Today's guest, Donna Sundblad, and I have been networking for more than a decade, possibly closer to 2 decades, and I am proud to feature our friend here again today.
A: Along with the PYM Writing Prompts blog, I started the PYM Fantasy Writer blog in 2008. Topics here include subjects fantasy writers might research. Things like: how to dress your Victorian character, how to build a fantasy world and such topics.
All of these blogs served as an avenue for soft self-promotion, but I decided to find a topic to blog about that wasn’t about helping other writers or promotion. I wanted to see if I could start to bring in money as a blogger. After doing some research, I combined my interest in history with the topic of weddings. Wedding Traditions & Meanings began in 2015 and is my most popular blog. It is a great source for wedding history, trivia, cultural practices, and more. Topics include everything from the meaning of colours for hand-fasting cords to Ancient Viking wedding traditions. I mean did you ever wonder why the best man is called the “best” man? My blog will answer that question.
Social media is my biggest tool for promotion. I post blog links with photos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and without images on my Amazon author profile, and Goodreads. I recently started promoting on Tiktok but I find it a more time-consuming venue for my purposes so it depends on what I’m promoting and if it lends itself to that platform.
This time, Donna is here to share some of the behind the scenes activities that goes on when running multiple blogs. Formerly, Donna has held editor, ghostwriter, blogger, and freelance writer positions, but has recently narrowed her focus to running multiple blogs, providing book review services, and writing books.
* * Throughout this interview you will find multiple links to her blogs, social networking sites and Amazon Author page.
World of Blogging - Interview !
Q: Donna we started today by sharing some of your past and current activities in your long career in the writing industry and I'm looking forward to learning more about how you manage multiple blogs... but for now, let's go back to the very beginning of your blogging experience. When did you first get the idea to launch your very own blog?
A: Way back in 2005, I started with a blog called Losing Weight from a Writer’s POV (point of view) The title says it all. The writing life can tempt one to sit at their computer all day. I worked as a writer/editor and often stress ate when deadlines loomed. The pounds came on a little at a time and the blog followed my weight loss quest, allowed others to chime in with their own efforts, and it even formed a bit of accountability amid followers.
Q: What were some of the growing pains, those behind the scenes preparation steps and early learning curves?
A: After the weight loss blog, I decided to move on to a subject a less personal. People continually asked me where I got the ideas for my stories, and so I started a writing prompt blog to help people tap into their imagination. Along with inspiring authors, I hoped it would help me sell books. At the time I had a book out called Pumping Your Muse (PYM). While it is still available as an ebook, it needs revamping because a lot has changed in the world of writing since 2005. However, my PYM Writing Prompts blog lives on, is still relevant, and regularly updated.
Q: Please share a little info about each of your blogs, how they differ, include links.
A: Along with the PYM Writing Prompts blog, I started the PYM Fantasy Writer blog in 2008. Topics here include subjects fantasy writers might research. Things like: how to dress your Victorian character, how to build a fantasy world and such topics.
My experiences with fantasy writing inspired this blog. The amount of research it takes to write fantasy might surprise most people. In my Dragonborn book series, the world is preindustrial. Even with magic, I need to be able to have things makes sense and so research is needed in the world building aspect of how the magic works and what it looks like when it does. I kept this blog up for a couple of years, but have let it rest due to time constraints. While I no longer add content to this blog, its posts are still relevant and read so I leave it up. And who knows, if the inspiration hits something new may be added. I can’t say it isn’t a possibility.
I also started my Book Hookup blog in 2008 to help promote people’s books. I used this with work I was doing for a promotional company, but it soon I saw it as a way to help other writers. As an author, I know how difficult it can be to get reviews. Today I am a certified book reviewer for book tours with a few different companies, and I also pick up books to review independently. Most of the time I focus on Indie and self-published authors. Reading several books a month does take up a good chunk of my time but it is well worth it. If the book needs editing, I’ll let the author know I’ll reconsider it after editing and if I can’t give the author at least three stars, I tell them I can’t review their book. I know how much work goes into writing a book and don’t ever want to crush a writer with a bad review.
