I participated to two hangouts during Britmums Live last Friday. I'm the one with the comedy poncho [this is my partner's view, personally I think it's a hyper-cool Spaghetti Western look, thank you very much].
For some reason the sound is a bit iffy here and there, so I have decided to sum up what I learnt through these two sessions. I will be brief, if you are gagging for more, just watch the videos. Disclaimer: comments in [ ] are my own opinions, not panel of experts' views.
The themes in a nutshell (in no particular order):
- the challenges of monetizing a new blog [nobody knows you, who are you???]
- how to submit your writing to a literary agent or publisher [do some research, please]
- how much promotion is needed to be spotted [how long is a piece of string?]
- how you can get more followers [I suppose bribery/emotional blackmail are out of the question?]
- how you can raise your game
- how to blag products [sorry, I meant blog about products - after all we are giving away advertising space out of the goodness of our heart for a pittance, sorry again, I meant enthusiasm about the brand]
Pointers:
- be passionate
- have your own style
- share good content and great pics
- be regular [not in the toilet department, we are talking blogging here]
- promote your blog using digital media platforms
- build a community
- get traffic by talking to people [don’t plug your blog too much, though, nobody likes blogging bores]
- get into discussions and conversations [not virtual scraps, easy tiger!]
- aim for a clear design so the blog is readable [no green-coloured fonts, please]
- don’t rush to submit if you want a book deal. Polish and get a good digital presence
- get people to follow you [sadly stalkers don't count]
- study your competitors and do better
- ask for bloggers to guest-post
PS: I really felt the G+ force there and I will try to use google+ more.
Really good tips that will help so many bloggers and would-be authors.
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