If you’re not a blogger or planning on becoming one, today’s post won’t be all that relevant. How about a great biography instead? Or just come back Dec 31 for non-blogger-specific content.
Now, if you are a blogger or wanting to start a blog in the new year, there are some terrific ebooks out there to help.
If you’re brand new to the blogging world, ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging is excellent. While I don’t think I’d truly try and start a brand-new blog and immediately begin blogging through the book, this is a great resource for walking you through some of the steps you’ll take as you begin publishing and promoting your blog.
Once you’ve passed the initial stage, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog is another ProBlogger resource that is very helpful. The tasks are all simple enough that they’re doable in one day, and they all are worthwhile tasks too – it doesn’t feel like they’ve tried to pad the book to reach 31 by including meaningless ideas.
If you need help with the bigger-picture aspects of blogging, Hayley Morgan (The Tiny Twig) has a new ebook out that may be just what you’re looking for. The No Brainer Blog is designed to help you cast your vision, define your voice, and refine your (virtual) space.
What does that mean exactly? It means figuring out why you’re blogging – what’s your purpose and motivation for spending your time blogging instead of all the other things you could be doing instead. Figuring out your writing style – are you serious or silly? Do you write rants or thoughtful insights? Your style needs to match your content, but most importantly it needs to be you. It also means figuring out your (virtual) space. Design matters, and the look of your blog needs to fit your content and style. Yeah, I’m still working on that last one.
If you read Rachel Meeks’ blog Small Notebook you’ll have a good idea if you like her style. I do, so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed her ebook Simple Blogging so much.
My biggest issue with the ProBloggers books is that they can sometimes feel like they don’t get the whole blogging-during-spare-moments thing. Meeks gets it – her book’s emphasis is yes, on helping you grow your blog, but recognizing that you may be blogging in your spare time and that’s not going to change. A focus on making the most of the blogging time you have, and recognizing what your core message is? Perfect.
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I just won a copy of No Brainer Blog and I can’t wait to read through it! Looks good.
That’s great that you won a copy – how fun! I like it especially because I feel like it speaks to my biggest weaknesses (the style and visual appeal of my blog). Hope that you like it as much as I do!
I adored “Simple Blogging” when I read it last year. I agree, it’s much more helpful than “31 Days…” because she understands what it’s like to be blogging in the middle of everything else that goes on in our busy lives.
Yes, and I think she does a great job of recognizing and acknowledging that no, your blog may not be everything it could be if you you had more time to devote to it. But that that’s ok.
If you haven’t read it, another one that does a great job of making the same point is Blogger Behave by Laura Booz. She’s got a line in there along the lines of she may only have {whatever} amount of time to blog, so she may not have the best blog out there, but she can have the best {whatever} amount of time blog she can. Phrased more elegantly than that.
If you’ve read both the 31 Days and Simple Blogging books I’m not sure that Blogger Behave will give you *that* much more info. I still really liked it, and if you’re wanting an extra shot of motivation especially about blogging as a small part of your life, it’s not a bad choice. It also had a great chapter about blogging authentically and how that works with a family.