Blogging is great for writers. If nothing else, blogging can be a way to practice writing, often in shorter chunks (at least compared to a book).
Blogging is not for everyone, and it took me a long time to even get in the habit of blogging. But now that I’ve established a routine, I really enjoy coming up with new content, or sharing links I’ve found valuable over the years. I love doing research, and blogging allows me to turn a lot of my research into something concrete, and hopefully useful.
For authors, there are a lot of ways to approach blogging. According to Anne R. Allen, blogs can grow with your career as a writer. It helps you develop your writing, build a platform and help make yourself enticing to agents and publishers, and introduce new work to readers.
Of course you can use your blog to help with content marketing for your books. Book Promotion shares a lot of great tips for how to blog and use social media to forge connections with readers. You can also use your blog to ask questions and get feedback.
You can also use your blog to write a book, as Nina Amir advocates. For people who do NaBoBlogMo (blog a book in a month) she offers a list of 31 things to do after you’ve blogged the book and want to sell it as a book. One interesting point is she recommends writing about 20% additional content, to add value to the book.
Blogs can also be a revenue source, especially if you have a large following. Rafflecopter shares their experience about partnering with bloggers via advertising to help maximize their reach.
One last thing to consider is how many blogs you want to maintain. The Book Designer outlines strategies for authors who want one site or multiple sites. Sites can include book sales pages, articles, and more.
Do you blog? If so, please share your experiences in the comments! What works? How do you get in the habit of blogging? What do you write about?
