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I don't have a blog yet. What host can you recommend?

Also, if/when I begin a blog, at first I would obviously have zero followers, and would feel a bit stupid blogging when nobody's reading it. Anyone else experience that?

How do you even get followers anyway?!?

"If you build it, they will come."

I started with just using the blog here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. Then I branched out and picked up a Wordpress add on to my GoDaddy package. I'm not recommending that, just that's who I use. There are others like Blogger that you could use.

As for the publishing to a blog with no readers, you're building a back log of things people can read when they do find you. Also, you'll be able to go back and link to that blog post later on. The best way to think about it is that you are in fact writing for people, just people in the future.

Gaining followers has just as many variables as gaining a following for your books. There are many ways to do it (right and wrong) and eventually the following happens, one person at a time. I would suggest making sure you're up with current trends in keywords, and SEO.

I use wordpress.com, not .org, because I think it's easy and simple to use. But really your blog site preference comes down to style and choice.

As for writing when no one is reading, how else do you expect to get started? Truthfully, I wrote for close to three months before I had my first visitor on my site, and it took another 3 months before I got my second. As long as you put out content on a regular basis, and engage with your readers, you should get a following fairly quickly.

Like anything else in writing, whether it be books or blogs, it's a marathon not a sprint.

Haha yes you're both right of course. It'll just be a bit weird to be writing for no audience (at first)!

Personally, I prefer blogger to WordPress because I can have an ad-free blog without paying for a specific layout. I don't really pay attention to the number of readers. I blog when I want because I want and if people are interested, they can easily find my posts because they cross post here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and Google plus, and I'll occasionally tweet the link or post it to Facebook.

But then there are people who randomly find you with search terms that will make you scratch your head, like the folks who apparently found my blog while searching for "mismatched sofa and loveseat" or "Greek skinned alien women."

What are the benefits of creating a blog? I wonder if the amount of time invested is worth it.

I frequently search for Greek-skinned women...

Jon wrote: "I frequently search for Greek-skinned women..."

At last! I can sleep at night knowing who that was!

medium.com is worth checking out as well. You get access to a community, it's free, and very easy to use.

Anna Faversham wrote: "What are the benefits of creating a blog? I wonder if the amount of time invested is worth it."

Just a good way for you to connect with others, if you choose. I know people who blog about their everyday lives, and make good money as mommy and daddy or travel bloggers. But like anything else, it depends on what you're going for.
Me, I tend to use mine for just about anything. I put thoughts and musings, advice on publishing, resources, reviews, even short stories though it's been awhile since I did one of those.

Thank you, Riley. Sorry if I sound sceptical, it's just that I find it difficult to find the time to write and therefore need to evaluate every minute spent on the peripherals.

Ok so I guess the question is, which is easiest to use from your phone, as in, from an app? That's where I do most of my anything, including accessing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Jon wrote: "Ok so I guess the question is, which is easiest to use from your phone, as in, from an app? That's where I do most of my anything, including accessing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ."

Medium has an app that allows you to both read and post.

Jon wrote: "Ok so I guess the question is, which is easiest to use from your phone, as in, from an app? That's where I do most of my anything, including accessing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ."
Wordpress has an app you can use to manage your blog.

Anna Faversham wrote: "What are the benefits of creating a blog? I wonder if the amount of time invested is worth it."

The real question is whether you want a blog (which you will add to regularly) or just an author site where readers can find out about you, your books, your social networks, etc.

Either way. that site is a way for you to connect with readers.

Thank you, Nate. I opted for the website as having to think of something to write for a blog seemed to be a bit of a time-consumer I could do without.

However, just as I write now, in conjuction with other threads, this thread has given me an idea...!

Thank you.

You're welcome!

BTW, I build author sites, so if you need help just ask.

Anna Faversham wrote: "Thank you, Nate. I opted for the website as having to think of something to write for a blog seemed to be a bit of a time-consumer I could do without.

However, just as I write now, in conjuction w..."

You can also use a blog for both purposes like I do. I have a couple of standard pages that I use for book info and such and a blog. I like having the blog as well because when I post something new, my followers get a notification email

I use wordpress. It was crap originally and I loved blogspot but not any more. There is a huge literary community on wp.

You must visit other bloggers, reciprocity and all that.

I have got a much bigger following on wp compared with blogger. My dog's blog did better on blogspot!

I'm still fairly new to the blogging realm, but am finding Wordpress to be worthwhile. I started it primarily as a place to keep all my book reviews sorted, as well as to make the occasional promotional post for my own books. I found that I had a handful of followers after my first couple review posts, so don't worry about having crickets for an audience for too long! Good luck in your endeavors, whichever blog platform you select.

Alexis wrote: "Anna Faversham wrote: "Thank you, Nate. I opted for the website as having to think of something to write for a blog seemed to be a bit of a time-consumer I could do without.

However, just as I wri..."

Alexis wrote: "You can also use a blog for both purposes like I do. I have a couple of standard pages that I use for book info and such and a blog. I like having the blog as well because when I post something new, my followers get a notification email "

Yes, but it's worth remembering that you can't build an author site just anywhere.

If you want to blog, you can do that anywhere: Medium, Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr. etc, but most of those platforms are strictly blogging platforms. You can't really build an author site on Medium, or Tumblr, or Blogger because they are not really intended for anything other than blogging.

Your two best choices for hosting author site are Wordpress and Squarespace.

Jon wrote: "Ok so I guess the question is, which is easiest to use from your phone, as in, from an app? That's where I do most of my anything, including accessing Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ."

Just about every blogging site has an app, though with the size of phone screens these days, I just go to my dashboard through my browser on my phone. I don't access any social media from a computer.

Also, to address Nate's comment above: I disagree that a blog can't be an author's site. I have pages for static info like book links and bonus materials as well as the blog feature. If I wanted to have a dedicated domain, it could point to my blogger site. There is no need to have a separate "website" unless you want one.

I didn't say that your blog couldn't be an author site. And I didn't say you had to have two sites.

What I said was that certain platforms are less than ideal as hosts for author sites. Medium and Tumblr don't really have static pages. And while Blogger has pages, the process for making a page your home page is ridiculously convoluted compared to the same process in WP.

I love WP for this because when it comes to building an author site it is about a hundred times as capable as any other platform. There are dozens of themes authors could use to do so much more than what those authors could accomplish on Medium, Blogger, or Tumblr.

For example, here are five examples of how you could build author sites using WP themes:


And here's thirteen:


This is an obsession of mine, obviously, but then again it is also my passion and profession.

Jon wrote: "I don't have a blog yet. What host can you recommend?

Also, if/when I begin a blog, at first I would obviously have zero followers, and would feel a bit stupid blogging when nobody's reading it. A..."

As has been mentioned, both Blogger and WordPress can work.

As for the second, what are you ultimately trying to accomplish?

In a past life I had 3 blogs on 3 related, but separate sites-easily done-I cut and pasted between the three.

So to recap have one here (because I've already started it) and then one on something like Wordpress. Then share the blog post to social media. Will do thanks.

Think I created the one here before Christmas. Three entries and over 30 views for each one. I like to think that's 30 individuals rather than just one demented person reading it multiple times. Quite pleased with that, seeing as I haven't done anything special.

I've never been worried about whether or not anyone was reading, maybe because I kept a diary from when I as 8. So I guess it's nothing new to me just a different platform.

Off to have an investigate...