Every week, I see blog posts on how to raise an audience for better ad revenues. This is what blogging boils down to for many people, building content to make money from sidebar ads. I’m not opposed to people doing this, by the way. But my goals as a blog writer are vastly different than the goals of people who pursue this model.
If there is revenue to be earned in my writing, it’s because someone opts to leave a tip or buy one of my books. Since all of those revenue options are on my site, ZoeWhitten.com, it isn’t enough to get people to read my blog. Once I’ve convinced you to visit, the next step is convincing you to visit my site and check out more stories. (Most of which are free.)
So despite the sarcastic title of this post, name branding is just as important for me as it is for bloggers who write for ad revenue. But branding for the ad-supported folks isn’t about branding their name so much as their blog. They want people to remember the blog and keep checking back. This builds their traffic and increases the pool of people clicking ads.
But I need to brand my name because I want people to look for my other stories, not just surf to my blog. For example, I have a story posted with The New Bedlam Project, and I can’t post it on my blog. I can post a direct link, but I want people to go over to the ‘zine to check out my story, and then look at everyone else’s stories too.
Another example would be if I got a story accepted with a print publisher of any size. What good does it do me to have 1,000 people surfing my blog every day if they won’t buy a book to convince the publisher to invest in more titles?
The kind of blog branding that works for the ad revenue folks will not work for me either. They only require enough loyalty to the site to warrant a few sidebar clicks now and then. This is not much of a commitment, and most people will if the content is good. (ie: no scams, blatant plagiarism or link farming.)
By comparison, I’m asking visitors for a considerable investment of time to read my backlog of stories. I’ve seen advice that writers shouldn’t make every blog post about their fiction, but I don’t have anything that compelling to write about in my private life. So I mostly post serial stories or random rants.
I have bucket loads of free time to write, and my serial fiction posts make me a regular stop for many readers. But I often find myself wondering if there is some way that I can engage those quiet readers and convince them to talk. This is the one question that plagues me whenever I sit down to write: how do I build a community of readers who are also avid fans?
One possibility that I’ve considered is Tuckerization. Maybe I could interest readers in coming forward to ask for parts in my upcoming dark fantasy stories. This would make them more involved in the serials, even if it’s just to say, “Nooooo! I can’t believe you killed me!”
This also helps create a chance for word of mouth advertising. Someone who’s in the story is likely to ask friends to check it out. Even the guy who gets munched by a daemon will tell his friends, “I got killed in a story. You wanna see it?” Then every referral is another branding opportunity, and another chance to pick up new readers.
I already have some vocal fans who are willing to post comments or reviews now, and for them, I’m extremely grateful. I have a couple (as in two) “true fans” who are willing to buy my books, e-books and send in the occasional tip for a job well done. But this is nothing compared to the silent majority who read and leave until the next installment. In fact, I keep joking to my friends, “I have more fans than I can count on one hand…hey, counting to six requires both hands!” I’m sure I have more readers than six. But I’m never sure of how many because they never say anything.
My hope is to tempt some of those silent readers into speaking up, even if they aren’t buying anything. I don’t want to send them away by making every other post sound like, “Don’t forget to buy my books!” I want feedback, but the fiction posts apparently don’t invite discussion. My humor pieces don’t either, although I can sometimes get a few comments with a serious topic like this.
With that in mind, I’d love to hear your thoughts on tuckerization, and whether you feel it could be useful in name branding a fiction writer online. I’ll step off the soapbox now and turn it over to anyone interested in taking a turn.
I am a bisexual transsexual with bigender tendencies, a former resident of Texas, but now live in Milan with my husband. I used to write in a variety of genres and published my work through 
This sounds like an interesting idea. I’ve pondered the same question of turning visitors into buyers. Even with a free story in MP3 format listed above my e-book for sale I see well enough numbers for the freebie but not a significant conversion for the e-book for sale. I have considered that maybe it is a matter of more content to cater to more tastes, certainly more than afforded by only one or two offerings. If with your greater breadth of fiction the status remains similar to mine then there is more to it than requiring a larger offering.
One of the other methods of drawing an audience that I have undertaken is writing more than one blog. Of course that takes time away from writing fiction, or editing it to get out for sale, whether by myself or through traditional publishers. A secondary downfall to this is that each blog needs it’s own flogging so to speak, it’s own advertising and branding. The upside I see is that a long standing, well-entrenched blog (or blogs) with or without lots of comments expresses the seriousness of your intentions, it covers a depth of topics, and it gives the audience a real sense of your take on subjects and your approach to writing.
Robert, I think it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t believe it would work for me. I struggle to come up with topic for just one blog. Dividing myself into other blogs would just increase the pressure to write, but without really writing anything.
Mentioning my e-book sales, they’re actually quite good, considering that I’m offering most books for free. But my primary goal remains getting feedback over sales for the time being. After all, I’m still learning, and feedback is more vital to me at this stage than money is.
I have tuckerized a number of my friends and people I know in my novels. One of them has since become one of my greatest fans. When my computer disintegrated three years ago, I had been trying to order all the parts for a new machine as my royalties came in. But it died before I could reach the next royalty period. Without consulting me, he went over and ordered everything on my wish list at Newegg because he did not want the next book to be delayed.
I know that I have sold copies because people told their friends on their blogs that I had written them into the books.
The writer types responded differently, some of them writing me into their works to avenge their tuckers.
Ha! That would be cool, to open a book and find a writer had killed me in their story. Sort of like an ego stroke and an insult at the same time. ^_^
I was a lot of fun.
