Writing

Publishing, SEO, and Blogs

Writers, myself included, want to be recognized for their hard work that they do.  They want to have books published, and their names in print, and they want to have that now.

blogs business
the blog cloud

It’s great most people want the ‘now’ in their lives, but I’ve personally been around the blogging world long enough to understand that this isn’t a case of overnight success.  I’m sure most writers have heard the siren call of “just post and they will come… with money!” The reality is this doesn’t happen all that often.  There is something missing to the whole art of money, and publishing, and that is Search Engine Optimization.  This is the key, or the missing link to a better chance of sales and more sales for your book.

Publishing, a book, or a blog is a lot of intense work.  No one said it was easy being a writer, and no one can say the same about blogging.  Blogs are a sort of ‘housework’ type of writing, which you can potentially earn income with should you get to this land of plenty.
Which brings a writer to the heart of the problem, quality and content. The concept of making money online, but I’m not in any way suggesting a drop in quality and yet, people say you need more content all the time.  For the most part, blogs are not as important as books when it comes to the writing life, they are the place where people can share things about writing they are passionate about.  The focus, and rightly so, is on books, and selling their books.  They still need an online platform to make it work.
If you can keep this part in mind, you can always be happy with how your blog is running.

However, there is always that glimmer of ‘more.’

Let’s do a checklist, you’ve published a book or two, and you want to increase your sales on your books by using the power of your blog.  The thing is, you have some wonderful, loyal followers on your blog or website, but, and this is a big but, the challenge is you need more people.
Off to Google you go, and it is then you come to the conclusion you’ve got a problem.
There are millions of blogs, and websites out there.  You’ve got a following, you’ve got the books, but now you have to get the people to find you without having to send a million links out to get it done.  Google+ and Twitter and Facebook and a host of other social media can only get you so far.  It’s on to the ‘big boys.’  The biggest boy on the block in this case is Google.
I am assuming almost everyone has heard about Google, but the biggest search engine out there is one that a writer with a blog needs to consider at some point.  This is where SEO comes to play.  SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is a very technical term for being seen on the Internet- through Google or any other search engine. There are many different thing that are involved concerning SEO, for example there is http://www.johntking.com/check-bulk-urls-google-sheets/ which some people get involved in. It’s only a little part of it, but it could be important to you.  SEO can also be generalized for publishing books, and Amazon. A book I’ve used for a while, SEO Step-by-Step has helped me put this into focus.

What does SEO have to do with publishing?

Good question.  For some writers there isn’t much of a connection, bit for others it is a reason to pause and think for a moment, because it is a big deal in a way.  The more people that find your blog on the big Internet, the more likely you will gain more followers, and the more books you sell.  The more books you sell, the more money you earn, and this is because you worked with some SEO services, which are so easy to get and do greatly benefit you.

glasses and reading
It’s good to read up on SEO

Have a look at how to create SEO content, do research, learn the best tricks and tips. And no, I’m not suggesting it’s something everyone needs, but it is something every writer should consider if they don’t have as big a name as the next person.  They need more people to buy their books, but with a blog, they can have people go and purchase a book far easier through Amazon, and they can see their sales, and this is partly because as a writer, they looked at basic SEO.

In a sense, learning how to make your blog, and by extension your book more visible to the regular reader, is important, and publishing, SEO, and blogs work together to create more of a network you won’t otherwise have.

2 Comments

  • Jessica Donegan

    I perceive it as a very fine line. I want to have SEO ability, but I don't want to tailor my writing to SEO so completely that it sounds like a robot created it specifically to gain pings through google.

    To me some of the "personality" and "voice" people are always touting comes from the words and phrases we choose. Too much search optimization and all those words and phrases will be the same.

    But I don't know for certain, I'm still learning about blogging and community building. I want to be read, but I don't want to lose my voice to do it.

    Of course I'm in a different place than you right now too. I don't have any books published. That's on my list along with expanding my blog followers and building a relationship with other writers/pulishers.