I write a weekly blog about cleaning my sewing room. It’s been running for three years and the sewing room isn’t remotely tidy, so sometimes I explore other topics. A recent blog was about the plastic bag ban in Alameda County. Since the ban went into effect this month, and I have a huge collection of tote bags for photos (quilters love tote bags), I thought it would be a timely blog. My hope was that readers would chuckle and tune in next time for another adventure of Lani and the fabric piles.
Like most non-professionals, I use a free blog. There isn’t any SEO capability, but I have learned a little about naming photos, filing under multiple categories, and using tags. My tags are heavy on quilting references, but this time I ventured outside of my niche. The blog had an environmental theme, so I used the tags “reduce, reuse, recycle.” By the afternoon, this post had been re-blogged on an environmental site in Orange County.
I’ve never had a post re-blogged, and I certainly didn’t expect the first one to be posted on a non-quilting or non-writing site. Since I don’t know anyone in Orange County, I’m guessing that using the “reduce, reuse, recycle” tags made the difference.
The moral of the story is that experimenting with tags, social media, or publicity events is worth the time and anxiety. Yes, the publishing world is changing faster than we like. Try to keep up. You never know which little change will bring you, and your writing, the attention you want.