Thread: Why blog?

Go ahead, tell us. Tell us everything-why you blog, what you hope to accomplish. How often do you blog? Does your blog have a theme, or is it a catchall?

Okay, I'll start...the truth is, I hate blogs. I used to make fun of bloggers (still do). Can't spell, bad sentence structure, inflated with misplaced self-importance and bad information. And that's just the writing blogs *insert laugh track*
Political and entertainment bloggers are the worst...closely behind them are sports bloggers. I do read the ones by real journalists, but the amateurs have too much chaff/wheat ratio to wade through. And they still have audiences, which I find really hard to fathom.
For example, my wife blogs about knitting/cross-stitching. She has a couple of hundred followers, some of which actually comment. Her prose is just plain bad, though she tries. I try to help edit sometimes, and get bogged down in the sentences, and start demanding complete rewrite and such. She ignores me, fixes the small spagnits, and goes on.
I have ten times the readership she does, but rarely ever get comments. If I knew the secret to that (other than turning off the spamblocking stuff and allowing pingbacks), I'd tell you right here and now. The only way I know if I'm succeeding is when I check the stats (how sticky the pages are and how many rss subscribers are my chief concerns).
But I digress...the reason why I blog is because I'd rather write prose and verse and music than code. I've had a website since 1995. I've sold eighteen short stories/articles/poems right off the site. WP (my blogware of choice) makes it easier to post and catalogue the stuff. Better looking than html or css or unholy combinations of the two. Simple to use...usually. I had a bad update experience and lost three years' worth of material. I'm in the process of recovering it all via the rss feed from facebook, but it's a slow process, cuz I'm LAZY.
How about you?

I have two blogs, both are quite new. You can see them in my siggy.

The first one, Aderyn Wood, is a sharing of my experience as a (new) writer. So, if I become disgustingly rich and famous you'll be able to read about my humble beginnings. I also plan to review ebooks and if you have published an ebook you are welcome to ask me to review it

The second blog is a fictional serial called 'The Viscount's Son'. It is a bit of an experiment, but I've had some positive feedback about it and I'm enjoying writing it.

Good stuff..don't forget to add them to the blogroll if you haven't already. I've bookmarked your serial to take a deeper look at it-I'm just embarking on a blognovel (again-I had a false start before I got sick).

I started my blog in April of this year and it follows a theme, which is short stories. I post three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday's.

The reason I started to blog was to get my writing out there, but it also keeps me from procrastinating. I have to write at least 3 short stories a week so it keeps me writing, Today, I posted my 51st short story to the blog and while some of them were written before hand, a lot of them are new (most are written on the day they need to go up, I keep threatening to make a buffer but it never seems to happen.)
I seem to be doing ok, I have a fairly consistant page views on a day to day basis and have recieved fairly positive responses so far, which is always heartening!

Every time I reach 20 short stories, I compile them into an ebook which can them be downloaded via Smashwords or Amazon which also helps get my name out there. I've had almost 2000 downloads of the first ebook so far which to me is amazing. This helps create connections the more ebooks I have in Amazon/Smashwords the more exposure I get and the more likely someone will stumble across them. I plan to also self publish some other novels (already self-published one and have another waiting to be edited along with 2/3 to be finished) so the blog also helps create a platform in which to launch myself.

In the begining I merely posted short stories on my blog, that is all, but, as time has gone on I have added a slightly bloggy thing before each short story which has seemed to help increase and steady blog views. Although in saying that, when I first started doing it, my daily views dropped off for about a week. I try to include these blog type snippets at least once in every two posts as I think it helps the remind the reader that there is someone there, writing the short stories and that I am an actual person. It also helps readers connect to me and hopefully, make them more inclined to return/tell other people about it.

I have previously thought about starting a blog and even half heartedly attempted it once or twice but never seriously. I find this helps keep me focused and reminds me of what I want with my life. I also find it fun, updating and writing short stories. It makes me feel productive and like I am getting somewhere, even if I am just screaming into the vast, empty void that is the internet.

I have a blog attached to my website. I don't post in it regularly enough to make it worthwhile. I should change this, as blogs seem to be a great way to connect to readers or fellow writers. It currently records occasional thoughts and events in my writing life: publications, sales, events such as NaNo or Laffn I'm involved with.

That's a lot of discipline and a ton of short stories, P.S. I've bookmarked and will tear through there when I have a chance.
Blogs are indeed a good way to connect...

I also try to put up about three short stories a week. I like that you have already e-published a collection of them. You mentioned Smashwords and Amazon. Which do you think is better? I have done some with Amazon but nothing with Smashwords. How are you pricing your ebooks? I haven't jumped into this type of selling, only done some non-fiction stuff. It sounds like you have some fans. GREAT! Have you done a social marketing that you could recommend?

I find I have far more downloads on Amazon than smashwords and Amazon have charts which if you get into help boost your exposure, though I haven't checked in the last few days, I was 1 & 2 in the short story chart and 3 & 4 in the horror chart on Amazon.co.uk. I price them as free as I put them up on my blog for free and I think it is kinda wrong to charge for something that can be easily gotten for free.

Not really, I have a facebook page where I update new posts but don't really use it for socailising. I have twitter too, but I fell out of using it when I got sicker so it is just a matter of trying to get back into it.

Also, you should link to your blog in your signature on what ever chat sites you use.