Last day of Armchair BEA! Blogging About Blogging

Well folks, today is the last day of Armchair BEA (Day 5)! I don't know about you, but I am freakin' exhausted! It was a pretty last minute decision, but I'm glad I'm glad I participated. It has been crazy, tiring, awesome, and rewarding! I'm going to spend the next week catching up on all of the new blogs I found! I haven't even been able to comment on half of them yet.

Here is a rundown of Days 1-4:

Day 1: Who Are You, and How Do You BEA?

Day 2: Best of 2011 and a Giveaway!

Day 3: Interview With Another Blogger 

Day 4: Nurturing Book Blogging Relationships

Today's Topic: Blogging on Blogging

I'm pretty new at book blogging, but I still have some stuff to say. I'm not new at reading blogs, and knowing what your readers like is important. Let's get started!


How do you utilize social networking in relation to your blog? What may be the pros and cons of doing so?

I use social networking all the time! Without networking, I would have no readers. I have to get their attention somehow!

Here are the two major forms of networking that I do:

1. Twitter

     pros: 

• You can reach a large amount of people 
• It's an easy way of talking back and forth with fellow bloggers
• It's fast and simple
• You can follow and connect with authors and publishers - basically anyone in the book industry

    cons:

• It can be hard to keep up with
• You need followers on twitter, too

    2.  Memes

    

    pros:

• You find lots new blogs 
• These are usually a weekly thing, so you can constantly get people to come back to your site

    cons:

• You can bog your blog down with too many memes, and not enough "real" content
• participating can be time consuming, especially if you go to other blogs and leave meaningful comments (it pays off, though).

 Create a "rule list" of things you should and shouldn't be doing on a book blog. 

These are things that I look for in a blog before I will read or follow it:

1. Make it easily readable. Super crazy fonts and colors hurt my brain. If I have to decipher your posts, I won't read them. Like my example on the right there, which is making my eyes bleed at this moment.

2. Don't put sounds on your blog that automatically play! I will usually close out a blog before I even give it a chance if it has noise. No music players, and no ads with sound, please.

I am not talking about video blogs (vlogs) or things that you can have your readers click on if they choose to listen to it. Like, some blogs will post music that they think matches the feel of a book. That's fantastic!

It's embarrassing to have stuff start blaring at you as you fumble to figure out where the volume button is when you're supposed to be quiet, like the library or at work.

3. Make your blog unique.  If you don't have a ton of time to put into the design of your blog, at least customize it a bit. Blogger has made this so much easier than it used to be! You can change things with a click of a button now. A little here and there is all it takes. My blog isn't anywhere near perfect, but I'm slowly morphing it into something that I think reflects me. Of course, your content is way more important than how your blog looks. A unique blog is more memorable, though.

5. Don't spam others! Geesh, you would think this would be a no-brainer. Don't leave some superficial comment and then ask the blogger to follow you back. Then it seems like you didn't really even give a flying poopie about their blog and are just fishing for followers. EARN your followers. It's more rewarding.

4. Do it for yourself. I think this is the most important thing, to me anyways. If I want something a certain way on my blog, then that's how I'm going to do it. Of course I care about my readers (love you all!), but this is my blog. For example, I love my book covers posted as big as freakin' possible, so that's what I do. I know that this is probably going to annoy some people, and that's ok. I can't make everyone happy.

So, if you disagree with me and want neon pink writing on top of atomic meltdown green, then do it. If you just want a basic template with no modifications or songs blaring, then go ahead. Yes, it's possible you'll scare away readers, but your blog is about you. If you like it, others probably will too. It doesn't really matter what I think. :)

What are your tips for balance life and blogging?

Oh my gosh, if I blogged like I did this week all the time, I'd be a walking, exhausted zombie!!


I balance blogging and life by taking a step back sometimes. A blog post can almost always wait. I don't pressure myself to post all that much. I can wait to reply to comments. Last month I was sick for 5 days, so I just stayed away from my blog altogether (although I did have a post already scheduled to automatically post, and that was convenient!). My blog will be there later, so there's no rush. 

How do you keep your blog fresh and interesting to your readers & yourself?

I'm still working on this one! I don't totally know yet. I think that only reading what I feel like reading helps. I jump all over the place. I'll read a young adult book, then skip over to some hot and steamy romance. 

I have noticed that I get far more replies on the posts that I was genuinely excited about. I think it just shows. I did a post once in the very beginning that I wasn't really feeling, and I didn't get all that much interaction. Well, duh! Why would people be excited about something on my blog if I'm not even excited?

Maybe I should bring in some cute? Maybe some more LOL cats...

Like this:

or this:

Yep. I definitely need to bring on the cute and the LOL cats.