Ways to find an audience for your blog

If you put up a blog and let it sit, you'll be lucky if people just happen by to see it. It's important to be proactive and implement measures to drive traffic to your blog. Here are some ways:

1. Frequently update your blog. By posting to your blog often, you offer readers variety. They are more apt to visit often if they know they'll see something new each time.

2. Keep your blog posts short so they are easy to read. Usually, posts consisting of 200 to 400 words seem to be about right.

3. Write your blog posts with search engine optimization in mind and be sure to include key words in your title. You'll want to be sure search engines pick up the key words and phrases from your post and send people to it. It's worth the while to learn about this area.

4. Be sure your blog is interesting and diverse. Humor, questions, polls, suggestions are ways to elicit the involvement of your readers.

5. Use social media sites to help increase readership of your blog. When you post a new entry, tell your Facebook followers or those on Twitter that you have new content up. Encourage them to visit your blog to see it.

6. The best way to increase readership of your blog is to write well and to check for errors before you post. Show that you care and others may return the sentiment.

The Trouble with Writing...

The trouble with writing is that we think it should be easier than it is. How many of you have read a good book and thought, I could have written that, or even, I cold have written that better?

When you do finally sit down to write the great American novel, you find it's not quite so easy. Here's my theory on why. Writing a novel is much more complex than just enumerating a series of events that happen to a group of people. The writing of the events is only one small part. As a writer, you are also in charge of:

1. Scenery. Your words have to not only set the mood, but create the whole scene design, backdrop, ambiance, etc., for each scene. And, you have to make the reader think it's not a set, but that they are really there. To top it off, you must do this seamlessly in order to not break the mood.

2. Characterization. You must not only convey the inner workings of your characters, you must include hair, makeup and costumes as well. Unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of showing the reader pictures of your characters; however, your readers will insist on vivid characters. They must have makeup and costumes appropriate for every scene without the benefit of a makeup artist or costume designer. It's up to you to describe what is important without it being obvious. Not an easy task.

3. Sound. Without making a peep and without the help of a sound technician, you must convince your reader that he hears the KABOOM of the mailbox that has exploded while your main character reaches toward it or the creak of a back door as it opens in the middle of the night. And without the help of a full orchestra, you must build the tension in your scenes so the reader is gripping the book tighter and tighter with each word you write.

4. Dialogue. Another component of your novel is what your characters say and how they say it. You not only have to put the words down, but you need to give each character an individual voice. This voice, which your readers will only hear through your written words, gives your characters their personalities. That's a tall order.

These are a few of the tasks of a writer. I don't make this list to discourage writers. No, I present this to encourage writers. Always remember your task is much more complex than listing a series of events. When writing, take the time to ensure you address these components (scenery, characterization, sound and dialogue) and you will make strides in blending these complexities into rich, effective text.

Your business benefits from your blogging

We're always looking for ways to gain attention for our businesses. A blog has many benefits. Some of them are:

1. Informing your customers/clients about you and your business. Today, people look on the Internet first when trying to find a product or service. Be there and let people know about you. If you don't have a presence on the Internet, they will probably choose a competitor.

2. Offer information about new products or services the day you think of them. You don't have to wait to develop paper ads to mail out. Include as much detail as you want.

3. Notify customers when you have special deals going on or when you have discounted items. Keep your customers/clients informed instantly.

4. Reach more people for fewer advertising dollars.

5. Increase communication with your customers and increase customer service. Insert polls into your blog to determine what your customers want and encourage comments to open channels of communication.

6. Provide help to a customer instantly. If you receive a comment with a question in it, you can meet that customer's needs instantly by making the answer to that question the topic of your next blog.

Let's hear from you. What benefits have you found in blogging for your business?

Setting up a new blog

Developing a good idea is the first step in setting up a new blog. Here are some of the steps in developing your blog:

1. What's the point? Do you want to share pictures with your family of the new baby? Do you want to push sales over the top for your company by offering valuable information to customers? Do you just want a spot to put all that knowledge rattling around in your head? The first step is to define what you will cover in your blog.

2. Next, set up the blog. You can do this yourself by using Blogger or Wordpress or one of the blogger sites. Or, if you want something a bit more individual, contact a web designer to put up the blog of your dreams.

3. Once the shell of your blog is up, start adding the permanent content. This includes your profile paragraph and any gadgets, such as followers, ads, pictures, etc., you may want to occur on each page.

4. In your Profile, be sure to include a clear and concise description of the purpose of your blog. Readers often look at the profile statements first to see if they want to take time to look through the blog.

5. Make a list of topics you want to write about. Put the list into a logical order and start your post with a welcoming statement. Then, follow it with a blog each day or every couple days from your list. Keep adding to the list as ideas come to you and you have yourself a blog. Enjoy

Developing Characters of Interest

I know I've written about character development before. It's no accident that I'm showing you another way to look at it. The creation of rich, multi-dimensional characters is key to developing a mature novel.

To give your readers believable, full-bodied characters, it's good to look at them and develop them from different angles. So, here are two more factors to consider during characterization:

1. Develop individual actions and reactions for your characters. We all have mannerisms that are ours alone. They make us unique. Your characters need them too. Don't overload your characters with unusual actions; however, or they may become caricatures. Give them just enough unique mannerisms to set them apart from the other characters.

Through the development of unique actions and reactions for your characters, your readers will learn what to expect from them. After you have established a pattern of behavior and reaction for our characters, you can use this knowledge to increase the tension within your story. Lead a character toward an event where their predictable reaction would end in disaster. The readers will have the delight of biting their nails to see if your character reacts predictably and what happens as a consequence.

2. Another way to develop multi-layered characters is to pair the actions of your characters with their physical attributes. For example, perhaps your main character is very precise in his actions and quite methodical and deliberate. His clothes reinforce this perception by being fresh and his grooming is impeccable.

If you build a character such as this, your readers would naturally expect the character's apartment to be tidy and organized. What does it do to the picture if the person lives in a mess with dirty dishes in every room, newspapers and piles of books strewn about, etc.?

Knowing this adds another layer to that character and gives the readers a bit of information that lets them believe that this person is not quite as predictable as they appear. Without specifically telling them, your readers have been alerted that this character might indeed delight them with some aberrant behavior later in the book.

Look at your characters from many angles and you'll develop much more interesting characters.

Make your blogs entertaining

Make your blog pop... photo by Lou Belcher

Your mother might find every word you say fascinating, but the rest of us may not want to read everything you write if you don't mix it up a bit to make it interesting.

Rather than writing your post as if giving a lecture, talk to the reader. And mix it up by: asking a question or two to give your readers something to comment on; or, spice up your topic by telling a related story or including an interesting example; and, occasionally send your reader to a related website for additional information.

Try mixing it up and you'll gain the interest of your readers. Write as if you are talking to them and get the conversation going.

Feel free to leave a comment about other ways to make blog posts entertaining.