Blogging for Writers

Michael Hyatt: 10 Blog Mistakes to Avoid

Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt has written over 1,000 blog posts and received more than 20,000 comments. Experience has taught him a few things about blogging. Read his post Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? for a quick overview of improving your blog writing.

I'm quite guilty of #1, not posting often enough, an issue I'm working on resolving. Writing catchy headlines is also a challenge.

Check out his post, do a quick assessment of your writing and go get your blog on.

Copyblogger: Tips on Writing Paragraphs

How do you write a paragraph? Google gives you 17.6 million hits to sift through for the answer. I'll point you to one option. 

Jon Morrow, assistant editor of Copyblogger, wants you to write better paragraphs. A Guy named Kawasaki, a two-headed baby, an echo, a monotone and ramps can help. His post, The Art of the Paragraph explains, in artful paragraphs, of course. 

Addressing copywriters and online writers, his suggestions lean towards a shorter style of writing since online readers are generally looking for smaller bits of information. If you're an author in another medium, take note of that. Adjust your style to your audience. (I won't create a two-headed baby about online reading negatively affecting offline reading habits.)

Take a minute to read Jon's post then go get your blog on.  

BTW, there are also some thoughtful comments after his post and plenty of food for thought about writing at Copyblogger. 

TypeTwitFaceMashUp

Learning to utilize other social media platforms with my blog means figuring out how to connect the dots from one service to another, with minimal duplication of work.  Tyepad, Twitter and Facebook are all social media, but they serve different purposes, just as various types of print media do.

So, how do I make them work together?

Here's my "map" for now:

(Read to the tune of "The hip bone's connected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the ankle bone...)

A new post in Typepad shows up on Facebook and on Twitter with a shortened url link. Configure it through the Share Button on the Settings Tab in Typepad.

A new Tweet shows up as a Facebook status update. Instructions are here.

A new FB update is just on FB. 

Here's the guy version:

Typepad to FB and Twitter.    

Twitter to FB.

FB to FB. 

Each platform can reach different audiences. Using all the services together can broaden your reach.

Now, go get your BlogTwitFace on.

Update: It seems if the tweet has already gone to FB, deleting it from Twitter will not erase it from FB. Not that I want it to, I'm just sayin'.

Amazon for Authors

If you're a published author in Amazon's catalog, take advantage of their marketing option, Author Central. It's created to help "authors to reach more readers, promote books, and help build a better Amazon bookstore."

Per the Author Central page "Author Central also helps you to enroll your books in programs like Search Inside the Book and Kindle so that they are readily available for any customer to browse and buy."

I looked at their example, Nora Roberts' author page, and found it includes a bio w/pic, links & pic of products and place for a blog (her last update was 2007). 

I also checked out the pages of two of my virtual writing role models, Barbara Curtis and Susan Wittig Albert.

On Barbara Curtis' Amazon page I found the same as Nora Roberts, down to the last blog update in 2007. Barbara focuses her online presence time at MommyLife.net.

Susan Wittig Albert's Amazon page has the same as the other two, but she has managed to keep her blog updated. Her last entry was July 23, 2009 with content from her Lifescapes blog. She's able to fill two blogs with one post by adding an RSS Feed from Lifescapes blog to Amazon. Sounds scary, but it's not. Here's how from the  Amazon Author Central FAQ:

How can I display my blog on an Author Page?
Once your Author Central account has been activated, you can add a personal blog to an Author Page in just a few steps. Click on the Blog tab and, if you are already blogging, simply follow the instructions to add an RSS feed. Your blog posts will appear on your Author Page in just a few hours and subsequent posts you make to your blog will automatically appear on the Author Page.

If you are not yet blogging, you can either start a new one using any of the free blogging platforms (such as Blogger, Livejournal or TypePad) or use our simple blogging tools. To access these tools, click on "Create New Post”. New posts will appear on your Author Page within an hour.

Since I haven't used Author Connect, I wanted to find a review of it. Tony Eldridge at Marketing Tips for Authors gives some feedback in his post Amazon Connect Becomes Author Central. Read the comments for a discussion about the terms of use for Author Central.

If you're an Amazon visitor reading the entry for a book, click on the author's name to view their Author Central page. If you're an Amazon author, sign up for Author Central and take advantage of the free publicity.

