What's the best use of a blog?
I've been considering ways to make my blog a more effective tool for marketing myself as a writer. Yes, I know marketing is a blasphemous word in creative circles, but I don't just get joy from bringing the ideas in my head out in writing, I also get joy from enticing others to read what I've written. Unless I want to keep importuning my friends, I need to reach out to people I don't already know and interest them in my work.
So, how can I best use my blog to do that? Here's what I've come up with:
1. Don't just blog about writing. Other writers aren't the primary audience for my work. I need to write about things that will appeal to a broader audience.
2. Identify my "voice" and write consistently in that voice. Am I humorous? scholarly? profane? earnest? I need to find and focus my public-facing voice.
3. Make my blog representative of my work. No typos. No sloppy language. Always tight and well edited. My blog may be the way some readers first encounter me, and a poorly written blog isn't going to convince anyone that I'm a good writer.
4. Vary the presentation. I think writing a big block of text every time may not be the best way to catch people's interest. I'm going to work on including a bigger variety of posts (like lists, humorous outrage, anecdotes, or recommendations for things like books, recipes, and entertainment).
5. Tie in to what I write. If I want to interest readers of my blog in my fiction writing, maybe I should write about my process: how I came up with the ideas for certain pieces, what I went through to get those stories published, what they mean to me. I want to engage potential readers with my work from an insider's perspective.
What do you think? When you read blogs, what kinds of things interest you? What kinds of things make you less interested in following a blog?
I've been considering ways to make my blog a more effective tool for marketing myself as a writer. Yes, I know marketing is a blasphemous word in creative circles, but I don't just get joy from bringing the ideas in my head out in writing, I also get joy from enticing others to read what I've written. Unless I want to keep importuning my friends, I need to reach out to people I don't already know and interest them in my work.
So, how can I best use my blog to do that? Here's what I've come up with:
1. Don't just blog about writing. Other writers aren't the primary audience for my work. I need to write about things that will appeal to a broader audience.
2. Identify my "voice" and write consistently in that voice. Am I humorous? scholarly? profane? earnest? I need to find and focus my public-facing voice.
3. Make my blog representative of my work. No typos. No sloppy language. Always tight and well edited. My blog may be the way some readers first encounter me, and a poorly written blog isn't going to convince anyone that I'm a good writer.
4. Vary the presentation. I think writing a big block of text every time may not be the best way to catch people's interest. I'm going to work on including a bigger variety of posts (like lists, humorous outrage, anecdotes, or recommendations for things like books, recipes, and entertainment).
5. Tie in to what I write. If I want to interest readers of my blog in my fiction writing, maybe I should write about my process: how I came up with the ideas for certain pieces, what I went through to get those stories published, what they mean to me. I want to engage potential readers with my work from an insider's perspective.
What do you think? When you read blogs, what kinds of things interest you? What kinds of things make you less interested in following a blog?
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