In part one, I talked about all the work you’ll need to do to start your blog. Now that we have all that planning out of the way, it’s time to execute!
Step 6: Decide what your first blog post will be about.
Now that you know what you’re writing about and how often you’re going to post, it’s time to get started with actually writing your first blog post. It’s a good idea for this to be an introduction to you and your new blog. You can talk about several things to encourage your readers to get to know you:
- Introduce yourself.
- Talk about your background, passions, and hobbies.
- Introduce your book to your readers (and include a picture of the cover).
- Tell them the purpose of your blog.
- Talk about what you’re going to write about.
Step 7: Break your blog posts into several manageable sections.
When you’re faced with writing a blog post, sometimes it can feel overwhelming to tackle the entire post in one sitting. Don’t do that! When I’m writing a blog post, I look at my proposed blog schedule to see what I have coming up in the next week or two. Then, I break the amount of writing down by three to five days to make it easier to write the entire blog post. So, if my goal is to write 1,000 words for a posting frequency of once a week, I’ll break the writing down over five days, and I’ll write 200 words per day.
Then, to break it down even further, because I already have a good idea about what the body of the blog post will say, I’ll start there. I’ll come up with three to five points to talk about, and once I’ve written those, I’ll come back to the introduction and conclusion to add some smoother openings and closings to complete the piece.
Step 8: Announce your blog posts on your social media profiles.
Because you want as many people as possible to read and engage with your blog posts, share them on social media every time you post on your blog. Write a quick teaser in your post on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., then attach the link so your fans can click directly onto your site. Obviously, with different social media platforms, the media post will be different. For instance, with Instagram, you’ll want to create an image that fits their image requirements and attracts your followers to your content. And if you have a YouTube channel, you could record a video of you reading your blog post to reach an even wider audience.
Quick Tip: Something that can also help increase engagement on your blog posts is a short call-to-action at the bottom of your post that encourages readers to comment. (Search engines will favor your post the more engagement and traffic you get.) Make it unique to the blog post and ask questions that relate to what you wrote in that post. You can look at the bottom of this post for a great example of how this works.
Step 9: Start thinking about guest posting.
What other blogs are out there that would complement your own blog? Start following, reading, and commenting on related posts to get the attention of the blog owner. Then, once you have their attention, shoot them an email to see if they’d be interested in having you write a guest post for them. Tell them what your ideas are and build the relationship from there. Something that might also appeal to other blog owners is offering them a guest blogging opportunity on your blog. That allows you both to benefit from the professional relationship you’ve started.
Step 10: Think about ways you can monetize your blog.
Of course, first and foremost, you want to inspire readers to purchase your books and/or services, but there are other ways you can generate additional income from your blog. Brainstorm more income generators:
- Advertising
- Sponsored blog posts
- Subscription-based monthly newsletter
- Affiliate income (AAE has a generous affiliate program)
- Courses
- Coaching
- Speaking engagements
- Services related to your book
- Consulting
If you learn that you enjoy blogging as another way to reach your intended audience—and you can keep up a consistent posting schedule—earning an additional stream of income from your blog can certainly help boost your overall business and success.
And there’s another bonus that comes with blogging—the content you create for your blog can become material for a future book! Keep that in mind as you’re creating your blog posts—you might be inspired to write that next book.
What kind of blogs do you like to read? Give us a link to your favorite in the comments below and tell us why you love that blog so much.