“[I]t becomes a lot harder to find active communities when you're looking for blogs about art or health or travel. Are these blogs out there? For sure. However, they don't have the same level of activity, community or influence that blogs that, say, focus on Google have."
Creative writers love to dismiss PR and marketing ideas. My ideas about web marketing changed after I spent some time interviewing Shel Israel about his new book co-authored with another web guru, Robert Scoble. When somebody connected in the web marketing or technology fields publishes a book, that book will get plugged on all the right blogs for weeks! Creative thinkers like Rubel and Israel have set a web standard that creative writers need to follow.
But don't take my word for it. Listen to Rubel:
To build an active blog, you need to find a way to bridge what you care about to bloggers' passions. Right now, if you look at the lists of the top postings of the day, the content flow tends to be more political and technical in nature.
That’s dead-on. Creative writers don’t have a strong Internet commuity like Rubel, and too many fledgling writers are getting lost in the blogosphere. Find your community today, using Technorati or Ice Rocket. If you haven’t established yourself in a web community—no matter if you are writing about creative fiction or publishing or dog care—your career will suffer if your audience can’t find you easily on the Internet.
Since I'm just getting into the webmarketing thing, and since I'm a writer, not a marketer, I can see the truth to what you're saying. The problem is one of simple dilution. There are millions of blogs, most of them ignored. So, you need to stand out, which requires time, effort and investment, which takes me away from my writing... What's wrong with this picture?
Posted by: Chris A. Jackson | March 23, 2006 6:19 PM | Permalink to Comment