Want to get more readers, more followers
and more comments on your blog?
Michelle Hauck has one of the most
interesting and thriving blogs around. I asked her to share how she does it and
this was her response.
Blogging. Everyone in writerland tells you
that you should be doing it. But there are so many blogs, so much content. How
does one go about driving readers to your blog? Is it worth the time and
trouble?
The answer, of course, is it depends.
By the time I was writing my second
manuscript, I’d gotten this same advice and fumbled my way onto Blogspot,
totally unsure of the technical aspect or even what I was going to do with a
blog. My early attempts at posts revolved around funny things that happened to
me at work. Not exactly a crowd pleaser.
The only ones visiting my blog were other
members of my writing group at Agent Query Connect and spammers. I posted when
I felt like it or when inspiration struck. I began doing a series I called
Getting the Call in order to bring more established writers to my blog with
stories about their success with agents. That helped a little, but really, my
range of friends was small, and these posts were tough to find.
Blogging wasn’t really high on my to-do
list. I did it because it was sort of expected. The post bounced around from
subject to subject as I had no particular readership in mind. Then that second
manuscript got an offer of publication from a small press. Suddenly I had
rather a bigger reason to blog. I had to get myself known. Marketing would be
up to me.
That’s when two lucky things happened to
me, and they made my blog take off in a gradual upward climb. First, I joined
twitter. Like blogging, twitter was more miss than hit. I stumbled around there
too, getting to know the ropes, slowly building up a following. But there I met
other writers and I learned, learned so much about the business of writing.
I could now do more of those Getting the
Call posts because I knew more people. I added posts about editing and helped
people with their cover and release day posts. My pageviews began to climb.
The
second lucky break was when SC and Mike asked me to be part of a contest they’d
invented called Query Kombat. None of us had done a writing contest before.
None of us had agents. I didn’t even have Kindar’s
Cure out yet. Happily, we gathered a group of gracious agents willing to
join the fun. That first contest was a modest success.
After the contest, I did a string of query
critiques on my blog with queries offered by people I’d met on twitter. My blog
began to have a direction, an audience. I cast around for more ideas to fit
that audience of newer writers. Agents had been very kind about the contest,
maybe they’d be up for being interviewed about query slush. Turns out they
were. I started by asking agents I saw often on twitter. Interviews began to roll
in.
My pageviews climbed steadily upward,
becoming regularly a hundred views a day. Mike and SC and I hosted other
contests. I did giveaways with agents of query critiques. Then I had the great
fortune to accept an offer of representation from Sarah Negovetich a few months
after Query Kombat. My pageviews went to three hundred a day and then six
hundred. But I was posting something pretty much every week day. My blog was
busy. I began to add a few book reviews, trying to keep to speculative fiction,
to direct my audience more toward readers.
I discovered that I really loved blogging.
I loved interacting on twitter. The two were one and the same for me. Keeping
up a steady stream of blog posts was fun, and I enjoyed it. And here we are
today barely a year later and my audience continues to grow. (I hope.) It’s
great to meet new people and to help other writers in any way I can. Giving
back is awesome. For me it’s all about the fun! Thus my blog title and my
twitter handle: Michelle4Laughs.
So what do I think are the keys to
successful blogging?
—Have a specific audience in mind and give
them something they can’t get elsewhere. Whether it’s romance readers, travel
stories, or beginning writers, come up with unique ideas and see if you can’t
create a series of it. One thing I’ve seen recently from Dan Koboldt is
bringing in experts to discuss aspects of writing, such as people who know
horses to help writers with truths about horses in their books. That’s a
fabulous idea.
—Use twitter. Use it to meet people for
guest posts and use it to pimp your blog posts. Twitter can bring people to
your blog. Or Facebook or Tumblr if that’s your thing. (I ignore my Facebook
too much.)
—Don’t bother unless you enjoy it. There
are all kinds of social media out there. Blogging may not be your thing. You
may not have the time. That’s fine. Go with what you like. I started a Tumblr
and decided it wasn’t for me.
—Post regularly whether that is once a week
or every day. Have some kind of schedule.
—Be positive, but let your real voice come
through. Let your personality shine in your posts and don’t be afraid to be a
little silly, or exuberant, or sarcastic if that’s your thing.
—Don’t be afraid to try new things and take
chances. I’ve recently added a newsletter to my blog, incorporating giveaways
to get it started. I was pretty nervous about trying that, but it worked out
well.
—Don’t expect to be an overnight success. A
good blog will grow slowly. Do things to bring people back.
I learned by trial and error, and I hope
some words from someone still learning can help. Come visit my blog, I’d love
to see you.
What are your favorite things to write
about on your blog? Do you have any tricks I missed?
-----------------------------------------------
Michelle
Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Besides
working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy,
giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices
in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished?
Time for a sweet snack.
She is a co-host of the yearly query contests Query Kombat, Nightmare onQuery
Street , New Agent, PitchSlam, and Sun versus Snow.
She is a co-host of the yearly query contests Query Kombat, Nightmare on
Her epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure, was published by Divertir
Publishing. Her short story, Frost and Fog, was
published by The Elephant's Bookshelf Press in their anthology, Summer's
Double Edge. Elephant’s Bookshelf Press also published another of her short
stories, The Unfinished Task, in
their winter anthology, Winter’s Regret.
She’s represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary.
Twitter:
@Michelle4Laughs
Facebook:
Michelle Hauck, Author
Goodreads: Kindar’s Cure
Tumblr: Michelle4Laughs
Kindar’s Cure on Amazon Ebook