Blog On!

I’m pretty sure – no, I know I’ve been spending too long recently Twittering and messing around, very enjoyably, on various indie author websites in the attempt to build a platform. I’ve read a load of articles and ebooks about self-promotion too. All these activities have finally led me to see what I think will work for me.

I’m going back to basics. My blogs. I have two, this one on book related themes, and Blog in France on the more general day to day events of expat life in France. I’ve read John Locke’s book on how he sold a million books, and I’ve picked up some tips from that. However, the thing that I completely disagree with is his attitude towards blogs. He only writes half a dozen or so a year. That’s OK for someone of his standing, but not for most of the rest of us. We have to write, and write a lot, to get people to know about us. And many blog traffic experts, such as Yaro Starak who is fast becoming my hero, push the importance of a good blog with quality content. Other marketing activities can all stem from this basis. So I’m going to give my blogs the attention they deserve.

I’ve achieved a lot with Blog in France. From a few readers a week, I now have around 100 a day, sometimes nearly twice that. Two advertisers have contacted me to put banners up, completely out of the blue. I got to that position by blogging daily and putting time and effort into what I wrote. I can got a lot further, and intend to, with newsletters and reports, but that’s all in the pipeline.

So it’s time to lavish the same care and energy on this blog. On with the book reviews, the looks at ereaders, the discussions of self-publishing and hints on writing. The two youngest kids are back at school, Benj goes to Uni next Thursday and, although we have gite and lake bookings until early November, the pressure is easing up so there will be more time and energy for writing. There are a million and one things to do around the farm, as ever, but a combination of physical graft on animal and ground maintenance, and sitting at a keyboard blogging and writing will make for a healthy enough life, and certainly an interesting one.

It will be interesting to see how things work out. I’ll keep you posted – blog posted, of course!