In today's Facebook-fueled world, some folks are saying that blogging for writers is dead.
That it was a great way to connect five years ago, but now? Not so much. Well, I am of the opinion that blogs by and for writers are still viable. I am of the opinion that blogging and the world it created is still pretty relevant in the 21st century and here's why:
1. Writing Warm-up
For a writer, blogging counts as your word count. How many times have we decided to turn out 1000 words a day and can only muster the blog that day? It counts in my opinion. Everything we pen counts. So look at your blog as your writing warm-up.
2. Feedback
When we blog, we can get input from our subscribers. They leave comments and suggestions on what we need to do about whatever the blog topic was. I hope you will leave one for me today on this subject. I love comments and feedback.
3. Marketing ops
Today, the world wants content. Yes, and they want it in a variety of ways. We consume ebooks, and Youtube videos, and listen to podcasts like maniacs. But we sure do get a lot of information that way!
4. Networking ops
Blogs are still the best way to connect with our group of friends and fans. As writers, we need outlets to find others with our particular bent. I follow a number of blogs and try to visit them once a week to say hi. Writers need to connect with others and blogs are great networking tools.
5. Availability
For our readers, blogs are a way to reach our audience. Readers can visit our blogs and learn all about what we are doing. They can also find out personal stuff like where we are going to go for dinner, who's babysitting our children, and what our pets look like.
6. Book Promotion
And finally, at least in my mind, is our blog is still our best way to promote our books. We can post excerpts, cover art, buy links, and talk endlessly about our books and stories on our blogs, because, well, they are OURS.
Leave me a comment and let me know what else you think blogs are good for. I am sure there are more!
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Kim Smith is the much beloved hostess of Writer Groupie Podcast and the author of An Unexpected Performance. She can be found at http://www.kimsmithauthor.com
4 comments:
FB has reduced some of the visits to my blog over the past year or so, mainly as I make announcements both on FB and my blog (in addition to some forums). Also, some avid readers of my works started a FB group called Flankers. Those of the group would otherwise be, I think, regular blog visitors.
But my blog is still active and still is growing in visits, just ot as quickly as it once was.
Kim, it's so hard to keep that balance between writing and blogging (or promoting) for me! Lately it's been all writing, little blogging. I need to get back to that, and you've inspired me here. Thanks so much!
Hey Terry and Aaron. I know social media is doing it's best to kill blogs but honestly their popularity is still alive. Keep posting.
Well said, Kim. Blogs have a way of concentrating people of similar interests and creating communities, something that can be hard to do in the virtual world.
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