Robin Houghton is the guest for Episode 32 of The Author Biz Podcast.
Robin Houghton
If you’re an author in today’s world, you’re faced with the blogging question. Should I blog or shouldn’t I?
As you may have already guessed, today’s show is all about author blogging. While we may not be able to answer the “should I or shouldn’t I be blogging” question, we will explain why it can help you grow your audience and expand your author platform.
Today’s guest is Robin Houghton, the author of BLOGGING FOR WRITERS. She has over two decades of experience in marketing and communication, and she’s been running her own business, Eggbox Marketing, since 2002. Robin now works primarily with writers and publishing industry professionals to help them make the best use of social media.
In this 62-minute episode, we take a deep dive into author blogging, covering topics like:
- An overview of BLOGGING FOR WRITERS
- The benefits and drawbacks of the three major blogging platforms
- Robin answers the ‘why should authors blog’ question
- Blogging offers an author the opportunity to control the top results readers (and others) will see when searching for you.
- Blogging can improve your writing
- There are numerous objectives authors can reach through blogging
- Determining your blogging persona as part of your planning process
- The value of your author blog increases over time, with the addition of new, timely, relevant, and interesting content.
- The value of your blog is the content, not the look and feel of your site.
- The steps and the costs involved in setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog
- The significance of maintaining an editorial calendar for your blog
- Don’t think of blogging as broadcasting your message to the world. Instead, think of it as building your audience, one person at a time.
- The benefits of being a member of the blogging community
- Robin explains how blogging helps author sites rank better in Google and other search engines.
- The value of analytics to author bloggers
- What analytical metrics should authors focus on?
- The importance of adding a media page to your author website / blog
- Robin shares some advance information on her next book, THE GOLDEN RULES OF BLOGGING (& When to Break Them).
Links:
- Robin’s Website http://robinhoughton.com/
- Blogging for Writers website http://bloggingforwriters.
info/ - Social Media for Writers (Robin’s ‘tips’ blog) – http://
socialmediaforwriters.co.uk/ - Robin’s Poetry Website http://www.poetgal.co.uk
- Ilex/Octopus Books (Robin’s UK Publisher) https://www.octopusbooks.co.
uk/
Click here to listen to The Author Biz no. 32
Creative Commons image by Edar.
