{"id":7027,"date":"2014-05-24T09:40:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-24T13:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=7027"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"speak-comment-build-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/speak-comment-build-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Speak Up, Stand Out, Build Your Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Original Pub Date: January 2, 2012: Webupon.com<\/em><\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/megaphone-clip-art_427314.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7030\" src=\"http:\/\/PineyMountainFoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/megaphone-clip-art_427314.jpg\" alt=\"speak out comment\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a>Many of the expert book marketing folks have touted the benefits to authors of running a blog.\u00a0 On a blog you can offer excerpts from your book, talk about your characters, offer insights into your life and personality, even plug your books, all with the intent of piquing the curiosity of your target audience so they will want to buy your books.\u00a0 But to do that, people must actually come to your blog and read it.<\/p>\n<p>A blog, or a web site, is like a box of brochures in that they can be effective advertising tools if disbursed but if left sitting in the back of a closet, they are useless to you.\u00a0 Handing out your digital brochures can be done in a number of ways.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Put the URL on every print piece of advertising you produce; from business cards to your books.<\/li>\n<li>Add the URL to your e-mail tagline.<\/li>\n<li>Add it to all your social media accounts.<\/li>\n<li>Comment on other people\u2019s blogs and fill in the URL field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is this last one that I want to talk about today.\u00a0 Commenting on other blogs that are related to yours or attract the same readers that you want to reach is a good way to introduce yourself to a new group of people.\u00a0 But to do it effectively requires some research and some thought. \u00a0\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<h1>Where to Comment<\/h1>\n<p>Finding blogs on which to comment requires a little poking around, and you need to know what your readers are into.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a crime thriller author, commenting on a gardening blog probably won\u2019t grab the attention of that blog\u2019s readers \u2013 unless you\u2019re researching gardening because the victim in your next novel will be an avid gardener and his passion somehow centers in the motivation for the murder.<\/p>\n<p>Why do your comments have to be relevant?\u00a0 Because most bloggers will delete comments that are obviously off-topic or blatantly self-promotional.\u00a0 If you add something to the discussion, they are happy to let you join in and to link back to your blog.<\/p>\n<p>You may choose to visit the blogs of other authors in your genre, hoping to interest their readers in your work.\u00a0 You may choose to locate blogs dealing with matters related to the setting or characters in your latest book. Or you may choose to frequent the haunts that cater to these topics when related to your next book to ask questions and this stir up interest even before it is written.<\/p>\n<h1>What to Say<\/h1>\n<p>If you enjoyed reading the blog post, say so \u2013 all authors of any written work enjoy knowing that their work is appreciated.\u00a0 If one part in particular struck a chord with you, mention that and explain why.\u00a0 It is a good thing if you can include the author\u2019s name, or mention some aspect of the topic so the author knows you actually read at least part of the post.\u00a0 More on that in a second.<\/p>\n<p>Most bloggers are not pundits, simply espousing their opinions and unconcerned with yours.\u00a0 Most bloggers desperately seek \u201cconversation\u201d with their readers through the comments. In fact a few bloggers go the route of introducing a subject briefly, then expect their readers to provide most of the content as they banter the topic amongst themselves.\u00a0 Feel free to add your voice to the discussion, even if it\u2019s only to ask a pertinent question.\u00a0 Questions often get a better response than simply stating your opinion.<\/p>\n<h1>What Not to Say<\/h1>\n<p>Avoid at all costs tossing in a \u201cNice post, thanks\u201d sort of comment.\u00a0 This is almost guaranteed to be deleted by all but the most desperate bloggers.\u00a0 This is the sort of thing that spammers scatter about as they attempt to plant a bazillion links around the internet leading back to whatever site they\u2019re promoting that day.\u00a0 Spam may be acceptable in a casserole, not on a blog.<\/p>\n<p>It is generally accepted that if you wish to disagree with the author or another commenter, you do so politely.\u00a0 Censuring them will generally result in censoring you.