It’s an old truism that we often learn best by teaching. I was asked to give a presentation on Author Blogging and the opportunity to pull back and think about the whole phenomenon was incredibly educational for me.
Writing a blog and running a business don’t leave all that much time for reflection. Being forced to come up with a way to create a clear explanation for other people that could be delivered and absorbed in 40 minutes set some boundaries.
I ended up taking the ideas I’d put together and creating about three dozen slides to give a focus for the presentation. I much prefer listening to people who also have visuals, don’t you? I decided it was worth the time it would take.
Buried in the Pile, Three Keys to Success for Authors Who Blog
The talk was well received, and I felt I had communicated some of the excitement and possibilities in the marriage of self-publishing with blogging.
Looking through the slides the next day, I was surprised to find that the three most important ideas leapt out at me from the very middle of my presentation. Here are the slides.
1. Content Focus—I don’t think there’s anything more important, or more challenging, than to keep your content focused on the subject matter and the goals you have for your blog. The deeper you dive into your subject area, the more you create community of the people who want to go deep with you. This is really critical to your success.
2. Patient Care of Your Readers—Sometimes we get fixed on numbers, metrics, subscribers, followers, visitors, hits, page rank, and all the other things that don’t actually contribute to success. Riding out the slow periods, like in the first few months of your blog’s life, and taking care of each reader who wants to interact with you, on the other hand, pay huge dividends.
3. Collaboration and Networking—Blogs are social media in more ways than one. No blog exists by itself, it’s part of an ecosystem of writers within the same subject area. Your blog has the ability to connect you with these other influence leaders in your field and in the process confer authority and trust on you as well.
These three keys really do impact your success at blogging. Understanding how to focus your content, consistently valuing individual readers more than any metrics, and creating networks of friendship and shared interests make your blog memorable, a “must visit” location.
Photo by Daniel Morris
