iUniverse Blog

iUniverse says use blogging for your book marketing

iUniverse believes blogging is a key element of social media. In many opinions it is also the best SEO source out there but it must be used in conjunction with the other forms of social media such as Twitter or Facebook. Otherwise people will not know that your blog exists.

Authors often question if they should have a blog but if you have a done a book signing recently you will quickly realize that the answer is yes. One of the first questions that people ask is about your social media platform and that means social media and blog. A blog like all parts of your book marketing must be planned not just casually entered into. Take a look at the tips below which should help you get your blogging up and running in a quality planned environment.

Topics

Too few or too many topics that you blog about will cause confusion and turn off by readers of your blog. We suggest that five is the optimum number to write under. Having five will enable you to write about you genre and related items to your book without the blogs being solely about your book.

Titles

Blog titles are the most critical part of any blog. Coupled with four strong first sentences you will hook and reel in the reader. Brainstorming a number of working titles each time before you start to write will keep you on the straight and narrow.

Frequency

Determine how often you want to blog. In other words you should not publish a dozen posts in the first week then leave the blog fallow for the subsequent weeks. Be consistent with the frequency of your posts. So if you can only blog bi-monthly, always blog bi-monthly but keep to the same days each month. However posting one a week minimum is the recommended frequency.

Length of Posts

With the ever increasing pace of modern life in order to keep people returning to your blog do not make your posts over long The ideal length is around 400 to 500 words which is an advantage in itself because if you have more to say, then you can make a series of posts. If the initial part is good people will want to read the next and so on. Sub heads are also a positive to break up the text so it’s easier to read.

Images

iUniverse at the bookstore

Another winning tactic for blogs is to include images in each post. Videos can also be used as a change of pace from photos but obviously the video must be right for the post. Regarding using images or videos it is vital that you get your pictures legally. There are free images out there but always read the usage licenses and always err on the side of caution.

iUniverse self-publishing blog trusts these tips will help you in your book marketing efforts.