Blogging is certainly one way to be published immediately, but there's other reasons to blog. Let's talk about the dream of being a New York best selling author. For a publisher to buy your book, they need to know they can promote it and you. This means you have to be able to hold your own and do interviews on television and radio, book signings in every kind of environment and more. When I say hold your own, I mean be articulate, be able to answer questions in a conversational way, and be good with people from all walks of life. All of this is true if you self publish your book in which case, this kind of promotion is much more difficult. Most writers believe their work will sell itself, that may be true, but you have to get enough influential people to read it first before it has an opportunity to sell itself. Truth be told, you have to have a great book and be a dynamic individual.
You can use your blog to build your author platform. If you are reading blogs and blogging, it's highly likely you are using social media sites such as facebook and twitter. Utilizing these free resources to connect with thousands of people and drive traffic to your blog will hopefully create a following of people who will be anxiously waiting to buy your book as soon as it's published. A publisher will look at this as a proactive approach on your part and it will also give them a real sense of your ability to write, your style, how you organize content and how many people think you have something worthwhile to say.
This is just one of the reasons to blog. There are bloggers out there who understand the power of blogging and make money by selling ads on their blogs. Can you imagine it, making a steady monthly income by doing what you love, writing? It's happening and to the tune of five figures monthly for some. Just like any business, you must understand all avenues to generating income, what would be expected of you personally, and how equipped are you to meet those requirements. If you didn't think blogging was a worthwhile use of your time, I would ask you to reconsider.
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Blogging - Let's Talk About It - Part I
Blogging or as it was originally called - a Weblog, started back in 1997. Think about this for a minute, the world wide web (www) was available to people in late 1994 and I learned of it the summer of 1995. Blogging started darn near as soon as people realized the power of the Internet.
I did some research and liked this piece on the history of blogging. Part of why I like it is because of when it was written, back in September of 2000. It was written not long after the time it references. I can't speak to the accuracy of the post, but the time lines add up. It doesn't really matter beyond being interesting, it just gives you some idea of where blogging started and why if you want to be a writer, you may want to write a blog.
If you want to be published, this is Orange Road number one - one way to be published this very minute. You can visit a site like blogger.com or wordpress.com and create a blog in literally 10 or 15 minutes. Think of a title, what you want to write about and start! If you've not already created a blog, let me give you one piece of advice - give some thought to your first post and write it with intention. The reason I say this is because as the months and years pass, people will find your blog and they will want to know why you started it. Your first post is your introduction to those who don't know you. If you're five years in, someone should be able to go to your first post and see why it is you started writing your blog.
I will talk more about how to use your blog for other avenues of being published but for now, think about it. If you have one, how often are you posting? Is it public or private? Why do you write it and who reads it? These are all questions that will be part of your journey. In my next post I will talk about how a blog can benefit you and even make you money. Stay tuned and remember, the best way to be a good writer is to write, write, read, write, read, and write some more!
I did some research and liked this piece on the history of blogging. Part of why I like it is because of when it was written, back in September of 2000. It was written not long after the time it references. I can't speak to the accuracy of the post, but the time lines add up. It doesn't really matter beyond being interesting, it just gives you some idea of where blogging started and why if you want to be a writer, you may want to write a blog.
If you want to be published, this is Orange Road number one - one way to be published this very minute. You can visit a site like blogger.com or wordpress.com and create a blog in literally 10 or 15 minutes. Think of a title, what you want to write about and start! If you've not already created a blog, let me give you one piece of advice - give some thought to your first post and write it with intention. The reason I say this is because as the months and years pass, people will find your blog and they will want to know why you started it. Your first post is your introduction to those who don't know you. If you're five years in, someone should be able to go to your first post and see why it is you started writing your blog.
I will talk more about how to use your blog for other avenues of being published but for now, think about it. If you have one, how often are you posting? Is it public or private? Why do you write it and who reads it? These are all questions that will be part of your journey. In my next post I will talk about how a blog can benefit you and even make you money. Stay tuned and remember, the best way to be a good writer is to write, write, read, write, read, and write some more!
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