Start A Blog: Why Authors Need To Start A Blog

Have you ever wanted to start a blog? Maybe you’ve pondered it but being a writer of books you’ve questioned yourself if it is necessary in order to boost your brand, your profile or business as an author. Besides you are already writing a ton of words everyday, why do you need to write more.

To start a blog takes commitment. I started this blog off to help other authors sell more books. I have had good success as an author with nine #1 Amazon in category in three years, so I figured I had some skills that maybe useful to other writers in helping them become more successful.

While a lot of people start a blog as a hobby writing about their daily activities, travels or even fitness workouts, I had a specific end goal in mind. Help others and they in turn would help me.

I figured out right from the ‘get-go’ that I would never be the next James Patterson. I would always be a ‘working author’ – enough writing skills to entertain readers but I would need a side gig to boost my income.

But that’s my plans as to why I would want to start a blog. Yours maybe different. Perhaps your reasons may include:

1. To Have Fun

   I like writing and I like connecting with people. I read a lot of varied blogs and I’m fascinated by the stories bloggers write about. To me it’s fun and the reason why I’ve been blogging since 2007.

2. Blogging For Authors

   No matter what type of blog you have, you are helping others. Someone may be motivated by your blog posts, they may learn something new, they may find enjoyment from reading your writing, and so on.

   I like to talk about book writing and publishing so that I can help others. For me, I have learned a lot (and I’m still learning) about blogging, extra income, book marketing and everything else – all from other bloggers.

   Hopefully, my blog posts help and motivate others to be awesome with their book business as well. For example, I hope that all of my extra marketing posts help motivate others to create multiple streams of income. I hope that others will want to become full time authors and earn a healthy living . I hope that others want to become more in control of their lives and leave their corporate gigs for a life of freedom.

3. Connect To A Community

   I’ve made a lot of good friends through my blog. And, I love receiving emails from readers and blog friends that I’ve made. Being able to connect and learn from others is one of the biggest positives of blogging.

4. Developing As An Author

   A blog can help you grow in so many ways. You will most likely become even more passionate in the topics that you love, you will constantly learn new things, you will meet many new people, and more. Naturally you are strengthening your ‘writing muscle’ – and that’s got to be a good thing.

5. Building Your Author Business

   Of course, I have to include this as a reason to start a blog. Blogging can be a great way to improve the business you already have, or to create a business all on its own.

   I know several successful bloggers and they all say the same thing, that blogging is the best thing that has ever happened to them. I agree!

Whatever your reason, as an author you should definitely start a blog.

Is Content Marketing Just Another Fad?

There’s a lot of noise out there in the digital marketing world that content marketing is the ‘big thing’ if you want to dominate your marketplace. But is it something new or has content marketing been around for awhile and now seems to be getting more airplay. For businesses and solepreneurs we look at this ‘latest’ rock star of digital marketing and ask if it really has value or is just another fad cooked up by a couple of slick marketers wanting to sell us more stuff. And let’s face it, as business owners we are already jammed pack with gizmos and gadgets to supposedly make us …..rich.

How Long Has Content Marketing Been Around?

Most likely it was not referred to as content marketing but Michelin tyres established a guide to dining out at restaurants over 100 years ago. The Michelin tyre company knew travellers would appreciate great knowledge on the best restaurants in an area as they motored around. The Michelin guide became famous and when the traveller needed new tyres the name Michelin was top of their mind. Ingenious marketing!

So should you adopt a content marketing plan to brand your company? Here’s 5 reasons why we say YES.

5 Ways Content Marketing Will Benefit You

1. Outshine Your Competitors
   A great way to distinguish yourself from your competitors is to produce keyword dense articles, blog posts and videos that deliver value to your targeted audience. Keywords sourced via free tools like Google’s Adwords Keyword Planner are great but it’s important to have a plan that  shows relevancy for what you produce so you can connect with your audience.
2. Get More Website Visitors
   Google loves traffic and rewards you with better rankings making it easier to be found. If you are an author in the mystery thriller genre, you need to produce content around that topic.But great articles aren’t enough to be found. It’s a long process for the natural algorithms to find your ‘brilliant work’. Great posts require a push and you’ll need to share your content on social media, article directory sites and even run some online ads to boost your reach. The good thing though is that once found,  your content will continue to produce great traffic to your website for a long time (but not necessarily forever)
3. Build Your Brand
   As your content marketing strategy takes shape you you start dominating your market, so too will your brand improve. Your name or company will become synonymous with highly valued content that people crave.
4. Getting Customers To Buy Easily
   Content builds trust. Your audience likes you and they feel more secure when it comes to the time for them to buy something. Content that has already answered their questions gets them to the buying stage more quickly. A great read is They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan which spells out a great plan for you to follow.
5. Boost Your SEO
   Great articles produce opportunities to create more links back to your site. Relevant backlinks are great for SEO.

Ok so we can see why content marketing is important and it doesn’t look like a fad since Michelin got ‘into it’ about a hundred years ago, but who’s using it today?

