When to learn about blog book tours

If you have a book coming out in two or three months (or even later), you should learn how to plan your blog book tour now. That's assuming you want to launch a virtual tour right at book release to capitalize on all the buzz around your new book.

It's a lot of added work to plan a blog book tour. What you don't want to do is learn how to plan a tour right in the midst of all your other promotional efforts. What I suggest is learning how to plan the tour early on, doing all the preparation you can in advance (which includes getting to know potential blog hosts), and then launching a blog book tour on the heels of the book release.

Don't have a blog book tour while you're engaged in live public appearances. You won't be able to do your blog book tour justice. We cover these points and more in our blog book tours class which begins February 1 and lasts all month. If you have a book coming out in Spring or Summer, you might want to do your learning and start preparations now. Click here for more information and sign-up.

In With the New... Class!

Now that we're well into January, let me remind you that there is a new Blog Book Tours class for authors scheduled to start February 1, if we get at least 20 students. Less than that and we cancel. The cost for the class is only $20 but that doesn't mean you won't pay in other ways.

This course runs one month and I'm a drill sergeant. Daily attendance is mandatory simply because experience tells me a strong group participation enhances the experience and learning for everyone. You know how that was in school. What made your classes most interesting? I'll bet lively participation was a big part of it, and so I insist we have it.

Maximum number of students is 50 - about 35 is best. Get over there and sign up now! You MUST have a blog and know how to use it to participate - we do not teach blogging rudiments - we teach how to use your blog and host blogs to organize a good blog book tour.

Blog Book Tours Class Sign-up

Day #2 Blog Book Tours Class

Yesterday we covered the importance of having a hit counter (which tracks your blog visitors) on your blog and a bookmarking button.

I recommend that new bloggers begin with either Sitemeter.com or Statcounter.com because they are simple to install. If you like statistics, you might be happier using Google Analytics, too. Blogger doesn't have a built-in hit counter, so you'll have to add a third-party counter yourself. WordPress has this function built in to their blogging platform.

I prefer the counter to show the number of visitors as demonstrated at the Blood-Red Pencil blog and at the bottom of the page or bottom-most in the sidebar.

The bookmarking button most people like best is AddThis and that should be placed quite high in the sidebar where it is easily accessible to readers perusing your newest blog post. However, place it below your profile or other built-in sidebar feature, as third-party widgets tend to slow down blog loading. I like the AddThis button to be right where it is now to the right of this post. See it? It's very handy and makes it easy for you to share this post. :)

Next we'll discuss the all-important acts of regularly posting to the blog and building relevant blogrolls. The class is frantically at work getting their blogs in shape for the impending critiques scheduled to begin this weekend. When was the last time you posted something really good and well worth reading?

First Day of Class Review

We jumped right into making our blogs better using our usual list of criteria. Monday's prompts included these points for consideration:

Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and URL cohesive?
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Loading speed?

Let's discuss the second point. Is the URL consistent with the blog's title? Why does it matter? If you as an author plan to use your name in the http://yourname.blogspot. com then reinforcing this in your blog's title will make it easier for the reader to remember you. So your blog's header might read something like Your Name Talks About Writing. This is a simple form of branding that will serve you well in the long run. You should also try to stick to one name when setting up your accounts on other social networks. It's a lovely thing when a search for Your Name brings up six of your accounts in the first ten hits! So plan carefully early on.
 
Focus often on the blog's purpose. If you, as an author, use your name (and particularly if you have a pen name) in the blog URL and title, then it makes sense that your blogging will relate to your writing career, even though you may add personal notes to engage your readers. Periodically critique your blog to make sure it's sending the message you want to readers. If a major goal is promoting your books, then don't bury them in layers of unrelated material. This happens over time, especially as you add outside widgets and links. Housekeeping is important to keeping your blog crisp and on-task.
 
Everyone loves an attractive blog, but graphic templates can be so image-heavy, they take forever to load. Remember that your readers don't all have high-speed Internet, so don't try to get too fancy with your imagery. The best way to test your blog is to ask a few readers to comment about loading speed. Sometimes your blog header will take eons to load. Also be sure to keep third-party widgets a bit lower down in your sidebars, as they will tend to slow down blog-loading speeds.
 
Take a look at your blog today and assess how you stack up. Tomorrow we'll look at some widgets/gadgets that every blog should have.