Now go get your blog on.

"To Do List": from magazine to blog to book

Sasha Cagen's 2nd book, To Do List, is a perfect example of how to take your idea, however strange it sounds, and go with it. Who would write a book proposal pitching a compilation of to do lists? Who would accept it?

Sasha first did a magazine of lists from 2000 - 2003. In 2005 she started a blog collecting people's to do lists. On November 6 of this year she released a book of 100 TDLs. No doubt her publication of the book was influenced by the success of the blog.

Your lesson from this: take what interests you and blog about it. At the least you'll enjoy spending time with the subject and practice writing. You might even inform or entertain a few people. At best you'll get a book deal.

Then you can use your blog to promote your book.
 

BTW, if you want to contribute a list to Sashas' blog, she's still accepting them.

HT: Blogger Buzz, the blogger.com blog.

Blogging with the Writing Process

"If you're finding writing difficult, it's because you're not taking the writing in stages, and are trying to edit when you should be planning or just writing." - Angela Booth

I'm working on applying this advice to help me keep up with my blog. Hello! It's the writing process planning, writing, and editing. I preached it to my middle school students and am teaching it to my kids. Sometimes it can be condensed into short amounts of time. Sometimes, as in ACT/SAT tests, it has to be condensed. Other times the process can be spread out. The process could either by days long process or it could be minutes or hours.

The bottom line is to get my brain operating in the process mode. As I exercise with the process, my writing muscles will develop. My goals is to get better at writing quickly and well, another example of how blogging can help writers develop.

Too often I try to do the whole process in one sitting. Sometimes I can do it, most time it takes too long. I practiced Angela's suggestions with this post - just jotted down phrases and things at first, then came back to it over a few days. As Angela said in her post, sometimes she doesn't know the point until she writes about it. Her entry is full of inspiring quotes, take a few minutes to read it then go get your blog on.

Online Resource for Helping Writers Use Technology

Update Nov. 2009:  I just noticed Ten Keyboards is no longer active. Bummer.

A subscription to Ten Keyboards is was a must have for your virtual reference shelf. The mission of Scot Herrick's blog is "helping writers use technology to market their  work." Mission accomplished. One of the most helpful parts of the blog is th e Writers Resources page. This is where he neatly compiles posts in topics including: 

• Technology for Writers - includes tips on keeping your computer running well
• Blogging for Writers - finding your voice, marketing, feedback, etc.
• Blog Parts -parts is parts, but what about blog parts?
• Blog Plans - including reasons not to have a blog

That's just a bit of the info available. Schedule some reading time to hang out on Ten Keyboards. Bookmark or subscribe to it. Then, go get your blog on.

Blog Building: Add a Sitemeter Counter

I just added a Sitemeter counter to this blog. It took under 15 minutes. Thanks to the handy dandy Typepad Widget Sitemeter has available.

What is Sitemeter? They keep info on who comes to your blog and how, among other things. Blog stats are helpful in showing people, like agent or editors, you have an audience.

Thought Typepad has stats available on their control panel, I like using Sitemeter because there is more info - and cool charts, if you're into that kind of thing.

The ladies at Blogging Basics 101 have a short post on stat counters, including links to several options for counters you can install. (I wonder how many people will come to this post looking for info on how to install counters, as in kitchen. I'll be able to find out from Sitemeter.)

Now, go get your counter on.

Get Your Blog on Google

Here's how to get your blog recognized by Google. It's no guarantee of where you will show up in the search results, but you have to get out there.   

The most basic thing to do is submit your URL/web address to Google here. 

You can also "claim your blog" at Technorati by going here.  They ask you to join, but it's fairly painless.

Your site can also be submitted to Icerocket, another search engine.

If you use Typepad, your posts are automatically submitted to Google and Technorati. I don't know that it would matter one way or the other if you go ahead and initially submit your blog manually to those two.

If you use other blog providers, feel free to comment and let us know if they autmatically submit your posts to search engines.

For more resources about this, check out Problogger's, Services to Ping.  If you really want more info, don't forget the "related posts" at the end of the post.  Sensory Overload Warnings: there is a lot of info there. Don't get overwhelmed.

There are tons of sites about increasing your page rank, etc. Take a few minutes to submit your blog, but don't let it take away from your time writing good content.

Now, go get your blog on.