Blog Tips at Winchester Writers' Festival 2015

Unwinding after the 1st day at the festival!

I led an intensive blog workshop at this year's Winchester Writers' Festival. I had eight enthusiastic attendees and five hours in which to share everything I've learned about blogging in the last six years. 

I take hours preparing for workshops because I love to read about successful bloggers and find out what advice they offer. I'm grateful to Joy the Baker and Jim Lin of the Busy Dad Blog, for their top blog tips: 

Tips for a Successful Blog

“Consistency is a big deal. If readers feel like they can count on you for consistent, reliable, beautiful content, they’ll definitely come back. 

Being accessible is important. I love readers to feel they can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. 

Being an enthusiastic and vocal part of a growing community helped my site. I joined baking groups online, and I would comment on fellow bloggers’ work nonstop.” 

Read a full interview with Joy the Baker 

“Be authentic, or else you will never enjoy it enough to put the work in. If you aren’t funny, don’t try to be. If you aren’t deep and thoughtful, don’t try to be. 

Make connections. Be social, be useful, be entertaining and be friendly. 

Be patient. That’s why you have to do it because you love it, not because you want to make money from it. It must be a passion, not a job." 

Read a full interview with Jim Lin.

Planning blog workshops forces me to look at my own pattern of blogging and assess what I need to be doing. For blogs to thrive they shouldn't be too random, but have a definite theme, and voice, and fulfill expectations... 

"The narrower your focus, the broader your audience," writer and entrepreneur, Jeff Goins writes. 

Goins sets some excellent questions in this exercise to focus your blog content. I shared them at the workshop and was thrilled to feel a boost of energy in the room as vague ideas developed into clearer ones.  

Two attendees sent me their blogs a couple of days later: Footprint Marketing UK and Kill the Boss - Turning Corporate Bollocks into Comic Fiction - I wish them good luck on their blogging journey!

I'm back in sunny Mallorca now but I will be popping back to England for a week in August. 

My next Blogging and Social Networking Workshop will be on Sunday 9th August in London. 

There are 8 places so book soon - and please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or Visit my Workshops Page for more information.

Blogging and Social Networking Workshop - 8th March

My next Blogging and Social Networking Workshop is now only a month away!

When: Saturday 8th March
Time: 10.30am - 3.00pm
How much:£45.00
Where: London, SE1

It's an intensive workshop packed with tips on how to set up your blog,  develop its identity, promote it using social networks, gain a readership, keep it interesting and also, importantly, what to avoid. 

Here are some Twitter Testimonials about my last workshop:

Thanks to talented and engaging @EmilyBenet for a brilliant #BlogWorkshop today and great to meet everyone. @JohnHandscombe @storyslamlive
— Pippa Gough (@PippaGough) October 19, 2013

If you want to learn about blogging, book on @EmilyBenet's course. I went yesterday - learned loads & laughed loads. Now I'm ready to blog!!
— John Handscombe (@JohnHandscombe) October 20, 2013

Thnks @EmilyBenet for a great workshop today on 'Blogging and Social Media'. Years of hard-earned knowledge packed into 1 session. Perfect!
— Tamim Sadikali (@TamimSadikali) October 19, 2013

 

BLOG SPOTLIGHT: The Reluctant Perfectionist

Helen Barbour came to a workshop in November 2012 and began her blog The Reluctant Perfectionist soon after. 

Peter Gettins Photography

What's your blog about? The Reluctant Perfectionist is a blog about my experiences of having obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). 

How long have you been blogging? Since 8 April 2013 – so far I’ve managed weekly posts, on a Monday, and hope to continue with that regularity. 

What made you start? Originally this was a means to an end, in that I wanted to raise my profile as a writer: obsessive-compulsive disorder is a theme in my – as yet – unpublished novel. However, I quickly began to enjoy blogging in its right and the positive feedback from readers has encouraged me immensely. 

What have been the benefits of blogging for you? I love playing with words (aka writing!) and blogging is a way to hone those skills. I’ve also found the experience extremely rewarding, as many readers have contacted me to say they have found my posts interesting and/or helpful – from strangers as far afield as India and the States, to an old schoolfriend, whose grown-up son has been diagnosed with OCD. 

What has been your most popular post to date? My post, Natural Born Worrier, about anxiety, which I think is something most people can relate to – though perhaps not in such an extreme form as I experience it (OCD is an anxiety disorder). 

Have you got a blog highlight? I was recently approached by a magazine based in Mumbai, India, who were looking for someone to write an article about OCD for them and had come across me via my blog. I was thrilled to be asked and am expecting the article to be published in March.

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This workshop will pose the questions you should ask before you begin your blog and offer all the information you need to get started.  If you've been meaning to start a blog for a long time, why put it off any longer? Come along for a friendly, fun and informative workshop!

Book your place via Paypal (£45.00) or for more information check out my Blog Workshop Page.

 

Calls to Action - Get Your Blog to Work!

