Happy New Year and welcome to 2016! This year would be a good time for you to re-evaluate your blog and your blogging life, and I am here to help.
Blogging is the only something that I can think of that helps us build our platform and define our brand as authors. Social media helps, but getting people to even read your post on FB or Twitter is really hard with all the other posts flying through their feeds.
But if they read your work, like what you have produced, the next stop (before or just after social media) is your website. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a blog they could read and be entertained?
So, here are my top five reasons why you should be blogging.
Five reasons for blogging
- Blogging IS writing
It is. If you are a ritualistic word count fanatic as I am, you will be thrilled to note that you probably write a lot more when you blog than you realize. I normally get in 1000 words a week JUST from blogs. Having said that, I blog almost every day. Either here or at http://www.kimsmithauthor.com and so word count adds up like magic. If you are not only struggling with one blog (let alone two!) don’t worry.
- It builds your writing ability
Since blogging is writing, then you get better at writing through blogging. A=B and B=C therefore A=C. Simple. As long as you do not do as I did and blog about everything and the kitchen sink on your blog. Keep it specific. KISS=keep it specific, silly. If your blog is about your writing, then keep it focused. If it is about losing weight, then keep it specific. No one wants to visit a writer’s site and see a bunch of stuff about weight loss. And food addicts don’t want to go to a lose weight quick site and see a blog about writing and the writing life. Now, if your book is about losing weight…well, just remember to keep a good focus in the right spot.
- Blogging gives us support for what we do
I mean I love love love comments! When people comment on my blog it gives me the feeling that people really do listen. They really do care. They are really interested in what I do. Blogging gives us a little feeling of validity and prestige (especially when people respond to us!)
- Blogging regularly, and well, will lend the appearance of pro status
Most authors do not believe in themselves. They have a deep feeling of “I’m a hack” nearly all the time. But when we blog, we present ourselves as authorities. Well, because when we blog we ARE an authority on that subject or we wouldn’t be blogging about it, right? Even NY agents have struck up relationships and built clientele through blogging. It really is a case of build it and they will come. It might take a little while, but it has happened.
- Blogging is a benchmark
I really didn’t understand this until I started working on my end of the year posts. It allows us to go back and see what we have accomplished over the course of a year. We all need a yardstick to measure life by. Blogging really does do that.
OK, so I hope you are fully convinced on the matter of blogging. It is STILL a viable method of reaching an audience in 2016. It is even better for us personally because we all need some place to write and get our words out.
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