# To blog or not to blog



## LadyKas (Jan 19, 2018)

I honestly dont know what to do with my writing. I dont honestly think id ever make money off of anything i write. But i do want others to read it. So the debate is where. Should i start my own blog and where can i do that for free? Or should i post on a site like this? Or what other free options are there? Should i post chapter by chapter or write the whole thing and put it out at one time (probably not the best idea since i actually have no end point in mind for current work and am just restarting it).


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 19, 2018)

You might find WattPad to your liking.


----------



## LadyKas (Jan 19, 2018)

Oh wow. I just went to the site. It looks amazing. Ive got to figure it out but it definitely has great reads. Which is something im always looking for.


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 19, 2018)

Personally, I use a WordPress blog hosted on a site I pay for, but I know a lot of people who use WattPad and very much like it.

You can get a free WordPress site, or a free Wix site, both of which have their advantages, but you have to work at getting an audience there. It might be easier to find an audience on WattPad. It sounds like it might be a good place for you to start.


----------



## LadyKas (Jan 19, 2018)

Thanks. I definitely like the page as a place i can read great stories i cant find in print.


----------



## Peat (Jan 20, 2018)

Wattpad is probably the best place for sticking up free stories you want people to read, but I think there's some other websites like that out there, and as long as there's no exclusivity clauses you might as well stick it on all of them. I think some of the big fan fiction platforms might have original stuff? Seem to recall a lot of people post stories to fantasy writers.

There's certainly nothing wrong with sticking it on a free blog as well, but reality is no one's looking for that blog while a lot of people are looking on Wattpad and what not.

As for chapter by chapter or when its finished... probably doesn't matter too much, and whatever's easier for you to work with is good, but in general I'd recommend when finished if you don't know how it ends and are not pretty confident in your ability to make it up on the fly.


----------



## Night Gardener (Jan 23, 2018)

LadyKas I just happen to have this bookmarked

The Ultimate Best Blogging Sites Comparison - January 2018

This article is more geared towards people blogging for SEO compensation (read: monetazation / advertisement revenue)...
but you could set up a Patreon (or other subscription service) for your publishing. There are some members in the forum who have/are serialized publishers for their choice of format.

Blogging also ties in very well to social media, e-commerce, etc. Not all blog platforms are created equal. If you read through the link, there are a few pitfalls to be mindful of while making a decision. ( And, think optimistically! Don't dismiss the idea of needing upgrades and expanded blog features in the [near] future. Some platforms lock you in, and you can't transfer your content to a different provider. Yikes! )

As a side note: I will advise that you copyright the whole of your work, regardless of whether or not you think it'll 'make money', before open-blogging it and/or using a streamlined publishing to commerce service, like Amazon / Kindle. There are excellent references in the forum regarding Creator Bill of Rights and contemporary copyright laws. Yes, IMHO it is worth protecting your work.


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 25, 2018)

Night Gardener said:


> As a side note: I will advise that you copyright the whole of your work, regardless of whether or not you think it'll 'make money', before open-blogging it and/or using a streamlined publishing to commerce service, like Amazon / Kindle. There are excellent references in the forum regarding Creator Bill of Rights and contemporary copyright laws. Yes, IMHO it is worth protecting your work.



Do you mean registering with the Copyright Office? Are you talking about countries other than the US? In the US, your work is automatically copyrighted when you put it to media.


----------



## Night Gardener (Jan 25, 2018)

Michael K. Eidson said:


> Do you mean registering with the Copyright Office? Are you talking about countries other than the US? In the US, your work is automatically copyrighted when you put it to media.



When I think about publishing online,  I think 'globally' because the web and ecommerce services are international. That gets a bit more nebulous, because a lot of US copyright laws are being challenged (or ignored). In a global market, old-school formal registration in the country you occupy might give you a bit more ground to stand on legally if you find infringement on your intellectual property. Not from personal experience, but artists and authors have laid out many a lament saying 'I wished I had formally registered my design/work.' Or, in extreme cases, they already _had formally _copyrighted /trademarked material, and a foreign company is blatantly ripping them off, so it becomes an international issue. 

In short, don't just publish/store content in one place/platform (in case the server crashes or goes out of business, etc.), and also leave a lot of evidence that you owned and created _when you said you created it. _Or, just use snail-mail and register your work with your government.


----------



## Michael K. Eidson (Jan 25, 2018)

Night Gardener said:


> and also leave a lot of evidence that you owned and created _when you said you created it._



I've successfully used the Wayback Machine as evidence of ownership of material.

The thing is, even with a registered copyright, it is often not worth it to go after a copyright violator through the judicial system. If you have strong evidence of creating the material when you claim to have created it, that will work as well as a registered copyright when it comes to fighting to have your material taken down on some other site where it's been posted without your permission. If you want to register the copyright, then go that route; that gives you certain protections you don't get otherwise. If you have some other way to protect your writing, then you can save the registration fee.


----------



## Chessie2 (Jan 28, 2018)

I think blogging is a good exercise that can only strengthen your writing. As to what you should write about...anything and everything that strikes your fancy yet is targeted at the audience you want to reach. 

Why do you want to blog? How does it help get you closer to your writing goals? So basically, it's helpful to know what your purpose is so you can keep going. It's also a bit tricky balancing blog writing vs fiction writing at first but they compliment each other nicely.


----------



## Thomas Laszlo (Feb 15, 2018)

Wattpad is very useful and I use it as well but you may also consider Wordpress.com as it can allow you to have a platform as well as a place to put serialized writing or long form. You can also always use Amazon CreateSpace to make longform writing into ebooks and have them free downloadable on a blog.


