Most authors realize they have a huge responsibility to market themselves. One way to do this is to create and write a blog. In this post, I’d like to share my best idea for getting your blog posts noticed.
Google Analytics helped me see what my most popular blog posts were in 2012. I predicted it might be the post I wrote for Michael Hyatt because he has several hundred thousand readers each month. I did get a lot of views, but not anywhere near the amount my top three posts received.
Here are my top three posts in regard to number of views:
Life Code by Dr. Phil – A book review
The Surprising Happiness Lessons Downton Abbey Teaches Us
Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know and Emotionally Focused Therapy
The mission statement of my blog is to offer help for hurting people. I also like to include ideas related to physical, emotional, and spiritual selfcare since that is the focus of my soon-to-be-released book.
So what is it my three most popular posts have in common? In addition to offering help, they all deal with topics that are popular in mainstream media. Romans 12:2 tells us not to conform to the pattern of the world. However, we can use the culture to draw readers to our books and our blogs.
Life Code, written by Dr. Phil, is being published by his son’s publishing seo services company: Bird Street Books. (It is only available through their online bookstore at TheBookNook.com) The book tells you how to deal with users, abusers, and overall “bad guys” we all have in our lives. It also includes 16 tactics for winning in the real world. For the past month Dr. Phil has been featuring various aspects of this book on his daily talk show. So when people search for “Life Code,” my book review shows up.
Downton Abbey is a British period drama that first aired in the fall of 2010. The show depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants around the time of World War I. The series has received critical acclaim from television critics and won numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Miniseries and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries. Now in its third season, Downton Abbey has become one of the most widely watched television shows in the world. I was able to tie my happiness ideas into aspects of the show.
In case you missed it, Gotye’s song, Somebody That I Used to Know, topped the US, UK, and Australian, as well as 23 other national charts, and reached the top 10 in more than 30 countries around the world. The song has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, becoming one the best-selling digital singles of all time. The song is so popular there are several hundred re-mixes on Youtube. The video perfectly characterizes a couple who can’t connect, so I use that to talk about marriage counseling.
The secret to getting a lot of views on your blog is to find something that is a really hot topic and then try to conform your blog message around that topic. I’ve been getting about 200 readers a day, from all over the globe, for my review of Dr. Phil’s book.
Here are some tools for helping you figure out what is popular:
Online article: Ten Tools to Tell You What’s Hot
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-tools-to-tell-whats-hot-today-right-now-even/47886/
Goodreads List of Popular Books
http://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/2012
Top 100 Songs:
http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/charts/hot-100
Goodreads Popular Book Lists
http://www.goodreads.com/list/popular_lists
Most popular shows, celebrities, Movies, Videos
http://www.tvguide.com/top-tv-shows
Thomas Umstattd Jr just posted a really helpful video yesterday:
What are some popular topics you’ve noticed lately?
WordServe Water Cooler 
Bookmarked this post! This will be fun to try.
Darla, thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your comments.
Excellent Lucille and so true. If you want to catch fish, use the bait they like. One of my top ones has been Writing Tips from Charles Dickens. In fact I believe I quoted you in that one. 🙂
I’m glad you wrote this because this reminded me of training I received from the publicity summit in which they encouraged us to tie in our stories with current events. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Your results confirms this is a good strategy to draw people to our message.
Sharon, thanks for reminding us that we can use old famous people and stories as well.
Great blog and very relevant. Thanks for many good insights, Lucille.