Creative blogging idea

Tuesdays with Tiffany
by Tiffany Colter

Hello everyone. I hope this has been a great and super productive summer so far. It can be hard sometimes in the summer to stay on a schedule. The kids aren't in school, the weather is beautiful and there are so many things to do outside. The last thing you want to do is sit in front of a computer.

I wanted to show all of you a wonderful idea a good friend of mine is using to make her blogs more attractive. She also can add amazon links to the books she is posting to earn a stream of income that will help pay for her domain registration.

You can see the original blog here so you can access all the links to the various examples. Or I've pasted it below for you:

Hello my magnificent Marketers!!

Yesterday I gave you the name of a friend's blog. Her name is Nora St. Laurent and I encouraged you to read some of her previous posts. I hope you did that because I want to elaborate on some of the EXTREMELY creative writing, marketing and business development things Nora did in that blog.

As a "Case Study" we are going to look at her Rebeca Seitz blog. I've linked to it here if you'd like to reference back.

First, notice that Nora uses two photos at the beginning of her blog. I'll admit, I don't do this often because it REALLY slows down the time that people on dial-up have to wait for the page to load. However, as people are increasingly getting faster internet speed...I'm considering moving to this simple way to jazz up my blog.

Next, look at the clean way she puts together the interview. It is set up in a Q and A format. That makes it MUCH less work for the blogger. Many of you have been concerned about the amount of time that you spend working on a blog. Nora posts book reviews and author interviews. This allows her to "assign" part of her work to authors. By that I mean that she emails the questions and the authors answer. Then she must simply read through, ask any follow up questions and post.

Then from an income standpoint Nora asks about favorite books and posts funny pictures to keep readers entertained. One way to generate revenue from your blog [no matter how limited] is to make those amazon links. It allows your readers to quickly grab books that interest them. Most people will not make a great deal of money from selling books on their blog BUT I remember earlier this year about a week after my birthday I found out Amazon had just deposited $16 in my checking account. That was pretty cool. I personally recommend books to my readers that I have read and that have changed the way I look at things. You can see my list of suggested readings at this link. And these do link through to amazon. I don't do it to become rich [laugh] but I don't think there is anything wrong with offering the books for sale on my blog. If nothing else, I can keep the money to pay the annual renewal of www.Writing Career Coach.com

Finally, notice Nora's tone. Her blogs are MUCH longer than mine are but she really has a very unique voice. When you read Nora's book reviews and interview questions you get a real sense of the happy and loving woman I know Nora to be. You can look at the pictures to see her sense of humor and it makes you want to read more. That is part of why Nora is such a sought after person!

So I encourage you that as you read various blogs to notice not only what they say but their style. Pay attention to the WAY that they give information. You never want to feel that you're reading an infomercial. You also want to feel as if you've learned, been uplifted or something else after reading.

Why do people come to your blog? Does the set-up of your blog reflect that?

People come to Nora's blog to learn about great books and smile. I think a person would be hard pressed to read the Rebeca Seitz blog, or any of her other author interviews, and not leave changed.

That is TRULY the key to an effective blog!

I have to go...I have learning to do!

Your Coach for the Journey, Tiffany Colter