Sunday Fun Five #53:
#48: The 5 Paper Books You Treasure Most
#49:The 5 Books That Had You at "Hello"
#50:The 5 Résumé-Worthy Talents of the Average Book Blogger
#49:
#50:
#52: The 5 Mistakes You Made With Your Blog You Wish You'd Never Done in the First Place
#53: The 5 Choices You Made With Your Blog That You're Most Happy About
For the 22nd of May: #54: The 5 Books That Scream Summer (to You)
#53: The 5 Choices You Made With Your Blog That You're Most Happy About
For the 22nd of May: #54: The 5 Books That Scream Summer (to You)
A Countdown of
The 5 Choices You Made With Your Blog That You're Most Happy About
Book blogging, despite being centered on the love of books, is a personal experience. I see why other bloggers have chosen the route they went, but as for me, these are the choices I made with my blog that continue to make me happier to this day.
When you start out blogging, you tend to notice everyone tends to pick up some fun memes. For some reason, I decided to do my own, perhaps because I liked the challenge of coming up with topics and being able to personalize everything. It hasn't always been easy, but I enjoy having a variety of posts that aren't necessarily identical to everyone else's.
4. Writing Reviews for Older Books
It seems almost a dirty word in some of the book blogging world- old books. But after realizing ARCs weren't really everything they were cracked up to be during my first year of blogging, I try to read more old books in order to keep variety and interest in blogging alive- for me! I don't think I would be blogging about books if I could only blog about the latest and "greatest".
3. Keeping My Blog Ad-Free
This is something I noticed early on when I started blogging- ads are so annoying. As a gift to myself, I decided to try and maintain my blog in an ad-free fashion. It's worked well for me so far!
2. Not Signing Up For Blog Tours
I've almost signed up for different blog tour companies, but to be honest, the practice irks me a bit. I know authors don't have time to beg each individual blogger to advertise and/or review their book, but I would hope they'd magically come upon my blog and realize I might like their book... instead of paying someone else for that realization. It's not realistic, but darn it- I don't need any more emails about books for review in my inbox- it's stuffed already!
1. Doing My Own Thing
I like being free to do whatever on my blog. Despite it being named Victorian Soul Critiques, I've also done posts on Cat Acquisition/Adoption (In Other News), Vacation Posts ("The Lazy Vacationer" by Litha Nelle and Gone Camping: Moose, Mesa Falls, Dog Antics, and Lots of Rain), and even a post on another thing I love, antiques (Gone Junkin'). It may not amount to massive amounts of pageviews, but if it keeps me happy, I'll post about it.
What choices have you made with your blog that continue to make you happy? And happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!
I totally agree with the advertising thing! One blog I follow recently added advertising and it is the kind where they have the "snake oil" type ads that insult your intelligence. I used to make it a point to visit all of her posts and leave some sort of comment, but now I only visit the ones I am strongly interested in. The bloggers who put the adds at the top of their blog posts are the worst offenders. I refuse to follow them, which isn't too difficult as they are usually blogs that only deal with hyped books. Ha ha. If there was some sort of add widget that would display a certain type of book only feed and could be put on the sidebar I probably would do that, but until that type of add is available, forget it. I wish companies like Book Outlet would do one and give store credit. I would jump on that in a heartbeat. I feel the same way about features. The ones I do follow I only do sporadically because I really need the prompt to be something I love. My Tell Me Tuesday is primarily for my own use, but I love it when bloggers decide to participate, no matter how here and there it is. I love that you review older books. Most of the blogs I follow regularly have a non-mainstream slant to them. If a blog only deals with hyped or high profile books it is not for me. Stay unique. The growth may be slower, but the follower base is more sincere. I would rather have a few real comments on my blog posts as opposed to the scad of cut and pasted "great haul" "awsome books" "hey gurl, you rock" comments I see on mainstream book blogs. :)
ReplyDeleteMost bloggers who are in it for the joy of it won't cover every square inch of their blog in ads that aren't relevant to it. I get having Amazon/Book Depository referral links, but at the same time, even blogs that have a ton of followers admit that program doesn't work like it should, so I just skip everything to do with ads- they drive me up a wall!
DeleteI tend to try and follow blogs with different features as well, but if they read similar books to me (either Fantasy/Historical/Sci-fi/some random genres) I'll follow them anyway for their reviews. I hate the generic comment culture too- I stopped commenting on someone's blog after they left a nonsensical generic comment on mine. That seems weird, but I'd rather have people commenting for genuine interest than faux interest.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing, La La!
~Litha Nelle
You know, I was tending to read any old books I wanted and then posting reviews on my blog. I haven't been able to do that lately. I have been overwhelmed from reading and reviewing books for blog tours. I signed up for too many all at once and have been on a crazy deadline. I just now had to pull an all-nighter to finish reading a book so I could get the review up by the 9 a.m. deadline. I took on way too many. I have decided to stop taking so many and maybe only one per week so I can start getting back to reading what I want to read. I love being able to help these authors out by promoting their books and it's exciting to get books to read in exchange for honest reviews but I want to start getting back to expanding my website and blog and adding all the things I intended too. Right now all I have been able to post is blog tours, book blitzes, etc. I just need to cut it down quite a bit. I love your blog. It's great that you stick to what you love. I enjoy reading your blog posts when I get the chance.
ReplyDeleteI had that issue too during my first year- I got really fed up when a book's publication date would fluctuate (which happens) and then the month I had to read it would shrink to one week! I like promoting books and authors, too, but I like doing it on my own terms, so usually I'll buy a book on sale or check Amazon for freebies (I've actually found a few gems that way). And also, I have such a book collecting issue- I neglect my own curated pile of books when I agree to review someone else's. Thanks- I'm glad you enjoy it, Michelle!
DeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting!
~Litha Nelle
I love the features on your blog, including this one. I'm always tempted to jump in. :-) You ask such good questions! I have such a hard time coming up with ideas of my own these days. I think I'm just too busy with other things right now. I am not a big fan of ads either. I have been approached a few times over the years, but I have no interest in it. I don't even affiliate with a bookstore. I won't stop following a blog because of ads though. I just ignore the ads.
ReplyDeleteBook tours are something I do enjoy doing--but only if it's a book I really want to read and as long as I'm allowed to be honest in my reviews, including if I didn't care for a book. There are tour groups I won't work for because they have rules about only posting positive reviews. I understand why they do that given they are marketing the books through the tours, but I want to stay true to my purpose for blogging. And that means being honest about the books I read.
I think you have a great blog here, and I enjoy my visits with you. :-)
I forget who I owe a shout out for the adding of the questions for, because I didn't start asking questions at the end of my non-review posts until whoever made a post about the importance of adding them on blog posts- otherwise, people don't feel the need to comment. As I had early issues with getting anyone at all to comment other than a few bloggers I knew well, I took her advice and it paid off!
DeleteAs for ads and unfollowing, it depends on the ads. I can understand a few ads, but when there's ads everywhere (to the point it's difficult to read a post) I go elsewhere.
I've heard horror stories about blog tours, but I know they can also be a good thing. At this point, I just like doing whatever I like- if I want to read something, I'll request it off NetGalley.
Thanks- I enjoy the visits too! :)
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Wendy!
~Litha Nelle