I have never written a book in my life and I wouldn’t know where to start. This blog is the closest thing to a book I have written and will probably help me in discovering and improving my skills as a writer.
If you are new to blogging as I am and you’re topic is huge then take a deep breath and don’t worry too much about it. I have a simple reason for saying this.
Your blog is your personal book to the world online and you have a story to tell everyone who wants to read what you have to write. In order to start you obviously have to have some content so get to writing. Don’t even worry about what others may tell you or even what I’m telling you (though what I’m telling you now would be good to act on).
Pick a domain name that fits the title of your book. Pick a good web hosting company that will take good care of publishing your book and choose a good system for managing the information you are going to have in your book. My domain as you know is bluepop13.com. My web host (at the time of this writing) is Ez-Web-Hosting.com and my system for managing things is WordPress. All work well for what I’m doing with my book.
After this is all done just start writing and sharing with others what you have to say. Then spread the word and create attention back to your book. Get on social media sites and spread the word and let the word spread itself after a while. I’ve never written a book in my life but I’m sure this is similar to the process and maybe even easier than writing an actual book would be.
So instead of worrying about making money or what everyone else is doing, instead just write passionately about what you love and share it with others who take an interest in what you have to say. Be you and keep things on a personal level while still maintaining professional standards. This is, after all, your novel.
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Hi, my name is Eric Heavilin and welcome to BluePop13.com. Here you will find the latest information on how to improve your blog using three simple techniques I've been using since I started this blog in 2010. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks! :)
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Timely post this one buddy,
I’ve been thinking of writing a book on motivation etc but not really sure how to go about it, whether to make a free pdf or go down the whole paper back route, what do you think?
Well, I’d say do what you feel is right for your situation and what you want to bring your audience. I’ve heard getting an actual book published is hard to do but nothing in life worth doing is ever easy.
A pdf would be nice but I also love reading paper back books as well. In fact, I’m currently reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.
You’re off to a great start with things so my advice is go with the paper back, to be perfectly honest.
Hope this helps, best of luck and thanks for stopping by!
I’ve written and sold my own ebooks and have also been published in educational books. Honestly, blogging is much harder! There are many more moving parts. That said, it’s also much more gratifying when done right.
As for aspiring authors out there, writing a book will make you a lot less money than blogging. Unless you’re using the book as a marketing strategy (e.g. to build credibility), it won’t be worth your time. In addition, there are so many ways to get published these days, getting a book out there isn’t nearly as impressive as it was a decade ago.
Hey Gabe,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I honestly don’t know much about publishing a book but I do want to learn how to make my own ebook. It can’t be very difficult as you see them everywhere. I didn’t know you had published books in education and you’ve also sold ebooks. I’d love to read what you’ve got sometime.
Thanks for dropping by.
Well this gave me pause.
I was in the middle of trying to think of new blog posts (and worrying, just a little bit), getting caught up in the ‘now’ of the situation. It’s nice to take a look at the bigger picture and see that, actually, things are the way they should be.
Thank you, and keep on with your book ^_~
Must say though, hope my blog does better than my poor half-abandoned novel!
Heather, thanks for stopping by!
Just keep at it and if you’re ever stuck and not sure where to go with things on your blog, look at other blogs you visit and even take a break from the computer for a while and just let it come naturally to you. There’s so many different things that inspire people. You’ll find yours and I’d love to hear what inspires you!
I took a glance at your blog just quick and some of that 3D stuff looks pretty cool. I’ll have to check it out sometime.
Hey Eric!
Funny, just last night I was mulling over a possible blog post and I was thinking along the lines of “How blogging has made my writing better”. It’s definitely un unforeseen little bonus of blogging!
As for the book/ebook – MikeCJ and Nathan Hagen are making quite a splash (and a profit I dare say) from their new book – so James – maybe that’s the monteization strategy you were looking for!
Yeah I’ve often thought when writing a post how I’m improving my writing skills just by coming up with new ideas for blog posts all the time. Definitely helps you write better and I think blogging even opens your mind to new topics and new ways of helping other people.
