Mom and I have a mission here. We do honest book reviews. They’re not everyone’s bowl of kibble. Fine. If you’re reading along, you probably already know that.

But what you may not know is that we just bowed out of a book blog tour because the tour organizer wanted rainbows and roses, sunshine and unicorns only regarding the book in question. We don’t roll that way. We do For Real here. (More on that later.)

So when this honest, down-to-earth guest post by one of our new favorite writers, D.L. Kennedy, came along, it resonated. (D.L. Kennedy is the author of Thirteen Miracles. Read our full review here.) If you’re a discouraged blogger or a struggling blogger, this one’s for you. Take it away, D.L.:

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By D.L. Kennedy

I’ve lost track of how many blogs I’ve failed at. At least ten. I’ve had blogs that centered on learning new languages; blogs that taught people how to grow weeds — I mean vegetables; blogs that promoted careers in the medical field. Really early on, like fifteen years ago, I ran blogs that covered different affiliate marketing programs. All of those blogs were supposed to be money makers, but the only people who made money off of them were the hucksters who sold me their sure-fire strategies and enrolled me in their downlines. I sure didn’t make anything. I didn’t even get any visitors. None. Plenty of bots but no one with skin on.

From Blogging to Books

After blogs that went nowhere, I started blogging about books. My books in particular. I’ve made all of the mistakes this blog warns about. Especially paying out good money for bad advice. I have three surviving blogs, but only one of them actually gets any visitors. That visitor is usually Alex J. Cavanaugh, and I’m pretty sure I owe his visits to the fact that he’s a gentleman with a broad streak of Christian chivalry. It certainly isn’t because I know how to blog.

I love Alex J. Cavanaugh. He must be the most loyal friend on the East Coast.

Once I met him, the days of following expensive advice were over. Life says you get what you pay for. That’s not always true. Alex never sold me anything, but he’s the blogger I tried to emulate, and while I did that, I succeeded at blogging. The only reason I stopped succeeding was because I stopped trying. Keeping up with Alex at that time was like being in the military again or running a thousand-mile marathon. It was exhausting.

Best Advice

So, my best advice for writers who want to succeed at blogging is to take Kristine’s good advice. Emulate successful bloggers like Kristine and Alex J. Cavanaugh. Watch what they do.

When I was really working at this blogging thing, I would visit the writers that visited Alex’s blog. I would follow all of them and leave comments. They usually reciprocated. I went from zero visitors and zero comments to hundreds of both. I participated in all of the campaigns that the bloggers were running, and I tried to post fun, useful content.

Like Kimber and Kristine.

Better Than $

My blogs have all returned to the outposts of bot wasteland now, but that’s on me. I’ve never made any money at blogging, but I have made a couple of friends, and friends are better than money. (Though it would be nice to have both.)  

That’s the best advice you’ll ever get from a failed blogger, and it didn’t cost you anything except some time.

Alex J Cavanaugh

DLynnKennedy Blogspot

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There? Didn’t I tell you? By the way, reader, what’s the best blogging advice you’ve ever heard?