This blog is a follow-up to yesterday’s post about how important it is to build your platform. Would-be authors, in order to build your author platform, you probably already know that you need to blog. A blog is just a magazine about yourself that you publish online to let people in on the fact that, as a writer and a thinker, you have a lot to offer.
Once people dig you and subscribe to your magazine/blog, they’re highly likely to want to buy your memoir–be it ghostwritten or self written. But how do you make your blog stand out?
How to Write a Blog that will Build Your Author Platform
I know what you’re thinking: there are thousands, millions, quadrillions of blogs out there, so how will you get people to look at yours? The first step is to build your author platform by blogging is to make sure your blog pops up when people google whatever you’re blogging about–which involves using the right keywords and optimizing for search engines–and the second step is just plain HAVING AN AWESOME BLOG.
When you have an awesome blog, people read it and link to it and post it on their social media pages, thus giving you, for free, the attention and coverage you want to build your author platform.
If, in your head right now, you’re asking, “But how do I write an awesome blog?” shame on you. The way to make your blog stand out is obvious: be an awesome writer.
A Ghostwriter can use Deep Blogging to Project your Style in an Author Platform
If you’re not an awesome writer but have great ideas, you’ll hire a ghostwriter to get your ideas across, and that’s probably how you met me. But if you want to hire someone to blog on your author platform for you, there are many ways to go wrong and only one way to go right.
It’s easy to go to a freelance site and hire “a blogger” for a pretty reasonable sum. You tell them to blog about whatever topic you’re into. Then, they do some research and competently write some informative articles about that topic.
That would be sufficient if you were a plumber or investor or art collector or wedding planner trying to gain a following based on distributing information, but you’re not. You’re a writer trying to gain a following based on being a great writer, which means your blogs have to be far more than competent.
They have to be written in your style, which is the same style as your book. A standard-issue “blogger for hire” is not going to give you that for your author platform.
Deep Blogging Dovetails with Memoir Ghostwriting
That’s why I’m introducing a concept I call Deep Blogging. When I ghostwrite a book, we begin with thirty to forty hours of interviews so that I can learn your voice, your life experiences, your philosophy, and all the information you want covered in your book. I then organize that info, so I can easily access it, and write your book based upon it.
Having conducted these interviews, I can also write a series of blogs based upon the same information. This way, your blog (or the magazine about you) will read with the same great style as your memoir.
Some clients have me ghostwrite their memoirs first, then begin a blogging campaign to build their online platforms. Others prefer to start their author platform with the online campaign. That way, they can gain the assurance that their material has an audience before writing a book.
A third option is to have me ghostwrite both the book and blogs simultaneously, to speed up the publishing process. That way, once the manuscript is finished, you’ll already have an online following and be well on your way to either mass-market publishing, indy publishing, or self publishing for a profit.
Just remember–for a blog to build your author platform, it needs to be written in your own unique style. As a ghostwriter, I can take care of that with my “deep blogging” concept.
I must admit that this is the first time I have heard the term deep blogging. It sounds a lot like doing a really good job as a ghostwriter. I would add that a platform should also look to have an active list, and some social media presence too.
I’m glad it’s the first time you’ve heard of “deep blogging” because I made it up. Lol. The idea here being that after I’ve written a client’s memoir, I have so much info about him/her that I can blog in the client’s voice very effectively.