You’re already writing. That’s clear. So why should you write yet another thing? Especially a blog?

Because a blog does something none of your other writing does: your blog is a place for your readers to get to know and like you. Since people like to do business with people they like, a blog makes it easier to do business—whether your business is selling books or selling services.

But that’s not all. There are some other compelling reasons why you need a blog.

Your blog makes list-building easy.

The key to making the most of your time spent online is to get and retain subscribers. In other words, you need to build a list of people who have shown interest (or might be interested) in you. If list-building sounds too clinical or too much like a marketing ploy, think of building a list as building your fan club. There’s a big reward for having a good list: you’ll have a list of fans who will respond to your emails. Not only that, you can learn a lot from your market and what they want by paying attention to your list.

Your blog gives you a place to store your assets.

You’re a writer, a person who can create something from the depths of nothing. And whatever you create must be docked it in a safe harbor.

More than any other tool, free or paid, a blog will give you a reason to create content and a place to keep it safe, visible, and easy to share. There’s almost no limit as to what you can create for your blog: posts, newsletters, special reports, interviews, sample chapters of books you’re writing, and even videos about you and your projects.

Your blog makes it easy for publishers, readers, and clients to find you. 

You want to get noticed. And a great way to do that is to have a compelling blog.

More importantly, an increasing number of publishers, readers, and clients now expect writers to have a website or blog. If you don’t, you risk being seen as out of touch before anyone finds out anything about you.

Your blog provides a hub for your writing career.

Your blog is the sun; everything else in your online world should orbit around it.

 

So how do you create the best blog since sliced bread?

Make sure you include these essentials:

Your Bio. It’s not unusual for the “About Us” page to be the second most visited page on any website (after the home page). For an author, this page should be a bio. Agents, editors, and readers are interested in knowing what you’re all about, and this is where they’ll go to find out.

Include your full (pen) name, your purpose or mission (such as to publish a novel), your credentials, and your achievements. After taking care of those basics, throw in anything else you want people to know about you—you know, the fun human interest stuff. Check out the bios of successful authors for examples.

Your Social Media Presence. There are huge communities of readers you can tap through sites like Twitter, Facebook, and GoodReads. Use them all, and then make sure your website has links to your social media profiles. Using social media marketing properly can lead to publishing opportunities and increased sales of your work.

Make sure you get a Facebook page for you as a writer (also called a fan page or like page) as opposed to a personal page

Contact Information. One of the single biggest mistakes writers make on their blogs or websites is hiding their email addresses or forgetting to include them at all. If you’re already a huge success, maybe you don’t need to make yourself accessible via email. But what if an agent is interested in representing you? What if an editor wants to publish your work or offer you a book deal?

Create a contact page and make sure it appears in your navigation menu. In this day and age with all kinds of crazies roaming the planet, never post your home address or phone number on your blog. Get a P.O. box, get a separate number for your authoring life, and set up an email account just for your writing business. You might also want to use a form that lets people email you while hiding your email address.

Polished Contents. If you’re a writer and you want to be taken seriously, every single word you publish should be polished. That includes your blog. Yes, the occasional typo will slip through. That happens to everybody. But when a reader or publishing professional comes to your site and every published page reads like a first draft, that person will go off in search of writers who know how to proofread, edit, and use good grammar.

After you finish composing a page or a post, read through it a couple of times to clean it up. When you can, it’s always a good idea to let it sit overnight and give it a final review before you publish it.

Good Design. Okay—you’re a writer, not a designer. So if you can’t afford to hire a professional designer, get a decent freebie until you can. There’s no excuse anymore for having a cluttered, ugly, difficult-to-navigate blog—there are loads of lovely free blog templates you can use. Just do a simple internet search, and you’ll be astounded at what you have at your fingertips. Nobody wants a cookie-cutter site that looks just like dozens of others, but it’s a whole lot better than having a site nobody wants to visit at all.

(Photos: subscriber button, onlineincometeacher.com; contact, blogvoyages.fr; social media icons, sguru.org; red pen, profkrg.com)