Blogging for Authors: Lesson #12
Your passion and sense of purpose inspired you to write a book. You want to inspire change or transform readers’ lives. You want to become an author of change. Indeed, each time you put your fingers on the keyboard, you have the opportunity to make a positive and meaningful difference in the world with your words. However, you can transform more lives if you publish your words on a blog than in a book. If you produce both—if you blog a book—your ability to author change grows tremendously.
I started blogging in 2006. I blogged my first book in 2010, and I have written at least five books intentionally on my blog—post by post—and created four “booked” blogs out of repurposed blog posts since then.
I reach more people with my blog every day than I do with my books. Many of my books are Amazon bestsellers, but that doesn’t mean they sell hundreds or thousands of copies per day. I’m lucky if they sell a few thousand per year.
On the other hand, my blogs get read by hundreds of people per day and thousands of people per month. Not only that, my blog readers tell me regularly in emails, tweets, comments, and other social media shares how much my posts mean to them and how my words help transform their lives. I get emails from readers of my books, too, but not as often.
You can Make a Difference as a Blogger
Without a blog, it’s hard for your potential readers to find you. Even if you have a website, without a blog the site will sit in cyberspace like a brochure doing nothing to help your message get heard or read. Add a blog to your site, and you have a greater ability to become a change agent, transform lives, and create movements.
A blog provides the perfect way to reach your target audience and to deliver your inspirational or informational message. The more often and the more regularly you publish your posts, the more discoverable your site becomes. When you publish posts on your blog consistently, the site rises in the Google search engine results pages (SERPs), which will make your work more easily found by those who need the salve you have to offer for their wounds or the prescription you have to ease their pain. Eventually, your site or your posts might appear on the first SERP—and maybe even in the #1 position. That makes it really easy for readers to learn about you, your book, and your message.
As your blog gains discoverability and readers, your posts get shared across a variety of social networks. (Of course, you need to begin the sharing and include a way for readers to easily share the posts.) This increases the reach of your message, which means you can transform more people with your words.
Additionally, as you gain visibility and reach, you gain authority. With that comes influence. Readers begin to know like and trust you and what you write, and they, therefore, become more apt to do what you say. That means when you suggest a way to transform their lives or the world, they are more likely to adopt your changes or become part of your movement or cause.
Blog a Book to Become a Change Agent
I’m not belittling the need for a book; bloggers, authors, and change agents need books as well as blogs.
Becoming an author helps you reach additional readers with your message of transformation—those who prefer books or who only read books.
But many change agents (and aspiring authors) feel overwhelmed by the process of writing a book. The project feels so big and long. That’s where blogging a book comes in. It’s an easy and efficient way to write, publish, and promote your book—and your message—all at the same time…post by post.
Plus, when you blog a book, you complete your manuscript while you build an author platform. That means you create a built-in readership for your book(s) as well as for your blog. You complete the job of promotion while you write your book, and you don’t have to work any harder or longer to complete this task.
When you have an author platform, you have a built-in readership for your book and for your blog. These same people will be interested in joining your movement or cause, and you can now ask them to do so.
Transform Yourself from Writer to Change Agent
If you don’t think you are a change agent, think again. Everyone who wants to blog or wants to write a book can author change. Every time your posts help readers improve their personal or professional lives, you become an author of change.
And if it is your passion and purpose to make a positive and meaningful difference in the world, there is nowhere better way to do so than with a blog and a blogged book.
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