I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and promoting your book on the Internet
trixie
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by trixie » March 28th, 2011, 5:47 pm

See, this is the problem with giving this kid a blog.

There are free Blogger templates out there for me to choose? I'm not limited by the confines of the Blogger design selection? *commence freak out*

Sommer, this is excellent news but I'm pretty sure you just killed my upcoming weekend. I now need to check out all these awesome YA-ish looking templates...

Sommer Leigh
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Sommer Leigh » March 28th, 2011, 9:32 pm

trixie wrote:See, this is the problem with giving this kid a blog.

There are free Blogger templates out there for me to choose? I'm not limited by the confines of the Blogger design selection? *commence freak out*

Sommer, this is excellent news but I'm pretty sure you just killed my upcoming weekend. I now need to check out all these awesome YA-ish looking templates...

Haha yeah, I've killed whole weekends scoping out wordpress templates. Most of the downloadable ones are for Wordpress.org which you need to purchasing hosting space to use (I use AN hosting which cost about $5.99 a month which includes a domain and email with your domain and so much space you'll never fill it all up.) I like options though, and wordpress.org and all those wonderful themes are totally worth it. Most are free, some aren't. It sort of depends. I currently use one that is free called Suffusion, but have paid for one called Caulk which I also like very much.

After you spend a weekend or two scouring the internet for awesome wordpress templates, mark off a weekend on your calendar to discover the awesome world of Plugins for Wordpress. Your life will never be the same (and you will never feel quite so nerdy.)
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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oldhousejunkie
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by oldhousejunkie » April 12th, 2011, 2:43 pm

I agree with Sommer. Don't panic and no pressure. A blog is supposed to fun (in essence) although it can be kind of time consuming (as Sommer points out).

I blog about my writing, but also about research (I write historical fiction), trends in publishing, my feelings on writing (and getting published), and sometimes just random things that I somehow manage to connect to writing. I initially started blogging as a way to get my thoughts down (and out of my head since it gets crowded up there). And I decided that if the Heavens shine upon me and I get published, then I can rejoice with all of my blog readers, and have a built in fan base of sorts. I didn't have great expectations at first--but now (maybe six months down the road), I have fifteen followers. Not a lot but it gets me excited!

Don't forget to start out small. I'm still in the post once a week phase, although last week I think posted three times because I ran across three interesting things. I always try to leave my posts open-ended so that people will want to comment. And heck, controversial opinions always liven up the mood! Of course, don't offend anybody...it doesn't do much for your readership apparently.

And now...I best go and write a blog post. :-)

Fenris
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Fenris » April 14th, 2011, 10:26 pm

I have a question. If my blog consists of short stories featuring my characters so people can get used to them and (hopefully) grow a bond, would it be particularly jarring to post something about myself? For example (as oldhousejunkie mentioned above), research. It'd most likely be something neat about mythology or ancient beliefs that I'd stumbled across that day, but if it would throw readers out of the loop that'd obviously be the last thing I want. I know it's my blog and all, but the readers' opinions are what matters. Plus it'd be a bit easier to post if I'd run out of ideas for short stories...
Hi, my name's Fenris. I'm a thousand-year-old monster who's broken free to destroy the world. Your kids will love me!

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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Sommer Leigh » April 15th, 2011, 8:51 am

Fenris wrote:I have a question. If my blog consists of short stories featuring my characters so people can get used to them and (hopefully) grow a bond, would it be particularly jarring to post something about myself? For example (as oldhousejunkie mentioned above), research. It'd most likely be something neat about mythology or ancient beliefs that I'd stumbled across that day, but if it would throw readers out of the loop that'd obviously be the last thing I want. I know it's my blog and all, but the readers' opinions are what matters. Plus it'd be a bit easier to post if I'd run out of ideas for short stories...
Fenris-

There is no "right" or "wrong" way to handle your blog or blog content. Can you do both? Sure! I would personally differentiate the two types of post in some way, like Monday is for research posts and wednesday and friday are for fiction. I'd come up with something I can include in the header to let my readers know what they'll be reading or if you are good with graphics at all, you could make some sort of small graphic to post in the upper left corner of posts that are fiction. It doesn't matter what you do, but I personally would use some kind of visual reference.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

Fenris
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Fenris » April 15th, 2011, 12:50 pm

Thanks, Sommer. I'm not too good with graphics, but I'll figure something out eventually. I might try that topic-by-day thing you mentioned (like Nathan's This Week In Books on Fridays and Page Critique Thursdays) and see how that goes, though.
Hi, my name's Fenris. I'm a thousand-year-old monster who's broken free to destroy the world. Your kids will love me!

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Cookie
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Cookie » April 15th, 2011, 1:29 pm

Fenris wrote:I'm not too good with graphics, but I'll figure something out eventually.
Do you want help? I can help you with the graphics part, and maybe design some things for you. I was a graphic design major, although I'm a publicist now.

Fenris
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Fenris » April 19th, 2011, 2:52 pm

Thanks for the offer, Cookie! Check your mail.
Hi, my name's Fenris. I'm a thousand-year-old monster who's broken free to destroy the world. Your kids will love me!

eriksetterlind
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by eriksetterlind » April 20th, 2011, 2:49 pm

As a new blogger, this thread is really helping me out! In one of the posts someone said (I think it was Sommer) that it takes a good six months to really get the hang of it and get regular follwers, etc. That's good to hear because I've only been blogging for a couple of weeks (i try to post something every weekday), and I was starting to worry if it was really worth it. I won't give up! I'll keep posting things that people will (hopefully) find entertaining and the followers will, um, follow.

