J is for Jumpstarting

One of the most frustrating things in the early days of a blog is getting daily readers. Even bloggers who post every day don’t always get the results they want very quickly. This is where a group effort comes in handy to jumpstart results.

In the blog book tours classes, we usually have a blog-a-day challenge for one month. This serves several purposes.

1. It develops a good habit in the blogger, because infrequent blogging is the death knell of even the most attractive blog.
2. It increases traffic to a blog through visits from team members, and consequently makes the blog more noticeable to search engines.

Both of these elements are vital for jumpstarting a blog. Projects like the current A-Z Challenge, the basis of the blogs you are currently reading, are even more powerful. (Click on the link at the top of the page.) Almost 1,200 bloggers are teaming up in the same project, egging each other on, visiting member blogs, back-linking to each other. The Google ‘bots must be going crazy. Which, of course, has us all jumping for joy!

I is for Improvement

There was a time that WordPress was touted as the professional blogging platform, but Blogger has added so many features and improvements over the last year, that they are almost as powerful in a business environment. The most notable improvement is a new and flexible Designer feature, which not only includes countless templates to personalize the blog, but also a myriad of fonts, page elements, and colors. As well, gadgets that include statistics and email subscription sign-ups have been added, and with the upgrading of the spam feature, there’s really not a lot more to change for the average blogger. It amazes me to see blogs out there still using the old, original Blogger templates.


All these improvements are great tools to help create an attractive and entertaining blog, and you’ll want to use them to bring people back. Increasing traffic should be one of your goals, and with steady work, you should be able to regularly get 100 visitors a day within a year. In that time, you should also gain the Google ranking we mentioned a few days ago.

Why is this important? The more visitors to your blog, the more influence you have, whether promoting your opinions, teaching a lesson, or promoting your book. You become an authority via your blog. So think about that other “I” word – Influence – and how much of it you can develop on the Internet through your written word. Let’s review these interesting concepts:

Improve your blog
Increase traffic
Influence more readers
Internet is the road to achievement and success

H is for Help

How-to blog:

I often have folks sign up for my classes thinking they'll learn to blog. You have to know how before you sign up - the point of the class is to learn about blog BOOK TOURS. So you need to be fairly adept at blogging to sign up. The best way to learn how to blog is to simply Google "how to blog". Then see what comes up. Here's one example to try on YouTube, and you might have to search around for updated links since last year's Blogger upgrade, but the information is at your disposal. Seek and ye shall find.

Hit counters:

Everyone needs one and two favorites are Statcounter.com and Sitemeter.com. I prefer Sitemeter, and like to show actual hit count since a good high number makes the blog more attractive to readers.


Holiday blogging prompts:

Last week, I found a really great site that lists all those crazy holidays we're always hearing about like National Naked Rat Day and National Black Licorice Week. This site lists hundreds of those holidays by month, and what great writing prompts for your blog! Go here for more and be sure to bookmark this site.

Hurdles like word verification:

I've noticed during this month's A-Z Challenge that quite a few of the blogs have word verification and moderated status activated. I would definitely get rid of the word verification, as I and many people, don't return to blogs that create comment hurdles like that. I've even turned it off on this blog, despite having the blog shut down for six months by Blogger for excess spam visits. Bloggers new spam filter is really quite adequate for the job. If you're still not sure, then moderate comments, but even this is a mental hurdle for your fans. You'll lose too many to make it worth the bother. Remember, you WANT comments, because it makes your blog stickier to the search engines.

Hint-of-the-Day:

Collapse your archive in the sidebar. It's ugly, takes up too much space, and nobody uses it anyway. Make it a nice tidy little box like mine in the sidebar. See it? Now compare it to yours. Which is better?


Finally H is for Happy blogging!

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Blog Book Tours Blog

G is for Google

There is so much about Google to talk about, it's hard to know where to start. Let's make it short and discuss two things:

Google ranking is one important gauge of how popular or influential a blog is, and you should know your ranking, as well as any potential blog book tour host's. If you're planning a blog book tour, try to find blogs that have a Google ranking of 3 or 4. Blogs don't often rank higher than 5. To get your ranking, visit PR Checker and follow the easy directions.

You should also set-up  Google Alerts for your book title, your name, and perhaps some key words associated with your brand or book. This allows you to monitor what's going on on the web related to your interests. Setting up Google Alerts is as easy as checking your ranking, and you automatically get daily or weekly updates in your mailbox.

Was that useful information? Do you already do these things? Leave a comment and share what your blog's ranking is. I have a widget in the sidebar letting all visitors know I'm a Google 4, which makes me a prime host for blog book tours. I'll be doing more of that starting in May, and will feature children's literature and cozy mysteries, as well as non-fiction related to organic and sustainability topics. Be sure to add me to your blogroll for future reference!

