Today’s question is a popular one, primarily because blogging can be time consuming. If you are spending your writing time writing something other than books, are you utilizing your time effectively?

Q. Do I need a blog on my author web site? How do I gain blog followers?

A. I go back and forth on blogs. If you write a helpful blog, people will find you. If you write a hilarious blog, people will find you. If you write blog after blog that says, buy my book, people won’t care. You must blog about content that people care about AND that they are looking for. When they read your content and learn how educated you are, or how witty, they may be intrigued to see what else you’ve written. They may also sign up to receive future notifications from your blog, or follow you on social media.

The problem I have with blogs, is they are time consuming. Half the time, you don’t know what to write, the other half the time you are struggling not to pick sides, political, faith, insert any social debate here. After that, you are spending your writing time, writing free content for people who may or may not read it and then hit the back button and go somewhere else.

On top of that, there are additional marketing avenues like opening your blog up to advertisers, or interviewing other authors, which DOES bring readers but does it connect them to you and your writing? It may, or it may not.

The point with the blog, primarily, is exposure. The more content you have out there, the more chances you have at finding new readers. Yes blogging can be a pain – especially when you don’t get comments letting you know how helpful or fun your blog has been because people don’t want to share their email address due to spam. You begin to wonder if you are screaming into the void and no one is hearing you. You begin to wonder if you are wasting your time, if any of it is worth while. But you keep doing it. Why? Because no one is going to keep you from following your dreams!