How to Structure a Professional Author Blog Site

To build an effective personal author blog and track your writing progress, you need a mix of engaging content strategy and reliable organization tools.

Essentials for an Author Blog

An author blog should serve two purposes: engaging your current readers and attracting new ones:

• The Homepage: features your latest release, a newsletter sign-up form, and your bio

• Behind-the-Scenes: share your world-building, character inspirations, or research

• Writing Advice / Journey: documents your struggles, triumphs, and lessons learned

• Book Reviews: review books in your genre to attract readers who enjoy similar stories

• Free Previews: post first chapters or exclusive short stories to hook visitors

Digital Tools to Track Writing Sessions

If you want to track word counts, writing streaks, or time spent drafting, use these dedicated tools:

• Pacemaker Planner: excellent for visualizing your writing goals and adjusting daily targets

• Writing Month: community-driven platform for tracking daily word counts and joining challenges

• Writing Habit: simple, visual habit tracker suited for setting writing frequency routines

• NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month): annual challenge held in November when participants pledge to publish a blog post every single day (30 posts a month)

• Spreadsheets: authors prefer custom Google Sheets to track dates, times, and chapter progress

Writers also use semi-free social websites built especially for sharing stories, both nonfiction and fiction:

• Medium, Find me!

• Substack

• Reddit

• Quora

• Wattpad

These are websites designed for sharing short stories. However, you can also build up your fan base and help other writers and readers by answering their questions. Create a sense of community as you write by signing up for at least one of these social websites. I recommend Medium, where I am a paid Friend.

Prepare for the Next Chapter

Now, this will get you started with plenty of writing work to do. Consider these tasks, such as creating a blog and posting on social websites, as part of your new work load as a writer.