The last few days we touched on the whys, the how tos, the whats, and the whens of deal blogging.
Today I would like to discuss the who.
A blog, by definition, is a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. When you begin a blog, any type of blog, you are the writer. You are the who.
You must give something of yourself to your readers to be successful, in my opinion. People want to know who they are connecting with and have a reason to trust what you say. If you are just going to be someone that slaps up affiliate deal after affiliate deal without “talking” to your readers, do not be surprised if you have very few readers.
How much you share about yourself is completely up to you. I have advised making your personal information private. I am also loathe to tell people to share their pictures or pictures of their children online. Clearly people do, and it is always a personal choice.
There are reasons I do not have pictures of myself plastered all over my blog (well, except the goddess in the header, of course) – I have stalkers, and have had them for years. I could share a pic, but that would be from when I was skinny and pretty and you would not recognize me today from that pic if you saw me on the street.
In all seriousness, there are many reasons NOT to share too much online. There are a lot of kooks out there. So, I strongly urge you to get a UPS box for business purposes and use it to connect with readers, PR people and anyone that may need to contact you via your blog business.
On one level I won’t personally share a pic, but on the other hand I have regular meet-ups, teach classes and will go to conferences and seminars freely introducing myself as Ann from Coupons, Deals and More. I guess I figure once folks meet the Grizzled Coupon Veteran, stalking will never be an issue.
Hmmm maybe I should take up vlogging?
Whatever you do, have a contact on your blog so your readers can reach out to you via email. And for goodness sake, personally answer your email! These are your readers – potential friends and acquaintances. They read you because they like/admire/relate to you and what you write, so have the common decency to answer them and not pawn your email off on a VA or an auto-responder.
So on the one hand my advice is to put yourself out there to your readers sharing your life and your family situation, but on the other hand I strongly urge you to do so smartly and as safely as possible so Freddie Krueger isn’t showing up at your door at midnight one Friday the 13th.
I hope you have enjoyed this series on the who, what, when, how and why of deal blogging. These posts were not meant to stop you from blogging or deal blogging – they were meant to make you realize that blogging is a ton of work, not a get-rich-scheme, and not something you quit your day job to begin. Blog because you love to write and want to help folks. You will be happier without immediate financial expectations.
It seems that what started as an idea for bullet points has become a novella, so I will end this now. There are a hundred million other things to make a successful blog other than the few items I posted this week, but that will get you started – or finished – as the case my be. If you have any other questions about starting a blog, please do not hesitate to email me. I am always happy to help.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for this series. There was a time when I considered deal blogging, but I realized I didn’t have anything drastically different to offer AND I didn’t want to spend all my time working on it. I’m very grateful to folks like you who do do all the work and present it in a helpful way.
What a wonderful and thoughtful (and informative) series! Thank you, Ann, for sharing so much of what you do and who you are with the rest of us.
Thanks Ann, you are as real as it gets and I appreciate that as a reader.
That was a great series, Ann.. It was an interesting read.
I agree with the above.. I appreciate what you do and the time & energy you put into it.