Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever is sponsoring this week’s Just Write Blog.  See a summary and review of the book, and enter to win a copy here.

When I mentioned that writers can have a free blog on WordPress, I meant WordPress.com. not WordPress.org.  Although both use the same blogging software, at WordPress.com the hosting is done by them, whereas at WordPress.org, you need to install the software on your server  or with a third party provider.  As for tools to help drive traffic to your site (assuming first that you have interesting content) be sure to fill in your “tags” on posts.  Tags are crucial because these are what show up most often when people do a search.  Submit your website and/or blog to Google, MSN and Yahoo.  Also, set up an account with each of the top six social bookmarking sites: Digg, Yahoo Buzz, Technorati, Delicious, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  Then submit your site, posts and/or articles.  I could go on, but that’s enough for now.  More later…

Even if you haven’t finished your book, blogging is a low risk, low cost way to build your audience while you are developing your work, and then promote your completed book to that same audience.

The popularity of blogs has soared in the last few years.  There are now over 100 million blogs tracked by Technorati, a popular blog search engine.  According to demographics collected by the Pew Internet Study, blogs have become mainstream and represent virtually every audience and topic area.

You can use blogs to develop an audience for your work, promote your book, communicate directly with your readers, help develop your writing skills and provide an opportunity to obtain feedback on book ideas, and offer contests and other incentives to purchase books.

Several services provide free blog space and templates including Blogger and WordPress.  By following the simple instructions, an author can have a personalized blog set up and running in less than an hour.

So start blogging!