If you’ve read much at all about promoting anything on the web – your books, business, whatever – you’ve no doubt come across articles about blogging. Blogs are all over the place. I mean, you’re reading a blog at this very moment, right? And everyone prattles on about how important they are, in one way or another.
The importance of blogging to me was driven home in a very stark way: declining book sales over the summer, starting in late July. Using the Kindle version of In Her Name (omnibus edition) as a benchmark, sales were rock steady in the 400 range for Kindle store rankings from mid-April (after the book had taken off in the wake of the release of Season of the Harvest in February) through mid-July, when they began tapering off. That slump continued until recently, when the book went on sale for a brief time at $0.99, pushing the rankings from where they’d fallen to a low of 1600 back up to around 350.
Now, you may be thinking that’s not much of a difference at all in the great scheme of things: a ranking of 1600 or so certainly isn’t bad! You’re right, it’s not. But I’m using this to illustrate my point about blogging.
You see, the only major factor that I can come up with that changed right around the time that In Her Name (omnibus edition) started slipping was that I’d stopped blogging. We were on our summer RV trip to New England and Canada, and we were so busy that I just didn’t get around to posting anything new. And when we got back, I was wrapped up in working on In Her Name: Dead Soul and sorting out all the details of leaving my day job to write full time that I never got back into it.
As far as I can tell, the other variables that I could control stayed mostly the same. For example, for the most part my activity on Twitter stayed roughly the same (which means: a lot!) and the book prices stayed the same.
Now, I know I’m not the only one to have suffered a “summer falloff.” Joe Konrath commented on this on his blog (see Ebook Sales Down?), but Joe made that post in late June, and June has been my second best month after July.
No. I think the main factor for me has been the falloff in blogging. And I also have to wonder about John Locke’s approach to blogging, which he goes over in his book How I Sold 1 Million Ebooks in 5 Months, in which he advises making few posts that tug on the readers’ heartstrings (that’s what it boils down to for me, but I don’t want to steal the man’s thunder). Now, obviously he’s doing something that’s working well for him, but he was already a millionaire businessman before he set pen to paper as an author, and I suspect he has the ability to deliver things in a way that most of the rest of us don’t. I think it’s a great idea, but I suspect that he’s the exception, rather than the rule. Just sayin’.
And if you’re thinking, “Holy cow! I don’t have time to blog!” keep this in mind: I was holding down a full-time job, was writing novels at a completion rate of around nine months per book, and was blogging at least weekly for most of the first half of this year. Was it exhausting? Hell yeah! Did it pay off? In spades: I gave up my day job in mid-August to write full-time. And I’m now convinced that blogging was a big help in getting me there.
So, the bottom line for me is that while you can hook up with people on Twitter or Facebook easily enough, I think you have to give your readers and potential fans more meaty tidbits to educate and entertain them on a steady basis to keep them coming back to your blog. It’s really all about exposure, giving them more opportunities to learn about you and – hopefully – check out your books (and get on that all-important mailing list)!
Hi Michael,
I think what you say is bang on but my problem is finding a subject matter that is relevant to my books and both entertaining and interesting to the reader. Do you have any tips on where you get the inspiration for your blogs?
Kind regards
Sinclair Macleod
Sinclair – As it happens, I found a great source of ideas this morning: 101 Great Posting Ideas That Will Make Your Blog Sizzle, but there are also a ton of other ideas out there. The thing to keep in mind is that your posts *don’t* always have to have something to do with your books. In fact, most of them probably shouldn’t. I think the main point of the blog is really to just give folks an opportunity people get to know you and think, “Hey, he (or she) seems sorta cool. Maybe I’ll check out his/her books…”
Thanks Michael
Great advice
Cheers
Sinclair
So, does that mean as I hone my writing skills by blogging I will then go on to emulate you and Mr Locke?
Tom, anything is possible…
I agree with Michael, blogging is one of the most powerful, and most available, tools in your marketing arsenal. And we’re not the only ones who think that.
In Marketing Sherpa’s Social Marketing Benchmark Report, their research showed that blogging is 50% more effective than social marketing. Other agencies and marketing firms have found similar results. In effect, blogging is only superseded by personal recommendations when it comes to selling a product.
Social marketing is great, but it’s like a cocktail party — fast, light, easily forgotten conversation. You need to talk a lot be heard. Blogging, on the other hand, resonates. It’s substantial enough to reach and connect with other people. Sometimes its a personal message, other times its information — but, if done well, it has meaning. That sense of meaning is how you connect on the web.
With the power of social media, many discount the blog and the website behind it. Twitter is easy, blogging is hard. Websites cost a little money. So, looking for faster, cheaper, easier a lot of webizens blow off the website. But the website, and the blog behind it, are the most powerful selling tool you’ve got! When someone comes to your site to read your blog, they are on your turf. An artful website will call readers to action. What that action is depends on the owner of the website, but for most reading this blog I assume it’s to buy a book and/or stay connected (RSS, newsletter, Twitter, etc).
Savvy marketers use their blog to bring readers to the website. They write about topics that interest them. Copyblogger recommends the following mix:
10-15% Entertainment/personality style posts
50-60% Valuable tips
10-15% Weighty Content/High Value Posts
5-15% Content to build relationships with other bloggers
5% Pure Selling
The idea is you write blog posts that are interesting/entertaining/valuable, you maximize SEO, you post out on Twitter/Facebook and you draw people in to your site through the link sharing and search of those blog posts. Once people get there, they see that 1) you’re cool and 2) you have something to sell that they might be interested in.
