LifeHacker’s editor Gina Trapani has some great advice about blogging a book … that is equally as sharp for writing and maintaining a blog that people actually want to read.

Blogs are perfect for helping you write the book you’ve always wanted to write … but just haven’t.

Here are 5 ways I think blogging your book rocks:

1. You know someone is reading it (even if it’s your mom). Still, it helps knowing someone at least might be reading it for motivation’s sake.

2. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. This is the mantra that got me through my final year of my bachelor’s degree and I’ve savored its wisdom for a lot of things. The same principle applies for blogging your book. Thinking about one big massive project overwhelms me. But chipping away at that thing one post at a time … well, that helps put it all in perspective.

3. Build a readership for your book. If you want to write a book and aren’t building your email newsletter list to announce the book, I think you’re missing a great opportunity. Think about it … you pitch your book idea to a publisher and tell them you’ve got 1,000 built-in potential readers of your book on your email newsletter!

4. It helps get you found in the search engines. Once your book is actually in print and you begin to sell it on your website, you’ll want people to find you (through your topic’s keywords aka buzzwords) in Google and Yahoo! A blog is a great way to start talking with them about it!

5. Once it’s finished, you can sell it online. The web is a great place to sell your book (or ebook). If you’re blogging your blog and getting content up regularly, you’ll have a great platform to peddle your pulp.

Go read Gina’s excellent advice about blogging your book … it’s sharp and very applicable to those of us who just want to blog!

Also: Here’s another interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on the writing style of LifeHacker.