(If you haven't liked the page yet, please click the link below!)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/MakeMoneyWriting21
Dear James,
I really like what you're doing here! I have been in several writer's groups and was a writing major in college and I feel like I know so many poor writers!
I have been writing for over 18 years now. Because of the Internet being so popular, I decided to start a blog for my writing about a year ago where I post my essays, short stories and poetry. I update the blog at least once, sometimes twice a week so it is very filled with content. By problem? Each post still, after a full year only gets 10-25 views! I feel like the blog hasn't grown and doesn't grow no matter how much content I put on it. Everyone always tells me that content will make a blog grow its audience, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, I tried. What do I do?
~Janice.
I had to write her back after reading this to find out some more information. This is more or less my reply.
Hey Janice,
Thank you for your kind words! I have a couple of questions, what is the title of your blog? How do you organize the content and what is the general theme?
Her reply confirmed my suspicions--because many, many authors make this very easy to make marketing mistake. It turns out her blog title was something clever and catchy with her name in it. However, the title of the blog made no mention of the type of content produced. In addition, her response to the theme question told me that she, like many authors, felt she didn't write about any specific theme and that her writing took on a much wider scope of topics. While this shows serious talent and breadth of knowledge--it is also the worst possible thing an author can do when trying to get new readers for their material. (Unless of course they already have an audience of thousands--in this reader's situation, that was not the case.)
This was my second reply:
Janice,
I have a couple of quick suggestions for you. I would reccomend starting a new blog--or three. One for your essays, one for your short stories and one for your poetry. Then I would examine the themes you write about most often--even the most diverse authors have specific things they come back to, even if they don't realize it. You might have a favorite character your short stories revolve around--you might be a fan of love poetry, or uplifting poetry (the themes can be lose) and you might write essays about politics, sociological issues or more. Just because they are not solidly defined into one genre doesn't mean there isn't a theme. For the next few weeks I'd try to focus on one of these blogs specifically, make the title of the blog clear and tag it with lots of things that will bring in readers interested in the theme of your content--online this is how our blogs generate new readers. Also--once you have a theme to pick from you can go to social media groups that have interest in your topic and let them know about your specific postings. An autism blog for example is more likly to generate more readers of autistic matters than a blog entitled "inset any catchy author name blog here" that happens to post about autistic issues--at least on a first glance (which is unforotnatly sometimes all anyone has to look at these days.) Also, link all three of these other blogs to your main blog--that will keep people who went to you for the topics coming back to you for the content so when you come out with books or audio files for sale your audience is much larger.
Best Wishes!
James.
Her response came about 3 days later.
James!
I just wanted to tell you that you were right. I had a favorite character that I based most of my short stories around so I focused on my fiction blog first. I posted 4 stories I had already written and then posted it around in facebook groups that were interested in my genre. I got nearly 100 views in my first day, and more than 100 on my second day posting. That's more than 2 weeks worth of views on my first blog! I'm also starting to get followers. Thank you so much!
These basic principles are the true core of gathering fans in the online universe:
Lead with your CONTENT not your name. (In the beginning, no one knows who anyone else is. They learn who writers are by their content...name recognition comes later.)
DEFINE what it is you are writing about (if you can't sum up your subject-matter, how is anyone else supposed to? You also can't properly promote what you can't define.)
I expect that Janice's writing are finally going to get the recognition they deserve. Your writing deserves the same recognition. So go out there and get the fans you have worked so hard for.
No comments:
Post a Comment