15 Book Blogging Tips From A Decade Of Blogging

 

Blog Like Me — Or Die By A 1,000 Posts

When I began my blog exactly 10 years ago from today, I didn’t know how often I would post, what the response might be, or for how long I would keep at it. Well, it looks like I have some answers — and some useful advice for would-be and fellow bloggers.

First the answers: I post nearly daily and not too long ago there were some days with multiple posts. After some 3,800 posts, I can say the blog has been a success. I proudly claim over 2.75 million blog views. Perhaps my advice, encouragement, strategies, and resources regarding book publicity and author marketing actually help some people!

Now the advice: Blogging is a wonderful tool to get business as a marketer or to sell books as an author. It also can provide a therapeutic outlet to the writer, a place to unleash creativity and dump one’s fears, problems, and complaints. I highly recommend blogging.

However, blogging comes with many responsibilities and obligations, so here are the best practices as I see them:

1. Determine what your blog is supposed to do for you. Define the pay-off that you seek and then do what is necessary to make it successful by the standards you have set.

2. Along the way, set goals and then push the bar higher. Look at the right metrics and judge yourself with a clean yardstick.

3. Decide what you will write about — and what you won’t. Essentially, figure out what kinds of subjects you will tackle. Set limitations or barriers and funnel your writings through a prism that will benefit you. For instance, if your blog is basically about bullying, stick to that. You can expand into parenting issues, perhaps, but don’t start discussing pro sports, cars, and the elderly. Stay on point, but branch out accordingly. Bullying also has to do with friendships, education, law enforcement, psychology, violence, and other topics, so all of those rich areas are fair game.

4. Develop an editorial calendar — a scheduled map of when you will publish. Will you blog twice a month (the bare minimum)? Once a week (very popular)? Three times a week? Daily (with or without weekends)?

5. Create a blog ideas file. Every time you get an idea for a blog, jot it down in a central location. Devise some rough notes as to what that post would cover. Refer back to it when your mind is blank and you need to post something.

6. Store up content. Save posts for a rainy day, so when you are too busy or not in the mood to blog you are not forced to skip a day or post a hastily-produced, sub-par entry. Sit down and write three or four posts and save them for a future date.

7. Look at other blogs, especially those in your space. At the very least, to be as good as them, borrow or copy their style or subject matter. No piracy or plagiarism, please. Just model them so you are keeping up with the crowd. But that really is boring and not good enough. You need to do better. You have to stick out. You must lead, not follow. Watch your competitors — and kick their asses in!

8. Find your voice or persona. Write in a unique and clearly chiseled style, so that when one reads your blog it is not to be mistaken as someone else’s. If you lack distinction, you invite extinction. That’s right, I just coined that, bitches. See, that’s me: Wordsmith. Humorist. Ideaphoric.

9. Strive not for perfection, but to always do better, and to offer more. Go the extra mile to research, write, and edit a gem.

10. Use bullet points and numbered lists when giving advice — makes it easy and inviting to read and digest.

11. Snappy headlines draw people in, so make use of up to 8 - 10 short or abbreviated words. Be controversial or shocking, ask a question, reveal a secret, offer 5,7, or 10 steps to something, comment on the news, tie into a holiday, event, or celebrity, and make people think or feel.

12. Use a visual. Post with an image get more views. Other multimedia adds to your post – a video or a link to an audio clip would work well on occasion.

13. Share old but not outdated blog posts at the end of every new blog entry. Alert people to your archives. What has not been read is new to someone.

14. Use guest posters or interviews with other people to help you supply blog content – and to get others who will share a link to your post with their followers and connections.

15. Vary the length of your posts. 600-700 words is a sweet spot, but you can easily do one at 400 words or 1200 words. Mix it up.

Here’s my very first post, May 13, 2011:
http://bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/donald-trump-branding-lessons-for.html

It was about author and book branding. I used then reality television star and billionaire Donald Trump as a model. This was way before he ran for president. He may be a hoaxer and huckster, but let’s face it, he knows how to get attention for himself -- and to magnify his message.

Shout Out: Happy 10th Anniversary Book Marketing Buzz Blog!

Now, you go blog like a pro!

The Etiquette Show, a cable access television show that airs on MNN in New York City, just featured me for nearly 14 minutes. Would you like to see me in my man cave interviewed by a woman in her attic, dishing on what I love about marketing authors since 1989? Check out the clip below – skip the ads and start at 24:30 on the time counter.

Interview on MNN, a NYC Cable TV Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5kXwbYeKD8

 

Contact Brian For Marketing Help!!

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand.

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on Twitter @theprexpert. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2021. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America. For more information, please consult: linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum.