Fischer - Breathe new life into your blog 11 ways to supercharge your blog

11 Ways to Supercharge YourBlog

By Rusty Fischer

www.rustyfischer.com

Copyright 2015 by RustyFischer

All rightsreserved.

This is a work ofnonfiction. All of the names, characters, places and eventsportrayed in this novel are either products of the authorsimagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

Cover credit: Andrey Popov Fotolia

Introduction

What do people see when theycome to your blog?

A dusty, old site thathasnt been updated in weeks?

A placeholder for tired,generic and boring ideas until you get around to postingsomething good?

Another static, unmovingbillboard for your book?

Or do they see an active,vibrant place full of lively interaction between you and yourcommenters?

A site thats updatedfrequently, energetically and personally by you?

A place with lots offollowers and book covers and reviews and blurbs and awards andcontests and giveaways that is as interesting and informative as itis inviting?

The fact is, too many of usconsider blogging a promotional chore versus a creative opportunity to reallyconnect with our readers.

I used to feel that waymyself, until one of my author friends-slash-bloggers made a greatpoint: Your blog is just as important as your book. Both have yourname on it, and both help to build your author brand in much thesame way. So why would you treat your blog as anything less thananother book?

Since then, Ive worked hardto make my blog an active, refreshing, informative and personalsite that folks actually want to come and visit. I cant remember a week or,lately, a day thats gone by where I havent logged into my blogand moved things around, or tweaked this or updated that or revisedsomething else.

Yes, it can be a lot ofwork, but it can also be a GREAT way to help readers who are on thefence about buying your book discover just exactly how youredifferent from every other author out there.

So in the spirit of seeingblogging as an opportunity rather than a chore, here are 11 Ways to Supercharge YourBlog :

The First Way toSupercharge Your Blog :

Revisit theLayout

There is really nothingworse than a choppy, bloated, disorganized, hard-to-follow blog. Ishould know because I struggled with this for the first few monthsI blogged.

Now I have a very simplelayout with a header at the top, two strips along each side thatI can fill with book covers, awards, FREE eBooks or specialreports, etc., and the actual blog posts themselves in the middle.Easy-peasy!

Dont be afraid toexperiment with your blogger template. After a design change orreformat, sleep on it, if necessary. That way you can come back toevery new format change with a fresh pair of eyes.

Very few people will noticeif you make small changes over a week or two, and those that dowill generally be pleased and happy to let you know aboutit!

The Second Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Update ItRegularly

There is no hard and fastrule for how often you should update your blog. And when I sayupdate, I dont just mean upload a new blog post. Imean

• Add a new book cover;

• Change a release date;

• Post an award;

• Manage your links andfollowers;

• Change your profilepicture;

• Edit your profile;

• Host a guest post;

• Etc.

Dont think of your blog asa static, unchanging and unyielding website; its not. Its aliving, breathing, active thing and the folks who visit blogs do sobecause they want to read, link, play around, interact andcommunicate.

Updating often, andregularly, lets folks know youre at home!

The Third Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Make it Easy toFollow

I have a LOT of book coverson my blog; whatever books are out for sale, whatever FREE eBooksIm offering at the moment, books Ive reviewed, etc. For thelongest time I put all book covers at the top and everything elseat the bottom.

Then one day I noticed thatalthough I was getting more and more unique visitors to my blogeach week, the amount of followers wasnt generally increasing.Then I took a good, hard, objective look at my blog and found that,no wonder: my Followers button was way down at the bottom underall those neat book covers!

So I moved it up to the topand seemingly overnight twice as many folks started following myblog each week. It was a simple, but profound, lesson; whatsimportant to you as a novice blog designer isnt necessarily whatsimportant to your blog visitors.

They want to follow yourblog; that way they can subscribe once and the news comes to them.So why not make it easy for them by making your follow buttonprominent and easy to use?

The F ourth Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Have Something toSay!

The problem with folks whotell you to post something every day is that were all human; Idont really have interesting things to say every day.

Do you? In general, I postwhen I feel like it, usually about twice a week.

Sometimes I get reallyexcited about a hot topic thats trending, like eBooks overtakingprint book sales on Amazon or a great author getting a deservingmovie deal or whatever, and Ill post three or four times in oneweek. Thats when I really have something to say; when Im actuallyexcited about a topic.

Like this eBook; I couldntwait to sit down and put these 11 ideas on paper because Id beennoodling over them all week. While its ideal to post somethingevery few days, its better to post something thats actually funto read, interesting or educational rather than just to post morefluff thats only going to clutter the page and rack up anotherpost in your archives.

The Fi fth Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Say it WithPizzazz

Do you know what Ive foundout after a year or more of blogging? There are A LOT of blogs outthere! And a lot of people asking you to read their blogs. And alot of really worthy, interesting blogs to read!

And a lot of us, frankly,are saying the same things about marketing, promotion, publishing,characterization, query letters, agents, readers, eBooks versusprint books and more.

If youre blogging at all,if youre taking up your time and your readers, you want to atleast try to be worthy of that time. You want to have honestopinions, a little humor or even frustration, you want to sharepersonal anecdotes or glimpses of your personality; not just tostand out from the crowd but to invite readers to know you alittle better.

The great thing aboutblogging is that here is this wonderful opportunity to talkone-on-one with your readers; even if its only a few ofthem.

In YA, especially, its areal treat to be able to chat in small doses with interested kids,excited fans or would-be writers.

I wish there had been blogswhen I was a kid! Imagine reading what Judy Blume or Beverly Clearyor S. E. Hinton might have had to say in the 70s, 80s and 90s; oh,the joy!

Im not comparing myself tothem, of course, but Im saying that when you do blog, feel free to be yourself .Dont get so tied up in the grammar and formatting and timing andscheduling and promotion that youre not yourself.

Every blog, I feel, is likehaving a conversation with your readers; use it wisely!

The Sixth Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Give SomethingAway

If you want to give yourblog a little boost, why not give something away?

It could be a short story, apoem, a copy of your print book, an eBook, or simply a collectionof your best blogs on, say supercharging your blog!

I give a lot of stuff awayon my blog; dozens of things. You dont have to go to that extreme,but a FREE giveaway is kind of like the bloggers version of athank you card.

It says, Thank you forstopping by; heres a little something to take home withyou.

The Seventh Way to Supercharge Your Blog:

Share and ShareAlike