Blog posts can take ages to write which makes it a little demoralising when they don't get any response. 

But have you ever read back one of those posts which has failed to elicit a single comment, and considered what comment you might have left?

When I look at my past Shop Girl Diaries posts, it's obvious why I wasn't inundated with comments. I was sharing amusing anecdotes about my Mum's shop. I wasn't writing anything topical or controversial. Neither was I posing any questions or inviting readers to share their thoughts.

It might be your type of blog isn't going to get lots of comments, but there are other calls to action which could be worth incorporating in your posts. 

Common Calls to Action:

Comment on this: If getting comments is your priority then you need to choose a subject that people will have an opinion on or an emotional reaction to. It might just be 'I know exactly what you mean!' - sharing experiences which readers can relate to can lead to great interaction. Ask questions in your blogs to invite comments.  

Further reading: Blog posts can take a long time to write and are often only aired once. To give them extra life, leave a link to a past post your readers might be interested in at the end of your new posts. Make your links neat by just displaying the title of the posts, rather than the whole http:// link.

Follow me on: You may want to build up your following on other social networks like Twitter or Facebook. Make it easy by adding a badge connecting them to that social network. Add an incentive by telling them what they can expect from following you on a different network (e.g. regular updates, more information, special offers, pictures etc)

 

Subscribe to Mailing List: It's easy to set up a mailing list with Mailchimp, and if Facebook and Twitter ever crash, you'll be relieved you did! Mailchimp will generate a code for you to add at the end of your blog (in the html section) which will display a subscription bar for readers to enter their email. Of course, once you've built up a mailing list, you will need to write a newsletter!

Buy this: If you have a product or offer a service related to your post, then why not add the information at the end? If your readers reach the end of the post, they might just be interested in additional information.

Too many calls to action can be off putting so best to choose just one you think most relevant!

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My next Blogging and Social Networking Workshop is on: 

Saturday 8th March 

10.30am-3.00pm 

London 

£45.00 

More information on my Workshop Page. 

Do you have a USP or an Unabashed Shaggy Poodle?

Ta-Da. My blog has had a little makeover while you were away. Do you like it? I hope so, because that's one long evening of putting things in circles I'll never get back.

 The time had come to rebrand my blog. The title 'Shop Girl Diaries' was niggling me. Not only am I no longer a Shop Girl writing about shop life but my title didn't coincide with my URL which has always been emilybenet.com.

My good Twitter friend @Isabelwriter suggested 'More laughs than Brontë' and after a highly intelligent text message conversation (below) with my friend @PieraLizzeri (green) I decided to go along with it.

If I'd put 'More laughs than Michael McIntyre' I'd be stressing out right now, but having to be a little more light hearted than a Brontë seems doable.

Whenever I'm about to lead a Blog Workshop I always review my blog and make improvements. It's the nature of a blog to always be changing and developing. The main thing is to keep returning to the reason why you started a blog in the first place and what it's all about.

Ideally you should know what your blog is about BEFORE you start. It might sound obvious but the word 'random' is forever popping up in people's headers and descriptions of their blog. You know the type. Welcome to my blog, it includes my random thoughts about random stuff that inspires me at random... O-kay, but why should we care?

I'm bored of the idea that if you're creative then you're probably not business minded. Why can't we both? We can.

Now say it like you mean it. WE CAN!

Writers are despairing about the publishing industry, how tough it is to break in, how no one's taking risks. This certainly feels true, but instead of curling up in corner and rocking ourselves to sleep, we should be asking ourselves how we can increase our odds of succeeding.

For a start we need to be very clear about what it is we're doing. We should be asking practical questions about our identity, branding, and brainstorming our USP (unique selling point). Just imagine you're a shop keeper and a salesman brings in a brightly coloured blob. Please sell my blob, they say. As a shopkeeper you might have already bought quite a few blobs off the previous salesman and be feeling anxious about buying another. You'll want to know what's so special about it, what makes it different from the other blobs and also how you're going to convince your customers to buy it. It's not even being business minded, it's common sense. Can you describe your book/ blog/ script clearly? Because if you can't and you created it, who will be able to?  

How I see it, we are living in a DIY world in which we can make things happen as long as we're able to muster the energy and enthusiasm. It's not easier, but with the internet, we can do a lot more by ourselves. If the publishers don't come, there's always self-publishing and plenty of freely available tools to spread the word. I'm not saying you should compromise on style or quality to satisfy one type of shop keeper, just accept if it's not going to work for them you'll need to pursue a different avenue. 

But I don't know anything about self-publishing, blogging, social media and all that jazz, you say? And I say, I didn't know how to use Gimp Photo Editor until I spent an evening following online tutorials, and now I've got a new header with circles in it, yippee. You can learn all this stuff step by step. All you've got to do is keep asking the right questions. What excites you? What do you want to achieve? What's the next step? Because the way we create may be random, but there's no reason why we can't be practical and focused about how we choose to share it with the world.