\u00a0 Not always; sometimes bloggers post on a volatile subject hoping to stir up a \u201cspirited discussion\u201d, but most bloggers don\u2019t go the route of shock jocks.<\/p>\n<p>Also avoid dropping overly self-promotional comments, \u201cI agree about the blood dispersal, and be sure to come by and check out my latest book, Blood Guts and More Gore at [LINK] in it our hero\u2026\u201d\u00a0 This too will be perceived as abusing the hospitality of the blog host unless an invitation to self-promote was given.<\/p>\n<h1>Finding Blogs for Commenting<\/h1>\n<p>One of the easiest ways to find related blogs on which to comment is to go to a blog you like on the subject and read the comments.\u00a0 If the blog is set up to allow back-links (and most are) look for interesting comments and follow the commenter back to their blog.\u00a0 Begin a list of blogs that cater to the topic you\u2019re promoting, have a good readership (lots of comments) and allow back-links.\u00a0 Visit those blogs regularly and participate in the discussions.\u00a0 Keep an eye out for new blogs to add to your list.\u00a0 Or you can use your favorite search engine to search for blogs on a particular topic.<\/p>\n<h1>Inevitable Caveats<\/h1>\n<p>A few things to be aware of before you set out upon this quest:<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Blog hopping can become a HUGE time-sink.\u00a0 At one point I found myself spending 4 or more hours every evening blog hopping, trying to boost my readership.\u00a0 It worked but\u2026<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Many blog-hoppers do not read, nor care about, your work; they are just looking for back-links.\u00a0 Spending huge chunks of time luring these people is time wasted. Target sites that are frequented by people who will READ your blog and may actually be interested in buying your book.<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sweets draw flies.\u00a0 Programs like CommentLuv and KeywordLuv are very popular among professional bloggers because of the networking potential they offer.\u00a0 Using these will induce more bloggers to comment on your blog, but see #2.\u00a0 Consider carefully what your objectives are.<\/p>\n<p>4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Frequency of postings is a focal point for some.\u00a0 Many blogger experts claim that you should post every day, every other day at the minimum, in order to keep your audience coming back and building traffic to your blog.\u00a0 From an SEO standpoint, this is valid; Googlebot and other spiders may notice the track being worn to your door and decide your blog is important enough to award a higher position in the search results page.\u00a0 But unless you\u2019re providing fascinating content every time, too frequent postings can shoot you in the foot.\u00a0 There are several blogs I subscribe to where new articles aren\u2019t posted more than once every other week, but when one goes up, I\u2019m there because I know the post will be an entertaining read.\u00a0 I\u2019ll scan titles for those who post every day and pop in when I see one that interests me.\u00a0 Few are worth reading daily unless they are known for brief, insightful work.<\/p>\n<p>5) \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Time spent writing and polishing blog posts is time not spent writing your next book.\u00a0 Your blog posts need to be every bit as engaging and professional as your books are if you are to attract new readers\u2026 at least readers who care about well written books.\u00a0 Some don\u2019t. But be careful that you don\u2019t allow your blogging to become an excuse not to write your books.\u00a0 For authors, a blog is just one of your promotional tools; it is not likely to produce much if any income in and of its self except by pointing buyers to your books.<\/p>\n<h1>Conclusion<\/h1>\n<p>Having a well-trafficked blog can expose your work to new readers.\u00a0 Building that traffic can be time consuming, and for it to do you any good that traffic needs to be made of people who are more interested in you than in building their back-links.\u00a0 Commenting on other blogs can do this, if you put some thought into it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Those are my thoughts, what say you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Original Pub Date: January 2, 2012: Webupon.com Many of the expert book marketing folks have touted the benefits to authors of running a blog.&nbsp; On a blog you can offer excerpts from your book, talk about your characters, offer insights into your life and personality, even plug your books, all with the intent of piquing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/speak-comment-build-audience\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Speak Up, Stand Out, Build Your Audience&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,18],"tags":[40,32],"class_list":["post-7027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-sell-yourself","tag-blogging","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19679,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions\/19679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}