Why should Authors Maintain a Successful Blog?

Why should Authors Maintain a Successful Blog?

Presented by Author JohnEgreek

in conjunction with The Wannabe Book Launch Series

Blogging is one of the best avenues for putting the word about your book. If it’s a new book, not yet published, set up a pre-sale on Amazon and then add the presale link to your Blog. This let’s people know in advance that you’re publishing your book. Here’s an example from my latest book, The Wizard Behind the Curtain, The Life Story of a Notorious Criminal

If you’re new to blogging, let me explain exactly how I linked my book.
• Go to Amazon, find the book you want to link
• Go to the URL for the book link (if the book is available in paperback, eBook or audio, click the link you want to send people. Then copy the link
• Once you have the link copied, go to the text in your Word Document (always write your blog in Word unless you have a Mac). Highlight the text or title of the book.
• Right click the highlighted text, when the window pops up, go to Link
• Add the copied link from Amazon and hit enter.
• You will know you were successful when the highlighted text turns to color, such as the blue text in this blog.
• Same method goes for linking an image. If you click my book image, you’ll see it’s linked too..,
Creating a blog is relatively simple. However, maintaining a successful blog is a far more difficult process. This is because there are so many different factors which can contribute to the success of an Author’s blog. Some of these factors include the subject of the blog, the popularity of the blog and even the aesthetic layout of the blog. Always add three to four images or even videos to your blog.
Additionally, the ability to properly promote your blog and reach a large audience of interested Internet users will have a profound impact on the success of your Author blog. Although there is no one simple formula for creating and maintaining a successful blog, there are some basic tips which can help to ensure a blogger will enjoy success with his/her blog. This article will outline some of these basic tips including posting new entries regularly, writing for a specific audience and rigorously evaluating changes made to the blog.

Design Elements of a Blog
An Author blog may be essentially an online journal displayed in reverse chronological order but it is also a website article which requires the same attention to detail any other website requires. It also requires the same design elements as a regular website which does not function as a blog. Bloggers have decisions to make regarding design elements of their blog such as colors and layout, fonts and the inclusion of advertisements. Fonts and colors should be used that match your Author Brand. Watch for future blogs regarding Author Brands. Although many blog software programs provide a variety of templates which make designing a blog rather simple, blogs can be highly customized by bloggers who possess some strong writing skills. Authors are writers, so you have an advantage if you use the same voice you wrote your book when writing your blog. This article will discuss some of the basic design considerations bloggers encounter.

Colors and Layouts of a Blog
The colors and layout of a blog is one of the most obvious design considerations bloggers must consider when starting or re-designing their blog. Bloggers may use a solid color background, blocks of different colors in the background or pictures or textures in the background. These background elements can be any color imaginable. However, bloggers who are considering the colors to use in their blog should consider using colors which will be aesthetically appealing to most blog visitors and colors that match your author brand. This is important because the use of garish colors which are harsh on the eye can result in diminished blog traffic. Yellow is a good example of a harsh on the eye color
The layout of the blog should also carefully be considered by the blogger. The blog should be arranged in a fashion which is appealing to blog visitors, suits the subject of the blog and is presented in a logical manner which is easy for visitors to follow. Again, this is important because failure to use a layout which meets these criteria may result in blog visitors choosing not to visit the blog anymore because the layout is confusing or unappealing.

Fonts Used in a Blog
Bloggers have a number of options available to them when selecting fonts to use in their blog. These options include the font chosen, the text size and the color of the text. Bloggers should consider choosing a font which works well with the overall design of the layout of the blog and suits the subject matter of the blog but is a common, yet comfortable font for the reader. This is important because blog visitors may have trouble viewing the font if the blogger selects a unique font which is not common. The text size and colors of the text should also be carefully considered. These elements are primarily important for readability. Text size should be set so members of the target audience can easily read the text. For example a blogger with a reader audience consisting of senior citizens as the target audience may opt to use a text size slightly larger than usual. The colors used for the text should also be selected to enhance readability. Again, red and yellow are not pleasant colors to the eye. One way to do this is to select colors which are appealing to the eye but also contrast with the background color. I like using a simple white background and then my colors standout. If I choose a dark background, I have found white to be best in most cases.

Inclusion of Advertisements in a Blog
Bloggers must also consider the inclusion of advertisements when they are designing their blogs. This includes determining whether or not to include links to other blogs. In doing so, these links are considered backlinks. Experts suggest that you should have one to three back links in your blogs. Here’s an example of a backlink to Neil Patel’s website blog. If you haven’t heard of Neil Patel, I suggest you go to his website. He has tons of information about marketing.
Once this decision is made, bloggers who opt to include advertisements or backlinks must carefully consider how and where they wish to display them. Advertisements can be displayed in various locations throughout the blog and can be designed to be discrete or obvious depending on the preferences of the blogger. Advertisements can also be a variety of sizes and shapes and are highly customizable in a number of different ways.

Posting New Blog Entries Regularly

The importance of posting new blog entries on a regular basis cannot be underestimated. This is so important because regular Author postings offer dedicated blog visitors an incentive to keep returning to your blog. Readers may visit a blog originally by chance but become committed to returning to the blog regularly based one content which is provided on a regular basis. Make your Blogs personal. Tell stories. If the blogger allows the blog to become stagnant, the readers do not have motivation to keep coming back to the blog. However, if there are new posts on a regular basis, visitors are likely to return to the blog often in anticipation of new postings. This blog is a good example of a blog that provides the readers with tips and tricks. The use of tips and tricks will bring readers back for more. The more informational your blog is, the better the opportunity to get consistent and returning traffic to your blog.

