Blogging Tip #1

It's easier for your readers if your blog title is the same as your URL. So Blog Book Tours is easy to find at http://blogbooktours.blogspot.com without too much need to memorize anything. Make it easy for your fans!

A Permalink Lesson

Do you like this photo? No, it's not a picture of me. But I'm using it for this lesson about permalinks and their importance during a blog book tour.

Let's use Pat Bean's terrific travel blog as our example. Pat's blog URL is http://patbean.wordpress.com/ which gets you to the main blog page. But if I wanted to have a record of the specific blog post titled, Life Lessons, I'd click on the title and get this expanded URL:

http://patbean.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/life-lessons/

That unique post "address" is what we call a permalink. When you're on a blog book tour, having these unique links to your guest post after the blog goes live, is a good way to promote your book in the future. But only if you can find that post again, and on a very popular and busy blog, that can be a challenge.

Copy and save your permalinks the day the host blog goes live with your blog book tour stop. You'll be glad you did! If you like the picture of this old broad, go to Pat's blog and read about her. And don't believe everything you see.

Break it Up

Yesterday I warned you about blog posts that are too long for your hurried readers. How do you avoid posts that are time-consuming to read quickly?

First, just write without regard to length. Say what you have to say. But then really look at your writing with a critical editor's eye and notice where you can split the writing into two or more sequential blog posts. This critical eye will get you a week's worth of posts and return visitors in one writing session! With a little practice, you'll see how the mind naturally links related chunks of information that can easily be broken into segments and published over the course of a week.

I know many bloggers who write their blog posts over the weekend using exactly this approach and you can, too.

Keep It Short

Photo credit: shopwasteland.com

One of the most important tips about blogging is to keep your posts relatively short - no more than 500 words. Blog readers are always in a hurry, and they just won't stick around to read a long post.

Writing short is easier said than done, especially if you tend to procrastinate about blogging. Sounds contrary to logic, I know, but when you don't blog often, you tend to cram in as much information as you can. Who knows when you'll be back, right? Better say it all now, which usually results in a long and rambling blog post.

Don't do this.

Tomorrow I'll explain how you can use this problem to good effect!

Blogging Tip #31

So what's in store for November? We'll be talking a bit about Twitter and Facebook and the importance of connecting there. Then we'll take a look at blog book tours from the host perspective because often host bloggers have never participated in a blog book tour and don't know quite what to do. No worries. We'll help you out. This will be good for authors, too, because you'll want to be a host to other authors on occasion to reciprocate, if not tit-for-tat, then in the spirit of literary support. Being on the host side of a blog book tour is a little different. So stay tuned and stop by later in the week.

Oh, and since it's Thanksgiving month in America - thank you for reading and commenting on this blog!

Blogging Tip #30

Blogs are becoming more and more like websites, and authors can use this to good advantage. Here's a great example of a multi-page set-up that's attractive and easy to maneuver. http://bethsorensen.com/ Unless you're selling your books straight off your website, what would be the reason for having one?

And we're getting very close to the end of the blog-a-day challenge. Tomorrow, I'll give a preview of what I'll be covering in November.

Blogging Tip #29

So the month is almost over and it's time to start planning your blog posts for the next month. Oh, no! Does it never end? What to do, what to do? It's time to start brainstorming and the best tool I have for get my thoughts in a row is to create a mind map. I have a bunch going this week:

• One for NaNoWriMo
• One for Little Pickle Press and their next blog book tour
• One for all my blogs and their monthly theme posts
• One for all my holiday preparations

I've written a short post about mind maps over at the Blood-Red Pencil and added links for more information. Go take a look. How about you? Do you have any great tips to keep a spinning brain in its orbit?

Blogging Tip #28

Don't forget to use your blog as a message board when it's important! 

My message for the day: Don't forget to vote next week! If you're a woman, remember that we've only enjoyed the privilege in America since 1920, and in many countries around the world, much later than that. Click here for a real eye-opener.

Blogging Tip #27

Save your blog posts in a Word file. When you have an older blog, you can lose a lot of writing simply by accident. There are other ways to back-up your blog, but we'll cover those later. That gets complicated. Another way might be the Blog2Print option I just noticed on my Blogger dashboard. I have no idea if this works well. Has anyone tried it?

