13 Tips From Published Bloggers/Authors/Journalist & Our #BlogChatIE

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At tonight’s Tweet Chat #blogchatie at 9pm GMT, we will have the pleasure of Amanda Webb attending as our guest blogger expert. Amanda runs Spiderworking and teaches small businesses how to use social media effectively.

Amanda recently attended the#SMWF  conference in London and having read her post on it, I thought it would be interesting to delve deeper into some of the issues raised within her post.

The topics tonight will be:

T1 The advantages of using crowdsourcing for your blog and how to do it well
T2 How to succeed with more shares of your blog posts (without actually having to ask for them)
T3 How to blog in a way that humanises your brand
T4 How ‘Fun, Give Info, & Help’ as focuses for your blog can really assist your marketing and your branding.

 Tips for becoming a published author/ journalist

This week I also attended our monthly KLCK Bloggers Network meeting. It was one I was really looking forward to as we had invited three bloggers/authors/journalist to speak – what they all had in common was that they started out with a blog which led to journalist work as well as a book deal.  I’m sure many bloggers are in that situation – wondering how they can use their blog writing to further their writing career and here’s the main tips from Mark of A Year of Festivals, Carol of Buyers Broker and Fiona of Hunters Lodge. Carol’s third book will be published in 2014, Mark’s first book will be published in March 2014 and Fiona’s first book will be published by this November. Carol writes for the Sunday Business Post, Mark’s column is The Ticket in Irish Times on Fridays and Fiona writes for Irish Country Magazine and presents a Saturday morning show on community radio.

13 Blogging Tips

  1. Think about what makes your blog unique or different – it doesn’t have to be completely original but it should be different for your geographical area or within a group.
  2. Think of a focus for your blog and work out what you want it to achieve. Having a focus will ensure achievements are reached. Set a target for your blog and evaluate periodically.
  3. Be passionate about your topic – passion will make your blog stand out.
  4. A successful blog will include your ‘voice’, your personality. Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine.
  5. Write about what you know – you are an expert in your field and stick to it.
  6. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes – that is how you learn. Look on any ‘failures’ as feedback and learn from them.
  7. When posting your blog, consider the time of day. Fiona finds that Friday evenings are the most successful for her lifestyle blog whereas business blogs see more visits if a post is published earlier in the working day.
  8. Local media is important – consider writing for local newspapers, or working for local radio (perhaps for free to start with). Not only do you hone your skills but you are building a credible portfolio.
  9. When writing for a column, send the editor the exact word count they asked for – otherwise they will edit and might remove your best bits! Writing for an exact word count helps you to hone your writing skills too.
  10. Once you do get your book offer, don’t sign a contract for more than one book.
  11. Journalists use social media to find stories so be active online – get known on twitter and facebook.
  12. Don’t oversell your book on social media – do become involved in normal conversations. Once people know and like you, they will investigate that link to your book on your bio.
  13. When launching your book, consider carefully who you are going to get to launch it – this can have a considerable effect on the success of the launch and the extent of media coverage received.
Keep at it too – perseverance came up again and again – keep working at your blog with passion and you’ll reap the rewards of whatever goals you set yourself.

 

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Posted in #blogchatie, Blogging for Success, Blogs, How to Blog
  • http://teachermoloneyking.com Michelle Moloney King

    There are some really good tips here, especially about the over promoting books on twitter.

    • Lorna Sixsmith

      Cheers Michelle :)

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