Been There, Done That

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Top Ten Tips For New Book Bloggers

1. Don't stress about your followers- Yes followers are important but what matters more is the friendship you gain from those followers, not the number of followers. I remember refreshing the page thirteen times just to see if I had more followers, now I wish I had put more effort into actually blogging. 

2. Remember that your blog is about you- It's not for your followers, it isn't for the publishers, and isn't for the books. It's about you and your love of books. It's your opinion and no one should be able to change that. 

3. Don't always go for hyped books- Some of my favorite books are little-known but spankin' awesome books. Yes I just said spankin', it was really the only word that could fit. (like The Riddles of Epsilon) 

4. Go outside of your reading comfort zone- I've done this numerous times and have been pleasantly surprised at how much I could enjoy a book that I had written off.

5. Experiment with your design- I've had lots of different designs since I started my blog. You are always changing so changing your blog to go with that is not a bad idea. However don't change it every week or even monthly just once in a while. Like after a break (see tip #7), or for a blogoversry, or even, ya know, if some big change is happening in your life (moving for instance). 

6. Find your voice, your groove- *cues music from An Extremely Goofy Movie* It took me a while to find my style but I realized that writing in a list form went with the way my brain works. Everyone is different so you have to experiment, figure out what review style works best for YOU. If you figure that out blogging becomes a tad bit easier, just a tad. 

7. If you feel overwhelmed, take a break- This feeling creeps into us all. We feel like we have too much to do either outside of blogging or with blogging itself. If it ever becomes too much announce to your followers that you are taking a short break. This way you don't have to quit forever and you have time to remember why you started blogging and that it was actually fun at one point.

8. Don't, I repeat, DON'T let blogging take precedent over the rest of your life- I've done this before and I got some pretty bad grades as a result. Remember at the end of the day that it's just a hobby. 

9. Don't just do memes- Memes are great, don't get me wrong, but make sure you have reviews ALONG with those memes. Also find memes that are fun to you. One of my favorite memes is Daily Dose even though it has nothing to do with books. Go find your favorites! 

10. One order of book blogging: hold the drama, extra fun- If you don't insert some sort of fun into the process you'll end up hating it. Also: try to avoid tiffs with other bloggers. My greatest advice is simply, agree to disagree. 

You can totally ignore or embrace these tips but these are things that helped me out along the way. They are  also purely my opinion. 

just sayin,

Kare