Your blog headlines are the part of the blog post that draw people in and make them want to keep reading. The more places your headlines pop up, the better the chances of people reading the post.
This is why most blog writers share their posts on social media. Sharing posts gets you traffic and traffic means readers. For an author, readers mean book sales (usually).
Author Buzz UK is slightly different from most blogs. Our priority is not to show our own posts but to allow authors to share theirs. We want to help readers find authors and authors find readers. Think of us as an online house party where you are likely to make new friends and find interesting people to listen to.
Before we begin
Before we begin getting your blog headlines onto our front page, you need to create an account with us. It is free and easy to do and if you have a WordPress.com account, you can just log in with that.
Once you have an account, you can join groups you find interesting, follow interesting users, and use the forums, directory and so forth. You can also get your headlines on our front page.
Getting started with your blog headlines
This post assumes that you already have a blog. If you do not have a blog but would like one, follow the same steps but answer yes to the question “do you want a blog?”. You will see what I mean shortly.
Regardless of if your blog is a Tumblr blog, a Blogspot blog or some kind of WordPress blog, it will have something called a web feed. Sometimes this is called RSS or ATOM. If you look at it, it is a strangely formatted version of your content. This is your blog feed, and you will need that for the final step.
Make your own social group
In order to have a free blog or to import your blog headlines, you will need to create a group. This is your own little social space where Author Buzz UK members can subscribe and follow along as fans.
Here are all the current groups on Author Buzz UK.
On that page we just linked to (the one with all the groups) is a link that says Create a Group. Give it a click to get started or just click here.
You will need to give your group a name and you can upload some images to decorate it with too. Use similar images as you would on your own blog so people can see that the group and your blog are related.
Care for your own forum?
During the group creation process, you will be asked if you would like a forum. If you say yes now (or come back and edit the group later to add one) you will get a dedicated forum that is just for you and your group members.
This can be useful as your blog headlines only update when your group is active. This stops inactive groups from clogging up space that could go to active communities.
New blog or not new blog?
You will be asked if you want a blog to go with the group. If you already have one, then feel free to say no. You can always come back later and start an Author Buzz blog for your group if you want to.
If you don’t have a blog, then you can say yes and our servers will make you your own WordPress blog. You can pick settings that allow community members to contribute to the blog or keep it just for you to write on.
Your new blog’s headlines will automatically appear in the group every time you publish a post. Our system counts that as the group being active.
Now for that feed with your blog headlines in it
Remember that feed we talked about earlier? Now we are going to need to use it.
You will, as you make your new group, come to a section called External Blogs. This is where you can add one or more feeds. So, if you had two blogs – one on space and one on sailing – you can have both lots of headlines show up in the same group.
Some members use this feature to make a fan-led group with headlines from their favourite author or blog. There are a few groups like that on our site.
If you are having trouble finding your blog’s feed URL (link) you can either ask a friendly teenager or pop on to our forums. We also have a handy guide to finding your feed.
Keeping your blog headlines live
You are going to need two things to keep your headlines live.
First, you need to write your posts. We can’t share anything if there is nothing to share.
Second, you need to keep your group active. Our feed getter only does its job when there is someone visiting your group. That way, the feed getter knows what people are interested in and goes and gets it for them.
Keeping your group active
One way to get an active group is to ask your readers to sign up and join the group. That’s why we have a free forum on offer, so your fans can talk among themselves, ask you questions, and give feedback.
The other, slightly more boring way, is to come back every few days, log in and refresh the group. Of course, if you only do that you will miss out on a lot of interesting stuff that gets published by other bloggers. Not to mention our forums, the advertising directory and other features we are still working on.
I strongly recommend taking a little time to interact with people interested in your new community. You current readers and fans will probably be interested and I have no doubt that some of our existing members might want to take a look too.
Groups, where the admin takes the time to reply to people, tend to feel more friendly and stay active.
What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for? Go Create a Group and customise it to suit your needs. Make it the most lively and exciting community on Author Buzz if you want. Groups, the forums, and our blogs will always be free with nothing to pay for.
Go, make good art. Change the world.