Welcome to the current series of Posts from Your Archives in 2020 and if you would like to participate with two of your posts from 2019, you will find all the details in this post: New series of Posts from Your Archives 2020
This the second post by author Stevie Turner in which she explores the kinds of blog posts that seem to generate the most traffic.
I was interested to read Cristian Myhai’s Six Types of Blog Posts that always get read . It seems that writing blogs giving writing/blogging advice is the way forward for writers who want to gain more readers.
However, I’ve also found that blog stats increase if there’s something in it for the reader. In my case I run a ‘Share Your Short Story’ writing contest every few months which gives the winner and runner-up a shout-out, and I promote the winning stories on my social media sites. These ‘Share Your Short Story’ announcements and winners seem to be the most read of my blogs, along with my blog asking whether we’re Writers or Authors, and my interview of Chris, The Story Reading Ape (Chris, you’re famous!).
The blogs in my opinion that do not gain as much attention as the ones above are author interviews, and posts where I promote either my own books or books written by other authors, ha ha, probably because they contain buying links. Also strangely enough, readers don’t usually bother too much about any post containing a book review, probably again because it has a buying link. However, blogs promoting free books gain many readers funnily enough (the last Free Book blog I wrote ‘sold’ 950 books) …
So… it seems that one blog post about the same old writing tips and advice will be re-blogged ad nauseam. It makes me wonder whether the person re-blogging it ever takes up the advice or subscribes to the original site, or re-blogs without even reading because their stats are sure to increase if they publish a blog about writing tips!
Who knows? By the way… yes, I did read ‘Six Types of Blog Posts that Always Get Read’…
© Stevie Turner 2019
I am sure you will have your views on the subject… what blog posts do your think generate the most traffic in your experience?
A selection of books by Stevie Turner
One of the recent reviews for Examining Kitchen Cupboards
In Stevie Turner’s latest novel, Examining Kitchen Cupboards (2019), Jill Hayes takes on a new job In a college exam administration office. She had hoped it would lead to a career but quickly discovered it was much too technical for her skillset. As she struggles to learn the complicated tasks that would allow her to succeed, she stumbles upon illicit activities that she feels honor-bound to report. No one will listen–not the newspapers, the college, or even the agency responsible for the exams–until finally someone does. Things don’t work out as Jill had hoped.
This is a well-told story of a whistle blower’s efforts to fix a serious problem. It is told from various perspectives which adds to the depth of understanding about how complicated it can be to report actions when lots of people don’t want to admit there’s even a problem. It was at times difficult to read but the importance is significant–which is why it earned the 5/5.
Read all the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US
And: Amazon UK
Follow Stevie Turner on: Goodreads
About Stevie Turner
Stevie Turner works part time as a medical secretary in a busy NHS hospital and writes suspense, women’s fiction, and darkly humorous novels in her spare time. She won a New Apple Book Award in 2014 and a Readers’ Favorite Gold Award in 2015 for her book ‘A House Without Windows’, and one of her short stories, ‘Checking Out’, was published in the Creative Writing Institute’s 2016 anthology ‘Explain!’ Her psychological thriller ‘Repent at Leisure’ won third place in the 2016 Drunken Druid Book Award contest.
Stevie lives in the East of England, and is married with two sons and four grandchildren. She has also branched out into the world of audio books, screenplays, and translations. Most of her novels are now available as audio books, and one screenplay, ‘For the Sake of a Child’, won a silver award in the Spring 2017 Depth of Field International Film Festival. ‘A House Without Windows’ gained the attention of a New York media production company in December 2017.
Some of Stevie’s books are currently being translated into German, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
Connect to Stevie Turner
Website: Stevie Turner Author
Facebook: Stevie Turner Author
Twitter: @StevieTurner6
Blog: Stevie Turner WordPress
Pinterest: Stevie Turner Author
YouTube: Stevie Turner
My thanks to Stevie for sharing this post and would love to hear your opinions.. Personally for me, the cafe updates and the new book on the shelves which do have buy links do well. As do the humour posts and afternoon videos. How about you?
Thank you, Sally. x
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Thanks Stevie, plenty to think about. xx
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This is an interesting post, Sally. I find that my review posts are well read, especially when they are for classic books or authors within our writing community. Maybe its because I read a lot of book blogs because I love reading what others have to say about books.
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Personally I do find that there are plenty of comments on the book reviews with buy links in the updates and in fact have moved to three times a week. And I agree all of the authors are from our community and are well known so that makes a difference. xx
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My book reviews get average comments, perhaps my readers know about the books already and skip them. When I shared my family stories, I feel like sharing with long time friends and did receive a good number of comments.
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Readers do enjoy the personal stories and they are more likely to do well… I find my humour ones do well with usually the same people tuning in.. thanks Miriam.. xx
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Yeah, Sally. We call it from known to unknown in education. The readers feel comfortable with certain known factors. 💖
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This was interesting, I find my author interviews get a lot of engagement and I hear from my guests that they’ve sold some books after the interview? Maybe it’s genre or particular readers for particular blogs? ❤
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My experience too Debby ♥
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Sistah! ❤
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I agree with you about the recycled writing advice getting tiresome. I thought it was just me because I’ve been writing and teaching writing for so long. I get impatient with facile, one-size-fits-all advice. On my blog, my book reviews get good interaction and the posts with poetry, whether mine or someone else’s.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences Liz…xx
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🙂
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Interesting and informative post Stevie thanks for sharing on Sally’s blog. ❤
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Thanks Marje..♥
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When I started my blog I didn’t want to write about writing as everyone else seemed to be doing it. I wanted to do something a bit different, so I had my dogs ‘write’ most of my posts. According to my stats, the dogs’ posts have been the most popular. The sad thing is, both my dogs have now passed on and I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my blog. I’ll either have to find another angle, or get another dog.
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Your beautiful dogs did a wonderful job but I am sure that there is many other subjects that you could write about Annabelle…hugsx
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