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.
Mandy Eve-Barnett's Blog for Readers & Writers 