Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers

My Book News & Advocate for the Writing Community ©

Wordsmith’s Collective Thursday – Tips on Maintaining Your Writer Blog

February 9, 2023
mandyevebarnett


Once you have set up your blog and identified your target audience and know what theme/topics you will cover, now you need to maintain it.

One of the most important tasks is to ensure you have a regular schedule, so your readers know when to expect a post from you. Set days and times that are manageable for your lifestyle and time constraints. Be realistic about how much time you can give to your blog, do not overwhelm yourself with unrealistic goals. Posts can be weekly, monthly or quarterly – as long as the schedule is recurring.

Remember having a schedule allows you to write posts in advance and schedule them. Make use of this option by dropping a quick sentence into a draft post of an ideas you have for a post. We all know we won’t remember the idea later!

So why do you need to blog consistently?

In short it establishes author credibility. Readers become familiar with your work and it attracts new readers to your site. Consistent blogging means you are continually attracting a stream of potential new readers to your site with fresh, updated content. Readers love to get an intimate view into the life of their favorite authors along with any upcoming events and book launches. The more you share the more they will want to come back.

Remember to keep your author information, pages, books and events current. It doesn’t take a lot of time to ensure any changes are corrected or updated. This includes the copyright statement for your blog content to ensure it is not pirated. This is essential for the safety of your content should you need to take action on unauthorized copying. Unfortunately, this does happen.

Make Connections to Grow

You want your blog’s reach and popularity to grow so connect with authors in similar genres and also readers of your specific genre(s). This should be a constant work in progress in the maintaining of your blog. Don’t let it become static. The more you connect the larger your reach. To attain growth here are a few tips.

  • Research similar authors, who have blogs and offer to guest post on each other’s websites.
  • Run regular interviews with people who fascinate you.
  • If you have a specific genre connect with other writers in the same genre as well as their following. See what they are posting.
  • Visit forums and post your blogs there.
  • Link your blogs to your social media platforms to gain exposure.
  • Encourage your established readers to post your blog links on their social media to spread the news to as many new sets of eyes as possible.
  • Utilize hashtags when you post to your social media sites. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks always offer—as part of your static profile—an opportunity to link to your homepage.
  • Create a special introduction for people who visit your website from your Twitter profile, Facebook fan page, Goodreads page, etc.
  • Remember your SEO (search engine optimization) and include your ‘top’ search words in every post.
  • When creating the link from your website offer an intriguing question, lead in, excerpt, or explanation of why the post might be interesting to people on your social networks.
  • Write book reviews and use the author name and book titles as keywords. This will draw their readers to your site.

Additional Maintenance and Updating Tips

  • Create a dedicated page on your website for each and every book title.
  • For each book page, make the page title identical to the book title.
  • Use a full or extended description for each book.
  • Link previous blog posts related to each book to tell the story of its inception and launch.
  • Include links to your social media and other book related sites onto your front page.
  • Create a newsletter sign up form.
  • Include videos and/or podcasts you are featured on or host.
  • Share any upcoming events you are involved in.

Wordsmith’s Collective Thursday – Tracking Blog Readers

January 5, 2023
mandyevebarnett


As writers and bloggers, we are interested in knowing where are followers hail from. You will see on my blog there is a flag counter on the side bar. This enables me to see where my blog is read. There are also several other options on the site, that allow me to know the number of visits per country, and how many visitors from each.

For example, in 2022 – 206 different countries have visited my site

Why should we track our blog readers?

1. Understand Your Visitors Better

Tracking blog traffic sources can help you figure out where your visitors are coming from and which platforms, they use so you can learn more about them and send them targeted messages.

2. You Can Measure Your Market Campaigns

If the goal of a campaign is to generate traffic, you can track the different traffic sources to see how effective it is.

3. For Best Results, Concentrate on Channels

You can improve your results by concentrating more on the channel that brought the most traffic to your blog.

4. Topics for New Content

People from various channels may be interested in different topics, so reviewing your traffic sources for each blog will help you come up with new content ideas.

5. Identify Traffic Gap

You can look for channels that aren’t performing well and can optimize them.

How do you track your readers?

Mandy Eve-Barnett – Blog Schedule 2023

December 29, 2022
mandyevebarnett


My posting days will continue as Tuesday and Thursday of each week as follows:

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday

Stories behind my published books and also from works in progress.

Update on events I will be attending – whether in-person or virtual in 2023

Glimpses at my current writing project.

Sharing short stories or poem’s I have written from prompts or workshops.

Character Interviews

My book reviews

Wordsmith’s Collective Thursday

Writing Tips

Writing contests

Literary Birthdays

Author Interviews and Press Releases for Creative Edge Publicity

Also I am happy to host an author interview for anyone interested in doing so.

I welcome your suggestions for inclusion of a topic or a theme, so please comment below.

I will also continue with my monthly newsletter, so please sign up when prompted – Sneek Peeks & Glimpses. Thank you in anticipation.

Bibliophile’s & Wordsmith’s What Do You Want On This Blog in 2023?

December 20, 2022
mandyevebarnett


Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

As we come to the close of the year – 2022 – I would like to know what you would like to see on this blog in 2023. I can keep the same regularly themed twice weekly posts, or do something completely different. I am always looking to engage readers and writers alike in my blog community.

Shall I continue with Bibliophile Collective Tuesday’s and Wordsmith Collective Thursday’s or change it up?

What do you want to see, read, interact about?

Is there something I have not covered or included you wish I did?

I am open to suggestions.

It’s up to you!

Bibliophile’s Collective Tuesday – A Blog Anniversary and A New TBR Pile

August 9, 2022
mandyevebarnett


It is always surprising when you get a notification from WordPress as to your blog anniversary. This is quite the milestone. There is effort in maintaining my blog schedule and coming up with new content, but the most enjoyable part is the connection I have with my followers. So a huge thank you for accompanying me on this journey.

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com! You registered on WordPress.com 12 years ago. Thanks for flying with us. Keep up the good blogging.

I have a good friend, Karen who has a book swap with several friends and family and I am lucky to be part of it. I collected my next batch for my ‘to be read’ pile last week. It is, as ever, an eclectic mix of genres and authors. Something I enjoy, as reading outside our ‘comfort’ zone gives us pleasant surprises and a new venture into stories otherwise unread. Some are successful, some not, but without the opportunity to read, we would never know. This is the current stack I will be making my way though.

What do you have on your TBR pile? Is it as varied? Which authors do you gravitate towards?

And remember today is National Book Lovers Day! So another celebration.

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