a little while (as often as they can).

The best way to do that is by offering stories.

Stories about your experiences, snippets of your WIP, flash fiction, short stories, advice, poetry even doodles if you happen to enjoy drawing. This is sharing a piece of yourself with your public.

But you can do more.

Once you’ve amassed a decent collection of “stories” consider taking that free blog content and turning it into an e-book. I’m serious. We all have read about “free content” and not wanting to give away what people can buy – but if it’s already free and you’re just packaging it differently, then get it working for you.

This week I can proudly say that I have 101 Tips for Authors about Editing and Publicity/Marketing.

Now, I already offer a “Beginner’s Guide to Author Marketing” as an e-book collection of the best discoveries in the book world that I’ve come across but now I can also compile all of those Editing Tips and make another e-book. I can then use that re-organized free content to help introduce new readers to my site and my other writing… and maybe even charge a small fee for it. I’m also planning on putting together a collection of my pieces of flash fiction to offer as a thank you to my followers and gather more emails for my mailing list…

A friend of mine started blogging about The Challenges and Barriers we face in our lives. He included a good number of posts about his own experiences living with a brain injury. A colleague of his advised him that he could easily turn his blog into a book – and he did! A memoir. And he’s selling more copies of this new book than he current is of his fiction.

You see how it all ties in? I know you do 😉

Don’t be afraid of free content – get it and your blog working overtime for you!