The length as well as the depth of a blog post can vary considerably based on the subject matter of your blog. Keep your target audience in mind each time you write your blog. However, in many cases even a relatively short blog entry offering only a small amount of information may be enough to keep readers interested. For example, if you have a “Tip Tuesday” blog, one or two tips might be just enough.This can be useful when the blogger is unable to provide in depth posts but in the long run, blog readers are looking for a certain degree of substance  and will likely expect the blog to be updated with new posts regularly. Furthermore, they will come to expect a certain voice and quality to the blog posts.

It’s okay to have guest bloggers on your blog too. Bloggers who enlist the use of guest bloggers should carefully screen guest bloggers to ensure they can post blogs their target audience will appreciate.

Understanding your Blog Audience

Successful bloggers should become adept at understanding their blog audience. My blog target audience is Authors and Entrepreneur’s.  Most successful blogs focus on a rather exclusive niche which draws a unique set of visitors. By keeping the information posted in the blog related to your niche, the blogger helps to ensure the audience will remain interested in their blog. However, the subject matter is not the only important aspect related to understanding the target audience.

Bloggers should also be well aware of the type of information the blog readers are seeking and the way in which they prefer to have the information provided. This is important because some blog readers may enjoy lengthy pieces while others may prefer posts which are brief and to the point. Still other blog visitors may prefer to have posts provided as bulleted points in an easy-to-read manner. Providing the information in a way in which the visitors can process the information easily is as important as providing quality information. Remembering to add images or video to your blog is important because you know the old saying, “A picture speaks a thousand words.”

Evaluating Changes to your Blog

Finally, all successful bloggers know how to make changes to the blog carefully and evaluate the effects these changes have on blog traffic. This is critical because a blog which is already successful can be doomed to failure if the blogger makes a chance which is not appreciated by the dedicated visitors and does not address the concerns of the readers. To avoid this potential problem bloggers should be careful to only make one change at a time and to allow ample time to evaluate the effect the change has on website traffic as well as the comments from readers before deciding whether to reverse the change or make additional changes.

Similarly a blog which is looking to increase website traffic can run into problems if they make too many changes and do not evaluate how these changes are affecting the blog’s traffic. A better strategy would be to make small changes one at a time and evaluate the effect of the change carefully before making more changes. This will help guide the blogger to produce a successful blog.

Blogging to Promote a Cause

While many bloggers maintain a blog for personal or social reasons or to generate an income, there are other bloggers who utilize their blogs to promote a cause. These blogs may be aimed at targeting a specific political or social cause depending on the interests of the blogger as well as blogger’s opinion that the blog can produce the political or social changes they are seeking.

Blogs which are committed to promoting a particular cause may face more adversity than blogs with a lighter theme, but they can be very effective. However, blog owners who opt to maintain this type of blog should be aware of the ramifications of this type of blog. For example, blog owners may receive negative comments from readers of the blog who disagree with the cause. This article will offer a few tips for choosing a cause for a blog and for promoting the blog to interested visitors.

Choosing a Cause for a Blog

Choosing a cause for a blog can vary in difficulty from extremely easy to incredibly difficult. The difficulty in making this decision will depend largely on the personal beliefs of the blog owner. A blog owner who is already committed to a particular cause will likely find this decision to be rather simple while blog owners who either have no strong social or political convictions or who have a wide variety of causes they wish to promote can find making this decision to be rather difficult. There are, however, a few factors the blog owner should carefully consider before selecting a cause to promote in a blog.

First and foremost a blog owner should select an issue for which they are either already quite knowledgeable or for which they are willing to do a great deal of research. This is important because the blog owner should post blog entries on a regular basis. These blog entries should be accurate and informative to the reader. Therefore, the blog owner should be well versed in the subject matter or at least interested in learning more about the subject matter.

Blog owners should carefully consider the potential for influencing blog visitors regarding the topic of their blog. Although it will not be possible to convince all visitors to the blog to believe in the cause promoted by the blog, the blog owner should select a subject with which he/she is confident visitors to the blog will be influenced to agree with the viewpoints presented in the blog. I choose to avoid such subjects as politics and religion.

Promoting your Blog to Interested Visitors

Once a blog owner decides on a subject for the blog, it is time to figure out how to promote the blog to the target audience. This can be accomplished in a number of different ways. For the sake of brevity, this article will discuss promoting a blog through search engine optimization and promoting a blog through participation in social media.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a very effective way for promoting a blog. This practice involves making efforts to increase the search engine rankings to ensure interested Internet users are directed to the blog. This can be done in a number of different ways, including careful use of appropriate keywords, appropriate use of tags such as title tags and image tags and generating back links to the blog. All these efforts can help to improve search engine rankings which do improve blog traffic.

Blog owners can also promote their blog by participating in relevant forums and message boards. The blog owner may simply participate in these forums and offer relevant input while including a link to the blog in his signature. Other forum users are likely to click on the link if the blog owner is well respected within the forum. The blog owner may even be able to incorporate a link to his blog in the message body of forum posts if it appropriate and acceptable according toe the message board guidelines. Watch for future blogs for more specific places to get your blog to. Pinterest is one of those that I will highlight in a future blog.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and it gives you some tips on how to put together an Authors Blog. I do want to leave you with a few last thoughts.

• Post 2-3 times per week
• Add images
• Add Video
• Always add links to your books or your website (do this by link or by adding the whole URL https://johnegreek.com
• Add links to other sites
• Link Videos and images

Most of all – Have Fun