Why I blog

Why do I blog?

A number of people haven't asked me this question  Actually, no one has.  But I've decided to answer the question as though they had.

The answer is . . . . actually, I'm not going to tell you until the end of this post.  That way, you have to read everything until you get to the bottom . . . or you could just scroll down and get the answer . . . Never mind.  I'll just tell you now and you can read from that point on or not.  Up to you.

I do it because the emo bunnies make me blog like a puppetmaster makes his puppets dance.

That's right.  The emo bunnies are in control.  You are surprised, I know.

Evolution of a blog.

I started this blog because I was told that it was an important tool to market books.  Actually, I was told that I should start my own website for my books.  That sounded like a lot more work.  I really should start my own website still.  However, I've done more research since that time and discovered it really is a lot of work.  My time is limited and I'd rather spend it writing books, so I settled for a blog.

I named it "The World of Ryallon" because that's where my fantasy novels take place.

Speaking of marketing, feel free to try out my books, if you haven't already. :)  The emo bunnies recommend my Stories for Demented Children.

              

The blog has developed over time though.  I don't use it to market near as much as I should.  Instead, I use it to talk about stuff on the rare occasion that I actually feel like talking about anything.  A lot of my posts are random musings about life and things I think about.  Most of them are probably a good indication that I lack sanity.

I also write tutorials for other writers.  These include details on how to write, edit, market and various other details involved in self-publishing.  Much of these tutorials are part of my journey and sharing the things I've learned along the way.  Hopefully the advice is helpful to those who follow.

I still use it as a marketing tool.  Most of the posts are updates as to what I'm writing and how things are going overall.  I post sneak peak chapters every now and then, which my fans really like.

How the blog is doing.

It's actually doing pretty well.  I don't post often enough, but it gets a lot of views.  The details of my books interest my fans.  I occasionally get new readers who discover my work after reading my posts.  And the emo bunnies are . . . well, they're still miserable, but that's just how they roll.

My first post was may 13th, 2011.  Since then, I've published 124 posts and had over 200,000 views.  My most popular post is "How to make a clickable table of contents in Microsoft Word" with over 100,000 views.  Yeah, that's right.  Over half of my views have been for a tutorial on Word.

In Conclusion

I've been doing this for 4 years now and intend to continue for as long as I'm writing.  I'm sure things will evolve more over time.  We shall see where the journey takes us.

All my best,

John H. Carroll
and the emo bunnies.