Making the Blog Work

To those of you who are casual spectators and come in to the blog to check the post and then check out, you may not have noticed anything different. For the keener observer, I hope you’ve noticed a few, perhaps subtle, changes. It started months ago when I noted it was time to step it up and make the blog work! FIRST–a change of theme!

That started a whole boatload of changes: 

1) Started with a class late last year.

2) Currently, there is a free WordPress Blogging University, Blogging 101 class–it’s like getting a writing prompt–and it opens the floodgates.

3) Reach out and touch someone–add to your web log. Examples: I’m enjoying Shanan Winters and her Interpreter of Inspiration blog. She has just published her first novel and has a lively blog–obviously having previously read and implemented all the wonderful “how to” articles I’ve been hitting. Ana Spoke has a very dynamic blog in which she just discovered “Face Swap Live“, a cell phone app that she used to promote her new book AND make a book trailer for “Shizzle, Inc.” Hilarious and way too much fun!

Get Back to the Basics

Anyway, getting back to Blogging 101 and back to basics, they have strong ideas on creating a vibrant and forceful “About Me” page. If you haven’t already, check out the changes I made to this one! Get connected with other like-minded bloggers. In addition, they include introductions to a number of elementary links to give your blog an edge, such as using your widgets in your sidebar to best advantage. Play with colors and themes and add logos, featured pictures, and banners!

Here is the Surprise

The endless social media suggestions I’ve mentioned before, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest: Did you realize that Pinterest is #4 and gaining fast? There are pins on “How to Set Up Your Author Profile on Goodreads (and why you should)” to “Master List of Facial Expression Descriptions for Writers.” Pinterest includes a wide range of subjects from shopping to health. There is little you can’t research, find, and probably do better than on Google+. I recently read that Pinterest garners over 100 million monthly active users. That’s one hundred million (with an M). Can you get a piece of the pie or buried in it? Ergo the constant education… How to generate the “buzz.”

There is a constant barrage of hints on strengthening the blog structure, making it more appealing, adding interest, adding color, adding nauseum. My gosh! Who knew there was so much potential–so little tapped! So far, Blogging 101 has been well worth the time and effort. As with the earlier Author Blog Challenge, exercises are meant to introduce new facets of the program. The goal is grow. Let’s look at it together! 2016 © Virginia Williams