What you need to know to start blogging today

So what is this “blog factor”? What some thought was a new idea a few years ago has now turned into something that no one expected. There are currently nine million blogs and 40,000 new ones are added every day. Some are informative and some are a downright waste of time. And while we hear a lot about blogging these days, what is blogging *really*? Blogging in its simplest form is like an online journal, but much, much more powerful. Blogs (short for Web log) are a place where surfers can get up-to-date information on a topic or voyeur into someone's life. Some blogs are nothing more than a daily glimpse into someone's life, while others are so sophisticated that it's hard to distinguish them from an online news service. Why Blogs Matter Google, the #1 search engine on the Internet, loves blogs. So much so that if you do it right, Google will get the hell out of your site. What does "spider" mean? Well spidering is when Google or similar crawls the content of your website to determine a ranking, and the more content you have (ie fresh content) the more Google will work its magic and move your website up the search engine. Another reason blogs matter is that they are interactive, and if you blog about the topic of your book, it will help boost your expert status on a particular issue. When we schedule "virtual tours" for our writers, we include as many blogs as we can on the tour. Why? Because if you can get on a good blog that gets a lot of traffic, you can really start getting your book. What would you talk about? This is the question we get most often. "If I started a blog, what on earth would I talk about?" If your book is non-fiction, it's pretty easy to figure out what your topic would be, but if your book is fiction, it can be a little trickier – but not impossible. The author I work with has a series of books with one character - a private detective. I suggested that he "blog" this character, meaning that the character (not the author) would have a blog. It can be a character's diary or adventures and stories - a look into the life of a private detective. This would give the reader (and fans of the character) a reason to return to the blog for an update on that ongoing adventure or story. In another case, I'm working with an author who has written a fiction book about right and wrong with new age/spirituality. I advised him to blog about issues related to this - what is right and wrong in our society and his own "spin" on those issues. Some of his blogs may be controversial, but that's okay, you want to create your own "voice", your own view on an issue, and if that view is controversial, so much the better for exposure and for people on your blog they interacted. Getting readers to respond to your posts is a great way to get interest and momentum for your blog, and (more importantly) getting people talking about it will grow your blog like nothing else! How to start a blog Starting a blog is super easy. All you have to do is sign up for a blog (eg http://www.blogger.com) and get started. It's that easy. The Blog Service will link to your site; you will need to ask your webmaster to add a button to your home page for people to find your blog. How to Blog Effectively The best bloggers know that the more content you add to your blog, the more traffic you will drive there. Some bloggers I know post daily, sometimes even multiple times a day, while others post weekly. How many posts you post will probably depend on how much time you have to devote to it. The challenge will be that if you want to drive people to your blog, you will want fresh content. This doesn't mean you have to create it all yourself, in fact you can invite people to your blog and chat with them, or you can just post a one paragraph "thought" on your topic. It doesn't have to be complicated or long, it just has to be fresh. Also be innovative as we discussed earlier, be different with your blog, have fun with it. It may seem complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, you'll quickly become a blogging expert!