Here it is, a confession. (Yeah, that is the title of one of my books, but that is not the kind of confession I am talking about here. Still, if you want to check out the book and the rest of the Samuel Elijah Johnson Series, check it out here)
Now that that shit is out of the way, here is the confession. Over almost the last year, I have been blogging a lot on other sites and have become a regular contributor to a bunch of cool places: Fridge Magazine, Tweak Your Biz, Public Libraries Online, and most recently Huffington Post. All of them serve purposes for me, and as a result, my own site has gotten better.
I’ve gained authority and backlinks, an important thing in helping your site show up in Google searches. I have learned a lot I should have learned sooner about SEO.
I get to write about the business side of writing. Not just writing fiction, but research, articles, blogs, and the many other avenues writers have to get paid. Because believe it or not, now is a great time to be a writer. Everything you see and read on the internet was written by someone. Usually they got paid for it somehow, whether in dollars or exposure and the expansion of their brand.
At the same time, I have not been blogging on my own site enough. So even though it had gained authority and ranking, it really isn’t accomplishing what I need it to: selling my services and selling books.
It’s easy to say this is something I need to fix. It is even harder to fix it, and write more of my own stuff. There are only so many hours in a day, and I often feel I am sprinting through them as it is.
There are a few steps I can take, however, and they may help you with your own site as well.
Think of Your Site as a Publisher
Not only think of your site as a publisher, but of yourself as a brand. Because you are, and your site is your pint of contact with your customers. This is a concept tons of businesses are using, and since writing is a business, you should be no exception. Your brand is the publisher best to get your message out.
This does not mean just writing on your site, but to use your site effectively you need to fill it with content people want to share and link to.
Have an Editorial Calendar
Have some idea of what you are going to talk about when, and stick to it. Schedule time to write articles for your site and others, and treat it like any other job. To do this of course, you will need to decide what your site is about and what you are going to talk about on it. This is your editorial mission statement.
This should relate to what you actually do, and what you can offer visitors to your site. What are you good at? What do you write about? Are you an expert on something that is of interest to them? Share about it, and share regularly.
Accept Guest Posts on Your Site
I write for a ton of other sites, but who is writing for me? If it is only me, then that is a mistake. First of all , it is good for readers to hear the voice of other people who are saying the same things I am. Second, it adds more content to my site without me having to write it.
True, you have to screen the content you get, and make sure it fits your mission statement, but there are simple ways to get your site ready to accept guest posts.
These are not the only steps, and I will be writing more about writers acting as collaborators and other topics in the coming weeks. Essentially the topics I have been sharing with others, only I will be sharing them here on my own site.
So tell me, how do you keep up with your own blog? The steps above are a good start, but what other steps should be part of the process? Let me know in the comments below.