Increasing Traffic | How to Blog a Book

Jonathan Fields on Blog Traffic, Subscribers and Content

January 26, 2012 By Nina 1 Comment

Yesterday I published a blog post on my other blog, Write Nonfiction NOW!, based on a very interesting interview I conducted with Jonathan Fields. In that post, Jonathan and I discussed what it takes to create a bestselling book: author’s platform, a business model, hard work, great release strategies, and a great book. (You can read the post here.) Today on this blog, I’ve published the remainder of our conversation, which covered tips for bringing in blog traffic, getting blog readers to subscribe to your blog and creating a better blog.

Jonathan is the author of Career Renegade: How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love, which was named a Top 10 Small Biz Book by Small Business Trends, and Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance, his latest book, which has generated extraordinary praise for its provocative, science-meets-art approach to embracing uncertainty as a catalyst for innovation and action. It’s a must read for authors—yes, even authors of blogged books! I wrote a short review yesterday, but it bears repeating for those of you blogging with the hope that your book will be discovered in the process. All writers feel uncertainty, and that can stop us in our tracks. When you have no readers—or few readers—to your blog, when you aren’t sure if what you are writing makes sense, has meaning, is touching anyone—or ever will be purchased by a publisher or readers, it’s hard to keep moving forward. That’s why you want to read Jonathan’s book, Uncertainty. There you will find advice on how to make the uncertainty we all feel at times less unpleasant and to use it as a way to fuel your creative process.

Jonathan, a dad, husband, author, speaker and serial-entrepreneur, blogs at JonathanFields.com. Check out his blog if you want a taste of a successful blog. He’s been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, FastCompany, Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, USA Today, People, CNBC, FoxBusiness, Vogue, Elle, Self, Fitness, Outside, O Magazine and thousands of other places. He also runs a book marketing educational venture TribalAuthor.com, where he shares what he has learned about marketing his books and becoming a successful author. (He shared a ton of great info on this topic in yesterday’s post.)

What follows is our conversation on blogging. Enjoy and learn!

For those authors who are beginning to blog, blogging a book or wanting to improve their blogs, can you offer a few tips for bringing in more traffic?

Bringing in more traffic…that’s an interesting question, because a lot of traffic is moving away from blogs these days and towards social media. There’s so much attention getting split. I would say leverage Twitter to build relationships. Where you can, share links to your blog. Make sure that when you share links, it’s both a much smaller part of everything else that you do, so you should be 90 percent other-serving, and 10 percent or less self-serving. Same thing with Facebook, but when you do it in Facebook, you can have more of a conversation. So share a link to a post, but then you can also put in content. Share a paragraph or two from the post, and then ask a question that will inspire a conversation in the comments on Facebook. Sometimes this defeats the comments in your blog, but…

Other ways to drive traffic are to create what we call “flagship content.” Create a major thought piece that’s provocative and establishes a position and a strong voice and builds leadership that people will want to share. It can be a series. It can be a long blog post. It can be a manifesto. We actually used a manifesto to launch Career Renegade.

It was called The Firefly Manifesto and was a PDF.

And once the readers show up, how do we get them to actually subscribe to the blog?

One, offer them something in exchange for their e-mail. That may be a mini-course or an eBook or a teaser chapter from a book. Feature the call to action to subscribe boldly, either at the top of your blog, the top right, or underneath your blog posts.

Second, ask them at the end of your blog post to subscribe. Throw in a sentence that says, “If you’ve enjoyed this…” or some variation of “if you’ve enjoyed this post, sign up for the weekly updates,” or whatever works for your format.

Any other tips you might want to add on blogging well?

I can go way down the rabbit hole with this. Just because you know how to use the technology doesn’t mean you have something to say. Blog because you have something to say, not because you have a place to say it.

One of the questions I get all the time is, “I’ve been blogging for six months, and nobody’s listening.” And I’ll look at the blog, and I’ll realize It’s because the person’s not saying anything. It’s like white-washed content, or there’s no voice, no position, no story, no value. If you’re going to put in the effort, have something to say, offer real value, tell great stories, be provocative (if that’s in your nature), have a voice. Give people something to say “yes” or “no” to. If you don’t, nobody will care.

