News Your Blog Post Weekly Digest Is Live

[AgentPete]

The next stage in the development of our communal blog has just gone live.

Readers can now subscribe to a weekly email digest of the most recent blog posts.

You’ll see a subscription form at the foot of each new blog post you make, repeated at the foot of your author page.

In addition, we also now have a dedicated sign-up page here:

digest – Litopia

Please promote this link everywhere you can to grow our readership!

 

[Pamela Jo]

When I posted there was a rather prosaic drawing of a book. Not inspiring for anyone to click on. Is that the norm or just what happened when I shared to What's Ap? Also a dedicated sign up sheet.... I was thinking that would be a sheet where you could sign uo to release a new blog... Taking the burden of Jason. Could that be a calendar thing?

 

[AgentPete]

When I posted there was a rather prosaic drawing of a book. Not inspiring for anyone to click on. Is that the norm or just what happened when I shared to What's Ap? Also a dedicated sign up sheet.... I was thinking that would be a sheet where you could sign uo to release a new blog... Taking the burden of Jason. Could that be a calendar thing?

Not with you Put it down to pre-move insanity.

Can you show screenshot of that pic, pls?

Not sure what you mean by dedicated signup sheet...? The box on this page is just for people (anyone, not just Litopians) to subscribe to the weekly email blog digest. What else did you have in mind?

p.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Not with you Put it down to pre-move insanity.

Can you show screenshot of that pic, pls?

Not sure what you mean by dedicated signup sheet...? The box on this page is just for people (anyone, not just Litopians) to subscribe to the weekly email blog digest. What else did you have in mind?

p.

Sorry. I was probably trying to post the wrong link then? Can you repost the one we are to share on social media?

Secondly I meant a blog list where you mark a day you will release a blog. Now Jason has to gather and release, correct? So instead we book a day to release so there isnt a glut.

Or how will the blog releases be handled now?

 

[AgentPete]

@Jason L. is responsible for scheduling. You can't really ask for a specific time for each blog post to be published. I mean, it’s possible, but it would have to be done manually and by prior arrangement with Jason.

Here's the link to share:

https://litopia.com/digest/

 

[Pamela Jo]

@Jason L. is responsible for scheduling. You can't really ask for a specific time for each blog post to be published. I mean, it’s possible, but it would have to be done manually and by prior arrangement with Jason.

Here's the link to share:

https://litopia.com/digest/

Not to be published but to submit. So we can schedule a regular time for putting in a new blog. Instead of being random.

ie Every Tuesday morning I will submit a new blog... Another person might say -ok now there are 3 people who are submitting their blogs every Tues morn. I will submit mine Thursday etc....

 

[Pamela Jo]

So this is what the link looks like on my FB page. OK I can dress it up and sell it.

 

[Pamela Jo]

But on What's Ap where I put it first the link looks like.

 

[AgentPete]

Not to be published but to submit. So we can schedule a regular time for putting in a new blog. Instead of being random.

ie Every Tuesday morning I will submit a new blog... Another person might say -ok now there are 3 people who are submitting their blogs every Tues morn. I will submit mine Thursday etc....

Well, at the moment, the time you submit doesn't make any difference, since all blog posts go into the queue, and are then spaced out to be published at approx one per day.

However, we could add some backend code so that PJ’s latest blog post gets posted every Tuesday, Hannah’s every Weds, etc. There’s no end of customisation possible. All depends on what folk find useful, we're all still learning.

Next up will be social media integration…

 

[AgentPete]

So this is what the link looks like on my FB page. OK I can dress it up and sell it.
View attachment 18022

Ah, I see.
What’s happening is that it’s taking the first image it can find at the moment it accesses the page. But those images change, according to the most recernt blog posts and the featured image the author chooses.

I’m actually not sure whether to change this to one static image, or to simply let chance take its pick…?

 

[Pamela Jo]

Ah, I see.
What’s happening is that it’s taking the first image it can find at the moment it accesses the page. But those images change, according to the most recernt blog posts and the featured image the author chooses.

I’m actually not sure whether to change this to one static image, or to simply let chance take its pick…?

I suppose chance -unless there is a way to freeze it to one's own blog post? If we are meant to gather and speak directly to our own readers I think it is important we can say in a newsletter, "Catch my new blog , every Tuesday at Litopia, where deer and writers roam free. This week my topic is how horses are like vampires." Or the equivalent.

 

[Jason L.]

Sorry, I had a bit of a crisis and was AFK - if you absolutely want something on a specific date or time, please reach out to me, and I will be happy to accommodate.

 

[Hannah F]

If contributing a blog becomes a regular schedule, surely that pressure on an author to produce becomes the same pressure as trying to keep up a personal blog. My understanding was that, apart from reaching a wider audience, the Litopia blog was created to avoid this burden. I could be wrong. I often am.

