Len spends most of her time ruminating on her writings that never made it to paper; keeps sane by reading books and listening to music. She reviews most of them out of love and the joy of it.
Alternatively, if you've been blogging for awhile, you've probably learned a thing or two. Whether you stumbled upon a something that makes blogging easier or made a mistake you'd never want anyone to repeat, share your experience and wisdom with others.
After Two Years and A Half…
And here I am still blogging! I still feel happy sharing my thoughts about the books I've read and love for reading. I have discovered fantastic blogs, met and learned from other bloggers, and made friends across the world who shares the same love and passion for books.
What I have learned so far:
1. Blog about what you love. It doesn't have to be purely about books. Though it helps if you are consistent with what you have on your blog. I appreciate knowing a bit about the blogger aside from reviews, etc.
2. You want comments on your blog? Turn off your verification. If you hate receiving spam, then just turn on moderation, at least it won't hassle readers from commenting. Or integrate into the commenting page. I think this will depend on your blogging platform.
3. If you're new in blogging. Join blog hops to discover new blogs and make connections. I think there is also a big sister-little sister (correct me if I'm wrong on this) blog, where bloggers who are more experienced, take on a newbie to guide.
Link up your posts on twitter or Facebook to drive traffic to your site. You will discover other ways along the way that will suite you.
4. You don't have to post everyday. Don't feel pressured to have a post everyday. It's about the quality of the post, and not how many posts you do.
5. Darlings, don't plagiarize. Always err on the side of caution than be accused of this. If you think blogging is different than writing an actual paper, you're wrong. Some people may say there is no such thing as an original thought. Well, there is such a thing of saying it the way you will. Paraphrase, quote, cite sources. I've been writing research paper half my life and I still get paranoid I might commit this.
On reviews, I stay away from reading reviews of books I have read but haven't written a review yet, or of books on my TBR pile already and plans to write a review on.
6. Take breaks. Hiatus. I always do them. *hehehe* Especially when my to-read books are just too many to ignore anymore. And you might feel burnout with all the blogging.
7. Be nice. Don't bash. Negative reviews are good as long as you write good. There are good bad reviews, and there those negative reviews that makes the reviewer as negative as the review.
Be nice to other bloggers as well. We are a community here. We can get emotional sometimes, but please think before you click. That said, if you are not aiming to be a professional blogger, be a mature one.
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I am not an expert on blogging. I still stumble, fumble, and still even make grammatical errors that makes me scream "NOOOOOOO" after I click "Publish." You think I knew schedule posts before? I learned these stuffs as I went on blogging. Just go and do your thing and people will appreciate what you do.
I still have the lingering doubt of whether to shift from blogger to wordpress. But the expense to do it have somehow made me decide to ask about it again months later. :p
Can you give me other tips? I would love to learn something new! This is what it's all about sharing and learning from each other (aside from discovering new books ;-).