Take Jonathan’s last comment to heart. It is especially true for book bloggers. Why would anyone want to read your blogged book if you have no voice, nothing to say, aren’t adding any value to anyone’s life, have no story to tell that touches people in some important or deep way? Write a book, blog a book, that matters–that’s worth reading.

Comments or questions about this post? Leave them below! I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Don’t forget about my upcoming “Blog Your Way to a Book Deal” 4-part Teleclass starting next week! Preorder a copy of How to Blog a Book and SAVE $30 on registration fee! Get all the details here: http://bit.ly/BlogaBookTeleclassOffer

Filed Under: Building a Better Blog, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blog subscribers, blog traffic, creating valuable content, Jonathan Fields

Chris Garrett on How to Blog a Book or Book a Blog

January 5, 2012 By Nina 3 Comments

My last post featured the first part of my interview with Chris Garrett, co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, in which he discussed how to convert blog readers into book buyers using attraction, retention, conversion, and referrals. Today, in part two of the interview, which I conducted at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Los Angeles, CA, in early November 2011, Chris speaks more specifically to aspiring authors, writers blogging books and bloggers who might want to book a blog, or repurpose their material into a book.

I was quite honored to spend time speaking with Chris, who is an online business consultant, teacher, coach, new media industry commentator, writer, speaker, and all-round web geek. He has been involved in several start ups and has written for some of the web’s best-loved blogs as well as co-authoring four other traditionally published print books and many ebooks. (See the end of this post for a full bio.) He definitely knows how to look at the idea of blogging a book and apply all he knows about blogging, writing books and new media to this endeavor and offer relevant tips and advice. Below, find my questions, and Chris’ answers, in part two of this two-part blog post:

I tell people who want to begin blogging a book to go through a full evaluation process to make sure their book has a chance of succeeding both in the blogosphere and in the online and brick-and-mortar book stores. What are your thoughts on getting started blogging or writing a book?

A lot of people say they have a book in them, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a book somebody would want to read. You are going to save a lot of pain, heartache and effort if you work out if the book you want to write is one the market is going to accept. Plus, there’s a confidence that comes in doing your homework. The more confident you are the more likely you are to carry on, because writing a book is not easy. It may be simple, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. The most important thing to know is that if you do your research you understand the audience you’re speaking to; I think that’s vital because you can have great content but miss the mark.

I know you haven’t actually blogged a book, but if you were going to give advice to writers doing so, what is the most important tip might you offer them to help them build their readership?

It’s the point I made earlier: You don’t drive traffic. It’s not like being a cowboy. It’s not getting on horse with a Stetson and driving people to your blog. They have to come of their own free will. You’ve got to attract rather than drive. You have to go where people are, and meet them where they hang out. You’ve got to find what they want and need, what’s going to get their attention and deliver that. You might have to give ¾ of what you know away to get that attention and to get people to know and respect you enough to trust you with their money. Because at the end of the day if they are going to take action by investing time and money in what you have to offer they have got to be sure about you.

Do you work with work with any aspiring authors, and, if so, what do you recommend to them as far as their books?

A lot of my friends are authors—some of them New York Times bestselling authors—and a lot of my clients are authors or prospective authors.

The first thing I recommend is probably the most important: Look at what successful people have done before them and what is working right now. Things that have worked two years ago will not necessarily translate to now. So you have to look at both. And also look at what people have done that have gone terribly wrong, especially in their specific market or niche.

The second thing I tell them is to have a plan. Someone was telling me that they thought they were going to be able to retire early because they got a book deal, and most people know that is crazy talk. Unless you are JK Rowling, you aren’t going to retire early. This writer had no plans for what would happen once their book hit the shelves. They were so focused on writing and launching that they never thought, “What’s next?” They had no back-up plan, no follow-up plan. Basically, they thought their life was going to be transformed once their book went on sale.

