I have been thinking long and hard about what I am going to do with this blog now that it is 2015. My plans are, as I have already mentioned, to use this blog more than ever as a platform for my writing and for my fabulously talented author friends. The only way to do this is to ensure I am posting regularly and also posting relevant things.
There will be more updates about my writing, what I am working on and where I am heading with various projects. I also want to have one day a week reserved for guest posts and maybe get back into the odd interview. Which reminds me, I have some interview questions that I need to answer today.
The problem I have had with guest authors in the past is that there was no interest. I need to grow the reach of the blog first. It is a Catch 22 situation really because the only way you can grow is to post more things and appeal to a wider audience, and guest posts or blog swaps are the best way to do this. I will try to start reviewing more books also. I know I reblog a lot of movie reviews, and that is likely to continue because I love horror movies, even if I never get to watch them.
Book reviews are something else, and scheduling a regular book review post on the blog will force me to keep reading more. My life has been known to be so busy my reading habits become rather erratic. I think I just about hit 10 books last year, and that really should be more this time around. However, my reading plans are for another blog.
That is something else I found myself doing and want to stop. I start out writing a blog about something, and as if the nature of
the human mind, tangents appear and I end up going way off topic. My posts end up jumbled and weak on all fronts. I hope, that by ensuring I post correctly, I will cut out these tangents because I will simply save them up for a new post.
The other way I plan to manage this is by limiting my posts (excluding samples and interviews) to around about 500 words. I find this to be a good readable length, and also gives enough room to make the points I want to make without having room for waffle.
I have no idea if this will work, or if the hectic thing that is my life will allow it, but I am going to give it my best. This is the year I force myself out of my comfort zone in terms of networking. I am going to get out there to meet people and interact. I have already done so on Facebook, using it as a tool for interesting conversations. The blog is the next place. I am also making sure I read and comment on as many blogs as I can. The more visible I become, the increased chance there are of sales coming my way.
Happy Weekend.
Official Site of Alex Laybourne - Author 
These are all pretty solid strategies to get more oomph. I definitely look forward to reading more from you this year! I hope to do some of the same things on my blog, too.
I figure that it is certainly worth trying this way. The very least it will do is give me some structure for things.
Good plan, Alex! I must admit I skipped a few of your blog posts in 2014, or didn’t always read to the end on some, because I lost interest or found them irrelevant. The upshot is you know what you want to do with it, and you have a plan to start the process.
Following our recent conversation about stats, I reviewed my own blog and made a plan about where to take it in 2015. See you out there!