From Foreward Magazine (scroll down to article “Blog On”)
Less than a year ago, author and publisher Gerry Murak says, he was a nonbeliever in web logs. Today his blog is a powerful marketing tool.
Although blogs (short for “web logs?) have been around a while (the consensus is that they appeared around 1994), there is still a sense of mystique about these websites, which were originally defined as a personal or noncommercial space, and in many cases were little more than online diaries.
Murak told FTW that he had heard very little about blogs when he was looking at ways to market his book last November. Our Fathers Who Art in Heaven (WAIH Publishing, 192 pages, $17.95, 0-9759057-1-6), the first in a series of Who Art in Heaven books, is a collection of inspirational stories reflecting on the loss of fathers and what these fathers continue to teach the living.
Murak and his wife were looking for advice on how to get traffic to his website when a consultant told them that what they really wanted was a blog. “I really didn’t know much about them,? said Murak, “so he referred us to a blog boot camp. Before lunch we didn’t know about it; after lunch we were up and running.?
It is the personal touch that a blog imbues that makes it so appealing for many. Murak uses his blog for much more than marketing his book. Almost daily, he shares a brief inspirational thought with online visitors and also gives readers the opportunity to tap into other pertinent information via audio, photographs, and even links to other websites.
“I think blogs have a far greater reach than a website,? he told FTW. “Websites are static and people, in general, feel like they are little more than electronic brochures. A blog is dynamic … it’s like having a conversation. You’re networking with people with common interests.?
A blog also becomes an avenue for making contacts—both personal and business. “It’s a way of creating networks of individuals with common interests,? said Murak. “You are no longer bound by getting in your car and going somewhere.?
Blogging is on the rise. According to one report by Pew Internet and American Life, there are 32 million U.S. readers and 11 million bloggers out there. Some corporations are beginning to pay attention to this communication pipeline but are proceeding slowly. Many are using a blog as a way to involve their audience in a way the website cannot. Others, such as IBM, are using a blog as an internal communication tool. A small press may want to use a blog for research, for discovering new authors, or for posting the comments of guest writers.
Thomas Nixon, who writes and publishes college and high school guides, started the SmallPress Blog in November 2004 to offer advice to other small publishers and hopefully sell some books in the process. He is pleased with the results and shared some of his thoughts on the process of making a blog work.
“The biggest mistake other companies can make in starting a blog is in thinking that people are interested in the company. Readers are interested in how what you create relates to them,? he told FTW. “So people read our interviews with Dan Poynter, John Kremer, and Fern Reiss (and many others) because they want help in learning how to market books, write books, and the ins-and-outs of independent publishing. As it happens, they also read about what we have been up to and they wander over and buy things. That’s how it should work,? said Nixon, who is the author of Cheap College Degrees: Your Guide to Inexpensive College Education (Degree Press, 208 pages, $16.95, 0-9764716-0-4).
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