The whole idea through blogging, social networking and email marketing is to get people to your website. That’s why we’ve spent a great deal of time the last couple of weeks fine tuning Mike’s new site (I hope you all like it). We want the make sure Mike’s site does as much work as it can so he can spend less time selling and more time writing.
Wonderful post, Michael! Thanks for the invaluable information.
Thanks for the great advice, Michael and Rob. By the way, the new site looks great!
Cheers!
~ Rob
You’re spot on about blogging, and it’s one of those nebulous things that’s hard to quantify, so it’s nice to see you make the connection. I LOVE blogging, so it’s not hard to keep doing it (although time consuming), but I’m not always sure I’m doing it right. I’m considering creating a second blog for postings about my book when it releases, to be a display portal for my book-ravings and not overwhelm my regular blog postings. What do you think?
Susan – I have no idea if I’m doing it right! But it helps keep your name in front of people, and I try to post things that are either helpful, thoughtful, or entertaining. I used to have a few different blogs, but it was just too much work. If you go that route, best of luck, though!
Great blog post, there. It seems somewhat intuitive, but a strong “presence” both as an author and as a human being appears to be the most compelling way to build readership.
I have noticed the same thing. Sales for Commander and Den Asaan were great in June and July, and then died in August. I realized I stopped blogging because I was preparing for the Haanta Series tour. Started posting articles and Story a Days again and suddenly, more sales.
I only set up a blog and twitter account weeks ago, getting ready for my first novella to be self published via smashwords and Kindle etc as an ebook. I keep reading that blogging and tweeting help drive sales. But I’m…still trying to get my head around the how and why of it. If a new person send out a tweet, how will they get lots of people to see their blog?Most newbies like me only have a handful of followers….
In the meantime, I’m genuinely enjoying looking at authors’ blogs, and the discussions in the blogosphere how beook self-publishing may be the way of thefuture. And I love the idea of a worldwide community of writers, supporting and encouraging each other .
Marsha – One of the biggest keys is time. Very, very few people just walk into the publishing scene (especially self-publishing) and blow a hole in the rankings overnight. That can happen – Amanda Hocking is an example – but it’s rare. For most of us, it takes time to build up our readership, and the blog is a key way to do that. You start by interacting with folks on Twitter and Facebook. Doing a little promo there is fine, but what you mainly want to do is just let people get to know you. Over time that will lead them to be interested in checking out your web site and your books. To me, the main purpose of the blog is to have a place that has (hopefully!) lots of good content that will keep them coming back. That gives more exposure for your books, and one thing will hopefully lead to another, and you’re blog visitors will become readers!
The how and why for blogging and social media all comes down to numbers. Obviously, the more people who see it, the more people who have the opportunity to read and share. The entire idea is to bring people from around the web back to your website, so you can have a more meaningful exchange.
Take this article, for example. At the time I’m writing this, according to the Share widget, this article has been tweeted 38 times and “Liked” once. That means it’s probably been exposed to over 20,000 people by now. That’s a lot of people. The question is, what did they do? Did some of those people retweet this post? If so, to how many followers? It doesn’t take much imagination to start extrapolating just how far this post has gone across the web.
There are 14 comments so far — two by me, four by Michael–meaning 8 readers saw the need to fully interact. That’s another indicator, as the marketing assumption is .5%-3% of readers will interact. Using math, you’re looking at approx 400 people have read this post. That’s pretty good.
These types of numbers are how blogging and social media work to bring attention to your stuff. You write good content, others read it and pass it along, more people come to read it, it rises in Google rankings, and even more people come to read it. When a writer interacts with the readers through the comments, people take note — even those not commenting. This all combines to build and strengthen the circle around the writer. Larger/stronger circle means a stronger trust/relationship between the writer and readers, which equates to sales.
It takes a while to build that circle, but as you do your exposure (and sales) will increase.
And that’s how blogging works! Good luck!
Huh, at least I’m doing the blog part of this whole business right, haha. I post to mine 3 times a week, I’m building my following on Twitter and FB, and I’m working on new material for my next book of novellas. No full length novel yet…but I’ll bust one out one of these days even if it kills me!
I mention all this because just today I was feeling discouraged about low sales for my current couple of books. Of course, I’m still relatively new at all this so that shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s nice to know at least that I’m doing all of the right things when it comes to the marketing side. (Except for the newsletter thing…I don’t have the slightest idea how to make one nor how to set one up on my blog. That and the idea of them kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but maybe that’s just my natural aversion to marketing, haha)
The only factor that there hasn’t been enough of has been the one I have no control over really: Time. It just takes time to build this stuff up. Time and a little luck (the latter has never been my strong suit)
It’s good to know that blogging makes a difference. Sometimes i feel I’m talking to myself because comments can be sparse. Then I see the stats and realise that people are reading after all.
Good luck for future books and blog posts.
Val
Somehow I ended up here. Not sure how, but I’m glad I did. Great article. I’m new to blogging but reading this helps reaffirm why I’m doing it. Of course, I don’t have any books to sell…yet. But I’m enjoying the blogging experience so far and looking forward to building a solid readership. Thanks for sharing.
Wesley, I love your blog. Retweeted something. It’s good to wake up after a crazily short weekend sleep and have a good chuckle.
Thanks Valerie! I really appreciate the feedback! I’m following you now on Twitter. I look forward to tweeting and sharing!
Thanks. I love finding gems amongst the millions of things out there on the net.
Thanks Michael.
As someone just starting out and who is working toward quitting his day job to write full time, I appreciate the info.
Cheers!
Steve
http://www.steveroth.net