soho-life.com

I use Google Alert to keep me alerted (pardon the pun) on topics of interest to me and often I see a blog post I want to go and comment on - and perhaps link back on one of my blogs. So I find it really frustrating when I can’t leave a comment on a blog because you have to sign up or register for whatever the system is that the blog is on. I usually go away again. Who wants to be forced to sign up to heaps of different services just to leave a blog comment?

Which made me wonder just how many bloggers actually lose out on comments and knowing about readers because they make it too difficult for others to comment? They might consider it’s a simple process but stop and think for a moment - how many blogging communities and platforms are out there? And if you have to stop and register (and sometimes wait for a password too) the moment of opportunity quickly fades and is replaced with one of annoyance and time wasted. This is often coupled with no contact information on these same blogs - I don’t know how much time I’ve wasted trying to work out how to contact owners of blogs too.

Make it easy on your readers and set your comment system so that anyone can comment. Simple process in most cases. You can set up moderation so you view all comments first and use a spam filter like Akismet or Captcha or something but don’t make it hard on your readers to leave comments - it could open up a whole new channel for discussion and further posts.

Some places that this occurs are: MySpace, AOL Blogs, Blogger, Wordpress

Tags: About Blogging, Writing by Kathie Thomas
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Yes, that is what is happening. If you own a blog at Blogger, you’ll see mention of one blog that has recently become a book.

I have also turned one of my blogs into a book. There was so much interest in my personal walk through the Proverbs 31 chapter and about the Proverbs 31 Woman that I launched a book late September called “Worth More Than Rubies: The Value of a Work at Home Mum“. Those who have read Proverbs 31 will know where the title has come from. The book would make a great Christmas present for any woman who has a desire to return home to work and be there for family - or perhaps she already is but feels very much on her own. “Worth More Than Rubies” is available in Australia online, and also in the US at lulu.com. You’ll also find it in Koorong Bookstores Australia wide and Dymocks in Melbourne. See my website linked above for full details.

Going back to the blogger book - just in case you don’t have an account at Blogger, here it is for you. There are some great tips below.

Sasha Cagen’s To-Do List blog (which you may recognize as a blog of note) has just been released as a book! Both blog and book are collections of, well, to-do lists, mailed or emailed in by people. Think PostSecret meets Getting Things Done.

Watch the trailer, read the blog, buy the book, and make sure that you have an awesome screen name.

— Pete

Tags: About Blogging, Writing by Kathie Thomas
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I mix and mingle with a number of aspiring and published writers and have learnt much from them. And as I’ve been travelling my own journey of being an author I’ve discovered some things that I’ve been able to share with these other writers.

When testing content or wanting to see just how much content you might have for a book, a blog is a great way to get the idea out there, generate an audience, and assess whether there is real interest. I did this, quite by accident, with a blog I started early 2006. I was testing the Wordpress software and had to find another topic to blog about as I didn’t want to shift my existing blogs from their homes until I was confident with this platform that was new to me.

Along the way a journalist in the US found my new blog and highlighted some of the content to prove a point in one of his articles online. After that I ended up with thousands of visitors and some who placed comments, and others who emailed me direct for advise or encouragement.

I shared this with my business coach and he encouraged me to take that copy and turn it into a book, adding my life experiences and other information.

It was a pleasant surprise to find I’d touched on a topic that held great interest for women around the world and now that I’ve done further research I find that the information online is growing but there are still a limited number of books out there. The topic? The Proverbs 31 Woman and I’ve expanded on how she was both a business woman and a work at home mum - bringing her into modern times.

So, if you’re a budding writer, looking to put a book together, why not consider putting up a blog to test your content and gauge the interest? You can get free blogs at Blogger.com or Wordpress.com - or, do as I did, and have paid webhosting so you can have Wordpress installed (which comes free) and a very large number of free templates available for your use and modification if you desire.

I’d love to hear about your writing plans - why not make a comment here?

blogging for writers, write a book, author, writer

Tags: About Blogging, Writing by Kathie Thomas
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For many months now I’ve been writing a book. I’ve written other books which are sold as e-books online and are business ‘how to’ books, but this one is different and is being published by a company in W.A.

I began a blog (yes another one - I own several) in January 2006 which has proven very popular and when I mentioned it to my business coach late last year he said I should really do something with it and turn it into a book. I thought about that but didn’t do anything about it, and at the following session I saw my coach I mentioned I’d been booked to speak at a Christian Business Women’s Conference in Brisbane for September 2007. ‘Great!’ he said ‘you can launch your book there!’

Up till that point it was just an idea but suddenly it began to take hold and thereafter at each session he would ask me how many words I’d written? I took the idea of the blog and the content and built on it, and wove my story into it, and now it’s soon to be a full-sized paperback - probably to be listed in the ’self-help’ or ‘Christian living’ genres.

If you don’t have a business coach it is worth exploring.  I provide VA services to a few coaches and decided I need to get a coach I didn’t do work for - for a couple of reasons.  I didn’t want to have to choose one from the other, but also I felt they would already have a perception of who I am and what I do (based on what I do for them) and I wanted to have someone work with me from a separate viewpoint.  And then I went to a networking meeting about a year ago and saw a man from my church who is a business coach. We began talking and things just clicked.  Stuart really has been excellent for me.  Whilst my business had been moving forward, he’s had me dreaming, planning and pulling out things I had put aside because I was so busy concentrating on running my business.  Now I’m looking up and ahead again and the book has become one of those things that used to be in the distant future.

Going this road is new, exciting, scary and full-on.  I had to commit myself to write a few thousand words every weekend for months and had it set in my Outlook calendar to nag me into getting the work done. But now it’s done I’m filled with excitement and can’t wait to see the finished product.   Stay tuned!

Tags: Author's Thoughts, Writing by Kathie Thomas
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