 

[AgentPete]

I suppose chance -unless there is a way to freeze it to one's own blog post? If we are meant to gather and speak directly to our own readers I think it is important we can say in a newsletter, "Catch my new blog , every Tuesday at Litopia, where deer and writers roam free. This week my topic is how horses are like vampires." Or the equivalent.

Yes, I can see that.

At the moment, the best workaround is to add this to the beginning of your article title:

[JASON – PLS CAN YOU SCHEDULE FOR 1st APRIL]

@Jason L. will see this, remove it from the title (because he’s pretty nifty at taking hints) et voila.

The longer-term solution is to create a custom-made user interface that will do this and more. However… I gotta move house first

 

[AgentPete]

If contributing a blog becomes a regular schedule, surely that pressure on an author to produce becomes the same pressure as trying to keep up a personal blog. My understanding was that, apart from reaching a wider audience, the Litopia blog was created to avoid this burden. I could be wrong. I often am.

I've never known that to be the case

Yes, that’s right. I would like to preserve the sense of a collective blog, that casual readers will always find something interesting / unexpected here. And in the process, get to know more of our writers, look at their individual home pages here, and... click on one of those buy links!

So, for example, I’m keen for readers to subscribe to the weekly digest newsletter, because it will jog them once a week to maybe take a look at the blog home page. But I don’t really want to get into doing individual newsletters for each writer.

 

[Pamela Jo]

I've never known that to be the case

Yes, that’s right. I would like to preserve the sense of a collective blog, that casual readers will always find something interesting / unexpected here. And in the process, get to know more of our writers, look at their individual home pages here, and... click on one of those buy links!

So, for example, I’m keen for readers to subscribe to the weekly digest newsletter, because it will jog them once a week to maybe take a look at the blog home page. But I don’t really want to get into doing individual newsletters for each writer.

The crux is: are the blogs to sell Litopia? Or a writers own work?

It seems there should be room to do both. I'm pretty sure that was your intent Pete?

For the writer to use Litopia as a blog space to gather readers there needs to be some predictability in order to market and publicise. TYM announces her blog with her newsletter. To do that you have to know when it will be available. Timing is crucial with marketing.

My gut says individual writers bringing their readers to Litopia's Blog is going to result in the readers hanging around and reading more. And that will probably establish the blog more than trying to sell the idea of coming to a Litopia Blog Spot to read random pieces that may or may not interest a reader. It's the genre thing.

If Jason is willing to bring that bit of predictability to a writer who's doing their own marketing I think it would be sufficient.

 

[Jason L.]

If Jason is willing to bring that bit of predictability to a writer who's doing their own marketing I think it would be sufficient.

That's a big ask. I am just the publisher, not the content creator. I'm not sure that I know how to do that. I'd like to do it.

 

[Pamela Jo]

That's a big ask. I am just the publisher, not the content creator. I'm not sure that I know how to do that. I'd like to do it.

??? I obviously have not phrased my thoughts on this correctly.
For me if a writer is going to market with a blog then of course they have to write on a schedule. Maybe because I come from print media where a column where you can write every week is a gift. If readers are going to read a blog they won't go randomly to that site hoping a new one is out. Esp not at the beginning.
It seems obvious to me there needs to be some sort of predictability for a writer gathering readers. I see no way shape or form how that affects anyone else's timing or ability on writing a blog. Except they will possibly benefit from another writers regular readers who pause and read other blogs while they are there. It is the basis for sub stacks.

 

[AgentPete]

The crux is: are the blogs to sell Litopia? Or a writers own work?

It seems there should be room to do both. I'm pretty sure that was your intent Pete?

First and foremost, the blogging area (I pretty quickly fell out of love with “SuperStack” so it’s just called Litopia Writers' Blogs) is for the benefit of members. It's another bonus for your low subscription (altho Basic members can blog too - hopefully they will upgrade to support us). It was never intended to be a hard sales pitch for Litopia.

Writers have spurts of activity, they need fallow periods in-between bigger writing projects. But paradoxically, they still need to keep the writing flowing, though in a low-stress way. That’s what our blogging area here can do. It’s “proper” writing, it gets properly published and exposes your text to the world. It also allows readers who discover you here to find out more about you... it promotes your own personal social links and there’s an easy way for them to browse and buy books you’ve authored.

But it’s deliberately intended to be low-stress. No pressure to write to a schedule, no pressure to write material that others expect you to write (e.g. if you write long-form romance, you can experiment with literally any other genre here).

For the writer to use Litopia as a blog space to gather readers there needs to be some predictability in order to market and publicise. TYM announces her blog with her newsletter. To do that you have to know when it will be available. Timing is crucial with marketing.

