Yesterday, I joined my blogging partners Kim Watters and Carol Webb at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library. We had a wonderful day participating in the workshops there. First, we took part in an author's panel where we answered questions like, "What was the most interesting thing you've done to research a novel?" That will be a future blog post. Next, we presented our workshop on blogging. I'll share a few of our tips with you. (Like all advice, take what works for you and forget the rest.)
*Blog often to keep readers coming to your site, if that is your goal. If you are going to spread the news about your blog post on various loops, leave a few days between posts for people to find it.
*Blogging with partners will decrease the workload, but make sure you all have the same vision for the blog before you begin. We made sure this site was going to be G (or at most PG) rated before we began.
*If you can fill a need, like posting editor and agent interviews, you can increase the traffic to your site. On my personal blog at http://www.suspensebytina.blogspot.com/ I help readers, writers, reviewers, booksellers, and publishers find each other on Myspace.
*Offer to connect links to other writers. This will increase the number of Google hits you'll have when readers/editors/agents are looking for you. Blogrolling is the easiest way to add other links to your site. http://status.blogrolling.com/
*An interesting name for your blog will help readers to remember you.
*Put a counter on your site so you can keep track of which topics draw the most viewers. You'll want to repeat that type of post to keep them coming back.
*We agree that Blogger is one of the most user friendly sites. http://www.blogger.com
*Make your blog work for you. Advertise your awards, Yahoo newsletter groups, reviews, etc.
*My personal favorite place to get pictures at a cheap price is http://www.istockphoto.com/
*Be careful what you post. Lawsuits for people who bash others on their blogs has gone up. (Not only is it bad for your pocketbook, but also for your reputation and your Karma.)
This is just a sample of our talk. Feel free to leave comments if you have advice you'd like to share.
Have an awesome week!
Tina LaVon
2 comments:
Your workshop was great - I really enjoyed it.
Donna
Thank you, Donna.
We enjoyed seeing so many of our Desert Rose friends there.
Good luck on your book.
Tina LaVon
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