I'm loving this forum!

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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Fenris » April 25th, 2011, 2:35 pm

eriksetterlind wrote:That's good to hear because I've only been blogging for a couple of weeks (i try to post something every weekday), and I was starting to worry if it was really worth it.
Sounds like we're in the same boat, then. I have the same worries every now and then, but it really all comes down to time. Our blogs haven't been up and running for very long, and it's not like people are going to notice them right away. This is the Internet, after all. We can't really rely on random people to occasionally stumble across our blogs, so we have to make sure we imbue something useful and unique into everything we do. In time, the trickle will become a flow, but in the meantime it's a matter of patience and doing what we can with what we're given to make our blogs the best they can be.
Hi, my name's Fenris. I'm a thousand-year-old monster who's broken free to destroy the world. Your kids will love me!

longknife

Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by longknife » April 26th, 2011, 12:09 pm

Yeah, It's really frustrating at the start.
I just passed 500+ page views but don't seem to be getting a lot of comments.
And, I've yet to figure out - if I comment on someone else's blog and it gets responses - how do I find out about that?

Sommer Leigh
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Sommer Leigh » April 26th, 2011, 12:27 pm

lvcabbie wrote:Yeah, It's really frustrating at the start.
I just passed 500+ page views but don't seem to be getting a lot of comments.
And, I've yet to figure out - if I comment on someone else's blog and it gets responses - how do I find out about that?
It will take a while befor eyou start getting a lot of comments. It helps if you give your readers something to answer to, like follow up questions at the end of your post, or something like that. That's not a guarentee but it helps.

As for getting responses, it depends. It depends on how their blog is set up and whether they have a service that emails responses back to you. On my blog, I have a special plugin that emails people when their post gets commented on. I have a wordpress site though and I don't think blogger blogs allow this. LIvejournal does, but I think only to other livejournal users.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

hektorkarl
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by hektorkarl » April 27th, 2011, 10:11 am

Blogger posts usually have a 'Subscribe by Email' link in the lower right corner. Followup responses will be sent by email.

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sierramcconnell
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by sierramcconnell » May 3rd, 2011, 12:18 pm

Well, after moving out and having a little fun with learning how to live, I realize I think I know what to do with my blog.

I'm going to go crazy with it. It's what makes a writer fun, right? The fantastical aspect of their lives?

I wanted to integrate my dolls into the blog, and have it be somewhat of a not so serious thing, yet with a little bit of a lesson in there. So I'm blogging as if they were real life roomates. I already feel as if I live with them. Heck, one person once said that our characters\dolls were aspects of ourselves, so if that's the case, I'm a fragmented person. I have forty-five dolls and a floating head in a box.

And it's a nice metal box with a red velvet cushion.

... >.>'

Aaanyway, yeah. Now if I could only get Cael to cook for /real/. Not that I'm bad. I'm really good. REALLY good. I just think they need to pull more weight. And pay rent. XD
I'm on Tumblr!

The blog died...but so did I...and now I'm alive again! OMG.

Patrick Neylan
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Re: I have a blog. Now what do I do with it?

Post by Patrick Neylan » May 19th, 2011, 7:43 pm

The short answer is, if you don't know what to say then perhaps you shouldn't be blogging. The internet is full of vapid garbage already.

The longer and less confrontational answer is, are you sure you don't have anything to say? If you're here on this site, then you're presumably a creative writer with lots of ideas. What's more, you want to reach people. You have a creative mind. You probably have a job. I'm guessing you've got friends as well. All of these will provide material. Just start doing it. The first few posts will be irrelevant drivel until you find your voice. Don't worry about it. Hardly anyone will read it anyway, at least to start with.

I won't speculate on what you should write about it because I don't know you. With me, it started with a piece I wrote for a local newspaper but got spiked (probably rightly). Then I went to the Edinburgh festival and blogged about that (lots of page views). I added plenty of links and pictures to make it more interesting and to give readers somewhere to go afterwards, because people value content that takes them places and shows them where to find out more about subjects that interest them. I put up book reviews. I As you can see, it was bitty and all over the place, but it worked for me. Regardless of whether anyone noticed, writing the reviews fixed the experience in my mind, so my memories of Edinburgh 2010 are much clearer then 2009. It doesn't matter whether anyone read them (though they did).

Then, one Friday in October, I met some friends in the pub who told me about their nightmare day at work. Their employer, HarperCollins, had just taken the decision to pulp all copies of Jonathan Franzen's new book. So I blogged (very carefully!) about that (http://endofcivilisation.blogspot.com/2 ... chive.html), as well as posting it here when Nathan ran a guest blog comptetion. I wrote about my first (and hopefully last) experience of a lap-dancing club. I even wrote a homage to my late brother. As I said, all very bitty, but I do it for me. Remember, your first reader is you. And you don't have to bare your soul.

Since I'm an editor by trade, I then realised that I had a lot to say about how people write. I'd already been tweeting about amusingly irritating writing, so last month I started a separate blog examining pieces of writing I come across and explaining how to improve them. For professional reasons, I don't reveal my name on http://angrysubeditor.blogspot.com/ in case my customers think I'm criticising our products. This gives me a chance to blog regularly and with a bit of focus. I then share the posts on Facebook and Twitter (my blog is on my own Twitter while AngrySubEditor has a separate one, again to spare my colleagues' blushes).

Anyone who cares about words can find a lot to write about. As with novel-writing, it's just a question of finding your voice.

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