I’m told that it’s become fashionable to shut down your weblog. In fact, quitting the blogosphere may be the next big trend (right after everyone rushes over to jump in on the popularity of MySpace.com.)
There are plenty of valid reasons to quit blogging. Maintaining a weblog is a chore, and often a time sink, for everyone. Most writers have to pour their energies into day jobs, relationships, kids, writing time and pursuing a career in a very tough industry. A weblog that serves no purpose is the ultimate time-waster.
However, a popular weblog is worth the effort. If visitors find your blog interesting, they’re going to link to it, discuss your posts and draw more traffic to your site. Writers know that the more traffic they get, the more books they’re likely to sell – which paired with the free blogging services available makes blogging an effective, low-cost form of self-promotion.
Yet blogging is for everyone, and I do mean that literally. If you thought competition for publication was tough, check how many weblogs are out there. At the time I wrote this, Blogpulse, a blog-tracking service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, offered these statistics about the blogs it watches:
Total identified blogs: 28,124,606
New blogs in last 24 hours: 50,131
Blog posts indexed in last 24 hours: 807,794
We’re competing with over twenty-eight million other bloggers, and we’re all looking for the exact same thing: readers. The good news is, about fourteen million of them appear to be teenagers who are only interested in boys, or girls, or who said that terrible thing about Jamie during lunch period.
Some writers do make it work, and blog popularity sells thousands of books for them. But what if you’ve been blogging for six months, or a year, and it’s still not working? Why not just give up and dump the useless thing?
I don’t have a one-size-fits-all answer, but here are some things to try before you click on “Delete This Blogâ€:
1. Plan ahead: If you’ve been blogging by the seat of your pants, try planning your content better. Write your posts 24 to 48 hours before you publish them. Stockpile posts for days when you don’t have the time or inclination to write.
2. Offer features: Start writing weekly or regular blog features that appeal to your visitors. A growing group of bloggers do a weekly meme of thirteen things about themselves every Thursday and link to each other’s posts. Make the feature day work for you, too: I put up a ten links every Monday (my worst day for blogging) and an open Q&A post every Friday (my lightest day of the work week.)
3. Post daily, or as often as possible: If you post regularly, your visitors may come back. If they see the same old post hanging there for weeks or months, they probably won’t. Also, posting excuses as to why you’re not blogging is like saying the dog ate your homework. Make a schedule, and a commitment: either blog or don’t blog.
4. Mix it up: Offering a variety of content can help attract a variety of visitors. Don’t write solely about your books, your work and your struggles. Talk about the industry, time-saving ideas or gadgets, genre trends, bestseller lists, the future of publishing or anything writing-related. Try writing a series of themed posts, such as “Plotting Week†or “Six Steps to Publication.†If you’ve mostly been blogging in diary form, experiment with how you write posts. Browse other weblogs and find a topic that interests you (and remember blog courtesy and post a link back to the original source.)
5. Tell a story: You’re a writer. Your visitors are readers. Show them your stuff. Tell an anecdote from real life, or flash a piece of short fiction, or write a parody about something that drives you crazy.
6. Promote intelligently: If you have self-promoted in the past with disappointing results, be more creative with how you do the next book. Avoid the hard-selling, insincere BUY MY WONDERFUL BOOK! Or READ THIS GLOWING REVIEW! posts; they’re beyond boring. Instead, have an unusual giveaway contest, tell your readers a bit about the process of writing your novel, post an interesting snippet, or offer some book-related trivia.
7. Make your blog interactive: If you haven’t already, install or enable a blog comment feature. Yes, it’s risky, particularly if you allow anonymous comments. Yet some of the best content out here can be found in a weblog’s comments, so it’s worth a shot. If you don’t like the results, you can always disable comments later.
8. Smash the vanity mirror: As wonderful as you must be, do you think anyone wants to hear about you 24/7? Find another fascinating writer out there and interview them for your blog. Get some industry insight from a willing editor or agent. Spread the word about another writer’s great book. Discuss industry topics that affect other writers. Participate in and link to terrific discussions on other weblogs.
9. Give something back: Give away copies of your books via your weblog whenever possible. If you don’t have a book in print yet, put up links to other writers’ contests or giveaways, or give away copies of their books. Link to sites that offer beneficial freebies, such as writing articles, e-books or freeware.
10. Have fun: Relax, enjoy what you post, and make your blog a fun place for you. If you’re having a good time, your visitors will feel the same way when they stop in to read.
For those who are still feeling down in the dumps, two last resort ideas: 1) change your blog template, or 2) create a brand-new weblog somewhere else (with a link to it from the old one.) Starting over with a fresh look or at a new place can jumpstart your creativity, and you may end up with the blog that everyone wants to read.
