I’m in a rather unique position in that I am an author  who also helps authors and other small business owners set up their own self hosted Wordpress blogs.

I’ve been known to extoll the virtues of a self hosted Wordpress blog as a “secret weapon” of many successful authors.  I’ve used my blog at Beyond Niche Marketing to promote my book.  Not only have I sold copies of my book, I’ve However, I must confess there are two things about blogs you should probably know:

1. Not ALL blogs are created equally
2. No blog, not even self hosted Wordpress blog, will perform book marketing magic if they aren’t used correctly!!

Today, I was researching an article for another blog I’ve launched to assist a client of mine who couldn’t wrap her brain around the whole ” a blog can be your website” issue.   She insisted upon a traditional static website and I obliged.  A few weeks ago, I got an email from her asking, “How can I get people to come to my beautiful website?”

Judy Smith Divorce Coach is a beautiful website - perhaps one of the most beautiful websites I’ve had the pleasure of coding.   However, like most static websites, it takes a LOT of time and effort to drive traffic to a traditional website.  Websites are definitely not a “set it and forget it” marketing tool.

So, I launched the blog Divorce Recovery Advice as a “joint venture” with Judy.  She gets the ability to promote her divorce coaching groups via posts to the blog.  I’ve been recruiting other divorce coaches to post their articles as well.  I’ve got Google Adsense ads running on the blog, so it provides a nice little stream of income for me as well.

As I researched information so I could create the blog posts, I used the term “divorce recovery quotes” in search for an opening for an article.  This unusual keyword combination had a free Blogger.com blog launched by Zondervan publishing.  Unfortunately, very few people are searching for the terms being used on the Zondervan publishing blog because their Alexa ranking (a system that ranks websites from 1 - the most popular - to 24 Million - being the least popular) is in the 21 Milllion range.

Yet another keyword search lead to an article with an article bank.  The author’s bio included a link to her Typepad blog - with an Alexa ranking in the 12 Million range.

This blog is HORRIBLY abused and ignored - and yet its Alexa ranking is in the 2.5 Million range.  (Then again, it’s a self hosted Wordpress blog!)  The author of both the blogs listed above are BOTH actively posting to their blogs on a regular basis.

ALL BLOGS ARE NOT CREATED EQUALLY!

If you want to experience the full power and “marketing magic” of blogging, be sure to start with a self hosted Wordpress blog.   (If you need help, I offer an easy and painless way to get started at Acumen Web Services.)

Once you’ve got your self hosted Wordpress blog, then you’ll need to learn how to properly USE your blog.  (Even if you don’t have a self hosted Wordpress blog, you can still do better than these two blog owners by learning the basics to blogging success.)

Pick up a copy of the 8 Week Power Blog Launch to learn all the secrets to blogging success.

If you just need help with blogging keywords, pick up a copy of the Fast Track to Blogging Success.  (Hint, if you pick up the Fast Track to Blogging Success FIRST, you’ll get a coupon worth $30 off of the 8 Week Power Blog Launch!)

Used properly, your blog can be the most important tool in your marketing arsenal in the promotion of your book.  You’ll sell more books online if you have a successful blog - but a poorly launched blog won’t provide any marketing magic to help sell books online.

Filed under: Easy Author Book Marketing, blogs for authors, sell books online