Why You Should Keep Blogging

Today I shared a guest post over on Jane Friedman’s blog: 2 Strategic and Compelling Reasons to Keep Blogging—Plus When to Kill a Blog. In the post I talk about the long-term value of blogging on growing your audience and establishing your platform, as well as the importance of controlling the message of your online presence. I also share 11 tips on how to re-energize your blog. Check out the full post over on Jane’s site.

Thanks!
-Dan

New eBook: A Writer’s Guide to Blogging

I am so excited to announce a brand new resource to assist writers in connecting with readers, my new ebook: A Writer’s Guide to Blogging.

One of the most powerful ways to develop your platform as a writer is by blogging. After working with hundreds of writers to help them develop their blogs, I am now offering my best advice in an ebook that will jumpstart your blogging efforts, whether you are new to blogging, or trying to revitalize your existing blog.

A Writer's Guide To Blogging

In this ebook, I focus on helping you:

  • Craft a blog that attracts readers, not just other writers
  • Identify who your ideal audience is and how to craft content that engages them
  • Create a blog that showcases your voice and expertise

For a limited time, I am offering two bonuses if you purchase the ebook today:

  • Blog Planning Worksheets to help you create and manage your blog.
  • Blogging Basics video tutorial of my best advice from the ebook.
Bonuses

All of this is included in the price of the ebook: $29.99. To get the ebook and these bonuses, grab them today:

Buy Now

A Writer’s Guide to Blogging covers the topics that I have found to be most critical to authors today. Here is a look at the table of contents:

Blogging eBook TOC

GuaranteeThis ebook, the bonus worksheets and video are guaranteed to supercharge your blog. If you aren’t completely satisfied within 30 days, I am offering a 100% money-back guarantee. There is literally no risk.

To get the ebook, plus the bonus worksheets and video, grab them here now for $29.99:

Buy Now

What you receive:

  • 73 page A Writer’s Guide to Blogging ebook
  • Bonus: 18 page Blog Planning Worksheets
  • Bonus: 18 minute Blogging Basics video

ABOUT ME:
Dan BlankMy name is Dan Blank, and I help writers build their platforms, and work with publishers to grow their online communities. I have worked with hundreds of writers to help them develop the skills they need to build and engage their audiences. I have taught courses for Writer’s Digest and Mediabistro, and spoken at many of the major publishing and writing conferences. For my full background, please check out my bio and LinkedIn profile.

Brands I have worked with:

Logos

Events I have spoken at:

Logos

Why Writers Should Engage in Social Media and Blogging

Is buying your book the END of a reader’s relationship with you and the topic/story you write about, or just the beginning. Today, I explore the important ways that blogging or engaging in social media helps authors not only grow their audience, but increase the likelihood of your existing audience to read your book and purchase your next book.

Thanks!
-Dan

Top Blogs for Writers

What makes a great blog for writers? Write To Done is holding their 6th annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers contest.

As I looked through the nominations, I found myself considering the value of this beyond selecting a winner. That the true winner does not mean that the blog in second place (or tenth place) is any less valuable, just valuable in a different way.

There are some very cool and useful blogs that are getting a lot of nominations, including:

http://goinswriter.com
http://therenegadewriter.com
http://thecreativepenn.com
http://storyfix.com
http://writerunboxed.com

And many others. But why would one blog have 37 nominations and another 107? It goes beyond the age of the blog, the credibility of the author, or how well they market their work. Different blogs will resonate with different people in different ways. Some reasons:

  • Craft vs career – each blog may approach this differently, with some focusing only on the craft of writing, others on how to build a career, others how to earn money, and most with a unique mix of these.
  • Goals – Some are focused on writing their first novel, others are learning the ins and outs of self-publishing, some define success by earning money, along with many other possible goals.