Also, authors need to be realistic. Unfortunately, today the publisher can only do so much to help you and your book succeed; you have to do a lot more. And the best book tour is not going to make your book a best seller without a lot of marketing, a very, very good subject, a well-defined audience, and a lot of effort. Even then it doesn’t mean you are going to be able to live off it the money from your book sales. But people see Amazon Kindle sales are making a million dollars a year and think, “This is for me.” They believe once you get to Barnes & Noble you are a millionaire, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Writers and authors need to need to research what is working, plan and be realistic.

Lots of long-time bloggers would like to turn their blogs into books—or “book a blog.” What would you tell these bloggers about repurposing their posts into an ebook or printed book?

I’ve found that there are certain markets where there are readers who are very receptive to the idea of you putting a book out, and there are markets that are very resistant to any sort of monetization at all, any sort of business influence. The strangest niches I would have never expected have worked super well. A lady told me the other day that she has a blog where she writes about a hairstyle of the day. All the content was on her site, and she packaged it up into a PDF. It sold really well. It blew me away because I never thought people would pay for an ebook full of photographs of hairstyles. She had a receptive market that really loved it and told all their friends.

At the same time, I’ve seen people in tech fields who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a workshop but won’t buy an ebook. They will buy a textbook off the shelf, but they won’t buy an ebook. They are technical people who should be okay with it.

Market research is very, very important. But if you’ve been blogging for a while, you have an audience; you have a really good focus group. They are going to tell you what they want, what they don’t like, what they are struggling with. You just have to open your ears to it. If you deliver what people want and need, you’ve got a lot better chance of success.

You can put the content out there and see what your readers’ reaction is, what they share, what their comments are, what they tell you about, or the follow up questions they ask. That’s the first test. This action lets you know you have an audience. You know if the audience wants that stuff. Then you have to find out what they are willing to pay for, which is sometimes a different thing.

Does pricing come down to trial and error or is there a better way to know what blog readers will pay for a book or other product?

Sometimes it’s trial and error. The more you know about your audience, the better.

If you know what else they are buying, that can work really well. You can either ask them, or you can be an affiliate. You can review items and tell your audience about things they could buy in return for a commission. Dollars and cents is the best feedback ever. If they are willing to tell you via buying something that they are interested in paying for something then you know there’s a market there.

More About Chris Garrett

Although Chris Garrett has been “online” since the 1980?s, it was in 1994 Chris first became addicted to the World Wide Web. Since then he has helped thousands of individuals, non-profits, small businesses and blue chips such as Heinz, Toshiba, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Durex, amongst others, make the most of the internet.

In 2005 Chris left the advertising agency world and founded a company to help smaller businesses and solo-entrepreneurs profit from their skills, knowledge and experience, achieve more with Online Media, and grow audiences of people who know, like and trust them. See how your business could benefit from working with Chris on the services page here.

As well as coaching and training companies and individuals, Chris also regularly speaks at conferences around the world about internet salesmanship, writing compelling content, and social media for business. He has spoken at events such as BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the Successful Outstanding Bloggers conference in Chicago, Think Visibility, Affiliate Expo, Wishlist Member Live, WordCamp, the Netherlands Social Media Congres and the Institute of Fundraising, along with the dozens of webinars, teleseminars and virtual events he holds or contributes to annually.

Chris was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1974. He lived in the UK for most of his life but now lives back in Calgary with his wife, daughter, cat, and a three-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

www.chrisg.com

Filed Under: Booking a Blog (Repurposing Content into a Book), Create an E-Book, How to Begin Blogging a Book, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog, Selling Books and Information Products, What to Do When You Complete Your Blogged Book Tagged With: blogging a book, book a blog, Chris Garrett, repurposing blog posts, strategic planning

Chris Garrett on How to Turn Blog Readers Into Book Buyers

January 3, 2012 By Nina 3 Comments

As part of this blog’s new focus, this is the first of a series of posts I’m going to publish during January based upon interviews I conducted at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Los Angeles, CA, in early November 2011. While there I had the opportunity to speak with Chris Garrett, Darren Rowse, Liz Strauss, Mari Smith, C.C. Chapman, and a few other successful bloggers, social networkers, and content creators. I hope you will read the posts based upon these interviews, and then start the New Year by applying all the great information provided by these experts. They talked with me about how to produce a better blog, drive traffic to your site, get your readers engaged, sell books and products, and many important things that help blogged books get discovered by a publisher or, at a minimum, build the readership you need to eventually turn out a successful self-published book. At the very least, if you apply the tips and lessons they offer, you’ll produce a better blog to help you promote your book.

