Blogs, the pros and cons

Two links for you to taste test. One of my ongoing fascinations in the business world is with marketing, publicity, and those other means of grabbing people by the lower lip, stapling their eyelids open and going, “Look! Look here! No, not there! Here! Where I am!”

Okay. Those might constitute drastic measures, but it’s not much worse than what a lot of companies will do to get your attention for a few subliminal seconds. Anyways, in the wide world of publishing, blogs have obviously risen to the top of the weapon heap as being one of the best ways to make one’s writing presence known, reach out to readers, and hopefully find people interested in hearing what you have to say on a constant, if not daily basis.

Obviously, I am heavily involved in this practice, and I’ve come to enjoy it for a couple reasons, one being that the daily blog reading and writing routine keeps me up to date on a lot of the news and events going on in the publishing realm. I also know that a lot of you who drop by and scan these dollops of thought also have blogs of your own, and we all want to know how to make them bigger, better, faster, stronger…Yeah. Today’s links have to do with these virtual personae, and how we can make sure they represent us, and our writing, well.

For one thing, bad blogging habits can create a significant downturn to your money ventures. Learn what these no-no’s are, and how to avoid them, especially if you have a full or part-time job along with your developing writing career.

Second, here’s some great general advice on how to both structure your blog to draw in a larger audience, and then, once you have your blog established, there are recommendations on ways to increase the value and widen the road for more traffic.

All right. That’s it for today. I now brace myself to venture outside and walk to the subway. I swear, it’s been so cold lately here in NYC that the wind hits you like a brick of ice. Brrr. But I have a scarf! I shall triumph! Or if I don’t put up a blog tomorrow, you can assume the wind won.

I see that smile.