Blog entries will always get more clicks than Short Stories, but if you’re an aspiring author you need to do one of these things more. “How to” articles will drive traffic to your site, but will they pique anyone’s interest in your fiction? What’s the overlap between your readers in each medium? Odds are your blogging voice and your narrative voice sound completely different.
If you share more blogs than fiction, you’ve only established one of your brands.
I’ve had success writing about online marketing, but I’m more interested in writing horror than I am being a social media mentor. Yes, I could get around Twitter’s link limiting algorithm by writing endless articles about it, but that’s not why I’m here in the first place.
I’ve decided that my site needs to take a hit in monthly clicks so I can pursue my niche. If that means rebuilding my audience from the ground up, so be it.
There’s no shortage of bloggers who blog about blogging for bloggers who do the same, writing empty self perpetuating content that dates itself upon publication. I’m going to exit that cycle for a while.
You may have noticed the change already. This last May I’ve posted 5 short stories. I don’t know if I can keep that level of creative output going all summer long (I also have a novel to edit), but I want share as much fiction as I do blogs on writing.
There are so many would-be authors building brands by giving advice on the craft of writing. That’s been my strategy for four years now.
I’ve found that the audience that enjoys my blogging voice doesn’t really know my creative writing voice yet. That needs to change. So brace yourself for more twisted fiction to come.
Fantastic. This has been so much on my mind “why I even HAVE a blog site” and at what point does it go from writing to marketing and thus losing the entire original purpose, which I had THOUGHT was to simply have a public platform on which to write. You have clearly already paid the dues and done the work and have the followers while I have just really begun even considering the whole marketing/networking process. But I will say that I actually really like blog sites like yours where there is a combination of solid writing without too many distractions in terms of marketing, but also a bit of help in terms of direction when it comes to becoming a successful blogger. So good for you writing what you want to, what calls to you, but also thank you for paying it forward a bit with some thoughts on “how to”.
I’m not done writing “how to” articles on writing. Writing is my favorite subject and I’m still reading up on the craft. When I’m passionate about a writing concept that would be my main post for the week.
Right now I’m doing short fiction because it occurred to me I hadn’t in a while. When I started the “how to” articles and the fiction were a 50/50 split.
Thanks for commenting and continuing to check out the site. Good luck with your blog. I’d say the best blogging strategy, first and foremost, is to write about whatever your most passionate about in the moment and hopefully that passion will be contagious.
“write about whatever you’re most passionate about in the moment and hopefully that passion will be contagious.”
That’s what I needed to hear. I’ve been toying with a heartfelt need to put together a little book for NICU parents (a glorified pamphlet, really) to hep them wade through the stressful, emotional, confusing time of having an infant in the hospital. The one thing that was really stopping me was the idea of having to come up with another blog/website for it. Not going to happen with a 1.5 year old dragging me away from the computer to help build block towers. But, I can do posts, on my existing blog, about the emotional and practical realities of hovering around a hospital as a new parent. Thanks. 🙂
Go for it, Drew. You owe it to yourself indeed.
Thanks a lot, man. I’m going to try to keep it up!
I know what you mean. I’ve seen the same in my own blogging. There does seem to be a disconnect between readers who read the articles about writing and publishing, which seems to get a lot more attention than when I post episodes to the fiction blog (and reblog it to my writing blog).
It’s a different audience. And I agree that a lot of blogs about blog do seem to just cycle in circles, rather than pushing outward through other readers.
I personally really like blogging about writing (so much so that I can get caught up in writing articles rather than editing the stories I’m trying to publish). But I have wondered about how to get the right audience to be aware of the fiction portion of the blog.
I really enjoy your articles about writing (I think that’s how I found your blog, actually… your articles about writing horror around Halloween), but I also enjoy your short stories when I have a chance to read them. I hope that the switch works well for you. 🙂
Thank you kindly.
I hope to continue putting out writing advice columns just half the time. The other half will be spent sharing short stories. Sometimes 500 word flash fiction and sometimes near 5,000 word pieces like this week’s post I AM FIRE.
I’ll pay attention to what people are checking out. I know my “How to” articles will get more clicks. I just have resist the allure of only doing that.
Makes sense. Good luck with your writing. 🙂
Evolve or die, right? It’s true that often once we achieve a certain degree of popularity writing in a particular niche, our audience sometimes won’t stay with us when we stray outside the lines. But we have to do what moves us, and when we start writing solely to meet expectations, inspiration will wither. Good luck with the new direction, Drew – for what it’s worth I’ll still be clicking. 😀