Given that we are discussing blogged books, your ability to create a successful book—one that sells many copies—depends in part upon converting blog readers into buyers. If you also want to make a living—or at least some income—as a blogger and as an author, you need to accomplish this feat. A variety of factors contribute to how many readers you attract to your blogged book and later to the printed book or ebook you self-publish or a publisher produces for you. These same factors determine how easily you sell any ancillary services or products you might choose to offer to loyal readers, such as webinars and teleseminars, coaching or home-study courses, all of which help produce income for bloggers and authors.

So, how do you convert blogged book readers (or simply blog readers) into ebook or printed book buyers? More important, how do you get readers to your blog in the first place and then get them to stay around long enough to later buy your ebook, printed book, other products and services?

I had the opportunity while at BlogWorld to get answers to these questions from Chris Garrett, co-author of ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, and an online business consultant, teacher, coach, new media industry commentator, writer, speaker, and all-round web geek. Chris has been involved in several startups and has written for some of the web’s best-loved blogs. He also has co-authored four other traditionally published print books and many ebooks. (See the end of this post for a full bio.) Below, find my questions, and Chris’ answers, in part one of this two-part blog post:

What are the most important things bloggers should do to build loyal readers that translate into book buyers as well as purchasers of ancillary products and services, such as webinars and teleseminars?

There are four main things a blogger has to concentrate on: attraction, retention, conversion, and, referrals, or sharing.

The big mistake bloggers make is they only concentrate on one—traffic, or gaining attention. Instead, bloggers should focus on attraction and then retention.

A lot of bloggers think they have to drive traffic, which is a mistake in itself, and forget about the people they have already attracted. Get people to subscribe (especially by your email because hardly anybody outside of technical geeks understand RSS), and nurture that audience so you get them to stick around.

And then you can take action, which is the conversion. Taking action could be a blog reader making a comment, signing up for your email list, signing up for your webinar, buying your book. But you can’t just get someone to give you their attention and then buy straight away or take an action straight away because they don’t know who you are; they aren’t sure they like you or trust you yet. That retention piece is really, really important.

If you do retention well, then the fourth part is getting referrals, getting people to talk about you, getting people to share, and that’s how all of this becomes less of an uphill struggle. You have that compounding affect because you are attracting what in the corporate word we would call advocates. They are basically your fans, people who are going to talk about you.

Is there one mistake you see often that those building a blog readership and wanting to sell something—like a book—should avoid?

A lot of bloggers try to sell something straight away without building up any good will, or they burn out their audience by constantly asking for things. You see this in social media as well. People say, “This social media doesn’t work. No one is clicking on my links,” but you see that all they are pushing out there are links. This is like going up to someone on the street and asking for ten dollars rather than asking a friend you’ve known for years for a loan.

You have to have that good will, and that comes from building relationships. That means you have to retain people’s attention, and that means you have to keep giving people good stuff and telling them what to expect in terms of their future.

So from the point of your audience, it comes down to “What’s in it for me, why should I care, what am I going to get out of this,” and you’ve got to nurture that.

For a writer or aspiring author blogging—someone who may not be a “blogger” per say—what are the things they need to do to attract, retain, convert, and then gain referrals so they might attract a publisher or buyers to a self-published book?

If you are a writer or an aspiring author, you’ve got lots of content to share. Start telling people about what you have to offer. Don’t tell people about your website. Telling people about what they are going to get, what they are going to achieve, by listening to you or the results they’ll get by taking your advice is always better than saying, “I have this awesome website or book I want to tell you about.” Instead say, “Here’s a tip that will help you achieve your goals or solve your problem.” Even if [your book] is entertainment, the focus is on what’s in it for them. That’s what you start with.

