Where do I begin? Initially, I started doing it because it was an option on my old website and I saw it as a way to promote my first two books. That was until things went belly up. I know that attempts were clumsy and all over the place with terrible typos. I still have typos, but not as many now that I use ‘word’ and juts cut and paste etc.
So my first blogs were a bit ‘book orientated. Then there was a focus on Perdy, my crazy jack Russell. I played with various themes around her, including seeing the General Election through her eyes. Those posts still get quite a few hits. I took lots of photos of her and jasmine (my ever suffering cat--- don’t worry, she’s the boss) and included those whenever I could. I have since realised that it is necessary to have a camera at hand (even if it is only my cell phone version), because there are so many opportunities to take those ‘special pictures,’ you know the ones: that unusual light that frames an event, or when Perdy is in possession of another dog’s toy and the subsequent ‘moment in time when they resolve the issue.
I began to notice that the hit rates on my blogs were slowly increasing, so I began to plan ‘milestones.’ For example, I gave myself a certain time to hit 500 hits and then 1000. I had a celebratory bottle of wine with family and friends for that---- not the usual quaffing number. At about that time I hooked into the ‘monetising’ option. This isn’t as good as you may be imagining. I think that one has to record a huge number of clicks or hits on the accompanying adverts. Even though my blogs have reached more than 2000 hits as of today, I have yet to score any financial benefit. God knows how many I have to achieve. I suspect that it needs people to click on the adverts and go to the next step and purchase one of the products or services. I have thus, lowered my wild expectations of making a fortune –lol.
There is a more salient reason for blogging. While I am trying to resolve my temporary problems with my books and their re-launching, I am attempting to keep my hand in as it were. I seek out topics, or they just jump into my head and away I go. I am pursuing different styles of writing. I seek feedback too, but that is not forthcoming. I wonder if people are a little reticent about ‘putting themselves out there.’ What I can say is that the more I blog, the more I am hooked. I enjoy it.
That leads me to my final point. I have decided to embark on a leap of faith. My next book, ‘TALK TO ME,’ is about to be launched in the next month or so. I am just waiting for the next school holidays in about 4 weeks, so that I can visit a printer and my web designer in order to get things going. I want to retain as much control over the process as I can. I shall of course keep working with another friend to get then last two books back on track. I will meanly let her handle those.
I propose to release the book, chapter by chapter, but I will have a threshold, whereby I will only release each chapter once there has been 100 hits on the first one and gradually increase the threshold. By then I will also have complete copies to sell, either through my website or direct through my email, (neilcolemanauthor@gamial .com).
In the meantime, IO shall select more topics to pontificate on and enjoy any feedback I attract.