By If you’re a fiction writer with a blog, you might have noticed that there’s millions of author blogs out there with the exact same message as yours:
“Hey, I’m a new author! Follow me as I write my first novel!”
Now, Carol and others have famously said that you can’t be successful at blogging if all you talk about is you. They’ll point out that many blogs that focus just on an individual’s journey fail miserably.
That’s mostly true.
But in my experience there’s one exception to that rule, and it’s the secret that has made my author blog stand out among the millions of others-launching me from obscurity to Top Ten Blogs for Writers status in less than year.
Here’s the secret to making a blog that’s “all about you” successful:
You need an angle
There’s something about your journey that’s different from the millions of others. The difference is that your journey is yours. Focus on what makes YOU so interesting. What challenges do you face that make the writing process exceptionally hard for you?
Your angle could be a combination of personal interests
For instance, my angle is looking at the intersection between writing and life. The reason why this works for me is because I’m constantly reading writing and self-help literature. I combined both of these loves and voila: Courage 2 Create was born.
You need to have passion
I’m deeply passionate about writing and life. If I didn’t care much about either topic, I’d be less driven to write great blog posts.
You need to be willing to “go there”
Many “writing journey” blogs fail because all they do is scratch the surface of anything real.
So, if you want to be successful, you need to be more open and vulnerable about your personal life.
Even though your blog APPEARS to be all about you-it’s still all about your reader.
Even though your blog will focus on your personal journey, you still must have your readers in mind every step of the way.
Your personal journey is a metaphor for your reader’s journey, so make sure to share a personal story only if you think it’ll be helpful to a broader audience.
You need to be an exceptional writer and storyteller
I’ve studied storytelling with one of the best writing mentors in the world. That’s why I’m so great at what I do. If you struggle with this, I provide a writing consultation service that both tutors writers and edits their work in order to drastically improve their writing.
You need to be active
Lastly, if you want to make your author blog successful, you have to put yourself out there by writing guest posts, entering contests, giving your readers challenges, and marketing yourself like crazy!
Because if you truly want to stand out above the rest, then you’re gonna have to stop just standing there-and get yourself some stilts.
Ollin Morales is a writer. His blog, Courage 2 Create, chronicles the author’s journey as he writes his first novel. The blog offers writing advice as well as strategies to deal with life’s toughest challenges.
