Authors ~How to drive traffic to you WordPress site.

I’ve been writing my blog here on WordPress since 2012! Nearly 10 years. Amazing. What have I learnt about successful posts and ways of driving traffic to your blog.

What has worked for me?

• Book reviews : put simply, if you share the love of books and write about the books you read it will draw traffic. A bit of good karma maybe, but as your fellow author is encouraged by your honest and positive review, then they and their followers will share it and voila!
• Offer to be part of Book Tours: much like the above, there is a buzz about being part of a Virtual Book Tour, whether you are offering a Cover Reveal or a full blown review. It takes time, yes, but it draws folks to your site, excellent if the book is in a genre that you write in.
• An enticing title: If you get your fellow bloggers intrigued by your title then they’re hooked. My largest no of readers ever was for the title Can You Snuggle in Bed with a Kindle? Now, that tells you how long ago the post was published. My most recent was I Admit I’m a Murderer with Intent! ~ I was actually talking about the greenfly on my lupin tree, but it certainly hooked readers. I hope they were amused rather than disappointed.
• Background information to your novel/ novels: I had some successful series on each location of my novels called virtual tours. These brought traffic on the long term, far outside the blogging fraternity.; potential readers.
• Series: The above series kept readers hooked because they were interested to find out more but a recent series where I interviewed successful indie authors went down well.
• Extra Historical detail: very much as the above two, I have had wonderful comments and emails about posts, sometimes months or years later and that brings me on to categories and tags

Some bloggers miss a huge trick by not realising the power and purpose of categories and tags. They are your SEO information like the key words when launching on KDP. It is through them that folks can track you down on the internet and read your post, even though they do not blog themselves.

Categories

These are your umbrella subjects. There will be a list for you under post, or you can write new ones and build a list. At first I had far too many and had to rationalise. They can be your tabs, but if you write a category, for example ‘Early Flight’ or Book Reviews’ as in my list and a reader clicks on one of those phrases by the side of your post, all your posts under that subject will come up together. (and don’t forget to unclick the ‘uncategorized’!)

Tags

With these words folks can find your post on the internet when they search for specific things. It may come up when you google it. In my early days of writing if, for example, you googled my twitter handle @Riduna, it might come up with my Twitter feed but also any pages which might mention my first book names Riduna on my blog or of course Amazon. Of course, I have not promoted Riduna for a good while (and probably should do) but you get the idea I hope.

I admit, due to recent circumstances I’ve let some of this slide a bit but reflecting on this has been really positive and given me a gentle nudge too!

Happy blogging. Much love Diana

www.dianajacksonauthor.co.uk

Book Blogger Hop

What is your favorite social media and why? (submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)

I am on Twitter, Facebook and I blog. I have given Instagram a go but I find it a tad clunky with Windows and do not have a iPad. I must admit I’m a bit behind about new social media sites and maybe I’ll learn something from the participants of this Book Blogger Hop.

Why I like Blogging?

I love the way it challenges me to write regularly; learning all the time to be selective of my words, to edit on the hop and to choose themes which I think might resonate. I enjoy posts where I get a response but for me this may be an email, a tweet or even a comment on Facebook. It does not have to be in the comments box because I find it often puts people off who do not have a WordPress site themselves. I sometimes get emails months or years later, if I have used my tags and categories correctly. Now, that’s a real pleasure. I also make links and ‘friends’ with the WordPress community who are mutually supportive.

www.dianamj.wordpress.com

Why I like Twitter?

Twitter is more intransigent; here one minute and gone the next. I love the banter and the real conversations. The photos and wildlife are fab and make me smile; as do the jokes, sometimes! There are real connections to be made; groups of extremely supportive authors who give you encouragement and support in your journey. The spam does annoy me sometimes; the white noise of constant book ads, but then how else do we writers get out books seen by new readers. I try to keep mine to a minimum. When other authors support you, there is nothing like the reassurance that your book has been recommended and endorsed by others and I do try to read books that I RT if I can.

Author Diana Jackson @Riduna on Twitter

Why I like Facebook?

I like keeping in touch with friends, colleagues and family on Facebook most of all. They can be my readers too, but not always. As an author I like the way you can announce an event, both real and on line and that you can invite people to join you. I feel less comfortable when writing posts solely to promote my books on my own page, of which I have three; a private and personal page (where I extremely rarely mention my writing);

a page Diana Jackson Author

https://en-gb.facebook.com/DianaJacksonauthor

and an author page which is more geared to businesses I feel. I’m not sure if I really need both. What do you think?

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDianaJackson/

Which social media platform do I like the best as an author?

Going back to the original question, all in all I probably enjoy blogging most, although I go on Twitter most frequently. It is the best platform to relax and enjoy. I am on Linkedin too, but am not very good at using it all that often.

Thanks to Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews for the question.

If you’d like to know more about Book Blogger Hop you can follow this link.

Which platform do you prefer?

Authors ~How to drive traffic to you WordPress site.

I’ve been writing my blog here on WordPress since 2012! Nearly 10 years. Amazing. What have I learnt about successful posts and ways of driving traffic to your blog.

What has worked for me?

• Book reviews : put simply, if you share the love of books and write about the books you read it will draw traffic. A bit of good karma maybe, but as your fellow author is encouraged by your honest and positive review, then they and their followers will share it and voila!
• Offer to be part of Book Tours: much like the above, there is a buzz about being part of a Virtual Book Tour, whether you are offering a Cover Reveal or a full blown review. It takes time, yes, but it draws folks to your site, excellent if the book is in a genre that you write in.
• An enticing title: If you get your fellow bloggers intrigued by your title then they’re hooked. My largest no of readers ever was for the title Can You Snuggle in Bed with a Kindle? Now, that tells you how long ago the post was published. My most recent was I Admit I’m a Murderer with Intent! ~ I was actually talking about the greenfly on my lupin tree, but it certainly hooked readers. I hope they were amused rather than disappointed.
• Background information to your novel/ novels: I had some successful series on each location of my novels called virtual tours. These brought traffic on the long term, far outside the blogging fraternity.; potential readers.
• Series: The above series kept readers hooked because they were interested to find out more but a recent series where I interviewed successful indie authors went down well.
• Extra Historical detail: very much as the above two, I have had wonderful comments and emails about posts, sometimes months or years later and that brings me on to categories and tags

Some bloggers miss a huge trick by not realising the power and purpose of categories and tags. They are your SEO information like the key words when launching on KDP. It is through them that folks can track you down on the internet and read your post, even though they do not blog themselves.

Categories

These are your umbrella subjects. There will be a list for you under post, or you can write new ones and build a list. At first I had far too many and had to rationalise. They can be your tabs, but if you write a category, for example ‘Early Flight’ or Book Reviews’ as in my list and a reader clicks on one of those phrases by the side of your post, all your posts under that subject will come up together. (and don’t forget to unclick the ‘uncategorized’!)

Tags

With these words folks can find your post on the internet when they search for specific things. It may come up when you google it. In my early days of writing if, for example, you googled my twitter handle @Riduna, it might come up with my Twitter feed but also any pages which might mention my first book names Riduna on my blog or of course Amazon. Of course, I have not promoted Riduna for a good while (and probably should do) but you get the idea I hope.

I admit, due to recent circumstances I’ve let some of this slide a bit but reflecting on this has been really positive and given me a gentle nudge too!

Happy blogging. Much love Diana

www.dianajacksonauthor.co.uk