Publishing E-Books For Dummies

No One Is Reading My Blog

If your e-book is part of a broader online presence, you probably have a related blog (see Chapter 9). A blog is a fantastic way to build a loyal readership: It’s easy to add to and update, it lets readers get new posts delivered automatically to their inboxes, and it’s a great way to have a dialogue. When you start your blog, though, it can feel as though you’re sending your words into a huge vacuum. You might receive no comments, and you may have only a few visitors a day.

It takes time, patience, and effort to build up a blog’s readership — but there are a lot of simple techniques you can use. One is to write guest posts for other blogs (see Chapter 18) so that you can place your name and message in front of a much larger audience, some of whom will be interested enough to start reading your own blog. An even simpler method is to leave comments on other blogs — add useful material to the conversation, and you’ll find that other readers click your name (which links back to your blog) to check out your writing.

If your blog seems to gain no traction despite your best efforts, take a good look at it. Just like an e-book, your blog needs to be attractive and welcoming for readers: The design should look professional, the navigation should be clear and simple to use, and the content should be informative or entertaining (or both). You might ...