F is for Friends

F is also for Facebook and Followers on Twitter. At the BBT Cafe, which is the social site for graduates of the blog book tours classes, we are friends in the true sense of the word, and continue to support each other in book marketing endeavors long after the classes end. It wasn't by design - this just evolved over time. So here's what you can expect on the weekly collaborative promotion menu:

Monday: We support each other on Facebook by posting our link and reminder at the Cafe site. Then we go to each other's Facebook pages, click the Like button on a status update we really do like, leave a comment, and most importantly, click on the Share button so that the link publishes on our own Facebook pages, and increases the readership of that author's post. Needless to say, most of us create status updates that are informative and easy for our friends to share. Something relevant. Something other authors would find interesting. Something that won't embarrass the rest of us.

Wednesday: We visit each other blogs and leave comments so that Google will notice how Fantastic we are.

Friday: We leave #FF (Follow Friday) suggestions at the Cafe and link over to Twitter to post fellow tweeter @ links so others can follow them, too. We also let people know why they should do this. Here's an example:

Be sure to #FF @Blogbooktours for great posts about blogging and promoting books. #books

The # is called a "hashtag" and if you go to Twitter and search #FF, you'll get everyone who is playing the follow Friday game - and you'll likely find some good folks to add to your own Twitter list.

It all sounds confusing, but it only takes a few weeks to get the hang of all this social networking stuff. If you don't understand, you have friends who will help you.

Yep. You got to have friends. Sing it loud and strong!

E is for Elements of a Good Blog

Our class members spend a good deal of time adding elements to their blogs for reader convenience and to make the blog more "sticky" with search engines. Arrange your sidebar elements in an order that's most useful to the viewer. I promised yesterday I would bump this post up, so here's the information I use over and over.

Let's take a look at the sidebar on this blog.

1. We start with a short description of what this blog is about - it's a quick profile.

2. Because the blog is the public newsletter for our blog book tour classes, many of the posts are useful to others interested in our topic, and so we have a share/bookmark button right beneath the profile. This is so readers can click and easily send the information on this blog to their friends on Facebook or any of a number of other online communities they might participate in. Click on the button, and you'll see the drop-down menu. This is an AddThis button which happens to be the neatest and most effective. There's a reason it's rated #1.  A later addition is via Blogger at the bottom of each post.

3. Next we make sure it's easy for our readers to engage with us on Facebook and Twitter. Those are basic links to our sites there, but you can also find pretty third-party widgets which add sparkle to the blog. I just haven't decided which one I like best yet. Always have your assorted links and sites cross-referenced on all your sites. Everyone is trying to connect at many levels these days.

4. Then make sure you have a few "subscribe" links for readers who use aggregators to keep track of their favorite blog updates. See the ugly RSS feed buttons in the sidebar? I'm looking for a nicer one like this. This symbol is almost as recognizable as the golden arches.

5. Google Friend Connect essentially works in a similar albeit limited way (and also has a certain psychological pull when many people follow the blog). Networked Blogs is another way to get a notice when someone updates a blog - it feeds through to Facebook and Twitter automatically. 

Start with a few of these basics up high in the sidebar of your blog, and then add more as you see features you like on other blogs you visit.  Why up high? Sometimes your readers are in a hurry and will only read the first post, so make it easy for them to share or stay connected by putting the handiest tools at their disposal. Don't make them search all over your blog. They'll appreciate you for it, and come back for a visit.

Even if you're not really sure what all these widgets, gadgets, and buttons are about, place them on your blog anyway. Many of your readers know how to use them, and what we're talking about is service and convenience to them.

The rest of the way down the sidebar? Lots of blogrolls - clickable links to sites that you like and that support your blog focus.

You might have an archive link which you'll want to collapse into a neat and tidy button. Intersperse other information and links as you wish lower down the sidebar.

You can also add a gadget on Blogger that magically makes all your most popular blog posts appear. See it at right? I also have links to related information like the Quickest Blog Book Tour Guide Ever.

The last item on your list should be a hit counter and I prefer being able to see the visitor count. There can be any number of other items, but these are the very essential ones in that order.

And don't forget a contact link - if you don't want your email address on the front page, then consider adding a contact page under your header that readers must open for additional  information about how to reach you. It can be most frustrating for a reader seeking more information about you and your books (or services or other products), to not find a way to reach you.

And remember that you have lots of options for additional information categorized under Pages underneath your header. I've even included the A-Z Challenger participants under their own tab!

This post was last published on July 17, 2010. I'm now going to change the date so it appears on April 6, 2011. Because I can, and so can you.