Blogs – Buzz or Bust?

JerseyShore.jpg

How can something that’s free, readily accessible and more common than dandelions at the park be one of your most valuable marketing tools? If you’re willing to invest some real time and virtual legwork, blogs can create buzz, establish credentials and boost sales.

Jen A. Miller, author of The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May credits her blog with making her book the #2 selling book about New Jersey within six days of its release. How can she be so sure? “The PR campaign hasn’t started yet,” she says.

Thanks to her blog, Down the Shore with Jen, Miller’s not just another writer flogging a book. “[My readers] feel they know me,” says Miller, who started the blog back in July 2007 when she was still researching and writing the first draft.

While her blog contains information that was too timely for a travel guide, it also provides networking opportunities Miller never imagined. Not only has she conducted Q&As with best-selling authors, she’s been invited to book signings and been interviewed as an expert for a major magazine article about the South Jersey Shore.

“It does take a lot of work, but it’s absolutely worth it,” says Miller, who estimates she spends an hour a day on her blog. But it’s not just a matter of posting and waiting for readers. “You have to promote it.”

Here are some of Miller’s blog promotion tips:

  • put your blog URL on your business cards — if you already have a stack of business cards, buy a stamp and add it
  • blog regularly
  • have regular features like Q&As and videos that will draw diverse readers
  • set up a Google news alert on your topic and blog about or link to the latest news
  • visit and comment on other blogs
  • create a blog roll linking to other blogs of interest
  • link your book and blog updates to Amazon
  • post your updates to Facebook
  • host a giveaway

Miller’s first blog is so successful, she started a second blog for her book reviews.

But that’s another story…