Promote Yourself

Start a Blog

A key part of your online presence is having a blog. A blog goes beyond Facebook and Twitter, and acts as your home base for engaging fans and colleagues. It’s not much more work than Facebook or Twitter.

In fact, creating a blog has become extremely easy thanks to a variety of services that will host it and help you set it up. You don't need to be a coder to create a fine blog.

Trust us, If you can send email, you can blog. And it’s a fantastic way to connect to people who likely have a built-in interest in your audiobook.

Get Started. Start with one of the many available services that make building your blog kind of like a paint-by-numbers exercise. Most are even free. Check out:

So what do these services do? They give you a template; you simply make some choices and fill it in. Many allow you to post to your blog using nothing but email. You can even use them to syndicate your photos and videos to other locations online.

What blog services can do for you:

  • Share what you’re working on and invite comments. This makes readers feel attached to you and your work.
  • Update your blog frequently. Once a day is ideal, three times a week is a minimum. Frequent maintenance is important—it gets people to return regularly.
  • Test your idea for a book or performance. People love getting a peek inside the creative process!
  • If you’re a narrator, post your audio work to showcase your talent.
  • Create and post a short video. This could be another great place for an audiobook trailer. After uploading it to YouTube, embed the video player on your blog. (YouTube makes it simple. Just look for the “Embed” button.)
  • Link to your audiobook on Audible.com, Amazon.com, or iTunes. Encourage people to become AudibleListener® members on Audible. Remember, if they buy your audiobook as one of their first three downloads, you get that Twenty-five Dollar Bounty Payment! (With the Royalty Share deals, the Rights Holder and Producer split that twenty-five dollars, so both have an incentive to promote!)

Top Tips For Blogging

Here are our top tips for blogging.

  1. Give your blog a name that’s short, easy to spell, and memorable.
  2. Link to your books on Audible.com, Amazon.com, iTunes, and wherever else they can be found. Don’t post ads for your audiobook. Instead mention it (with links) in the context of the posting.
  3. Post regularly. Every day if you can, three times a week at minimum.
  4. Respond directly to as many posted comments as possible, either with your own comment or in a new post. Of course always be polite.
  5. Use Twitter and Facebook to drive people to your blog. Let the world know what you’re talking about, and provide a link back to your blog.
  6. Create effective tags.
  7. Use images (that you have rights to use) as much as possible.
  8. Include links to other blogs and websites.
  9. Join blog networks. Look up blog directories and list yours with them.
  10. Make it easy for people to contact you from your blog, whether by email, phone, a contact form, or comments. Tip: Don't want to give out your actual phone number? Get a free phone number from Google Voice and post that to your blog—it will forward the calls to your regular number.
  11. Allow and encourage fans to give you their email address or sign up for an RSS feed of your blog.