11 Hot Tips for Writers With Blogs

There are bloggers who write, and then there are writers who blog. What’s the main difference?

Bloggers are immersed in the technology and community that is blogging, while writers’ expertise is in word craft. Sure, the two make for a successful marriage since bloggers must write, and writers can reap great benefits from having a blog. Still, there’s a lot to master in both of these worlds. Here are ten things you, as a writer, can do to make your blog a little (or a lot) more successful:

1. Subscribe to Problogger. Darren Rowse will teach you everything you need to know to run a successful and profitable blog. Since he earns over six figures a year as a full time professional blogger, he’s certainly got the information you need! At first, a lot of it might seem like mumbo jumbo, but after a few months, you’ll be talking about CPMs right along with the best of them.
2. Break it Up. Writers are used to reading and composing long strings of text, but this is not the world of print. Unless your blog post is relatively short (250 words), break it up by using sub-headings, images, and lists.
3. Open up comments. I recently visited a blog that was asking for feedback via comments, and when I went to oblige the request, I found that I had to register in order to leave a comment. Who needs another ID and password? And who wants to go through three security steps just to leave a comment?
4. Ads. Don’t be shy about wanting to earn money from your blogging efforts. Some folks bury ads way down at the bottom of the page as if they were shameful. If you put a lot of effort into your blog (otherwise, why have it at all?), there’s no reason not to display your ads in highly visible areas (they will perform better if they can be seen), but…
5. Don’t overdo it. Don’t clutter up your site with too many images, ads, or widgets. Keep it simple, and if you’re not sure which blog community widget or ads you want to display, try each one for a couple of weeks, track the results, and settle on the best. Oh, and never insert ads into the middle of your posts. This just makes your blog confusing and difficult to read.
6. Be tough. Expect copyright infringement. People will steal your content, so be prepared, and don’t flip out. Blog about it, discuss it, and handle it. Also, be prepared to receive negative feedback. Eventually someone will give your blog or a post on your blog a negative review, either on their blog, in your comments, or on one of the many social networking sites. When this happens…
7. Listen. If you do get negative feedback, take it graciously. Even a harsh criticism will probably hold some kernels of truth, so use it as a learning experience and figure out how you can apply it to making your writing and your blog even better.
8. Make sure your blog connects to any other web site you have, especially anything connected to your blog’s topic. Whenever you mention your other site(s), include a link. This makes it easy for folks to find out more about you and what you have to offer. There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion!
9. Make it easy for readers to subscribe. The whole RSS thing might be new to you, or, maybe you’re familiar with it but you still don’t really understand it. Nevertheless, it’s important. I recommend Feedburner and placing subscription options near the top of your page.
10. Be an active participant. If you want people to come to your blog, you best become a blog visitor yourself. Make sure you leave comments wherever you go, and these should always include a link back to your blog (I use a signature link as well). To make it easy on yourself, get set up with a blog subscription service, which will help you manage subscriptions to all the blogs you like. I use Bloglines and love the way they let me organize blogs in different folders.
11. Link love - give it! Links are how blogs get higher ratings. Don’t be stingy with links. Include a blogroll, and make an effort to mention other blogs (both those with higher and lower rankings than your own) and link to them. I recently read somewhere that you can use some special code to include a link that won’t register on Google. That’s not nice! If a site is good enough to link to, let them reap the benefits!

Bonus: Keep it fresh and focused. Don’t regurgitate everything that’s circling the blogosphere, especially in your own niche. Try to come up with unique and interesting posts. Subscribe to Copyblogger, where you can get some great ideas for generating original content. As for focus, nobody wants to come to a writing blog only to find posts about the antics of this writer’s kitten (you should see him, he’s so cute!). If you want an open-topic blog, start one up, otherwise, keep the focus on zoom.

How do you rate?

Do you practice most of these things already? Are there any other tips you’d add to this list? Do you think writers are Internet and technology savvy? Have questions of your own about being a writer with a blog? Let me know!

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Censorship: The Golden Compass

Brad’s Reader recently reported on the censorship of the children’s book, The Golden Compass. The book has been made into a major motion picture, which is now circulating theaters, so banning the book is timely and most likely being generated by the popularity of the film.

According to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC):

A national Catholic group is urging parents to keep their children from seeing the new film, The Golden Compass, for fear that it will encourage kids to read the book, which they condemn as anti-Christian.

Censoring a written work only adds to its publicity, and in the end, the writer usually wins as a result of all the free press. Everyone suddenly wants to know what’s so forbidden about the book, and next thing you know, copies are flying off the shelves. This was evidenced by the success of the first Harry Potter book, which was condemned by radical Christians for promoting witchcraft and glorifying bad behavior (Harry and his friends have a tendency to break the rules).

In the United States, we are guaranteed freedom of expression. Yet time and again, religious zealots and political or community leaders call for book banning, in a total disregard for the protections we are ensured under the Constitution. Unfortunately, the First Amendment only protects us from censorship by congress, so we are not safe from religious leaders or authoritative librarians.

It’s pretty arrogant to think you know what’s best for everyone else. It’s downright irresponsible to ban a book that you’ve never read, but that didn’t stop the media specialist (another title for librarian) who had in it for The Golden Compass:

“I just heard all the news and I decided to pull them,” Mary Miller said in the December 7 Oshkosh Northwestern, adding that after she has reviewed the books, “I’m not sure what I’ll do with them.

Source: American Library Association (ALA)

Even if Mary Miller had read the books (The Golden Compass is part of a series) before she pulled them from the shelves, her actions still harbor judgmentalism and dictatorship.

