How to blog your way to discoverability

By Nina Amir

Writers write, but they don’t always want to blog—even though this activity involves writing. The reason is twofold: In their minds, blogging equates to promotion, and most writers would rather be writing than promoting. Plus, they think they don’t have time for both blogging and writing.

Here’s the truth of the matter: Your blog provides the best tool for ensuring you and your book get discovered by potential readers in your target market. Not only that, blogging provides a way to write and promote your book at the same time.

In fact, your blog is the best tool in your promotion toolbox. Let me explain.

Your blog increases the reach of your message

Your blog serves as the “primary station” from which you broadcast your message. Think of it like a radio station. You have something important to say, so you say it—write it—on your blog each time you publish a post.

Your blog broadcasts to the Internet and all your social networks. Think of these like satellite stations. Each one receives the message and then broadcasts it out again, giving what you say, or write, more reach and more visibility.

Your blog provides you with a way to reach your potential readers with your message. In the process, you strengthen your brand, gain new readers and subscribers, and gain authority and visibility online.

That’s the first reason a blog is such an amazing tool. Here’s the second.

Your blog increases the discoverability of your book

Every time you publish a blog post, something magical happens. The bots, spiders and crawlers—computer programs—from Google and other search engines show up to “read” what you’ve written. They catalog the keywords, or search terms, in your posts. The more often they find the same keywords, the more often they “file” your blog under those terms.

Here’s what that means for you: If you publish posts often and consistently, and if you focus your posts on one topic (maybe two), your site quickly rises in the search engine results pages (SERPs). After a while, the potential readers of your book who search for related terms find your your blog on the first Google SERP. Maybe you’ll even have #1 Google ranking, which means your site is listed first on the first page of a Google search.

When people do a Google search for anything, they typically don’t look past the first Google SERP—the first ten results. And they only click on links that appear relevant. If your site comes up on that first page and is relevant to their search, they click through to your site. If you advertise your book on your site, they not only find you and you and your blog but your book as well.

That is called “discoverability.” You want discoverability online.

How to get found online by readers

Your blog provides the simplest way for you to get found by readers online—or to get your book found online. To put this tool to use effectively, you need to do three things:

1. Write and publish posts regularly and consistently.
2. Blog only about one or two topics.
3. Share you posts on every possible social network consistently.

Write your book while you blog

Knowing all of this, you still may find the idea of blogging repulsive. I get it; it can take you away from writing your book. And you are promoting rather than creating art.

Look at blogging in a new way. See blogging as a way to write your book as you promote it.

Consider blogging your book, or writing it in post-sized bits that you publish on your blog and promote on your social networks.

When you blog a book, you publish the first draft of your book on your blog post by post. If you are like most bloggers, in the past you have published posts on a variety of topics. The only thing that links the posts is the fact that they are written by the same person or that you blogged about the topics or themes in your book. With the dual-purpose blog-a-book strategy, however, you publish short installments—300-700-word pieces—of your book on your blog. Each installment (blog post) comprises part of a chapter. As such, the posts work like a long series all focused on one topic or theme.

Blog visitors want to keep “turning the pages.” The continuous flow of related blog posts keeps readers coming back for more. And it gives Google a lot of content to catalog!

Promote as you write

That means your blog enjoys more return visitors and more page views. You’ll also gain new readers because you blog in a focused manner. This practice drives up your site in the SERPs, making it more discoverable. When someone searches for information on the topic of your book, they are more likely to find your blog—and your book.

The only thing you need to do to make that happen is:

• Write your book and publish it post by post.
• Take 10 minutes in the morning, afternoon and evening to share your newest post on your social networks.

As you do so, you will build author platform—you will pre-promote your book. You also will build the foundation for effective post-release promotion. And once you finish blogging your book and publish it, you can continue blogging to promote it.

Or blog your next book.

Stop complaining about promotion. Instead, embrace blogging. Turn your blog into the best book-writing, author platform and promotion tool available today.

Win a free printed copy of How to Blog a Book Revised and Expanded Edition: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time by commenting below. We’ll randomly select one U.S. or Canadian commenter. (Sorry about the geography limits — blame the cost of shipping.)