Well that wasn't funny... Maybe I should change it to 'more laughs than Steinbeck'.  

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Want to learn more about Blogging? My next Workshop is happening soon!  

Blogging and Social Networking  for Beginners / Improvers

On Saturday 19th October 

10.30am - 3pm - £40.00

@ 77 Tower Bridge Road, London 

More information and Booking via Paypal from my Blog Workshops Page

                                                    

Upcoming: Blogging for Beginners Workshop

 

My next Blogging for Beginners Workshop is taking place on Saturday 9th February in South East London and there are still a few spaces available!  

 

If you'd like to begin a blog but aren't sure where to start, or perhaps you've already started but still have lots of questions, then why not come along to a friendly and informative workshop? I'd love to share with you what I've learned over the last 4 years of blogging!

 

When?

Saturday 9th February 2013

10am - 2pm

 

Where?

77 Tower Bridge Rd

SE1 4TW

 

How much?

£40.00

 

About me

I'm the author of 'Shop Girl Diaries' (Salt Publishing) which began as a blog and was winner of the CompletelyNovel Author Blog Awards 2010. I've contributed to Publishing Talk's Guide to Blogging, Blogging for Creatives and written about social media for Mslexia magazine and The New Writer.

 

 

For more information and booking please visit my Workshop Page 

 

Otherwise don't hesitate to contact me at Emily@emilybenet.com 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPCOMING WORKSHOP: Blogging for Beginners

There's now less than a month to sign up for my next Blog Workshop! 

Blogging for Beginners (& Improvers) will take place on 

Saturday 27th October.

It's a 3.5 hour information-packed workshop ideal for those who have yet to begin a blog or for those who want to improve on what they have started. 

The workshop will give you the chance to develop your blog idea, learn the tools to set it up, keep it interesting, promote it, and gain a readership. I will share with you all the do's and don't I've learnt over the last 4 years of blogging.

Below is a rough guideline of what we'll cover:

Introduction to Blogging 

Online vs Offline

Inspiration - Analysis of Material
The Blog Post - do's & don'ts

The Big Idea – Group discussion; exercises to develop your idea

Set it up – Blog platform, layout, design, style...

Content – multimedia, changing content, linking, widgets 

Building an Audience – tools for marketing your blog

Social Networking – Facebook, Twitter

There will be handouts to take away so you won’t have to remember everything!

If you've been meaning to start a blog for a long time, why put it off any longer? Come along to a friendly, fun and informative workshop! 

WHERE? WHEN? HOW MUCH?

Saturday 27th October

10am - 2.00pm (including 30min break) 

@ 77 Tower Bridge Road, SE1 4TW * (above 'Lost & Found')

Fee: £40.00

Limited Places. 

* Some of you may recognise the venue which inspired 'Shop Girl Diaries' - yes, there will be lots of sparkling chandeliers above your head!

ABOUT ME

I began my blog in June 2008. Since then it has been turned into a book and a short film. It won the Completely Novel Author Blog Awards (published writer category) in 2010 and it has just been featured in the new guidebook ‘Blogging for Creatives.’

WHAT PEOPLE HAVE SAID:

'Emily Benet's Blog Workshop is ideal for anyone interested in 

blogging and not sure where to start. Emily takes you through the 

basics and really gets you thinking about what your blog should be 

about. I picked up some great hints and tips from the workshop and am 

already seeing an increase in traffic to my blog. A morning definitely well-spent!' – Amy Duthie, blogger of my tattered notebook

'A really inspiring workshop with a friendly and knowledgeable tutor. Hands-on with lots of great ideas to put into practice straight away' 

- Marianne Powell, playwright

For more information please don't hesitate to get in touch with me: emily@emilybenet.com

Or to book your place via Paypal, please visit my Workshop Page. 

Stimulus Workshops in September

Stimulate Your Writing - with Stimulus!

I’m very grateful to this blog.

Without it I wouldn’t have got my first book published.

Or been asked to write a film script and witness it come to life.

I wouldn’t have gained such encouraging readers and I wouldn’t have been contacted to write articles for other publications.

And of course, without the blog, my husband would never have proposed as he did!

Blogging is a hugely valuable tool to get your writing on the map.

Publishers prefer to take risks on writers that already have a readership so if you dream of being a published author then it’s time to be proactive.

Next month I’ll be running a blogging workshop with Stimulus.

If you’ve been meaning to start up a blog but want some guidance first then this is for you.

The two and half hour workshop will cover all the basics of beginning a blog from the big idea, choosing content with real appeal, to spreading the word and staying motivated.

For more information, please visit www.stimulusworkshops.com and fill in a contact form.

I look forward to hearing from you!

DATE: Saturday 16^th July, or Sunday 17^th July

TIME: 5pm – 7.30pm

LOCATION: Westbourne Studios, 242 Acklam Road, W10 5JJ

FEE: £35.00