But I think this is the big reason: tone and personality. In other words: who do you resonate with? Whose voice and style speaks to your heart, to your vision of what a writing life should be? Who gets your engines started? This is a highly personal reason, not an objective measure of which blog is better than others. Even for the short list of blogs above, each has a unique style. That is what I love about the thriving online community for writers – there is so much room here because everyone is so unique.

In the end, being nominated is the reward. That someone, somewhere, took action to nominate and thank you for your work as a blogger. Mostly, I am finding the nominations list really useful to discover new blogs, and be reminded why blogs I like are so powerful in helping shape people’s lives.

Who would I nominate? Jane Friedman. Why? Just a few reasons off the top of my head:

  • She is giving. What she shares is meant to empower others, and she is incredibly generous in both the amount of what she shares, and the quality of her advice.
  • She focuses on the whole writer: building a career, as well as a body of work.
  • Her blog posts discuss the best ways to leverage technology, while not having technology eat you alive.
  • She is constantly in the trenches with writers at conferences and meetups, she spent years as Publisher of Writers Digest, and now teaches at University of Cincinnati. This is to say nothing of her presence in social media and elsewhere. These interactions with writers fuel her blog with incredibly practical advice.

Check out the full list in the comments section of WriteToDone.com and add your own nomination. If you are unsure who to nominate, see the list above for some great blogs to start with. Whatever you do, do NOT vote for my blog – put your vote to Jane, or Joanna, or Jeff or someone else who inspires you as a writer, and helps you improve your work and grow your career.

Thanks!
-Dan

How to Extend the Value of In-Person Events with Social Media

The traditional way of meeting others at writing and publishing conferences and events doesn’t always work. At large events, you are a face in a fast moving crowd. Many conferences are heavily programmed, with 2-12 sessions to choose from per time slot. Ideally, a good event is a well-attended one, but the side effect is that it’s harder to chat with people at large events unless you are very social, or have an established network.

So today I want to explore how you can get more out of in-person professional events by using Twitter and blogs. The funny thing is, some of these tactics work even if you aren’t at the event.

The publishing world recently had a bunch of back-to-back events, most of which I attended: Book Camp, Tools of Change, Writers Digest Conference, Digital Book World, and AWP. The tips I am going to share are things I observed others doing: savvy, smart, useful things. From memory, these are some things I saw from the following folks: @VirtualDavis, @TheWriterMama, @Porter_Anderson, @JaneFriedman, and @RonHogan, but there are certainly others I am forgetting.

Each of the tactics below helped put the person who used them closer to the center of the conversation, helped others get more value out of the event, and connect people to each other. And of course, there work helped make the event itself a success. Huge benefits for everyone involved!

  • Follow Twitter event hashtags for weeks before and after the event.
    When Tweeting about an event, use the official Twitter hashtag for that particular event. For those I recently attended, these were their hashtags: #dbw11, #awp11, #wdc11, #toccon, #book2, etc.

    People begin following these hashtags well before the event starts and well after it ends. This is your chance to begin getting value out of the event and making connections before you ever set foot in the room.

    Before the event, share your anticipation, how you are preparing,
    and ask questions. After the event, share your takeaways, and links to recaps and presentations that people post.

  • Create a blog post before the event about why it is valuable.
    In-person events have a life long before and long after the time you are there. People are planning to attend, to speak, and anticipating who will be there, and the value they will receive for their investment in travel, their time, or the cost of the event itself.

    Begin writing about the event weeks before it happens, letting people know why you are going to it, speaking at it, or looking forward to hearing about it.

    This helps start conversations, it helps promote the event, and begins to set expectations for others attended or interested.

    Even if you aren’t going to the event, you can do this. Since you will be getting real-time reports while the event happens, this is your way to get into the conversation.

  • Use hashtags and @names liberally.
    Twitter is not a broadcast medium – engage with those who are attending the event, who are like minds. Share the work of others by using their @names, talk to them directly, and ReTweet your favorite Tweets. It’s up to you as far how far you take this, you want to find a balance between being present, and being overwhelming!

