Building an online following (and the next round of critique winners!)

I know, I know…who am I to talk about snagging followers? I know most of you have more followers than me, but someone asked me that question this week and I’m willing to answer! My responses might be a little different, so maybe this will be worth reading!

1. Tweet new posts with an interesting title. I’ve only been on Twitter for two-ish months, but I already have more followers there than I have here. So everyone I tweet to has the potential to retweet my post (if it is good) to their followers. Boom! My blog could be visited by hundreds of people, some of which may decide to follow.

2. Follow well-followed blogs and leave good/funny/smart comments. Others who follow that blog may click on your name and head on over to your site.

3. Participate in blog tours or hops. And by participate, I mean visit and follow lots of the blogs and leave comments. Writers are notoriously good about returning the favor.

4. Host a contest with a good prize. This does not mean that the prize has to be expensive! Of the three contests I’ve hosted, the query and critique contest was by FAR the most successful! (And speaking of contests, the winners of the next round of crits are: Jess, Laura C., and Redleg! Please send your next 50 pages! Thanks!)

5. Be relevant. Write timely, interesting, funny, informative posts. No one is going to follow your blog if you don’t consistently deliver readable material.

Since I’m trying to take my own advice, I’d like to announce an Awesome Author Interview on Monday! Avery Olive (averyolive.blogspot.com) has agreed to share the story of how she went from stay-at-home mom to soon-to-be published author! And the kicker…she did it without an agent!

(BTW I wrote this entire post on my phone. Sorry for the blah-ness. I couldn’t get the bold or bullets to work. Monday will be better. Promise!)

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