You might begin with a tiny audience of people who know you—your network. If you do a good job of articulating the benefit and the outcome of what they are going to get, word will spread. And you can encourage that by sharing more content relevant to their interests and to what they need.

If there are people in your network who can help you spread the message, that’s always better than you saying, “I’m awesome.” If someone else says, “You need to check Chris out because he’s awesome, and this is where you go to check him out,” it always sounds better than blowing your own horn.

In Mari Smith’s session [at BlogWorld], she talked about Social Media Examiner going from zero subscribers to 150,000 in a really short time. Mike Stelzner went to Mari Smith, Denise Wakeman and myself and said, “[Social Media Examiner] is going to be great, and will you help me get it off the ground? Will you use your influence to get people to check it out?” We knew it was worth people checking out because he had put a lot of value into the site. It wasn’t like telling people, “Please follow me on Twitter.” This was going to help them achieve what they wanted to do. So we helped.

Again, the main thing to remember is to focus on your audience and on what they want and need rather than on what you want.

Check in on Thursday for Part 2 of this interview with Chris Garrett. In the meantime, if you have had success turning blog readers into book buyers, please share your experiences by leaving a comment.

More About Chris Garrett

Chris was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1974. He lived in the UK for most of his life but now lives back in Calgary with his wife, daughter, cat, and a three-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

www.chrisg.com

Filed Under: Building a Better Blog, Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog, Selling Books and Information Products Tagged With: blog traffic, Chris Garrett, conversion, ebooks, selling books

Four Ways to Promote Your Blogged Book

September 1, 2011 By Nina 5 Comments

As you write your blogged book, or as you try to drive traffic to your blog so you land a book deal (and can book your blog), the Internet provides you with many effective promotion tools. Here are four tried and true methods for achieving your promotion goals with online activity—activity most bloggers can do pretty easily if they put their minds to it since they like to write and hang out in cyberspace.

1. Start and maintain a blog.

Google loves fresh content, which is why blogs serve as the best tool for increasing online visibility. The more visible you, your book, your website, and your blog become, the more traffic (readers) your blog will attract. This means more buyers for your book now or when it is released. To create a successful blog, write about something you feel passionate about and do so often and consistently. That’s all it really takes. Of course, a topic other people have an interest in is an essential element of a successful blog as well.

2. Contribute material to e-zine article directories.

Recycle parts of your blogged book manuscript or blog posts into short articles you can post in e-zine article directories, such as Ezinearticles.com. Each time you do so you are asked to offer a resource box with a short bio and a link back to your website, book, blog, or subscription form. These articles are picked up by other bloggers, newsletter editors, e-zine editors, etc., and each time your resource box is featured. This means their readers get access to the links you have provided and may click through to find out more about you, purchase your book, or subscribe to your blog or newsletter. You can even use e-zine article distribution services, such as www.submityourarticle.com, and get your article distributed to hundreds of e-zine directories at once, making it available to thousands, if not millions, of new readers and possible fans.

3. Comment on other blogs.

Take the time to find bloggers who write about topics similar to those you write about. When they have something good to say or you can add something to what they have written, leave a comment on their blog. Each time you do so, you leave behind a link to yourself, your website, or your blog. If people who read your comment find what you have written interesting, they will click on the link to find out more about you. They may then decide to become regular blog readers or subscribers, book buyers, newsletter subscribers, or general fans.

4. Involve yourself in social networks.

Come out from behind your “computer” long enough to show your face on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. If you can post status updates, share interesting links (and your blog posts), and offer great free information, you will quickly become a favorite in these social networks. Why bother? Because your followers, tweeple and connections will later buy your books, read and subscribe to your blog posts and newsletters, and basically become your fan base. That’s what every aspiring author or author wants and needs. Don’t forget to get involved in groups in these communities. By asking and answering questions, you get yourself known and develop more friends and followers. You also leave behind links to yourself, your website, your blog, your book, etc.