Agreed. But it’s currently not quite that sort of platform, see above.

We are still very much at the early stages, new features are being added constantly (e.g. RSS feeds for individual authors’ posts, now available on your author page).

So if there’s a demand, we could well offer more of what you’re suggesting, scheduled publication, etc. But it would be more as an option for those who want to develop it more as their own writing platform. The two options are quite compatible.

My gut says individual writers bringing their readers to Litopia's Blog is going to result in the readers hanging around and reading more. And that will probably establish the blog more than trying to sell the idea of coming to a Litopia Blog Spot to read random pieces that may or may not interest a reader. It's the genre thing.

If Jason is willing to bring that bit of predictability to a writer who's doing their own marketing I think it would be sufficient.

See below.

That's a big ask. I am just the publisher, not the content creator. I'm not sure that I know how to do that. I'd like to do it.

The immediate solution for those who want a regular publication schedule is to add this to the title of your blog posts:

[JASON – PLS CAN YOU SCHEDULE FOR INSERT DATE]

That’s pretty simple for Jason to do (ask me J if in doubt!) and we can do it immediately.

The longer-term solution requires a bigger coding project. I don’t like the WordPress native interface very much (too techy for many) and it needs quite a lot of customising to suit our own writers’ blogging purposes. I can and will code a better, purpose-made interface, but… (a) I’m moving house! And (b) we need to continue this discussion for a month or two to work out the exact brief / features list.

??? I obviously have not phrased my thoughts on this correctly.
For me if a writer is going to market with a blog then of course they have to write on a schedule. Maybe because I come from print media where a column where you can write every week is a gift. If readers are going to read a blog they won't go randomly to that site hoping a new one is out. Esp not at the beginning.
It seems obvious to me there needs to be some sort of predictability for a writer gathering readers. I see no way shape or form how that affects anyone else's timing or ability on writing a blog. Except they will possibly benefit from another writers regular readers who pause and read other blogs while they are there. It is the basis for sub stacks.

Each post currently gets promoted on our social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, with a link back to the post itself. I’m planning to expand social media integration (there’s already a box on the post page for you to write your own social media post… you may/may not have noticed it… but it hasn’t been mentioned to Litopians yet because the integration isn’t completely in place).

I do understand what you’re saying, never fear

And what you say is true.

But maybe less true (ha! That sounds Trumpian… things are either true or they’re not) than it was several years ago. The internet has disrupted continuity and greatly favours “surfing” (as it used to be rather edgily called… actually, it’s just bovine browsing). So we need to be a lot more opportunistic than heretofore. Good topic to discuss in Huddleration.

Fyi, the first weekly blog digest newsletter has just gone out today, and will go out every Saturday at 6am UK. Any comments very welcome.

The intention with the newsletter is to combine both of the factors we’re discussing, i.e. (a) the anticipated regularity of a weekly newsletter and (b) the resulting happenstance discovery of some interesting new writing / new writer.

 

[Pamela Jo]

[JASON – PLS CAN YOU SCHEDULE FOR INSERT DATE]

Thank you for the clarification. I think the above solution is all that is required.

The discussion does fall into the line of strategies for writers. Mine is to garner a specific kind of readership. No different from someone writing paranormal women's fiction or romance. So the question, " Am I writing a blog for my specific audience or for wannabe writers who've washed up on Litopia's shores?" determines what I write and how often.


"It also allows readers who discover you here to find out more about you..."
Here's where I begin to think, "But how are those readers going to discover me? Who are they?

"It promotes your own personal social links and there’s an easy way for them to browse and buy books you’ve authored."
This is what I think will be the engine for Litopia blog success.

I know you fell out of love with Superstack, but the name did have a feeling of a mixed bag of writing. I love that other Litopians have already begun putting up their fiction as amuse bouche. I think that is exciting as a way to draw people in. Maybe even a serial-given that is how Andrew Weir began the Martian.

 

[Hannah F]

First and foremost, the blogging area (I pretty quickly fell out of love with “SuperStack” so it’s just called Litopia Writers' Blogs) is for the benefit of members. It's another bonus for your low subscription (altho Basic members can blog too - hopefully they will upgrade to support us). It was never intended to be a hard sales pitch for Litopia.

Writers have spurts of activity, they need fallow periods in-between bigger writing projects. But paradoxically, they still need to keep the writing flowing, though in a low-stress way. That’s what our blogging area here can do. It’s “proper” writing, it gets properly published and exposes your text to the world. It also allows readers who discover you here to find out more about you... it promotes your own personal social links and there’s an easy way for them to browse and buy books you’ve authored.

But it’s deliberately intended to be low-stress. No pressure to write to a schedule, no pressure to write material that others expect you to write (e.g. if you write long-form romance, you can experiment with literally any other genre here).

Perfect!