Guest blogging ettiquete?

Sherrie Cronin · May 1, 2012

Even after the book is written, it seems like there is so much to learn ...

I've had the opportunity to provide 2 guest blogs over the last few weeks, which has been wonderful given that the folks who have agreed to actually review and read my book generally have me on their calendars for many months from now. The first time, I provided a cursory hello paragraph along with a summary, cover image and bio. The second blog wanted me to write about a topic. So I found one (the interactive nature of my book with all of it's links) and I provided 3 or 4 paragrahps focusing on that.

Now it seems to me this is a good way to reach people. But what constitutes consideration and good manners? Can I write about the same topic again on other blogs provided I say a few different things? How many time can I keep doing that? When I run out of new things to say do I need to stop guest blogging? Should I be responding to any comments to my post or am I supposed to quietly go away and make room for others? Should I be providing more or less material? Thoughts from anyone one out there more experienced in this arena willing to offer advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Jess Haines · May 2, 2012

Write about subjects that are covered in your book.

Respond to the comments in guest posts. People like to hear from you and get to know you. (*Don't do this on reviews. Just your guest posts. Unless you're just saying "thank you" to the reviewer for posting it.)

You can write about any topic under the sun, but the idea is to entice people into being interested in reading more of your work. Try not to recycle the same material over and over again, as that can get boring.

Write something you would want to read. And have fun with it.

veinglory · May 2, 2012

As a host I request at least 50% non-promotional content, and exclusive content. I think exclusive content would be assumed unless otherwise specified. (Exclusive meaning: different enough that if it were written by separate authors it would not be plagiarism).

Sherrie Cronin · May 2, 2012

Thanks to both of you. Sounds reasonable. I am basically trying to sort out whether most blogs about science fiction books (or any other kind) are followed largely by friends and family of the blogger (so repeating material is no problem) or followed by a single group of readers (in which case posting similar material could quickly earn eye rolls). I will try to stick to assuming the latter. Appreciate the info not to respond to reviews also. Those little things that no one tells you. (Except you guys, who just did.

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veinglory · May 2, 2012

If the blog is small, honestly I wouldn't bother with them at all unless their whole family with run out and each buy a copy of the book or it is dead center for a specific niche and your book is premium priced (gerbil bondage blog for a gerbil bondage book-type etc).

Duplicate copy not only has less value for readers it can compromise Google rank if you have to much of it. I get offered it by blog tour companies all the time and don't take it. I guess others must, so, pinch of salt.

IMHO, best bang for buck is exclusive content for major (or at least moderate) blogs. But then I would say that.

Sherrie Cronin · May 2, 2012

How big is big, for a blog?

I am relatively new to the world of blogging, although I now have a blog of my very own. Is the size of a blog judged by its number of followers? Or by other metrics like hits and if so is that kind of information public? About how many followers does a major blog have? (A hundred? A thousand?) How about a moderate one? I've got a spreadsheet now with dozens of blogs to contact and am trying to figure out a way to high grade the larger ones.

Again ..... any help or insight from those more experienced in this arena is greatly appreciated.

veinglory · May 3, 2012

It's pretty subjective. I would see a moderate blog as something like pagerank 3 and a thousand followers (no one metric is foolproof), major would be more than that and widely acknowledged as a 'big blog' in the genre or sub-genre.

But I would heavily discount the requirements if the match of blog to book is better. For example not just romance, but steampunk romance or gay historical romance. Hitting the soft sell market is more important than just passing in front of the eyes of a lot of people.

Also there is the shotgun approach where you go for quantity instead. But that would be based more on a press release and prize copies aiming for a pickup from 20+ blogs of any kind. I think that can work to but it isn't my sort of thing. that is where blog tour companies pre-write the review for you 'to save you time'. Frankly that annoys me.

Jess Haines · May 3, 2012

Veinglory has most of this nailed down.

You can also take a look at how active the comment sections are. I've known blogs that show 500+ (sometimes even over 1,000) followers but usually only average 5-10 comments on their posts. Sometimes not even that.

Whereas I've known smaller blogs (80-200 followers) who had very active comment sections. Clearly these are people who have some "pull" since, even though you don't necessarily see it in the people who have signed up to follow the blog, you can see it in the activity that occurs there.

Just use your head and go into it with your eyes open--you'll figure it out. And by that, I don't mean to say you couldn't or shouldn't ask more questions, just that you should also be using your own judgement when dealing with this stuff.

Sherrie Cronin · May 3, 2012

Jess Haines said:
Veinglory has most of this nailed down.

Just use your head and go into it with your eyes open--you'll figure it out. And by that, I don't mean to say you couldn't or shouldn't ask more questions, just that you should also be using your own judgement when dealing with this stuff.

Thanks Jess. Trying to do both and understand that a lot of this involves learning as you go.

Guest blogging ettiquete?

Sherrie Cronin

imagining doing the impossible

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Sherrie Cronin

imagining doing the impossible

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Sherrie Cronin

imagining doing the impossible

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.

Sherrie Cronin

imagining doing the impossible