Blog vs. Web site

I got hopelessly bored with my own blog, but my web page is popular. I'd suggest having a web page you can edit yourself, and you can always slap a blog up there on it.

Then it's a matter of "networking" and listing services - word of mouth - adding the page title to your sig line in any and all online groups you post regularly, etc. Other people will have more suggestions shortly, I've no doubt.

If you are going to run a website I think it is a good idea to learn to make minor updates yourself. This isn't to hard as you would only change text, not code--so you just need to know how to put the new version online (I use my browser to do this). There is no need to learn html just to update an existing page.

A blog that actually attracts readers takes a fair amount of work. But if you really can't update the main website often you could do a big update now and then put a promonant link to your blog--hosted on your main domain (simple to do with free blogger) and post updates there which is much easier than updating raw html.

IMHO it is best to use both a blog and a website closely linked but if you don't enjoy making web-stuff a single update on the website that already googles well would be a sensible minimum?

If you don;t love blogging you could join a group blog with other writers in your genre.

popmuze, you posted once to your blog and gave up? How on earth is an audience supposed to find you? When I started my blog it was just for fun and I addressed many of my posts to my "imaginary audience" since I knew no one except the occasional friend was reading it. Then I decided to update more frequently, and since I wanted traffic, visited other blogs, got to become a part of the community etc. I still am no Miss Snark when it comes to numbers, but now I have regular people who stop by and say hi and it is really nice.

Being a writer I think a blog is very conducive to our business. But you have to have something to say, and express it well, and update frequently. So I guess the pros are a way to get your voice out there and people to know who you are, but the cons are the maintenance.

As to a website, I tend to see these more as reference material. If someone wants information on you or your work they can go there. Often things that are updated on a website are tour dates etc, and a blog. Websites have a more professional air about them because they take time to create, a certain level of knowledge at any rate, and most often cost some money. So pro for website would be easy access for your "customers" to facts etc, as well as a professional appearance. Cons would be the time it takes to create the site, money, and again, updating it.

I say, why not do both!

As an author, I prefer a blog because it is more personal. I have direct contact with my readers.

I've had moderate success with my blog. You should have a point to your blog other than what you had for breakfast, or what your cat did yesterday.

There are a few things you need to do to be successful at blogging:

1. List your blog in the search engines

2. Come up with a theme. My theme is Novel Writing.

3. Find other blogs similar to your own and comment on them.

4. Respond to comments on your blog. Let the readers know that you are reading what they take the time to post!

5. Post often. I like to post at least 2-3 times a week.

6. Ping your blog every day! This will let blog sites know that you have a new article posted.

7. Join a blog surfing site such as Blogexplosion. This takes some work, but I always manage to pick up a few readers.

If you are looking for a blog service, I recommend Wordpress. Blogger is just plain buggy.

Hope this helps!

PS: Thanks...I'm going to expand on this post at my own blog, lol. As a blogger, you should always be on the lookout for content!

I wouldn't put an essay-worthy topic on a blog all that often. If the goal is to promote other writing not the blog per. se--then smaller musings with connections to your work, excerpts, trivia, gossip etc. Nothing that would take more than a few minutes. Promo shouldn't be too overt because that is dull, but it still should be promo if you are blogging to sell books rather than blogging to blog...

You might want to blog on the nature of writing articles or all the experiences you have had for your pretty long career. The blog isn't where you put up your work, it's where you can network and share information to people who have found you because either they already like your work, or found you through a site and then will want to read your work once they read your blog.

And don't keep going on about the only 2 visitors you'll get. The good blogs get thousands of hits a day. Some of them have a lot of power and sway. Try to view the blogging thing as a chance to reach a lot of people, as opposed to starting out with the negative outlook (I'm no fan of The Secret, but why not think a little more positively about things?)

Blogs google well, so if you write about anything read-worthy, readers do start to appear.

I agree with FredCharles (except for Blogger/Wordpress). My blog gets just over a hundred hits a day, and I have lots of repeat readers and commenters from that. My website does about half that.
I tried to blog on Wordpress and my posts wouldn't even publish, no matter what I did. I gave up after three separate days and five tries.

So how do you get onto google. I googled luna chyck (my blog) and a post from here was the first one listed, but not my specific blog.

I have the same trouble popmuze, I have to do the changes at my website and because I did it a$$ backwards my hosting guy has to make the changes show up. I should have gotten the domain name first and then the host. Who knew?

I feel like a pain every time I want to make changes and now I want to change the whole thing!!!

My goal for today was to visit some blogs and 'be seen'. So far I updated my blog, vacuumed, did laundry, and marinated a steak for dinner. Hmmmm...
I write paranormal fiction, anyone want to join forces?

Branwyn said:

So how do you get onto google. I googled luna chyck (my blog) and a post from here was the first one listed, but not my specific blog.

I have the same trouble popmuze, I have to do the changes at my website and because I did it a$$ backwards my hosting guy has to make the changes show up. I should have gotten the domain name first and then the host. Who knew?

I feel like a pain every time I want to make changes and now I want to change the whole thing!!!

My goal for today was to visit some blogs and 'be seen'. So far I updated my blog, vacuumed, did laundry, and marinated a steak for dinner. Hmmmm...
I write paranormal fiction, anyone want to join forces?

Click to expand...

Try this link: Submit Express

This site has free submission to Google and a lot of other search engines.

I, personally, don't bother submitting blogs because they turn up with a few days. I would suggest adding the blog to BlogHer (if you a female) and Technorati.

I have a blog where I usually just rattled on about whatever struck me. Then, it struck me(!) that I should try to be thematic in some way. I started interviews of people in some unusual or interesting part of the publishing world. They blog traffic has definitely picked up now that I'm providing something in useful content. I've invited people to work with me on an interview or review and some have asked me. It's working out reasonably well. I've only been doing this more directed form in the last couple of months.

Now, my website is strictly for my own writing: what I'm working on, what's been published, etc. So, I'm not crudding it up with any rants of the day. I hope it's professional looking.

On a third venue, I'm on MySpace to schmooze with fellow writers and publishers--networking.

On both my website and in MySpace I've got a nice RSS visual feed of my blog content, so it does double (or triple) the work.

Try this link: Submit Express

Thanks FredCharles