I’ve already mentioned Marcus Sheridan but there are a ton of companies and marketers using content marketing to build their business. Most major companies like McDonalds, Coca Cola, General Electric regularly produce great content. In my local area Hays Consulting, Brisbane Marketing, Universal Store, CANSTAR, John Wiley & Sons, MAX Solutions and MCM Digital just to name a few.

Online marketers like Neil Patel and Digital Marketer are leaders in producing great content that reaps outstanding rewards for them. And then there’s the direct response marketers Dan Kennedy and Frank Kern who’ve flooded the market for decades with their products and services.

Is content marketing a fad? Is it the next ‘big thing’. Time tells us NO! You had better jump on board

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Author Blog With No Traffic – Fix It Fast

So you’ve started your new author blog (well done!) but there’s deadly silence. No interaction, no post likes and you’re wondering if anybody else is reading your masterpiece except you? Frustrating I know and disheartening.

But sadly this can be just more than a sickening feeling in your gut – it can be real. In today’s noisy online world it’s hard to grab the attention of potential readers. There’s simply a lot of choice and your author blog must be relevant  if you are going to attract visitors.

But sadly even relevancy isn’t the only thing you’ll need to cut down the noise and to get the right visitors.

Don’t Give Up On Your Author Blog Just Yet

Blogging is great and content marketers sing it’s praises. And as an author trying to build an audience, create a platform and ultimately sell more books, you should too. But too many blogging authors dismiss the power of social media platforms to get exposure to their brand. Exposure to your brand is the key here. I know authors use social media, usually the wrong way. More on that in another post.

So let’s look at how you the ‘world’s greatest fiction author’ can get more exposure. Here’s 5 strategies that’ll fix an author blog with no traffic

Offer Valuable Content

I know you’ve heard this a million times. But why do authors just post stuff about their latest book release, price drop or upcoming signing. Boring! Do you really think readers are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for you to tell them that your latest masterpiece is now 99 cents. NO! You can mix some of this content in 10% of the time but readers are looking for information that is relevant to THEM not you!

There are a lot of social platforms where you can offer varying content. Mix it up with a video post about the benefits of print books over digital,  write an article on what the ultimate price should be for a short read or just throw in an inspirational quote from a famous author.

Look at similar content (don’t plagiarise), personalise it to your own voice and release it on steroids.  Don’t deliver the same old ho hum stuff – give it stick!

Run A Contest

Great way to get eyeballs at anytime but especially when your author blog is new. Your prize needs to be interesting and relevant. A nights stay at a resort is nice but will it sell you more books. An Amazon gift card would be great, signed copies of books would be valuable or even a Kindle Pro would be useful for a reader to check out your books.

You can Google ‘giveaway sites’ to find a ton of places to promote your giveaway. One of my favourites is http://www.giveawaypromote.com 

If you want to step it up a notch check out Rafflecopter or KingSumo – these professional giveaway software programmes create a very professional looking promotion for your contest.

Post Shareable Posts or Graphics

Let me start off by shocking you with an awful truth. People aren’t interested in YOU. They are only interested in themselves and how you can help them. They also live in a very negative world bombarded each day with thousands of noisy messages. No wonder depression is on the rise.

So the number one, numero umo, #1 type of post you can put on your social media platforms is an INSPIRATIONAL one. Inspiring posts win hands down and easily thump your boring ‘me me posts’

Where do you find great posts?

They are everywhere. On Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr – everywhere. But collating all of them is time consuming and you should be writing your book, right? Yes that is right. That’s where the money is.

How will you know if your inspirational radar is in tune with your audience? Want to know a simple little trick that will get you tons of engagement, a huge reach and a bucket load of likes and shares? Us posts that have been PROVEN to have got lots of likes and shares. Simple but still time consuming. Here’s what I do.

I use the pro version of Post Planner. For $9/mth I grab the best performing posts and send them to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. In fact on a Sunday morning I sit down, grab 3-4 posts a day and schedule my week; all in about 15-20 minutes. That’s right! The best 21-28 performing posts to my audience in just 15 minites for $9/mth. Post Planner is awesome!

Run Ads

If your budget allows, run some ads. You can use Google Adwords or my preferred choice is Facebook. With 1.8 billion users, their audience is huge. Start off at just $5, promote your blog post AND add a bonus for visitors to get a BONUS report when they get your blog.

What To Write About

Your topic must be relevant and interesting to a reader. The simplest way to do this is to do some keyword research by jumping over to Google’s free keyword planner and putting in some keywords and grabbing the most popular searches. If you are a crime author search for the best crime authors, what makes a good crime plot, ideal book length etc

But if you want a ninja tactic go to Buzzsumo.com and enter a competitor’s details and see what are their best performing posts. Buzzsumo free edition will allow you 1-5 searches a day of such content. You’ll get to see what has performed best by likes, shares and reach on Facebook and other platforms. Simply grab this high performing idea and make it better but DON’T copy.

Use the above tips and your new author blog will soon see a rise in traffic. What methods have you tried? What social media platforms do you prefer? Leave me a comment below

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