Category Archives: Writing

On Twitter today @womewritersnet wrote:

‘This week we’ve been tweeting about how to enable our writing to reach a wider audience and #blogging has been recommended. Does anyone have experience of hosting guest blog posts or writing them? Can shared posts help to reach new audiences? Tell us your experiences.’

…and so here’s my response as to why I blog:

I enjoy honing my skills in writing small articles

Even if I’m not in a writing fiction mode, due to time and other commitments, writing a blog is a great way of writing to an audience. It has to be of a professional nature and so it’s a discipline too. Always re read and revise before pressing publish though ~ I’ve had a couple of ‘ouch’ moments on looking back, so it’s best to save it for later if you run out of time.

A Blog Reaches unexpected audiences ~ it is two way traffic

My blog is a channel through which the most unexpected people find me. I’ve had emails from folks who have done a casual search and read about the background to my writing. Each is enthusiastic to tell me such wonderful things~ like the man who was the last Lighthouse Keeper on Les Casquets. So many of these people over the years often go on to being my readers too.

It increases your rating on search engines

I really don’t understand the technicalities of it all but I do know that the more you blog, the more you have guests on your post, or reblog interesting posts, and the more you are a guest on another blog the higher your profile. I’m sure you have tried search for your name on Google. I reached the top in searches for ‘Diana Jackson’ for a quite a while when I was totally committed to social media. I have lapsed rather due to time constraints, but it is worth the effort in the few months around launching something new.

If you write a guest post on an established blog you are bound to reach a wider audience

Though my blog is established I have lapsed of late in writing regularly. There are really good blogs out there which accept guest posts. It is best to write new material, but don’t despair ~ you can reblog it on your own platform a few months later for greater reach. It should also have the knock on affect that readers of your guest post will click on a link to your book and own blog too.

The WordPress family is great

It’s worth taking time to read other people’s blogs and like them, if you do. We need to support each other here.

Writer’s Karma

I’m a great believer in Karma. You write a review of someone else’s book or take the trouble to get to know them and you feel less isolated. The writing community is a supportive one, if you find the right channels.

You don’t always have huge ratings

Your stats can be disappointing at times. The highest number of people to read my blog in one day was just under 200 and sometimes it is only a handful, but I try not to be too disheartened. Often my posts are read months or years later through search engines ~ that’s why your categories and tags are vital. If a post says ‘uncategorized’, the writer has missed a wonderful opportunity to be found with the best key words. My best rating was for a post, ‘You can’t snuggle in bed with a Kindle’ years ago. Now I do just that from time to time, although I still prefer a real book if given the choice.

Finally

As a writer returning to the fold, as it were, it is not easy getting back into the habit of blogging and, yes, it can take up valuable time, but for writers with an Indie press, who have not got the huge arm of a major publisher behind them, it is a valuable tool for getting out there and noticed.

Who knows what surprises you might have!

Do tell me about them and share if you can…