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@myclipboardismyviolin

*nods* I might be able to help with that some. Um… as far as my blog is concerned, Pinterest drives a lot of my traffic. As soon as I started designing Pinterest-friendly graphics (and mine aren’t even the most Pinterest-friendly out there, seeing as Pinterest likes vertical pins and mine are square) my traffic skyrocketed. Now… I can’t say I’m retaining a lot of those readers. That’s where I tend to get stuck. Most of my email list subscribers are people I’ve connected with personally through their blogs or through writing groups rather than people who’ve come to read my blog posts.

As far as books are concerned (I don’t know where you are in the process, so this may not be relevant yet anyway), I’m really only now dipping my feet into that. The book I published earlier this month is my third published work, but it’s the first I’ve really cared enough to promote, so I’m experimenting and trying to figure out what works. As with my blog, I’ve mostly sold to people who are already familiar with me on a semi-personal level (bloggers I connect with occasionally, family members, friends, etc.).

The problems I run into most are 1) converting views into subscribers and 2) building familiarity with people who aren’t already familiar with me so that they join the ranks of those willing to subscribe to my content/buy my books. (Which sounds really egotistical and greedy when put that way…)

What I’ve found most effective are reaching out to fellow bloggers and authors–ideally those who write similar content to yours or are at least interested in your brand of content–and building relationships, and calling on the relationships you already have with family and friends. The latter can feel really awkward, and generally I try to do it as minimally as possible, but chances are the people who care about you are going to be interested in supporting you in your interests and they’ll be some of your most consistent supporters if you let them. Reaching out to fellow bloggers and authors can be really fun, and I’ve gotten to know some super cool people that way. I’ve even learned that it’s not as scary as it seems to reach out to published authors (for me, at least, that’s mostly speculative-fiction-writing indie authors), and they tend to be super cool and willing to chat with people. One of my favorite authors actually added my book to her Goodreads TBR, and it’s because I worked up the courage to reach out and interact with her on social media (even if I probably do often sound like a crazy fangirl).

I feel like I’m rambling (it’s late and I’ve been up for eighteen hours), but basically the gist is make friends, reach out to your friends, and then ask your friends to share with their friends. Hopefully that’s at least a little helpful. XD I’ll try to remember to come back tomorrow when I’m less scatterbrained and clarify anything that didn’t come across the way I wanted. 😛