The blog should create can serve multiple objectives, chief of which is to share an author’s opinion about various topics. It can also draw readers to your fiction, nonfiction and create new fodder for future manuscripts. I wanted to accomplish additional goals simultaneously with my own website: www.MelvaGifford.com. I write nonfiction as well as fiction, so I thought if I had three of my five weekly blogs touch upon topics similar my nonfiction material I could match the readers of my blogs to be potential readers of future nonfiction books.
Here are three specific examples. These examples are geared to draw people to my website and to provide new and relevant information to them as readers.
Monday: Teaching Embellishments:
http://www.melvagifford.com/category/teaching-embellishments/
Object Lessons and other teaching techniques are discussed on Mondays. When I see or learn of other teachers successful teaching steps, I share my observations. Some of which are memorable Sunday school sessions, humor, youth camps, object lessons or lectures. Some of these ideas are gained through the observation of some excellent teachers and many object lessons I created myself. Mondays often cover object lessons with religious themes which may be useful to youth ministries, family devotionals, family counselors and family home evenings.
I previously wrote a book titled: I know you think is a toaster: promoting family values through object lessons. In that book I created 600 object lessons. Now, once a week, I create additional lessons on new topics separate from the book. Eventually, I hope to eventually transfer my new material into an additional book.
I have readers come visit my Monday blog every week to see what the new topic is. Sometimes people may tell me what works and what doesn’t. Or they may provide the suggestion of their own. The advantage is that is that we can learn from each other how to become better teachers, on religious or nonreligious nature.
Tuesday: Tasks, Errands and Projects – Oh My:
http://www.melvagifford.com/category/tasks-errands-projects/
I make up lists and many people do the same. On Tuesday blogs I come up with a topic to create a list about or tell an idea of something that has helped me organize my life. For example, one list is on international travel. The reader is encouraged to remember that other counties use a different voltage for their electric equipment than what we use in the USA. USA citizens may need an adaptor for their electronic equipment when traveling outside the US.
There might be a checklist of buying a coat, what to look for when buying running shoes or a clothes washer, etc.. Eventually, the content of these blogs may become a nonfiction book called the book of lists. For those readers who read my blog on Tuesdays, they may become interested customers of my future, book.
Thursday: Speller Beezy and other ailments:
http://www.melvagifford.com/category/speller-beezy/
We may each choose different techniques to become better spellers. Many people use memorization, which is a wonderful skill. I often try to use visual images or mnemonics to improve my spelling. So each Thursday I touch upon new word and provide a visual image to help me remember the correct spelling of that word. The content of these blogs may also eventually become a nonfiction book.
The advantage of this is that I create new material each week that may be a blog now and put in a book later. I watch the stats of hits on my blogs to see which would be of interest as a potential book.
If the visitor to my blog likes the contents within, there is a good chance he or she will also like the books.
www.MelvaGifford.com has also had a wonderful chance to have guest bloggers who contribute their own expertise to a different topic. You may see some of those guest bloggers in various pages of my blogs. If you’re interested in contributing any of my five weekly blogs as a guest blogger, please contact me at Melva@MelvaGifford.com.
If you are a writer, or voracious reader, you may have more passions outside of writing/reading in the genre that you currently concentrate on. If some of your passions touch upon specific nonfiction material or if you do, various researches to help embellish your world building, then that specific research may be a great topic for blog. The readers of your books may share a similar passion.
This is just one idea to help you build a readership to you as a blogger, author, and dispenser of knowledge.
Melva Gifford
I know you THINK this is a Toaster: http://www.melvagifford.com/toaster/
Operation Middle School Madness: http://www.melvagifford.com/middle-school-madness/
Pocket Troubles: http://www.melvagifford.com/pocket-troubles/
If you’re interested in my storytelling gigs, please contact me directly.
