{"id":19944,"date":"2013-04-18T06:30:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T18:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=19944"},"modified":"2013-04-24T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2013-04-24T07:22:07","slug":"on-blogging-the-interrelationship-with-writing-or-is-blogging-a-marketing-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/04\/18\/on-blogging-the-interrelationship-with-writing-or-is-blogging-a-marketing-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"On Blogging & The Interrelationship With Writing–Or, Is Blogging A Marketing Tool?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late last year, I was asked by SpecFicNZ<\/a> to\u00a0write an article for the organisation’s newsletter on my thoughts on blogging as\u00a0 marketing tool. The subject has come up several times since then in different, but always related—discussion-wise—circumstances, so I thought I would re-post it here.<\/p>\n

I would certainly be interested in hearing your thoughts, whether as a writer, a blogger, social media user, or even a marketer (if there are any marketers out there. \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

“On Blogging & The Interrelationship With Writing <\/span><\/h3>\n

So here’s the thing: I don’t believe blogging is a marketing tool for writing\u2014and certainly not on its own, i.e. without some other force driving readership to the blog. If anything, my view is that more often than not it is one’s writing that drives readers to the blog, rather than the other way about. The exception would be the person who is already a social media personality or an established identity in another field, whether it is entertainment, politics, or simply an ‘other life’ as a social media maven.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may query my “authority” for asserting this view and I will readily state that it is totally my subjective opinion and may be completely wrong. But it is a subjective opinion formed from nearly three years of blogging every day (with or without a spirit of “joyful exhilaration.”[1]<\/span><\/a> It’s also based on what I understand with respect to some of the “big name” literary bloggers, such as John Scalzi and Neil Gaiman. For example, I have been told that John Scalzi already had a well-established reputation as a freelance (non fiction) writer and commentator before moving into fiction; consequently, a good deal of his following is grounded in those early roots. Neil Gaiman is a literary blogger\u2014but had been writing graphic novels, novels, and screenplays for a considerable period before moving (extremely successfully) into the evolving social media realm. But my point is that he didn’t enter into social media to create an audience for his writing, but to extend what was already well established.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the writer starting from scratch, therefore, my personal view is that a blog is unlikely to be that helpful in marketing one’s writing. As one’s writing becomes more successful though, I would expect blog visitor numbers to grow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The catch, of course, is that creating a successful blog takes a lot of time, creative energy, and sheer hard work. So, too, does the writing that is most likely to generate blog visitors. The question the author has to ask her or himself, therefore, is do I want to spend that of time, creative energy, and sweat on building a blog or on my writing? Am I blogging to support my writing, or writing to support my blog? The answer to these questions will dictate how much time the writer should spend on either endeavour.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if the author is blogging solely to market books, then my respectful suggestion is: “waste of time.” A quick look at the wide, wide world of the internet reveals that it is absolutely chock full of writers touting their wares via almost every social media mechanism possible. “Standing out” in the midst of all that would seem to be a task comparable to that of Hercules cleaning the Augean stables. One or two writers will get lucky, but most of us who are not demigods will simply get drowned in the flood\u2014not to mention the “noise.”<\/span><\/p>\n

#<\/span><\/p>\n

So why have a blog at all? In my view, a blog can function well in a number of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Firstly\u2014either in conjunction with or instead of a website\u2014it can act as the social media equivalent of a shop front, with a post-box for mail: i.e. interested parties can use it to find out a bit about the blogger and what s\/he has to offer, and get in touch directly if they want to go that far. Importantly though, the blog owner does not have<\/em> to converse:\u00a0 s\/he has control over whether the shopfront door is locked or unlocked.<\/span><\/p>\n

A second option is for the blog to act as a “front porch”\u2014the place where the blogger hangs out so people can visit and talk about mutually interesting “stuff.” In other words, the blogger allows comments and hopes conversations may ensure. My “\u2026on Anything, Really”<\/em> blog is a “front porch.”<\/span><\/p>\n

If the blogger wishes to use blogging in the same way the eighteenth century literati used coffee houses, i.e. to participate in a wider world of discussion and ideas, then s\/he may have to either join or create a blog that becomes a destination, usually in conjunction with other like-minded folk. I would argue that the newly formed BookSworn<\/span><\/a> site (of which I am a member) is a “coffee house” blogging option, while SF Signal<\/a>, where I currently post once a month, is more of a SFF “town square.”<\/span><\/p>\n

None of these options is about marketing though: they’re all primarily about communication,<\/em> conversation<\/em>, and community<\/em>. To an extent, conversation and community may extend into networking, but only in an informal sense. And although communication, conversation, and establishing community may always be present in the mix that adds up to “marketing”, there is a great deal more to the “dark art” than that\u2014and the two should never be confused for each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

So for me, blogging is not about marketing at all. If one accepts that, then the questions around “why blog” and “how blog” hinge on how important communication, conversation, and community are to one’s writing, and how much time one wishes to take from that writing to achieve secondary goals.”<\/span><\/p>\n


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[1]<\/span><\/a> O-Sensei, the founder of the martial art aikido, is alleged to have exhorted his students to “train every day with a spirit of joyful exhilaration.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late last year, I was asked by SpecFicNZ to\u00a0write an article for the organisation’s newsletter on my thoughts on blogging as\u00a0 marketing tool. The subject has come up several times since then in different, but always related—discussion-wise—circumstances, so I thought I would re-post it here. I would certainly be interested in hearing your thoughts, whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19944"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20078,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19944\/revisions\/20078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}