To be a writer is to court two things: a) rejection and b) people who want to sell you promotion services. As sure as dead bodies attract blow flies, both encounters are inescapable.
Believe me, no one knows a sure way to shatter the glass barrier between wannabe authors and top sellers like Dan Brown or J. K. Rowling. According to one blogger, the average writer never sees the big time and earns about $1,000 a year.
Still, a promoter’s siren’s song can be difficult to resist. I’d like to grow my blog readership, for example. My numbers are respectable but The New York Times won’t come looking for me to write a column in the near future. That’s not my goal, anyway; but I have wondered if tweaking my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) system might drive more readers to the site. A couple of years ago I bought an inexpensive SEO package from Google. Frankly, I’d have been better off spending the money on chewing gum. I’d have gotten some exercise, at least.
Nonetheless, hope springs eternal. Recently, I contacted my local writers’ association to ask if they could recommend a SEO expert. They obliged by providing two names. The first thing I did was compare the website rankings of these experts to mine. It wasn’t even a horse race. One I beat by a million on the list. The other ranked so low he wasn’t given a number. Maybe both of these folks should pay me for suggestions on how to drive traffic to their sites.
Moral of the story? There are no magic tricks for succeeding with a blog or any form of writing, only a thousand ways to part with your money. If you don’t have a lot of cash to throw around on dubious promotions here’s my advice: love what you do; be relevant and sweat blood and tears for your readers.
(Courtesy of www.sodahead.com)