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blog comments, blogging, ezine articles, Social Networking

Propel Your Blogged Book With More Content

July 22, 2011 By Nina 4 Comments

One of the thing writers do really well is produce content–especially bloggers, who produce content all the time. That’s a great thing in today’s online market, because the best way to promote blogged books comes down to producing great content and lots of it–and placing it on the Internet. By strategically using content in cyberspace, a writer or author can actually propel their blogged book–and later sales of the printed book–to the top of the list of other blogs on their topic. They can also launch any business related to that blogged or printed book as far as they want it to go.

I’ve known this for a long time, and this is, of course, the best strategy for most social networking, but Michael A. Stelzner or www.socialmediaexaminer.com has written a great new book that provides some of the most comprehensive techniques I’ve read to date for using content to promote and market any type of product or business. Called Launch, How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, I’d recommend that every blogged book author get a copy of this book and put it’s concept, tips and tools to use. They are particularly useful for driving traffic to your blogged book.

Not only does Stelzner provide the low down on why and how to produce content–field-tested guidance, no less–he also discusses the importance of strategic partners, outside experts, and developing faithful fans (and how to do this) I really enjoyed the information on the ten most effective types of content, how to actually engage readers (rather than repel them) with the content you create, how to brand yourself, and how to develop content with the possibility of going viral.

Once your blogged book is complete and you are trying to keep the blog alive as you drive sales for the printed version (or continue to try and attract an agent or publisher), you’ll need to continue promoting your blogged book. The techniques in Launch are perfect for achieving this goal.

Most writers don’t think of themselves or their books as a business to “launch,” but they should. By employing Stelzner’s methods, they might find the have not only launched their book business but also propelled their book sales to new heights. For this reason, I’ve got a great offer for one lucky writer.

I’ve got one copy of Launch to give away…Send me the pitch, or elevator speech, for your book in 25 words or less. That’s right, tell me what your book is about in just one sentence that has no more than 25 words; you don’t have to count the title of the book (or the subtitle). Best pitch wins the book. Send the pitch to me via the comment function in this blog.(I’ll also be looking at pitches at www.writenonfictionnow.com.)

BlogCatalog

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blogging a book, book promotion, driving traffic, Michael Stelzner

Using Video to Drive Traffic to Your Blogged Book

July 15, 2011 By Nina 2 Comments

An increasingly popular way to drive traffic to blogs these days involves video. YouTube has become a huge source of information and entertainment. You may find that by posting videos to YouTube you can drive enormous amounts of traffic to your blogged book.

Most computers, especially laptops, have video capability, and flip cameras are pretty cheap and easy to use. Without going into a ton of detail, let me just say that once you have figured out how to video tape yourself, you an easily upload that video to YouTube.

Here’s what you do: Create an account on YouTube. Then sign in. Upload what you have already recorded either on your computer or with your webcam. If you don’t like the quality of your videos, you can add in lighting or a mike to your tools when video taping.

What do you record? You can record a blog post or information about your blog. You can record your mission statement or details about the benefits of reading your blogged book. You can tell people about your process. You can give them some tips or tools from your blogged book. You can create a book trailer. You can record whatever you like that you think might be fun or interesting. Who knows, maybe your video will go viral. And by all means, share it wherever you can…on all your social networks!

Do you want to receive these blog posts in your email box? If so, fill out the form below:

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Promotion, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blog traffic, driving traffic, Promotion, video, YouTube Videos

Using Contests to Generate Interest in Your Blog

December 29, 2010 By Nina Leave a Comment

Every once in a while my dance-related blog, My Son Can Dance, gets voted “best” in its category. This generates a bit of traffic to the blog. I also then get to put special icons or banners on my blog home page saying the blog is the best in its category. Kinda nice, huh?

More recently, a dance-related website ran a contest for the Best Dance Blog of 2010. I, of course, entered My Son Can Dance in the contest and that generated a lot of traffic to the site again. It also got me noticed in Movmnt magazine, where they continue to run my Twitter link. This is because I bothered to not only email all my dance buddies–readers and supporters of the blog (and some friends, too), one of whom is the publisher of Movmnt–and to send out status reports to all my followers and tweeple and friends on social networks asking them to vote. The publisher follows me there as well.

