A week of blog talk

For some reason, the way it worked out, I blogged three times this week. I either set up blogs somewhere to be released, I blogged that day, or I had a scheduled blog release.

I was at a writer's meeting and we were talking about social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and I mentioned scheduling blogs and tweets. Most folks hadn't heard about that, so I told them how it works and many folks had a "wow" moment -- you can blog when YOU feel like it about something that you're curious about, schedule it, and let it go when you need a blog. What a great convenience!

I think people often feel tied to their computers because they "should" do something at a certain time, but scheduling makes life so much easier. In fact, I'm off to schedule some blogs right now!

In case you're curious, here's where I blogged this week:

http://tinyurl.com/2bxowh4

http://tinyurl.com/3xe7de7

http://tinyurl.com/296uphy

Stay tuned. More are coming ....

Urge to blog ... not

I keep a checklist of Book Things to Do. It lists things like where I can post promo items on what day, where I should check/read a blog, where I should blog.

I've been lax lately on the blog thing because blogging is a bit like a black hole. You toss something out there and you're not sure if anyone hears. If a blog falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a noise?

I regularly do guest blogs for other authors where they give me a topic and I give them a reply. They post it on their blog and voila, it appears. The other day I did a guest blog with another Cerridwen writer and I mentioned some other authors I like to read (ebook authors, all). I didn't tell the authors I was going to mention them, I just did.

Every author sent me an email and thanked me. Their Google alert (an automatic thingie you can set up to track web mentions) had picked up my mention of them.

I like to think that my mention was also picked up by some other readers who may not have been familiar with me or those authors. I want to spread the word, so to speak.

So I guess blogging is worth it. It's like a net that's cast out there. We're not quite sure what we'll catch, but odds are, it'll catch something.

What is a blog used for?

I got a couple of good books for Christmas about blogging and how to use them for marketing. That got me to thinking ...

Who reads this blog?

You see, I get requests from people to be 'interviewed' on my blog, and I've been reluctant to put any of that on this blog. I view this one as my connection to you, my family and friends (and readers, who I guess are also friends, right?) This is a marketing tool, but mainly I'm viewing this one as a communication tool, to let me communicate to you who are far-flung and around the globe (you foreigners know who you are, heh heh).

So I've been using some blogs in other spots (LiveSpace, MySpace, etc.) for those 'marketing' blogs and that's worked out fine. But I've been finding it interesting that I feel this 'privacy' way about this blog. So at least for now, this is a marketing free zone and the only promo done here will be for my books.

{whew} I can hear the relief all the way to Minnesota.

And just FYI, I won't be posting on Saturday. I'm off to a conference in Chicago (I know, Chicago in February: what a treat, right?) It'll be so cold we'll all stay inside and focus on the conference (and the bar, I suspect). I'll report back in next week on how it goes.