When it comes to author blogging, there are two questions I hear more than any others:

1.    What should I blog about?

2.    How can I get people to read my blog?

Regarding the content of your blog, that's up to you. For the most part, I like to blog about grammar, book marketing, and the writing process itself, but other authors take a more personal approach and share details about their daily lives. Those who write nonfiction often blog about the topics covered in their books to present themselves as experts. For example, the author of a book on personal finance might blog about the best way to prepare taxes, while a cookbook author might share yummy new soup recipes for the cold winter months. A general rule of thumb is to provide interesting, helpful content at least 80 percent of the time. The rest of the time you can promote your book launches, promotions, etc.

Once you have the content of your blog figured out, a great way to get people to find out about the blog itself is to link it to Goodreads and your Amazon author page.  Here's how to do both:

For Goodreads:

1.    Navigate to your Author Dashboard and click "Your Blog"

2.    On the far right, click "edit blog settings"

3.    Paste in the RSS feed address next to "external blog URL"

4.    You can confirm your blog's RSS feed address here (If you don't know where to find your RSS feed, read this)

5.    Check or uncheck "show full post" depending on your preference, and click on "Add Feed"

Here's how my blog posts appear on Goodreads.

For your Amazon author page:

1.    Log into Author Central

2.    On the top left, click "Author Page"

3.    Halfway down the page you will see a section called "Blog"

4.    On the right side of the section, click "Add Blog"

Here's how my blog posts appear on my Amazon author page.

As with most book marketing strategies, there's no magic formula for success. But if you can get people to come to your website through your blog, you have a better chance of getting them to buy your book!

-Maria

Maria Murnane is the best-selling author of the Waverly Bryson series, Cassidy Lane, Katwalk, Wait for the Rain, and Bridges. She also provides consulting services to aspiring and published authors. Have questions? You can find her at www.mariamurnane.com.

This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2017 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.