Even Petri Dishes Have Learning Curves
Today turned out to be a blog learning curve day because the petri dish approach is only going to work if I’m effectively using the blogging process. And even though I’ve been studying the subject for the last month, the scope of all the details wasn’t apparent until I actually launched the blog.
Now I need to master the technique and also develop a following, both of which will take some time. Today I began with the subject of tags: what they are, why they’re so important, how to add them to a post, and then how to use them to start letting others with similar interests know I’m here.
Tags in Blog Posts
Tomorrow I’m going to use one of the tags I created for the Launch Post (“How to get a novel published”) to find other people blogging on that subject. After searching for the most recent posts, I’m going to begin commenting on those posts and leaving my signature, so those bloggers can then find me in return. All the results will be shared in subsequent posts.
Blogging Tip
At the WD conference in September, one of the sessions covered tips on the subject of blogging and developing a following. One of those tips was to start following other bloggers, becoming involved with their dialogues. That contribution, we were told, generally leads to a good percentage of those bloggers then following you as well. So I’ll be getting up early to get that task rolling.
Publishing Plan Updates
In tomorrow’s post, I will provide updates on the publishing plan as well. The manuscript for my new novel, Separation of Faith, is presently in the hands of six beta readers who will be giving me critical input over the next several weeks. While I’m waiting for that input, some exciting things will be happening with respect to my first novel, The Truth About Cinnamon. Stay tuned for those details in the morning.
Tracking the Stats
Tomorrow I will also begin sharing stats like my book’s Amazon ranking and the number of hits on my website. This will be a painful process in the beginning because those numbers are currently rather dismal (but what else would you expect from obscurity, right?). The goal, of course, will be to watch those numbers improve as this experiment unfolds. So the baseline will be posted tomorrow for all to see.
That’s all for today. Good night.
I can see we are floating in the same boat. So far, no land in sight.
But we know it’s out there.
I make a little tweet from my twitter that announces each new blog when it’s up and I post a link to it. It gets me at least 3 hits, but now that I’m making more friends out here I often get about 9 to 16 hits just from saying it’s there, even though most of the people say very little.
… lol and I look forward to reading more.
I’m not the greatest with leaving comments on blogs. I read enough of them; I just need to at least say “Sarah was here” once in a while.
So, Sarah was here
Sarah
Hi, Sarah! I’m glad you were here, and I’m looking forward to our continuing conversations.
Cheri