28 | The Writer • March 2020
In short, if you’re not coming at it from a
focused business perspective, you’re not likely to
find lasting satisfaction OR success.
3
’Why write about one thing when I can write
about EVERYTHING!’
My first two blogs didn’t have a distinct niche.
My current blog does, and it’s evident right from
the URL: OnlyPictureBooks.com. But it’s more
than that – in my pre-launch months of research
and mulling, I noticed that while there are quite
a few picture book review blogs, all of them have
single reviewers. What are the odds that one per-
son is equally qualified to critically review the
text AND images?
I knew I could do exactly what they did, but
why would I want to? That’s like wanting to start
up a burger joint where your signature sandwich
is two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce,
cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun.
That’s just a Big Mac clone. If you want a Big Mac,
you just go to McDonald’s.
So, that got me focused on finding my own
hook to distinguish myself from the competition.
I finally settled on having multi-vocal picture
book reviews. That’s my hook. With my writing
background, I’m the text expert. And for each
review, I also bring in a well-qualified picture
book artist to handle commenting on the image
side, making each review a multi-vocal effort.
Having a deep pool of artists allows for a variety
of voices to help keep things fresh, too.
4
‘Go big or go home!’
Blogger extraordinaire John Scalzi (what-
ever.scalzi.com) explains that many new bloggers
fail because they underestimate the bandwidth it
requires. “People feel like they need to post daily
(or more) and then feel guilty when they don’t,”
he says, “and then they resent how much time
they feel they have to give to the blog, and then
they avoid it. So, my advice here is that while reg-
ular posting is good (it keeps people coming
around), it’s best to feel your way about what ‘reg-
ular’ means for you: Once a week, a couple times
a week, every couple of weeks, or whatever.
Again: It works when it’s fun, not an obligation.”
I post every Monday morning on my blog –
once a week. Period. And each week of the month
has a clear area of focus.- Week 1: Picture book reviews
- Week 2: Author and/or illustrator interviews
- Week 3: Educational activities
- Week 4: Industry insider interviews (with
agents, editors, and publicists) - Occasional bonus goodies (because some
months have 5 Mondays)
While I wish I could post three times a week
or even daily, I just don’t have – as Scalzi said –
the bandwidth for that level of commitment. For
me, once a week is totally doable and never feels
like a burden. To avoid burnout and guilt, find
the posting frequency that works for you – and
stick to it.
5
‘Goals are for soccer players.’
Many people decide to blog in order to
“make money” or “get my name out there.” But
what does that mean? Are we talking making
$25/month or $500/month? Finding five new fans
or 50 new fans a month? If you don’t have a clear
bull’s-eye, you’ll never know if you hit the target.
Everything I do on my blog is designed to pro-
vide real value to writers, illustrators, teachers,
librarians, parents, and industry insiders like
agents and editors. To this end, I had two realistic
goals for my first 12 months of blogging.- Goal 1: Average 100 new unique views per
month – so that was 1,200 by the end of year
one. - Goal 2: Ensure that I had three first-rate
authors and industry insiders ready to go for
the first three months.
I managed to hit both. Had I not lined up at
least a few interviews in advance, I might’ve given
up on the blog because chasing down people last-
minute can be a nightmare. And had I aspired for
20,000 views per month or something equally
crazy, I’d have quit out of irritation that not
enough people were paying attention.
Articulating clear goals is helpful but only if
they’re achievable.