Blogging Your Way to Writing Success!

By Laura Lee Carter

So, what’s the deal with this blogging thing anyway? What is it, and why do freelancers put their severely limited time into writing for free? That can’t make any sense, can it?

Let’s ask Diablo Cody, the writer behind the Oscar-winning movie, Juno. She started blogging about her experiences in the strip and peep show circuit, which then led to her book: Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper. Before you know it, she had her first screenplay accepted. Now, she has a couple more screenplays coming out this year, and she’s definitely too busy to think about blogging much.

Stories like this convinced me that the rules for reaching your audience as a writer have changed. The old way of writing your book, and then starting to think about promotion, are history. The new way is to build your platform ahead of time. Create demand for your product before it is even completed. Convince others that you have a product that they will want to buy when it is finally available.

How do you draw and persuade your future audience? With your marvelous writing, of course! That’s where blogging comes in.

What’s a blog?

A blog, or web log, is an online journal, written, read and updated on a website. It’s there for anyone with an Internet connection to see and comment on. The entries, or “posts,” are organized in reverse chronological order, like a pile of unread mail, with the newest on top and the older stuff on the bottom. Some blogs have graphics, sidebars and photos, others are just straight text.

Today, there are more than 100 million blogs in the world, with about 15 million of them actively updated. Topics range everywhere from politics, technology, gossip, sex, mommy blogs, gadgets, fictional characters, videos, photos, and cartoons, to name a few. Every respected media source maintains a blog including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker.

People start blogs because they have something to say on some subject, and hope others will listen. It’s the closest thing we have to total freedom of the press. Up until now, freedom of the press was only guaranteed to those who owned one. Now, anyone can start their own media outlet online. Some call it the age of “citizen journalism.”

Every happening, a war, a hurricane, or a sport, has their own crop of bloggers, who try to outdo the mainstream media in covering the event in a timely, in-depth way, and from an insider or an observer perspective. For example, you can read about the war in Iraq from Iraqi bloggers, from American soldiers, or from scholars who analyze and translate news from the front.

“With this platform, the potential for writing and speaking opportunities appear boundless.”

The Millionaire Mommy Next Door

My favorite blogging success story comes from a friend of mine. She started her personal finance blog:
www.MillionaireMommyNextDoor.blogspot.com on a whim last July. Through her blog alone, she has acquired a well-respected literary agent anxious to consider her first book, and a short spot on the Montel Williams Show. This, all after just four months of blogging. The day after she appeared on Montel, she received 21,000 hits on her website. She’s still shocked at the impact this simple choice has made on her life and her writing career.

I spoke to her recently about how she feels about blogging as an avenue to writing success. When asked what her goals were as a newbie to professional writing, Jen said, “As a new writer, my initial intent was to develop my writing voice through frequent posts. Blogging offered me a unique two-way communication and valuable feedback from my worldwide audience. I also felt passionate about teaching my audience about being financially responsible, and hoped my story might inspire others to embark on their own journey to financial freedom.”

Then, I asked how her blog had changed her life. Jen: “My blog has created a platform from which I see many opportunities to expand. In just five months, I went from launching a blog as a newbie writer, to a national TV appearance. With this platform, the potential for writing and speaking opportunities appear boundless.”

Needless to say, when I met the Millionaire Mommy and heard about her successes, I started my own blog. From this experience, I learned about some additional hidden benefits, especially for the new freelance writer.

What blogging can do for you as a writer:

• Build confidence and competence
• Assist in finding your “voice” and passion
• Provide direct public access and international exposure
• Provide total and immediate freedom of expression
• Create new avenues of connection & community
• Provide immediate feedback from your readers
• Create a platform for your work, while gathering an interested clientele
• Establish your expertise in a certain field

Responsibilities of Blogging:

• Time consuming commitment (Posting a few times per week)
• Requires discipline, consistency, and passion for your topic
• Challenges you to keep your writing fresh and interesting, while continuing to add value for your readers
• Avoid copyright and other legal issues
• Need to learn a whole new technology and type of terminology to promote your blog worldwide

“You must entertain them, while also solving their problems.”

Ultimately, blogs build a regular readership if they are updated regularly, are well written, and cover a subject with passion, humor, and excitement. Remember, it’s all about your audience. You must entertain them, while also solving their problems.

Audiences have gotten used to free samples or excerpts from books. They want a good sense of what they can expect from a writer with some sort of guarantee that your material will be worth the price and their time. Blogging is the perfect inexpensive way to draw an audience and keep them interested in you, and what you plan to offer them in the future.

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Laura Lee Carter thought she’d seen it all by the time she hit 40, and then the real changes began. After 25 years as an academic librarian and one additional M.A. in psychology, she experienced a divorce at age 46, and then a job lay off at 49. So she started her own dating service, where she met her new husband by age 50. This was enough to convince Laura Lee to try her hand at a freelance writing career, and to crown herself the “Midlife Crisis Queen.”  Please see her bio, resume and clips: www.lauraleecarter.com and blog: www.midlifecrisisqueen.com