In this 'media-savvy' day and age we all need to do what we can to raise our online profile. A good way to create a 'buzz' about yourself or your work is to start to keep an on-line diary or Blog (short for Web Log). This tutorial will guide you through setting one up using Google's blogger.com (as it is where our blog is hosted and is simple to use).
Firstly, go to blogger.com by clicking on the logo below.
The home page offers you previews and tutorials so that you can see what a blog is and what you can do with one. To start setting your own up just click on the 'create your blog now' link on their page.
Next you will need to setup the account. If you already have a Google Gmail account then it tells you to login there (this will save you some time if you use those details). Otherwise, just give them an email address where your blog responses can be sent to and setup a username and password etc.
Once you have all of that gubbins out the way, it's time to NAME YOUR BLOG!
*Choose wisely as this name will have to stick with you. If you choose something unique then you shouldn't have a problem. However, if you go for something mainstream like 'my diary' or similar, chances are, it will have already gone*.
Once you have successfully named your 'baby' it is time to choose some clothes for it. It's not too important how it looks at this stage but you can scroll down and choose different templates that you feel will reflect your personality or the message you wish to convey. (Remember though that white text on a black background can sometimes be difficult to read.)
We're nearly there now. We just need to add our
first entry and see how it looks. Type a
welcome message and maybe give a little bit of background about yourself or your writing. If you have a website already - plug it! If you have created your blog using this tutorial - plug us! (seriously :-)
http://strugglingauthors.org
You can include images, video clips and hyperlinks to other pages/sites. *(Remember that less is more though so keep it relevant and don't scare away your visitors with overlong page load times or scary fonts and colours). Publish your blog and see how it looks to the world. If you're not happy you can always edit it afterwards.
Basically, that's it. What you fill your blog with is up to you. Please remember that this is an excellent marketing tool and that your blog in itself could be picked up and published. More than one blog has been turned into a book, magazine column or into a tv series. Just look at Billie Piper's Diary of a Call Girl - that was based on the blog of a high class hooker!
Good luck and if you want to see a couple of examples of struggling author's blogs then please follow the links below. If you are proud of yours and it is relevant to other struggling authors then send us a link and we'll publish it here.
Good luck and happy blogging