A Good Blog?

How would you finish this sentence?

A good blog will....

What are the first words that come to mind?

Educate?

Entertain?

Challenge?

While pondering this, several questions arose.

• Why do I visit a blog? Does it pertain to writing or another topic of interest?

• What do I look to take away from a blog? Links? Tips? Encouragement? A little of each?

• What do I offer in the way of a good blog? 

The last question, to me, serves as a reminder and challenge to offer thought provoking value, info, encouragement, and fellowship. As a writer, I believe a blog can be an outlet and a tool that aligns with what I feel called to do. What do you think?

I happened across these links recently and thought they tied in nicely. If you have a moment, I'd be interested to see if you agree.

Twelve Things That Will Kill Your Blog

The 12 Dos and Don't of Writing a Blog

What do you think a good blog will do? What steps do you take to ensure your blog is a good one?

Happy writing,

Karen

P.S. Thanks to all for your kind words and prayers regarding my mother in law's recent surgery. She is feeling better, and is resting at home for now.

Photo credit: Stock Exchange

Contest Tips and Links

Entered any writing contests lately? Beth Revis, of Writing it Out has a great post about Entering Contests. Beth shares links, quotes, and her thoughts about the benefits of entering writing contests. Good stuff. I need to go back and check out those links.

My poetry writing friends might be interested in Terresa's poetry contest over at the Chocolate Chip Waffle. Poems must have a spring theme, and she has a sweet little prize for the winner. Hurry, deadline to submit is May 3rd at midnight.

I shared this link the other day, but since we are on the topic of contests, thought I'd toss it out there again.  K.Dawn Byrd has an extensive listing of 2010's contests on her blog. Contests are organized by month, with links provided. Most are for romance writers, but there are other categories too, such as flash fiction and the Delacorte Press Contest for First Young Adult Novel.

Came across this Writing Contests site recently. Haven't had a chance to thoroughly check it out, so I can't endorse it nor tell you about the features, but it did look promising. A quick stop there indicated contest listings for children's, young adult, and adult fiction, non fiction, and poetry.

What do you think of writing contests? Have you entered any lately? What were the results?

Have a blessed weekend. Happy contest writing!

Blogging Thoughts

Since I passed the one year blogging milestone in March, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my blogging routine, style, layout, and goals. Where am I headed? Do I keep going the same way or change things up? Can I still keep up my blog visiting schedule and maintain my sanity? The progress on my quest for answers has been slow, but these blogging friends have provided great food for thought.

Elana Johnson's recent posts have been similar to my thoughts. Blogging For You touches on viewing blogging like sitting around a table and talking with friends. Another post, More to Consider, offers more thoughts about what makes a good blog. Elana encourages us to consider the time factor; our visitors' time is at a premium, so make their stay at your blog effective and efficient.

Jody Hedlund has offered good blogging tips too. A recent favorite was How Can We Tell if Our Blog is Good?  Jody touches on followers, blogging and selling books, and how to measure how good (or bad) our blogs are. Key points worthy of consideration, she says, are numbers, connections, and feedback. The million dollar question that she poses to readers is "What makes a 'must read' blog?"

So what do you think? What elements are key to a successful blog? What do you like to see when you visit a blog? How do you build and maintain your followers? As always, I welcome and appreciate your input.

Coming next week - an interview with author Gayle Roper, hope you can join us!

Blessings and Happy Weekend:)

Blogs and Book Deals

Larry Brooks discusses blogs, novels, book deals, platforms, and other great strategies in his Copyblogger post,
How My Blog Landed Me a Book Deal.
Mr. Brooks points out the importance of blogging and pitching a book. He says, "These days, you don't just pitch a detailed idea for a book. You also pitch the audience that's going to buy that book."


This is a worthy stop, not just for this article, but many other wonderful tips, links, and resources. Sign up for the free email updates if you like, to stay up to date on important issues for writers. Mr. Brooks is also the creator of Story Fix, an instructional resource for screenwriters and novelists.  

I have yet to make the full tour of this site's resources, but have it on good authority from Susan J. Reinhardt of Christian Writer/Reader Connection that this is a jewel worth sharing. Thanks, Susan! .