  • Create a guide to the event – what sessions you are attending and why.
    I seem to remember @JaneFriedman doing this for AWP, which was INCREDIBLY helpful for me. AWP is a huge event, and I only had 1.5 days there, with dozens and dozens of options for sessions to attend. Jane laid out the sessions that she was attending for each time slot. I have an incredible amount of respect for Jane, so her schedule became my schedule for the times I could attend a session.

    It is this type of filter that social media gives us – a personalized take on the event

  • Create a blog post after each session – what you got out of it, who was there.
    Plenty of people give recaps of the events overall (and I love these), but it can be very helpful to give specific recaps and details for each session you attended. I believe Christina Katz did these – and they were very helpful because they helped spread the message of individual speakers, and for those who weren’t in attendance, it gave them a more granular view of the value of particular session topics.

  • Create recaps quickly
    There are more people Tweeting from events and doing recaps via blogs. Quality is of course the real value, but if you can also match this with speed, then you get people who couldn’t be in attendance talking about sessions hours after an event – while it is still happening, instead of waiting days later to hear about it, long after it’s over.

  • Build relationships early
    At an event, oftentimes there are people you want to meet, maybe they are speakers or attendees, but you don’t always get the opportunity to do so during the event. Maybe there are a precious few moments to make a connection, and it’s hard to always relate the context of who you are so quickly.

    With Twitter and blogs, it gives you a chance to get on their radar early, to make connections early, to extend the value that meeting at an event (before, during, and after) gives you.

  • Share photos
    Lots of people Tweet about an event, but not as many share photos, showing you exactly what the sessions looked like, and seeing the faces of people who are there. This gives people more context, and makes everything a bit more personal.

  • Focus on people, not just topics.

    YES, we learn a lot at events, new ideas, new examples of what works and what doesn’t – but making real connections to others is often he reason people get on a plan or take 3 days off work. So when sharing the event, use photos of real people, using their names, quoting them directly. Help promote people, not just ideas.

  • Look for quotes that are shareable.
    I don’t want to reduce the world to soundbites, but there is a value in finding a brilliant shareable quote that gets someone’s message across. You see these happen via Twitter… someone shares a great quote, and it spreads like wildfire, being ReTweeted by dozens of others.

    And of course: ReTweet quotes that others share. You see relationships build on Twitter, just by people sharing each other’s thoughts.

  • Create HELPFUL content for others.
    Look for opportunities to help others. If many attendees are traveling to a new city, create a travel guide, if you know a lot of attendees have never been to an event before, create a primer on how to get the most out of it. I’ve seen people do this via video, blogs and photos. @FuseEight once did a great video going through the ‘swag bag’ at event – and giving tips on how to get through registration quickly. These seem like little things, but they help people go from ‘outsider’ to ‘insider’ before they event arrive.

    In December, I attended the first Book Camp event in NYC, which uses an unconference format. For the second Book Camp in February, I shared a photo recap of the earlier event to give people a taste of what the event – still unusual in its format – would be like. I had someone come up to me at the event and thank me for that – it gave him proper expectations for the day.

    Even a guide to the best coffee at an event would likely be welcome to many!

  • Know people’s Twitter names ahead of time.
    Know who is going ahead of time, know their Twitter names and be prepared to use them. I watched @RonHogan do this at one session at Book Camp – he pretty much knows everyone in publishing – and it was neat to be at discussion, following it on Twitter, and see him spout of a ton of Twitter names of all the folks sitting around him. He so innately connects the in-person world to the social media world, and doing so brings the conversation to another level.

    Maybe you won’t know the Twitter names for everyone at an event you are going to, but at least know the names of the speakers for the sessions you are attending. The more you prepare, the easier you will find it to create more value for others.

  • Extend the value of an event from days to weeks.
    With twitter and blogs, an event lasts weeks before and weeks after. How you engage with an event online can do a lot to make new connections, help create useful content for those attending and those who couldn’t, and yes, even raise your profile among those in an industry.

-Dan