Book banning:

1. Gags writers.
2. Blindfolds readers.
3. Removes the right, responsibility, and ability to think for oneself.

In this era, when freedom is constantly being questioned and challenged, and is often at odds with national security, it’s more important than ever for artists, musicians, writers, and others who practice creative expression, to band together and keep a close watch on those who would gag us for their own agenda.

Censorship Resources

National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC)

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Controversial and Banned Books

Your Thoughts

How do you feel about book banning and censorship. Can you think of a situation in which it might be acceptable, legal, or desirable? How would you feel if you could not obtain a title you wanted because the library and bookstores in your community had banned it? As a writer, do you feel vulnerable or affected by censorship? And what would you do, or how would you feel if a book you wrote was banned?

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Writing Forward - New Look and Feel

This project has been a long time coming. Writing Forward now has a new look and feel, including its very own updated logo. What do you think of the new blue color scheme? I’m using Brian Gardner’s Silhouette WordPress theme, which I customized for Writing Forward. Brian is an excellent theme designer. His work is clean, streamlined, and aesthetically pleasing. Plus, it’s relatively simple to customize. If you get a chance, check out his Revolution theme. I’ve been ogling it for months.

Shop

I’ve been thinking about opening an online store, where you can shop for items that I like and recommend for writers. Please check out the Writing Forward Online Store, and feel free to leave suggestions and questions in the comments (below). I’d be happy to add products that readers think would be a good fit. The store will probably see a lot of updates in the coming weeks as I continue to build it.

Top Commentators

I’ve also added a widget that shows Top Commentators. You can get one here, if you’d like. I’ll be displaying the top ten commentators for each month, and you know, there will be a special bonus for them at the end of the month!

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Grammar Girl

As a writer, it’s only natural for me to pay attention to the mechanics of my craft, so I’ve always tried to keep my grammar skills sharp. But last spring, when I discovered the Grammar Girl podcast, my interest piqued, and I started writing much more consciously, even though I still break the rules of grammar now and then. That’s what creative writing is all about, right?

But if you don’t know the rules, then you shouldn’t break them or your writing will come off as amateurish. Good news: there’s a quick and dirty grammar resource out there that will only cost you a few minutes each week, and it will fine tune your grammar skills quickly and easily.

Meet Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl provides short, useful tips on grammar that are easy to remember and put into practice. The information is available in audio format as a podcast, and it’s also available in writing, so if you don’t like listening to podcasts, you can visit the Grammar Girl blog and read the tips instead.

New Grammar Girl episodes are published a few times a week and each one lasts about five minutes or less, and you’ll gain a wealth of information in that small amount of time. No matter how acute your grammar skills are, they’ll become even sharper!

You’ll get:

• Proofreading and editing tips
• Clarification on homophones and word pairs (accept vs. except, less or fewer)
• Information about language and learn words that relate to writing and grammar
• Details about proper sentence structure, writing formats, and word usage
• The straight facts about proper grammar

Grammar Girl was created by a writer named Mignon Fogerty and the show has received much critical acclaim, with appearances and mentions on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The New York Times, and USA Today, to name a few. In fact Grammar Girl is highly credited with sparking a fresh interest in grammar.

Meet Grammar Girl’s Mignon Fogarty

Not only is she the creator of Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty is also the founder Quick and Dirty Tips. She has written for magazines, worked as a technical writer, and is an entrepreneur. Much of her writing experience has been in health and science and she holds B.A. in English from the University of Washington and an M.S. in biology from Stanford.

Get Interested in Grammar

Since discovering Grammar Girl, I’ve acquired plenty of fresh knowledge about grammar, much of which I’ve shared here on Writing Forward’s grammar posts.

For today, I thought I’d pay homage to the source of my revived appreciation for grammar. I encourage all you writers out there to head over and subscribe to Grammar Girl. You can do so through iTunes for the audio podcast or through RSS.

Do you already listen to Grammar Girl, or do you have any other writerly podcasts that you enjoy? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Stop! Thief!

A couple of weeks ago I had my first experience with copyright infringement when I discovered another web site was using my blog posts without my permission. I asked them to remove my material, and they did. Many other bloggers made the same request and were quickly obliged. John Hewitt of The Writer’s Resource Center recently pointed out that the site in question had closed the blog entirely.

Writers generally don’t appreciate it when others publish their work without permission, especially in an effort to generate revenue without offering a cut to the original author. That’s just wrong.

Since then, I’ve come to learn that this is an all too common occurence on the Internet, especially in the blogosphere. Now, when I see my posts being republished, I ignore it for the most part, unless:

• The work is not credited to me, or Writing Forward
• There is no link to Writing Forward or the site where the piece was originally published
• They are using my bandwidth and/or image
• They have altered the piece in any way, including removing the embedded links, many of which link back to my site, and many others which are revenue generators (hey, if you’re going to steal my work, at least let me collect on my own advertising!)

As long as another site posting my work does not do any of these things, I still stand to gain from their re-publication. Links are good, as are bylines, and ad revenue. Stealing bandwidth it totally unacceptable, as is using images that I’ve paid for (I use istockphoto).

Today I came across a blog that had violated ALL of the above and I was peeved. Not only is the webmaster too lazy to write her own blog posts, she’s also stealing my bandwidth, removing my byline and my ad links, and infringing on the copyright that istockphoto manages for the image she’s displaying.

I wrote her a letter letting her know that I was flattered that she liked my post so much, but she needed to make some changes, otherwise I’d have to contact her host as well as istockphoto. Then, I had an idea.

I simply renamed the original image, and made this new one in its place. Now, anyone who is using my original image and bandwidth will be called out on their own site. Plus, maybe I’ll get a little extra traffic.

What do you think about this? Am I being too harsh, or is this a creative (and kind of funny) way to raise a red flag? Leave a comment and let me know!

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