Blogging Tip #26

An important part of blog success goes beyond daily blogging. Someone has to visit your blog and read your posts. Even better, they should comment. The search engines love that. So how do you encourage commenting, beyond asking a question at the end of your post? There are four ways that pop to mind:

• Add a status update to your Facebook page with a link and share button to your blog
• Go to Twitter several times during the day and leave a teaser with a clickable link
• Notify friends in online groups and leave a clickable link and ask them to comment
• Email people on your whitelist who might relate to the post especially if you are writing about them in that post, and then ask them to share with their friends

You could also call in a few markers, but I wouldn't recommend that. Save those for something bigger. ;)

Blogging Tip #25

Today I have a post up at Little Pickle Press about Green Halloween, a program of the EcoMom Alliance. I really wanted to promote this post because the issues therein are important to me. So I first placed a status on my Facebook wall. Then I went to the Green Halloween Facebook page and told them I'd written about them and left a link that they and their friends could read. (They've already commented.) Then I went to Twitter and left a short, pithy comment and a bit.ly permalink to the Little Pickle Press blog post. Later I'll post again to @GreenHalloween so they pick up the tweet direct. If I had a contact name for EcoMom Alliance I'd also email them.  More on that promotion technique tomorrow!

How much do you promote your blog posts? Do you think it makes a difference?

Blogging Tip #24

It's Sunday, and that means I'm writing blog posts. I'll add them to various blogs and pre-schedule them to publish throughout the week. This seems to work well for me, as I sometimes tend to write longer posts that ought to be split into shorter linked posts to form a little series. How about you? When do you write your blog posts? On the same day or in advance so you know it's done and you won't have to scramble... or worse yet, forget.

Blogging Tip #23

Three weeks into this blog-a-day challenge, my visitor traffic has doubled, and on some days, I get three times the daily average. This from very short blogging tips that really take little time. Do you see how consistent blogging can boost your blog popularity? How many of you in this challenge are noticing similar results? Please leave a comment and feel free to cite some statistics.

Blogging Tip #22

Everyone loves quotations so here's my favorite for today:

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook

What's your favorite quotation? Do you regularly use them in your blogging?

Blogging Tip #21

Today's tip is much less controversial than it was a few years ago: should you edit blog posts that have already been published? It used to be akin to cheating. I always corrected though. I'm a writer and an editor, and when I see a typo or mistake in grammar after-the-fact, I change it. Why? Because the public judges you by your work - in this case, the written word. If you have the opportnity opportunity to correct a mistake, why not take it? You don't even have to be this obvious about it. I figure Blogger included an editing feature for us to use, otherwise they wouldn't have added the feature to begin with.

 Who makes up these rules anyway?

Blogging Tip #20

You've missed a day in your daily blogging and don't want to post two times in one day. What to do, what to do? Click down to Post Options in this blogging platform (I'm sure they all have this option) and change today's date to yesterday. Is that cheating? Not in my rule book. Who would really care by this time next month? If you want to call this my cheater-dawg tip for the month, that's okay by me!

Blogging Tip #19

So at this point of a blog-a-day challenge, you might be running out of ideas. What are you going to blog about next? When I hit a wall like this, I go to Google and do a search for "what to blog about". How many hits do you think I got for those keywords? Here's the first return with twelve suggestions:



http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2009/02/04/starting-a-blog-12-ideas-for-blog-posts/

Just the first of 1.7 billion other hits! That should keep you busy for a while. ;)

Blogging Tip #18

Since I've been blogging, I've paid close attention to what pro-bloggers recommend on their blogs. Even though I don't "monetize" my blogs, there is still plenty of useful information to build a better blog. One of my favorite online writers and advisors is Tiffany Dow. Tiff is a ghost writer, an ebook author, and gives reams of free advice to help other writers improve their online popularity. What I like best about her writing is the casual, chatty tone that makes a post from her sound like a little sit-down and chat with a friend. Get a taste of it at her blog and be sure to sign up for her electronic newsletter. Lots to learn there!

BloggingTip #17

This is a cool promotional idea. Have you had a blog book tour? How about a clever promo handout like this one by Little Pickle Press with your book(s) on one side, and blog book tour stops on the other side, complete with blog testimonials from your hosts. Excellent! I've never seen this done before, but think it's a swell concept.

Blogging Tip #16

It's good to get comments on your blog posts, but getting them is sometimes a challenge. One of the best ways is to end your post with a question. Here's an example:

Once there was a little girl named Bruschetta. She and her best friend, Ravioli and his pet dog, Pesto, lived in a town called Minestrone. What do you think was their favorite meal? Leave your answer in the comments!