I had started posting to my blog again, but I’ve quit. I felt like it was a waste of time, but now I see it’s not. What are you using for your website? Wordpress?
Thanks for sharing your site. That was going to be my question, too. Your books are free on the site, but I'm guessing people can buy them, too, somewhere? Under a pen name, I'm fleshing out multi-interconnected spicy short story series' featuring midlife interracial characters and like the idea of a free membership to share the stories. I'd love to sell direct from the get-go, though. No going through Amazon. Maybe try the e-commerce author route like @AliciaMcCalla But this post was very helpful.
I love that you've been writing a blog for all these years. I've started and stopped blogs since LiveJournal, but I never kept with it. I think Facebook became my blog. Sadly.
I too have been blogging off and on since I started writing twelve years ago, and the podcast that lives on my site is showing up, too. It really is a marathon and not a sprint. Great article. Thank you!
This seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people.
Yes, of course I still sell books on the retailers. Many people do not want to read books on a website. They want to read them on their Kindle or other ereader. Many people still discover me ON the retailers and buy there, never going to my website at all. If they join my newsletter, they’ll eventually find out they can read on my site for free. Or if they come to my site via ads, which I still do sometimes, they’ll read for free. Fine by me. The measure of my success is not income; it’s readers. And a reader who I treat well and give plenty of content to becomes a reader for life.
I’ve been published for almost 13 years now and I get the ick when people only talk about income when it comes to success. I’m pushing back on that because I believe that reaching readers and keeping them is the greatest measure of success for me.
Thanks! This is persuasive, but it also sounds like *a lot*. Between a newsletter (e.g., Substack or the more traditional kind, like Mailerlite) and a blog, that's a lot of marketing content. How do you feel about using the same content in both places?
It’s all about repurposing. The blog is where the majority of content goes. The posts are optimized so they can be shared automatically to social media. My newsletter always has a section at the bottom for Posts from the Blog. There, I include the last few posts from the blog and many people click to come over.
Yes, it’s a lot of work but it pays off off in a huge way over time. And this is the stuff that AI is good at. Use it for this!
Great article, thank you. What I struggle with are the words AI identifies with. They are not the keywords phrases we've come to think of through Amazon (which are also no longer the same there either). It's like learning a new language.
Nope. I’m not familiar with that. I’ve been using Wordpress for 20 years so that’s pretty much all I’m going to use, if I don’t just create static sites with Antigravity.
This is the most constructive and helpful article I've read about this topic! Thank you! I've been considering this alot lately but wasn't really sure how it worked. I was surprised when my son googled me and my sources popped up from the AI results immediately. I know that isn't much but it got me thinking about how to leverage that.
I also write theme songs for my book with Suno! Where do you post yours?
Your genius never ceases to amaze (amaze! amaze! ;) I read a great article a year ago about the shift from SEO to AiEO, but I can't ever figure out how to put that sort of thing into action for next Tuesday. You absolutely nailed it.
And perfect timing on posting this. I'm so far behind on any of my websites, and I've lost all my original domains. I'm gonna make Claude spin up a landing page for my new book.
I had started posting to my blog again, but I’ve quit. I felt like it was a waste of time, but now I see it’s not. What are you using for your website? Wordpress?
I’m using Wordpress on http://spajonas.com. Other sites, I just vibe code them.
vibecoding is LIFE!
Thanks for sharing your site. That was going to be my question, too. Your books are free on the site, but I'm guessing people can buy them, too, somewhere? Under a pen name, I'm fleshing out multi-interconnected spicy short story series' featuring midlife interracial characters and like the idea of a free membership to share the stories. I'd love to sell direct from the get-go, though. No going through Amazon. Maybe try the e-commerce author route like @AliciaMcCalla But this post was very helpful.
Yes. If you view any of my books on my website, the store links are right at the top. And yes people still buy them.
I love that you've been writing a blog for all these years. I've started and stopped blogs since LiveJournal, but I never kept with it. I think Facebook became my blog. Sadly.
Hah!
I too have been blogging off and on since I started writing twelve years ago, and the podcast that lives on my site is showing up, too. It really is a marathon and not a sprint. Great article. Thank you!
all makes sense but for one thing - if you’ve put all your books behind a free membership paywall then how are you
making money from it ? or is it that you’re hoping people still buy elsewhere (eg Amazon) once recommended by AI?
This seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people.
Yes, of course I still sell books on the retailers. Many people do not want to read books on a website. They want to read them on their Kindle or other ereader. Many people still discover me ON the retailers and buy there, never going to my website at all. If they join my newsletter, they’ll eventually find out they can read on my site for free. Or if they come to my site via ads, which I still do sometimes, they’ll read for free. Fine by me. The measure of my success is not income; it’s readers. And a reader who I treat well and give plenty of content to becomes a reader for life.
I’ve been published for almost 13 years now and I get the ick when people only talk about income when it comes to success. I’m pushing back on that because I believe that reaching readers and keeping them is the greatest measure of success for me.
Thanks! This is persuasive, but it also sounds like *a lot*. Between a newsletter (e.g., Substack or the more traditional kind, like Mailerlite) and a blog, that's a lot of marketing content. How do you feel about using the same content in both places?
It’s all about repurposing. The blog is where the majority of content goes. The posts are optimized so they can be shared automatically to social media. My newsletter always has a section at the bottom for Posts from the Blog. There, I include the last few posts from the blog and many people click to come over.
Yes, it’s a lot of work but it pays off off in a huge way over time. And this is the stuff that AI is good at. Use it for this!
Great article, thank you. What I struggle with are the words AI identifies with. They are not the keywords phrases we've come to think of through Amazon (which are also no longer the same there either). It's like learning a new language.
Your Substack is so incredibly valuable and I learn so much from it every day. Thank you for making these resources available to us!
I love WordPress. Have you seen people use Tertulia?
Nope. I’m not familiar with that. I’ve been using Wordpress for 20 years so that’s pretty much all I’m going to use, if I don’t just create static sites with Antigravity.
This is the most constructive and helpful article I've read about this topic! Thank you! I've been considering this alot lately but wasn't really sure how it worked. I was surprised when my son googled me and my sources popped up from the AI results immediately. I know that isn't much but it got me thinking about how to leverage that.
I also write theme songs for my book with Suno! Where do you post yours?
Your genius never ceases to amaze (amaze! amaze! ;) I read a great article a year ago about the shift from SEO to AiEO, but I can't ever figure out how to put that sort of thing into action for next Tuesday. You absolutely nailed it.
And perfect timing on posting this. I'm so far behind on any of my websites, and I've lost all my original domains. I'm gonna make Claude spin up a landing page for my new book.