In The Demon's Head: Promo Techniques- Blogging

In The Demon's Head #42: Promotional Techniques- Blogging

July 25, 2012

Hello everyone , Our first post for Promotional Techniques was the intro into the Promotional Techniques blogging series, If you haven't read that yet you can check that out here. This second post is centered around the 1^st of five post in five days. I'm very excited to do this and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I will.

Today's post is featured on the first of the four techniques, Blogging.

What is Blogging?

Blogging is the art of sharing your thoughts to people using the internet. There are two types of blogging, the regular blogging which is what I do here for “In The Demon's Head” and then there's the new type of blogging using videos and Youtube called “Vlogging” Now deciding what type of blogging you want to do is completely up to you and really should depend on what type of audience and message you want to convey.

Generally people blog to share their ideas with their readers and followers, some times people write blogs because they want to share thoughts. “Vlogging” is the same concept only using videos rather then just words.

Why Blog?

There are two answers to this question, the first answer is to help to build a consistent readership. Before you say that blogging isn't worth the time I want you to think about it like this, Blogging for writers is like musicians releasing songs on the radio. It gives your readers a chance to catch your style on a regular basis rather then just seeing the books and stories that you release once every year or so.

The Second answer is that blogging gives you a chance to build rapport with your readers. The relationship between readers and writers is based on trust, if the readers can trust that you will deliver then they will gladly purchase your books. Blogging shows that your able to deliver on a consistent basis, this is great for your relationship with the reader.

I've been blogging for close to six months and it's connected with a number of readers and fans that I would have otherwise never gotten into contact with. Now I've gotten you hooked on the idea of blogging, but how do you start?

How To Start a Blog?

There are also two answers to this, The first is to use your website. Most website builders come with a way to add a blog to your site. This is a two in one thing, you can write for your blog and you will be attracting traffic to your website and your blog at the same time.

There are also blog host sites that you can use to host your blog. The most famous of these blog host is Blogspot, which has turned into Blogger. Hosting your blog on a site like Blogger does a couple of different things, first it gives you a type of second website that you can customize to your liking. Also, hosting a blog on a site like Blogger, will host your blog in a site that has the chance to expose your blog to a number of new readers. In fact I've had no fewer then 12 new fans that found my blog via browsing just through Blogspot.

Other Helpful Tips On Blogging

• When You Begin posting, post on the same day every week to develop a schedule with your readers. This will give your readers an idea of when you will post every week.
• Write out a schedule of blogging topics, This is something that I didn't do right off the bat and I found myself struggling for topics every week. Then I read somewhere that if you can set up a schedule of Blog topics then you'll never run into that problem. This is a true, I started a topic list about a month ago and now have topics to run through the end of the year at twice a week and then some in a few cases.
• Your Topics are YOUR choice, I'm not saying not to take topics from your readers, but remember that ultimately your in charge of your blog, you can change the topics in your list as you see fit, remember that your choices aren't set in stone so they can change.
• Pick a Name and Topic that explains your style and the way your personality fits into your writing. The name of this blog is “In The Demon's Head” because I've been called a demon more times then once and it fits into my writing style of supernatural thriller types. The name works perfectly for me, make sure that your blog name works that well for you.

In Conclusion...

Blogging is a great jumping off point for your platform that will give you a great chance to connect with your readers on a consistent basis. Blogging gives me motivation to keep writing and improving my creativeness. It all works hand in hand to help me improve my writing which is ultimately my goal. I also want to develop a fan base that will help me once I reach the point that I want to sell my work.

If you have any stories about blogging or tips that may help others readers, then please feel free to share them with us in the comments section.

Be sure to join me again tomorrow for another installment of the “Promotional Techniques” blogging series when I will discuss advertising. You can check out all the social media outlets, news updates and other stories on my website here. Until the next time you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.