Wednesday’s promoting tip for authors

Blogging is an essential promoting tool for author. Long before their book appears, today’s authors need to have established a web presence with a blog. One of the best ways authors can get an instant education in successful blogging is to monitor Chris Brogan’s Community & Social Media blog.

Chris’s blog posts, and the comments that follow, reflect a near-perfect balance between strategies and tactics, goals and “how to’s.” Chris Brogan’s posts not only discuss goals and why’s, they also describe implementation details and how’s.

Chris blogs frequently, but there is no fluff. His ideas are strong. often accompanied by meaningful comment from his readers.

50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level
One of Chris Brogan’s most important recent posts is titled, 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level, The following are some of the ways that Chris leveraged this topic to success.

1. Relevance. The 50 ideas, based on observed best-practices, are focused and helpful, useful for bloggers in all areas.
   
2. Clarity. The 50 tips are both insightful as well as concisely written and edited. There’s no fluff, so the ideas emerge with minimum fuss.
3. Conversational. Chris’s writing style is very conversational they are. Words are short, verbs are active, and most sentences are short. Long sentences occasionally alternate with short sentences.
4. Organization. Chris has organized his 50 tips into 5 logical categories, each introduced by a subhead that provides a context for the tips that follow. This chunking improves reader retention and helps readers relocate desired information later.

Examples
Here are a few excerpts from Chris Brogan’s 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level post, reprinted in their entirety. (Chris invites other bloggers to distribute his list, as long as they provide a link back to his blog.)

• It’s okay to use a personal voice. In fact, there’s no point blogging if you’re going to write like a cold robot. But keep personal and useful in balance.
• Put your blog posts on a diet. Read them with your audience in mind. Can you thin them out? Remove unnecessary words. Make them tight.
• Is your layout readable? Are your fonts clean and easy to read? Are your color choices all they can be? A little time with your stylesheet goes a long way.
• Read. Read. Read. Get outside the blogosphere. Find sources of information that span far beyond what your competitors are covering.
• Review your blog posts monthly to see if you’re covering the same ground. If you are, consider building an editorial calendar to post from, so that you don’t overlap and repeat topics too often.
• Remember: even if your blog’s main goal is selling, be human, be interesting, be involved. This isn’t the old Internet. We have these nifty social tools that remind us to be human. Let’s use them that way.

Note the clarity and simplicity of the writing. No unnecessary words or ideas, just ideas presented as if Chris were speaking to you.

New Marketing Summit in Boston, October 14 & 15

Those who want to learn more about social marketing techniques from experts like Chris Brogan, Paul Gillin, and David Meerman Scott can attend a special New Marketing Summit, Oct. 14-15, at Gillette Stadium, south of Boston. This is your chance to profit from the experiences of the leaders in social media marketing. Note: ask about a special discount for Published & Profitable friends and members. Published & Profitable members can also learn more about social marketing by listening to my recent interviews with Paul Gillin and David Meerman Scott.