I did this more than once. I did it several times, especially since the contest had two phases. This has actually taken a lot of time and effort.

By the way, the contest runs until 12/30/10 at 10 a.m. PT, and my blog, as of today, is in second place. (You could go vote and help My Son Can Dance move into first place…)

Now, why would I want to go to all this trouble? Because if I win my blog gets more exposure. In fact, just by going to all the trouble of promoting my blog and asking people to vote, I’ve gained readers and made more people aware of the blog. I’ve increased traffic to the blog. If I win, that’s even better for the blog’s reach and traffic potential.

Of course, the purpose of that blog is to help more young male dancers achieve their dream of becoming professional dancers. It is also to help me develop a platform for a book I want to write and get published. So, the more reach the blog achieves, the more boys I help and the more platform I build.

So, pay attention to what goes on in the niche in which you are blogging your book. Get involved, so you know what’s going on. Enter any and all contests–even writing contests! You’ll be happy you did even if you don’t win.

I’d be happy with second. First would be better. :~)

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blog contests, blog publicity, blogging contests, generating traffic

Content is King…So Get Writing!

June 14, 2010 By Nina Leave a Comment

In the blogging world, wisdom has it that content is king. That means, they ultimate way to drive people to your blog (or website) involves producing great copy. The more superb and useful content you produce, the more readers and traffic you will see coming to your blog or website. So it’s time to get writing!

I see more and more bloggers offering great, free content on their blogs as well as on social networking sites ever day. They amount of content they produce amazes me. They could be writing books…and maybe they are. In any case, the content they produce offers added value to any and all that read their words. I for one know that I often find myself clicking through to discover who these people are and what else they are writing.

With that in mind, I’d like to encourage you once again to blog that book! Or to just continue blogging away and offering great content in your blog that attracts readers (and agents and publishers). However, while I feel strongly that content, indeed, is king, I would have to admit that many other things must be done to differentiate your writing from the other writers and bloggers out there—and every day more bloggers decide to enter the Cyber publishing world.

So, how will you differentiate yourself amongst the million voices all striving to get the same attention and readership? How will you reach out to an audience already drowning in noise? That’s a question asked by Mellisa Tamura from ZenCollegeLife at www.Smartbloggerz.com. She says, “Good content alone will not do the trick – there has to be something more then just hoping that people will read your blog entries.” She offers 10 proven ways to get more readers, more attention and more traffic to your blog. You might want to check them out. I’ve covered most of them, but her post provides a nice recap.

Filed Under: Increasing Traffic, Publicizing Your Blog Tagged With: blogging, content, traffic, writing

Increasing Traffic by Commenting on Blogs

June 12, 2010 By Nina 2 Comments

Another way to publicize your blogged book or blog involves commenting on other bloggers’ posts. You know how you love it when readers leave comments on your blog posts, now it’s time to do the same.

Go out and read other blogs that have related content. These are the blogs you identified as complementary or competing blogs. If you found books that were competing or complementary books, see if the authors of those books also have blogs. Read their posts on a consistent basis and leave comments.

Do not spam these bloggers, however. By this I mean, don’t simply leave links to your blog in the comment box. Actually say something worthwhile. Leave useful information. Tell the blogger what great information they have provided, and then piggy back on their information with superb information of your own. The link to your blogged book will appear automatically if you opt to have your name linked back to your blogged book.

Don’t ever opt for an anonymous comment. Always opt to have your website or blog address used in conjunction with your name. Then when your name appears with your comment, readers can click on your name and be taken directly to your blog.

Not only do all these links increase traffic to your blog, they also increase your Google ranking. The more often you leave comments, the more chances you have of getting blog readers from other popular blogs to come check out what you are writing and the higher up your SERPs.

I know reading other blogs and commenting can be time consuming. One way to handle this in a time-effective manner involves using Google Alerts. You can also subscribe to the blogs you find most relevant to your subject.