An author sits at a desk. It’s a cold Fall morning and it is finally time to start.
Start blogging that is.
This is the happening thing. Everyone has a blog. If I don’t start now, I’ll never reach my readers. The author muses as the author often does.
But where to begin? My writing weekend report? Or maybe an article on cats; yes, cats seem to be popular these days.
Thoughts like these stew and swirl in the author’s mind. So much so that it is now a cold Fall evening and nothing new is on the page.
Well, the author muses, I guess I’ll start the blog another day.
In a world filled with advice for writers, much of it telling authors they need to be blogging, it can be overwhelming. So I wasn’t surprised at all when Peter M. Olsen asked, “Blogging….Does quality gain more readers and websites traffic than quantity of blog posts? Does [sic] frequency of writing/posting blogs the best strategy to gain a ‘fanbase?’”
Here’s the deal. Blogging is an amazing way to build an audience. According to HubSpot “marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.” In other words a good blog increases your audience and the positive actions they take (such as, you know, buying your book).
The trick is: your blog has to be GOOD. This is the part most people skip over when they read advice online about blogging. But going into blogging thinking it is just about the amount of posts you do or the quality of posts is the surest way for you to waste your time and end up frustrated.
The key to having a good blog comes from consistency and quality. Both elements are required to achieve positive results. If you focus only on the frequency of posts and ignore quality you will lose the trust of readers. If you focus on quality and ignore frequency you will lose your spot in the minds of readers and end up forgotten.
This is a hard truth of internet writing. Demian Farnworth describes this best in his Rough Draft podcast,
“Your reader has a million other things she needs to do. And you’re not one of them. Unless you grab her by the chin and say, ‘You’re going to regret it if you don’t read this.’ That’s the law of the web and you need to obey it if you want to succeed at this thing called web writing.”
Your reader has a family, friends, a job, classwork, pets, hobbies, sports, and endless obligations that do not include you or your book. If you want to reach your reader you need to offer them something worth stopping for, and do so frequently enough that they don’t forget.
In my last article on BadRedhead Media I covered how to create content people care about. Read it. Follow each step (no skipping).
And create your content on a schedule. If it is once a day or once a week, commit to it. The better you are at consistently providing content of value, the quicker you will build trust with your readers. And the more trust you build with your readers, the more they will share your work with others and help you build your audience.
Success is achievable with your blog. You only have to remember it isn’t quantity vs. quality, but quantity AND quality.
Talk back: How long have you been blogging? Do you need to work on quantity or on quality?
About Kate Tilton:
Kate Tilton has been in love with books for as long as she can remember. A relatively new voice in publishing, Kate has been serving authors behind the scenes since 2010. Founder of Kate Tilton’s Author Services, LLC, Kate works as an author assistant and social media manager with the mission of connecting authors and readers. Kate is the creator and host of #K8chat (Thursdays at 9pm Eastern), a contributor to BadRedhead Media, and has appeared on popular media such as Publishers Weekly, The Book Designer, Kobo Writing Life and Rafflecopter. A cat-lover and fan of many geeky things, Kate can likely be found curled up with the latest Doctor Who episode, plotting world takeover, or connecting authors and readers in any way she can.
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Originally posted on BadRedhead Media. Republished with permission.
pictures courtesy of pixabay