I actually haven’t heard of the book you mention. Could you give me more details about it?
Thanks for dropping by, Don!
@TheInfoPreneur
You could always do both. Give away the PDF and let people buy the book.
Don’t worry about publishing you could always get it self published or use Lulu.com to market it, print it and ship it.
That’s not a half bad idea… Giving away a free PDF and then selling the book.
Thanks for sharing, Matt!
My blog is my book at this stage, I write about personal as well as other things. It’s my place where I can have my say and share my opinions and thoughts with others.
When I first started my blog, I never thought of it as my book. Just went on and on about things and now that you have written this post, I feel I am a writer and will continue on my journey as I have done so.
George, glad you stopped by!
A blog is simply just a place to write how you feel about topics and share your views upon those topics with others who share the same interest. The beauty of a blog is that it’s your personal story and if you look at it as a book I believe you’re more inspired (hopefully) to provide better and more useful content to a wider audience as much as possible. Great to know you’re continuing your journey to improving your blog.
If there’s anything I can do to help you out with your journey don’t be afraid to ask.
@Don, @Matthew, Guys have you seen my draft post or something? lol, It’s the exact route i’m going to take.
I’m very excited about it, thanks for the tip on lulu!
@Don, @Matthew, and @TheInfoPreneur
I just checked out Lulu and I’ll look more into it later as well but I think it’s a good place to start if you want to publish your own items. Haven’t used it but it looks pretty good. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for stopping by as well!
Passion is certainly an important ingredient. Without passion you are just banging your lips together, or in the case of a blog, just making clicking noises with the keys.
Everyone has a story to tell but only some are written in such a way as to evoke a big following. Currency of posts, integrity as well as that passion are all required.
If people find what they are looking for in a blog (or your online book) then they will tell others and more will come visit.
Geoff Hey!
Passion is a very important part of all this as it is the line between just doing something because everyone else is and doing something you absolutely love because it’s something you truly enjoy doing.
People will only find what they’re looking for in your blog because they are interested in what you have to say though. This is why it’s so important to have passion in the first place and to know what people want second.
Thanks for stopping by!
I agree with you, just be prepared that not all people will like what you write I learned that some people can have a very negative impact on your writing….but keep up the great work.
Winnie, Hey!
Everyone is different and some may not like my writing. That’s fine because that shows that we all think differently and have strong views on certain things. The important part is to point out a positive response and look at things on a higher level. Help one another when we can even if we do get negative feed back. None is the worst anyone can get.
Nice to see you, come by any time!
I always wanted to write a book but never thought it was possible to assemble and organized that much information. And to focus on a single topic. Everything I do is shotgun. My best accomplishments are with someone who is focused to pull things together and tell me what to leave out.
My blog is shotgun too. I like it but perhaps it isn’t appealing to readers. I need a way to learn what to leave out and what is missing.
Ralph,
My advice on finding out what is appealing to your readers is to just ask. Honestly that’s what I’m constantly doing right now and working on with my blog. You don’t necessarily have to just follow the crowd but learning little tricks here and there and getting yourself involved in a community of helpful bloggers can take you a long way.
Look at other blogs and leave comments and then ask them (not in the comment of course, unless relating to that topic) what they think of your blog and what ideas they have for improvement.
Your blog in my opinion is very open and clean. I also like how you have pictures set up on it. Very creative. I’m not an expert by any means so take what I say how you will as I’m just sharing from the little experience I truly have. You’ll get there.
Thanks for the comment!
Well written and well said as afterall our websites are an expression of who we truly are, as they already are published material and a novel itself.
Ana Goncalves´s last blog ..Share your gifts with the world and shine
Ana,
Glad to have you here. Our websites and blogs alike are us in an online form and where we basically “live” at on the World Wide Web. We need to use them wisely and do whatever it takes to connect with our readers and show our true selves.
Each post or page is a page in itself, yes.
Glad you stopped by, you’re welcome any time!