Friday, February 7, 2020

Are There Places I Should Auto-Feed My Blog Posts?



by Edie Melson @EdieMelson

Actually there are. 

And after teaching at a conference recently I discovered that a lot of bloggers are unaware of this audience-building option. So today I’m going to share some places where auto-sharing your blog posts are a good idea and some that are a less than helpful place to share. 



Valuable Places to Auto-Feed a Blog Post

1. Amazon Author Page. 
If you write books and they’re available on Amazon you should have an Amazon author page and your blog posts should auto feed there. 

How to do it:
  • Visit AuthorCentral on Amazon. If you don’t have an author page, this is where you set it up. 
  • Under Update Your Author Page, click on the first bullet point—Add multimedia, blog feeds, or events to an Amazon Author Page.
  • Under Blogs, add your blog site’s RSS feed. 
  • Finding your blog site’s RSS. I’m certain there are technical ways to find out what your RSS feed is, but I use the trial and error method. I add one of the following to the end of my blog until it works:
    • rss
    • rss.xml
    • atom.xml
    • index.rdf

For the Write Conversation, I had to add rss.xml. For the Blue Ridge site, I had to add just rss

Amazon allows you to import multiple blog site RSS feeds, so I have both The Write Conversation and the Blue Ridge blog on my Amazon author page.

2. Goodreads

How to do it:
  • Go to your author profile on Goodreads.
  • Click Edit Author Profile
  • Click Edit Blog
  • Under External Blog Feed, paste in your blog site’s URL with the RSS ending
  • Be sure to click Save Changes

NOTE: Goodreads only allows one RSS feed.

In the past, we’ve been able to link our RSS feeds to LinkedIn, but it appears that is no longer an option. 

Where should we NOT auto-feed blog posts?

Anywhere on social media. Yep, you read that correctly. I do NOT recommend linking your blog to social media. (Yes, you still share your blog posts MANUALLY, but you do NOT have it auto post when the blog is published.) It may seem like a time-saving way of doing things, but it’s really not. Here’s why:

  • 1. There’s no way to personalize the content for specific networks. That means there’s no tagging and no hashtags. 
  • 2. It’s auto-generated by a computer and the update will read like a computer wrote it. 

For social media it’s always best to compute the update you want to share specifically for the network where you’re sharing it. 

These are my tips for where to share your blog, I’d love to know if I’ve missed anywhere you share your site. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Don’t forget to join the conversation!
Blessings,
Edie

TWEETABLE

Edie Melson is a woman of faith with ink-stained fingers observing life through the lens of her camera. No matter whether she’s talking to writers, entrepreneurs, or readers, her first advice is always “Find your voice, live your story.” As an author, blogger, and speaker she’s encouraged and challenged audiences across the country and around the world. Her numerous books reflect her passion to help others develop the strength of their God-given gifts and apply them to their lives. Connect with her on her website,  through FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

6 comments:

  1. As always, you have taught me great things. Thank you Edie. :-)

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  2. Hi Edie, Very interesting info. I already have my blog shared on Amazon and Goodreads. I thought we were always supposed to share on Facebook and Twitter. Question: How do people see the Amazon blogs? Do they have to sign up for them? Do they get a notice when you post one?

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    Replies
    1. Marilyn, you definitely should share your blog post on social media, but you should NOT have it automatically post to social media sites when the blog goes live. You should share it manually yourself. I hope this clear us the confusion. Blessings, E

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  3. Hi Edie, I've been trying to link my author blog (a page on my website) to my amazon account with those tags you gave above but none of them are working for me. What am I doing wrong? I've got the right URL without typos so I'm mystified. Thanks for any help!

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  4. Thank you, Edie! After multiple attempts over years, I finally was able to get my blog address correct so that my author page will show my posts. Because of your advice. I thought I'd tried everything and nothing worked. Thanks for your encouragement to try other ways.--Kathy Collard Miller

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  5. Hi Edie,

    Thanks for the clarification! Although, I’ve never “auto-shared” now that Imve read your post, I won’t give into the temptation to do so.

    Blessings,
    Laurie

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