----------



## sPAm (May 6, 2018)

I must thank you for making this post. And for everyone that recommended wattpad. It was something for me to.


----------



## Yora (May 6, 2018)

Chessie2 said:


> As to what you should write about...anything and everything that strikes your fancy yet is targeted at the audience you want to reach.


The second part is the important one. Your site needs to have a focus. Unless you're an amazing person with a fantastically interesting life, nobody wanta to know what you ate today, that you took your cat to the vet, or links to some unsourced outrage story you saw on facebook. If the focus of your website is your fantasy stories, then make the content you write about your stories, things related to your writing story, and stylistically similar works by other creators.

There are a couple of websites with good fantasy writing content but two thirds of the posts are political outrage stories. Even if it is left wing outrage, I don't want to read that while I am browsing fantasy writing content. So I stopped reading those websites entirely.

Since I started taking writing more serious, I made a second website just for that. There might be some people who are both interested in Sword & Sorcery writing and oldschool RPGs, but I think everyone will be happier of having the two clearly separated.


----------



## abydos6 (May 7, 2018)

Well, I am thinking I must go check out this wattpad thingy.


----------



## Demesnedenoir (May 12, 2018)

Yeah, politics is the kiss of death for me. I don’t care who you are, if you start blogging, tweeting, facebooking politics I’m done... so long, Mr. King. If I want politics there are an uncountable number of blowhards out there to look up, LOL. And I don’t care if its outrage or ass kissing, done. 



Yora said:


> The second part is the important one. Your site needs to have a focus. Unless you're an amazing person with a fantastically interesting life, nobody wanta to know what you ate today, that you took your cat to the vet, or links to some unsourced outrage story you saw on facebook. If the focus of your website is your fantasy stories, then make the content you write about your stories, things related to your writing story, and stylistically similar works by other creators.
> 
> There are a couple of websites with good fantasy writing content but two thirds of the posts are political outrage stories. Even if it is left wing outrage, I don't want to read that while I am browsing fantasy writing content. So I stopped reading those websites entirely.
> 
> Since I started taking writing more serious, I made a second website just for that. There might be some people who are both interested in Sword & Sorcery writing and oldschool RPGs, but I think everyone will be happier of having the two clearly separated.


----------



## Susan Gourley (Aug 20, 2019)

I've been blogging for over ten years using Blogger. It's really easy to set up and use. I've made so many contacts who help me promote when I have a new book release, but I always have seen many of my writer friends stop blogging. If you want to draw readers, you want to blog on a regular basis. Posting every few months won't do much for your platform if you want your blog to help build your online presence.


----------



## Ned Marcus (Aug 25, 2019)

Susan Gourley said:


> If you want to draw readers, you want to blog on a regular basis. Posting every few months won't do much for your platform if you want your blog to help build your online presence.


I slow blog once a month, and slowly people come to my website. How often do you blog?


----------



## Insolent Lad (Aug 25, 2019)

Susan Gourley said:


> I've been blogging for over ten years using Blogger.



I've been on Blogger for 15 years now (I didn't realize I'd passed the anniversary this past spring  or would have  posted something about it at the time). It's a good platform and does most of what WordPress will do, plus gives considerably more storage if one posts a lot of graphics or photos. I blog frequently about just about anything there, journal-style. There _was_ a rather sizeable  drop-off in visitors when GooglePlus shut down as it had directed a fair amount of traffic my way.


----------



## Susan Gourley (Aug 25, 2019)

Ned Marcus said:


> I slow blog once a month, and slowly people come to my website. How often do you blog?


I blog at least twice per month, though I try to once per week.


----------



## Aldarion (Aug 29, 2019)

Ned Marcus said:


> I slow blog once a month, and slowly people come to my website. How often do you blog?



I try to blog three times a month. But I think that consistency is more important than frequency: one post a month is better than ten posts and then nothing for half a year (a bit of an extreme example, but I think you get the gist). Work out the schedule, and stick to it.


----------



## The Dark One (Sep 4, 2019)

I blog whenever I am pissed off about something.


----------



## Chessie2 (Sep 5, 2019)

I haven't had luck it with but then again blogging just isn't in my nature. Not sure how it's supposed to help me sell books...? I took a course on blogging several months back and while I found it useful, blogging still seems like a waste of my precious time. I do, however, have a new blog that I started back with the class and I thought about writing articles relevant to the stories I write (history based). That would be mostly out of fun. When it comes to blogging, I've had a love/hate relationship with it. I've had better luck with my newsletters.


----------



## LadyErynn (Dec 27, 2019)

I have a personal website/blog through Wordpress. It's incredibly easy to use, and the only reason I pay for it is for the domain and to post the occasional video. If you don't need either of those, the free version works just fine. 

Having a blog encourages me to write when I'm unmotivated. I try to post something every Sunday, so I know I have to prepare something throughout the week. I also try to vary it up, so switching between poetry, flash fiction, and informative articles add more challenges and help stretch my writing muscles. 

Plus, Blogging is a great way to gain readers for later publications. I highly recommend it!


----------



## Pemry Janes (Dec 29, 2019)

I've started my own website and blog as well. I'm not going to drive myself to write a blog every week, but I'll try for every month. Don't know yet if I have enough subjects to talk about to keep people interested.


----------



## Ned Marcus (Dec 29, 2019)

Pemry Janes said:


> Don't know yet if I have enough subjects to talk about to keep people interested.



I think this is hard. I'm not sure I have enough subjects to keep myself interested. I have productive months of blogging, and then I find it falling by the wayside for several months before I have another surge of interest.


----------

