Boost Your Business By Blogging a Book
There’s an old adage that says, “A book is the best business card you can hand out.” And it’s true. Authoring a book immediately makes 
you an authority on your topic as well as an expert in your field, and this gives you a leg up on your competition—if that competition has not authored a book.
A blog, however, provides the best tool available today for small businesses wanting to become more discoverable online than the competition. By blogging consistently and often on your topic you also can achieve expert status. If your content is relevant to the searches your potential customers and clients perform in search engines, they will find your blog and contact you. When they see you are an author, they are more likely to hire you than a similar business owner who has not written a book.
However, most entrepreneurs busily blogging for business don’t feel they have time to write a book in addition to all the content they already produce. If you fall into this category, here’s some good news: You can blog your book.
You can combine your blogging and book writing activities and write your book in post-sized bits on your blog. Later, you take this content and turn it into a book. In the process of blogging your book, you will create the online discoverability you desire for your company. As you publish each installment—a small bit of a chapter, the higher up in the search engine results pages your business’ website will rise, so you and your company become more visible. With each post you write and publish, you also move one step closer to finishing the first draft of your manuscript and becoming an author expert.
How to Blog a Business Book
Assuming you already have a blog set up on your website, or that your blog functions as your website, here are seven steps that will help you get your book blogged in no time. (If you don’t, first set up a blog.)
Choose a central topic for your book. Whether or not you have been blogging prior to deciding to blog a book, you will want to determine the most marketable topic for your book or the subject that will best serve your business. When blogging a book you will not jump aimlessly from topic to topic. You will move in a focused manner from the beginning of your book to the end to get your book written. To do so you will use a content plan. But, when you finish the book, you will continue blogging, so choose your topic well. You will blog on the topic of your book, related topics and your business for a long time to come.
Evaluate your book’s viability. Although you want your blogged book to support your business, it also want it to be marketable. This means it needs to be a viable business proposition—a book that will sell to readers and possibly to a traditional publishing company. Take time to evaluate your book idea’s success potential. Find out if it has a large enough market, if it is unique compared to previously published books written on the same subject or about your type of business. Determine if it solves a problem, adds value or in some way fills a need for readers. If you book has a market, is unique and adds value, it is a viable business proposition and will support your business.
Map out your book’s content. Take the time to brainstorm all the possible content that could be included in your book. When you are done, organize this into a table of contents for the book.
Break each chapter down into post–sized bits. You will write each chapter in 250-500 word pieces—blog posts. So break your content plan into small pieces by creating 15-20 subheadings per chapter or just as many questions to answer. If you have an idea of each chapter’s length, you can determine how many subheadings, or posts, you’ll need to write to complete the chapter.
Create a business plan for your book. Take the information you accumulated in Step #2 about markets and consider how you will approach those markets. Also think about how you will promote your book as you blog it and after it has been published. Develop a social networking plan to use during the book blogging process (and after) to increase traffic to the blog.
Commit to a schedule. Decide how many days you will blog your book and stick to it. The more often you blog, the faster you will gain readers. You will also get your book written faster. It’s best to plan on writing at least 2-3 days per week; 5 days per week is better.
Produce a manuscript as you blog. Write your posts each day systematically in a word processing program, and then copy and paste them into your blogging program. In this manner you produce an actual draft manuscript you can then edit and revise.
If you follow this plan you will blog your book quickly and easily while promoting your business at the same time. The more content you publish as you blog your book, the more keywords you produce as well—and you will do this organically by simply writing about your topic day in and day out. Your blog will get cataloged more frequently by the search engine spiders, and you will see your page ranking rising and your web traffic following suit. This will bring in more customers and client leads as well, especially if you have a lead generation system in place.
When you have finished your manuscript, you’ll edit and revise it; then hire a professional editor to put the final touches on it. Get a professional book designer, and self-publish. Or, if you have garnered enough readers, approach a traditional publisher to see if you can land a book deal. It’s possible if your blog readership is high that you might actually get discovered by an agent or publisher in the process of blogging your book, as many bloggers have over the last ten years. In either case, you will have successfully blogged a book and become an author expert, a fact that will definitely boost your business.
Nina Amir, Inspiration-to-Creation Coach, inspires people to combine their purpose and passion so they Achieve More Inspired Results. She motivates both writers and non-writers to create publishable and published products, careers as authors and to achieve their goals and fulfill their purpose. The author of How to Blog a Book, Write, Publish and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books), Nina has also self-published 10 short books, including the How to Evaluate Your Book for Success and 10 Days and 10 Ways to Your Best Self. A sought after editor, proposal consultant, book and author coach, and blog-to-book coach, Nina’s clients’ books have sold upwards of 230,000 copies and landed deals with top publishers. The founder of Write Nonfiction in November, she writes four blogs, including Write Nonfiction NOW!, How to Blog a Book and As the Spirit Moves Me, and appears weekly on the Dresser After Dark radio show.