Introduction
One area I often hear discussed by groups organized to help authors is blogging. It is repeated over and over that authors should have blogs, but many of us have no idea what to do with a blog if we even decide to take the advice to start one. So these authors frequently start one up and then barely touch it or procrastinate out of uncertainty on where to start. Starting a blog can feel overwhelming. So let’s break it down in relation to you as an author. Knowledge is power, as they say.
Blogging Tip #1: Decide on Your Subject
Okay, so it’s a bit over-repeated, but you should be blogging. That’s not something many dispute. The problem is where to start, and I recommend you start with the main theme or subject of the blog.
Well, that’s easy you might say. I’m an author, so there’s the subject, right? Me as an author. Well… Not precisely. While readers may want to know things about you as an author or about your books, it’s unlikely they care to hear about Fluffy the cat or your grocery store trips. So you as an author or a person is not the subject in most cases unless your everyday life is both highly interesting and relevant to your writing.
So what is your subject? Well, if you write fantasy like I do, your subject matter could be anything from fantasy book reviews to serial fantasy provided for those reading each week. If you have a lot of writing experience, then writing tips or discussions could also be your subject.
Blogging Tip #2: Decide on Your Audience
Once you have a general subject or topic, decide on your audience. Is it readers? Writers? Some other group?
This is one of the most important pieces of blogging because it determines what kind of content you focus on within your subject area. Your opinion of fantasy books isn’t likely to attract many authors since they’re busy writing their own things, but it would interest fantasy readers (some of whom may also be writers but are there as readers, not writers).
Blogging Tip #3: Decide on Your Approach
The third key blogging tip is to decide on your approach to blogging before you write anything. What will the tone be? Light? Humorous? Educational? This choice matters a great deal as it informs what and how you will write for the rest of the time that you are producing content for the blog.
The step should not be neglected because, much like the other two, it will help to give you structure and direction. If you’ve been feeling like you have neither, this may be the missing link, particularly if the first two have already been set in stone.
Blogging Tip #4: Decide on Self-Hosting or Free
Free always sounds good to us, doesn’t it? Undeniably, self-hosting is not cheap in blogging or any website endeavor. If you’re just starting out, I don’t recommend self-hosting unless you can afford to sink 200-300 dollars on it a year. That said, if you ever intend to offer anything for sale via your website or wish to know your content will never be intentionally removed from your site (unless it’s illegal), self-hosting is in your future.
If you can afford the cost, start with self-hosting when you begin blogging. Switching from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress platform was nothing short of a stressful, nightmare-inducing process even with all the help from Bluehost tech support. I sorted it out eventually, no thanks to the WordPress team over on the non-self-hosted site, but I could’ve saved myself the headache if I’d chosen to go with self-hosted to start. Unfortunately, with little knowledge of blogging and an even slimmer budget, that wasn’t an option. But if it is for you, I recommend saving yourself all the hassle.
If you can’t afford it, save all of your blog posts somewhere you won’t lose them and then expect to have to repost them on the new site when you move to self-hosted. I did not anticipate this, and that was a large part of my issue since I could not migrate the site with the backups that the free version of WordPress offered.
Blogging Tip #5: Decide on a Schedule
Finally, be consistent. As consistent as possible, that is. Life happens, but try to post at least once a week and have a set day you do so. I like to schedule my posts for the same day and time every week so long as I have the content to schedule.
The schedule will help you to turn out content regularly so you can build up your content sooner. It also allows regular readers to know when to go look for your newest post, which will often encourage one-time readers to become more frequent readers as well.
Conclusion
Blogging isn’t easy. But using the five blogging tips provided here will give you a strong starting point. If you work these things out prior to starting your blogging journey, you will be better prepared and can have more confidence in where you’re headed. As I said in the introduction, knowledge is power.