In 2011, I started my Lightbearers of the Inheritance blog. This is a Christian themed blog and started based on the Lightbearers in my Christian fantasy, The Inheritance. The book is an allegory and I was thrilled when I found a publisher for it. But that publisher went out of business when the owner died unexpectedly just as the book was nominated for an award. I let the blog rest, unsure what I wanted to do. Then in 2021, The Inheritance was picked up by Each Voice Publishing out of Atlanta (USA) and I started blogging again. Lightbearers of the Inheritance has grown into an inspirational/information type blog. Often history is in the mix as it covers questions like the meaning of biblical phrases like “heaping colas on their heads” as well as the meanings of the various words or names based on original Hebrew or Greek.
Q: Truly, very interesting ! What is your favorite task involved with your various blog maintenance?
A: Blogging continues to be an adventure in discovery and a learning experience. It doesn’t matter which blog because they all require some research. I can start out with an idea that I think is pretty basic and find myself mining a vein related to the topic that I didn’t know existed. It’s fun! It’s creative. And it exercises and stretches my muse.
Q: So it is the creative aspect that keeps you interested after all this time blogging. I'm curious - How do you manage content?
A: I keep a running list of ideas for topics. I check to see how many people are looking for information related to the topic and the competition level. If competition is high, that means my post will go up against a lot of competition. So, I often choose to develop topics people are looking for with low or medium competition. However, when I write a series of interrelated articles that can be cross-linked, they may include high and low competition topics. Then I start the research to see if it is a viable topic for my blog.
Q: How much time do you dedicate to your blog?
A: With so many blogs, I have to rotate to keep things current. Both the wedding and lightbearer blogs take the most amount of time for research so it is more time consuming to put together posts for them. For those two, I work on a post over the course of a month. The BookHookup blog takes time to read the books but I also do author interviews so I usually post at least three to five times in a month, but often more. With the writing prompts I wait for inspiration, but it helps to have a list of topics that works like a springboard for the inspiration. For all of them, it is often more difficult to find the right visuals to accompany the post than it is to write the post. These are all factors, so the over-arching goal is to post regularly and I make sure they all are updated each month.
Q: What do you do to promote your blog?
A: I add links to previous posts when I can to increase views back to other posts. Sometimes I network with other bloggers to exchange links or write a guest post. For BookHookup, I also work with virtual book tours like Blackberry Book Tours and Black Phoenix Book Tours as well as others. Not only does that drive traffic to my page when I post a book review for a tour, but it increases exposure to my blog as they share promotional posts across social media platforms for the tour that include a link back to my blog.
Social media is my biggest tool for promotion. I post blog links with photos on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and without images on my Amazon author profile, and Goodreads. I recently started promoting on Tiktok but I find it a more time-consuming venue for my purposes so it depends on what I’m promoting and if it lends itself to that platform.
However, while I’m talking about social media, gaining followers is another part of promotion, so if you’re reading this, take a moment and follow me on any or all of these platforms. That’s always a big help.
When I first started blogging, it was all about getting followers to your blog. Now it’s about getting people to follow you on social media so you can point them to your blog. It’s also about choosing topics and key words that will come up in searches and getting people to click links in your blog. It’s changed a lot over the years.
Q: Do you make money from your blog? How?
A: To be honest, I don’t make a lot of money, but I do make money from advertising, whether it is Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate links, or someone paying to advertise. I could make money if I charged to review books, but I believe if you pay someone to review your book you will always wonder if you received an honest review. I’m regularly offered such services along with all kinds of promotional promises.
My overall goal for blogging is to have a source of passive income while I continue to write my books. It helps pay for promotion, cover art, and editing of my books as well as little extras. But I must say that while I don’t make a lot, it is possible to make your living as a blogger. I know a food blogger who has built her blog over 10 years and makes six figures blogging. It is possible. So, if that’s what you want, that should be your target.
Thank you Donna for sharing your insights and tips with us :)
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