About a year ago, I ran this post—“But It’s Just More Work”—about why I think blogging is a good way for an author to stay in touch with his or her readers. At the very least, a blog is a good way to keep your website fresh. And it’s certainly a good way to cobble together a platform.

Or, as some are calling that, literary citizenship. Recently, publishing expert Jane Friedman introduced me to this concept:

For those unaware of the term, it’s widely used in the literary, bookish community to refer to activities that support and further reading, writing, and publishing, and the growth of your professional network. In some ways, it’s a more palatable (or friendly) way to think of platform building.

(She goes on to define platform here.) I’ve been very busy and missed this interesting term … but I like it and will no doubt come back to it. 🙂

Still, I don’t want to wander down a rabbit trail when all I want to do is remind you of an archival post—and add some thoughts to it, which is my purpose here. In recent months I’ve run across other articles that dovetail with the concepts in “But It’s Just More Work,” so have another look and we’ll get started.

✱ Literary agent Amanda Luedeke has a post called “5 Essential Rules of Blogging” that may be helpful to you if you’re considering gearing up for writing or platforming.

1. Stick to the goal.
2. Treat each post like a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
3. Keep it casual.
4. Don’t forget voice.
5. Avoid the daily diary syndrome.

It’s a very good article with lots of expansion on this list. More importantly, you should note this is information from Luedeke’s own book, The Extroverted Writer. Don’t neglect, either, to have a look at the list of books on this topic she’s found useful: Get Known Before the Book Deal (Christina Katz), Create Your Writer Platform (Chuck Sambuchino), and Tribes (Seth Godin).

✱ Not long after I posted “But It’s Just More Work,” I had a straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back moment with my hosting service. I’d long been disillusioned with them, but at the time I set up my website I didn’t know any better. Remember, I haven’t watched television for about seventeen years—seriously—so I had never seen a television commercial for GoDaddy. Until I did. (Ugh.) And then I had a spectacularly awful interaction with their customer service folks, and that did it. Right after I made my switch (even before my contract was up), I read Thomas Umstattd’s article, “6+ Reasons Why Authors Should Avoid GoDaddy.”

1. Terrible support
2. Overpriced
3. Hard to use
4. Hosting is slow
5. Too little control
6. Marketing is smutty

These are exactly the things I had discovered, and it occurs to me that folks who are just getting started could use this heads-up. In fact, Umstattd’s blog is subtitled “Help for authors timid about technology,” which no doubt describes a lot of us, so check it out. (And if you’re ready to be less timid, have a look at Copyblogger.)

✱ Finally I want to add Ransom Riggs’s author blog to my list of examples you should check out. Like Brendan Halpin, Riggs uses his blog to stay in front of his fans in between books, and to stir up interest for his other projects. Check it out and you’ll see what I mean.

* Because it’s almost summer and because I am still positively slammed with work (not a bad thing) and because slammed with work means less time to write the kind of thoughtful blog posts I want to write, I’m writing a series of updates to reconnect you with my archives. Let me know what you think.

Tweet: I’m writing a summer series of updates to reconnect you with my archives.
Tweet: Blogging IS a lot of work. I think it’s worth it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”