I don’t know about Tuckerization, but I’ve got a few idea’s to get more people active. Personally I think you’d be served best by a system like Lord Likely’s. Write a story with different options and let people vote where it would go next. Reactions should slip in because (knowing you) you’ll take it somewhere totally unexpected. I think this might be worth a try. About the Tuckerization I don’t know if I’d like it in the form you suggested. It sounds to much like you’d have to give up your own ideas for those who want their 15 minutes of fame.
I do firmly believe you blog should be at your website (it isn’t very hard to insert a WordPress blog into a website), because people are lazy. Blogreaders are a different kind of readers as fiction readers, and I believe you should convert both to the other type.
As a third and last point I don’t believe your life would be uninteresting. You might think so, but you live in Italy, have had a very interesting life path, and have a great sense of humor. Succesful branded web-fiction authors like Meilin Miranda or Alexandra Erin are thought to be as succesful partly because they let people in on their personal lifes a bit. People like to connect, and like to know who the people behind the fiction are.
Well with the way I work, nothing would written with that much direct input from the tuckered folks. I’d work to get physical descriptions right. But the rest of the story will still be mine. It would still go through the same process before I let it go, and I wouldn’t seek the approval of a person once they’d agreed to be a part of the world. If they end up complaining, I can find and replace to rename the character to something similar and move on, no sweat.
I totally agree that my blog should be on my web site, so I will have to look into that after I come back from Amsterdam. That’s a great suggestion, and I really appreciate it.
The thing is, I don’t think it would work if you don’t know your audience good enough, and they start knowing each other. That’s why I ‘think’ doing option polls for story directions might be a better option for you now in this stage.
Communities can’t be forced nor created, suddenly they just exist. I believe you’ll be there too at one point.
I don’t know if you have checked out my site, but I try different stuff every once in a while. I always tell people that it’s really the workings of m brain online. Sometimes there will be random stuff that I find funny, aother times it’s updates on my writing and the writing of my friends and fellow writers. I don’t know if I really want it to become a high traffic site until I have quite a bit published. I like being that guy you found out from a comment I left on another blog, random search engine result, or a retweet.
I, personally, try to keep anything that isn’t entertaining to me, related to my writing. Personal life stuff that is posted is just when my writing is involved (like my post on my resent writers retreat of if my health gets in the way). Everything else seems uninteresting to me, so why bore readers with the mundane.
As for Tuckerization, I think it could work. I think if you could tie it to a contest related to your works, you might get the passionate fans to start talking to you and as word of mouth goes along, people will be willing to read to win something. I try contests every once in a while, I had one that was to choose the title of short story I submitted, didn’t get a lot of votes, but I go a lot of talk between me and readers of my blog. Right now I’m trying to think up a contest to win a signed copy of the anthology I’m in.
Yes, great points, and like you, I don’t feel the need to post just to post. If something isn’t interesting to me, I beleive it will show through in my writing.
I’ve just started following your blog, so I’ve not yet had a chance to go through the older posts yet. But I will, eventually. I have a long TBR list, but I get to everyone sooner or later. ^_^
On contests, I’ve not had any luck. I did have a poll over renaming Blind Rage that went over well. That’s why I think offering people a chance to get into the story might help raise interest and awareness. But I know that for me, using contest to build interest will still have to wait until I’m more well known.
To a degree Branding is Branding – but if you look at the successful blogs they generally aren’t just there to get people to click on ads. A blog founded to make money from ads is going to flounder.
Anyway about comments – I’m not sure. Figures I’ve read on SEOmoz and similar suggest that you need upwards of 100 subscribers or 750 *unique* hits a day before you can expect even consistent light commenting action on a blog – because sadly most people are passive on the social media scale. The guy at SEOmoz suggests closing comments until you hit those figures because empty comments make your blog look unpopular which can lead to people going away and not coming back. (And to illustrate my point he also says to *not* have ads on your blog until you’re already in possession of loyal readers by the bucketload because readers hate adverts and will demand *better* content from a blog with ads). Problogger says “only 1 in 100 visitors will comment on your blog” – which amounts the same thing. I expect the figures are similar for stories.
Therefore one of the only ways to get more comments is to get more readers. Problogger does have some good tips to get more comments http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/10/12/10-techniques-to-get-more-comments-on-your-blog/ I especially like suggestion 9 – rewarding good comments either through a reply in the comments or even by mentioning in a linked blog post. People are egocentric – they’re more likely to comment if they think there’s something in it for them – even if it’s just an ego-stroke.
Meh, that wasn’t very helpful.
Becky
For now, all I can do is help you out on twitter and give you feedback on your stories. If I could I would buy all of your books for my little library at home. When I write my next blog post, I’ll put in a link to your site.
(I can’t really afford to be a great stalker, just so so.) You have a fresh voice and your stories resonate with me. So keep writing and I’ll keep reading.
I’m happy with your support and your feedback. When I mentioned vocal fans who I’m grateful for, you’re included in that group. So even if you can’t afford the books, it’s okay. You’re a reader and fan, and that’s what really matters. ^_^
Thanks. I wasn’t really looking for a compliment. But I will continue to stalk you politely or less then politely, maybe both.
You, my friend, are an awesome person and a fantastic writer. 
The following post came from Naomi:
nomesquefiction.wordpress.com
nomesk@gmail.com
ROTFL…
Nice rant!
I think that anyone wanting public attention (fame, etc) needs to think carefully about the image they’re looking to project. Rantiness works well for some people. So does bad behaviour. Example – Amy Winehouse has made a career out of taking ‘bad photo’ to the extreme. *grin*
You know what pisses me off far more than ranty writers? Whiny ones. The ones against whom the world is ranged because… ummm… just because. They’re completely innocent geniuses, but for some bizarre reason nobody likes them and nobody reads their book and it must be a government conspiracy.
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for some reason, WP ate the post, but I saved it.
Naomi, the innocent geniuses are fodder for a whole other post. ^_^