Busting the Newbie Blues!

I participated in this event hosted by Small Review last time, and I'm joining in again! Basically it's an event to help newbie bloggers spread the word about their blogs, make connections in the blogosphere, and get some of their questions answered. Both new and old bloggers are welcome to participate! You can find all the info HERE. There's also a separate Busting the Big Blogger Blues event, hosted by Ruby's Reads, geared towards oldie bloggers :)

So, how it works is: you pick a questionnaire to answer, post your answers, and then hop around to the other participants' blogs. It's held during all of January, so come join in!

I chose the "established blogger" questionnaire:

1. When did you start your blog? 

May 2010, officially...but I only started actually letting people other than my family know about my blog in July of that year. Wow, can't believe it's been 1 and a half years! O_O


     2. Do you ever still feel like a newbie?

Sure do! Whenever I participate in a new kind of event or something's getting discussed in the blogosphere that I have no idea about, then I get that "what's going on? I don't understand..." feeling again. But generally I do feel a lot more confident about my blogging than I did a year and a half ago!

      3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?

Well, I found organizing and running an entire event last year (Psychtember) to be pretty stressful and daunting. But in the end I think it was quite successful, so I'm pleased about that! My mistake in terms of Psychtember may have been trying too hard to do too much in too little time, LOL. But hey, better too much than too little, I think!

      4. What did you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this? 

The follower count and getting comments. I would get super excited whenever my follower number increased (okay, who am I kidding, I'm still happy when that happens!) But now I've got some very loyal followers who comment regularly (*waves* hey everyone!) and I'd much rather have that than a bunch of followers I feel I don't really know at all. In terms of comments, basically, you'll get them if you comment on other blogs. Also, you may get them when you least expect them...it's a bit of a "watched pot never boils" thing.

Another thing I found discouraging was seeing all these other bloggers getting tons of ARCs, back when I didn't receive any at all. This is more just a matter of time — getting your blog established — than anything else. But it's also sometimes a matter of making the effort to contact a publisher and request a review copy.

      5. What do you find most encouraging?

I always love it when I hear from authors I admire! I'm thrilled if they tweet at me or e-mail me...the novelty of this hasn't worn off yet and I hope it never does :)

Also, the comments. Comments are what makes the blogosphere go round. Especially thoughtful, substantive ones.

      6.  If you could go back in time and speak with your newbie self, what five bits of wisdom would you tell yourself?

Good question! Hmmmm....

a) Do NOT stress so much about followers and comments. They are not a reflection of the quality of your blog. Instead, concentrate on doing what YOU'D like to do with your blog.

b) Participate in blogging events, but try not to bite off more than you can chew. Consider how much time and energy you have to devote to a particular project.

c) Don't be afraid to try new things with your blog. It'll help get you out of any blogging slumps you find yourself in.

d) HTML code isn't as scary as it looks. You can figure it out! (...at least to some degree...)

e) Be patient. Publisher contacts and ARCs will come eventually.

      7. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog? 

In terms of appearance, I like blogs with clean, uncluttered layouts (but not sparse or drained of colour), with colours that aren't too hard on the eyes. Often I'm envious of the blogs with the fancy, themed layouts that you can pay for, but since I don't have the money to spend on those right now, I've made do with my own limited design skills.

In terms of content, I appreciate reviews that are thoughtfully written, with minimal grammar and spelling errors. I like reviews that give me a sense of the book and the reader's opinion without giving away major spoilers! Also, spoiler warnings are excellent. I value bloggers who do not shy away from giving honest but negative ratings and critical comments in their reviews, but who accomplish this eloquently, without bashing the author.

Blogs that have a variety of posts — memes, reviews, discussions, event posts — are appreciated. And I enjoy blog posts that make me smile :)

Overall, I hope that I've managed to replicate some of these aspects in my own blog!

        8. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve seen? Do you try to avoid this? 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: light font on a dark background doesn't work well. Really cluttered blogs can be difficult to navigate, and music that starts playing as soon as I get there? PLEASE, NO. Even those countdown widgets with sound drive me crazy.

Bloggers who gush equally about every single book make me skeptical, and reviews riddled with spelling/grammar mistakes make me wince. I do try to avoid most of these things in my blog.

        9. How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people? 

Originally, the Book Blogger Hop (hosted by Jennifer at Crazy For Books) was probably the number one way I gained followers — it was a wonderful way to increase blog traffic! Since then, participation in various events around the blogosphere (including co-hosting one, and hosting another) and memes like Waiting on Wednesday have been quite helpful. Twitter, too, has been useful in this regard. I'm still trying to work on this aspect, though :)

        10. When and how did you get your first ARC (or first few ARCs)? 

I believe my very first ARC was for the A Cornucopia of Dystopia event I co-hosted with Casey from The Bookish Type. We contacted publishers about our event and the books we were hoping to highlight, and several of them sent us review copies. I remember being SO EXCITED that it said "advance reader's copy" (or words to that effect) on the book :D

Hope my answers have been at least somewhat helpful to newbie bloggers reading this post! Oldie bloggers, how would you respond to these questions?

Busting the Newbie Blues!

Small Review is hosting an event called "Busting the Newbie Blues," to help new bloggers figure out the ropes and connect with other bloggers. She's inviting new and established bloggers to answer some questions about their experience, and I think it's a great idea so I've joined in! You can find all the details here.

I've been blogging for over 5 months now, so I chose the "established" blogger questionnaire, although really I am probably somewhere in between :)

1. When did you start your blog? Well, the first post is dated May of this year, but I really didn’t get going and become involved with the book blogging community until July.

2. Why did you start your blog? I’d happened upon several other book blogs and I was using them to get ideas of what books I should read, so I thought – hey, why don’t I start up my own? I love to read and I love to discuss books with others, so it totally made sense.

3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?

One thing I found challenging was balancing blogging with the rest of my life. Don’t let it take over your life! If one of your posts doesn’t get any comments, don’t stress about it. If you don’t post any reviews one week, it’s okay. We all have lives and blogging is just one part of it!

4. What did you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this?

As a new blogger it can be difficult to really get to know some of the other bloggers. Mostly this just takes time, but also I found that getting involved on Twitter was really helpful in making more connections (with both bloggers and authors!) Another great idea is getting involved in events going on in the book blogosphere – there is always something going on! And just generally, posting meaningful comments on other blogs helps – often when someone posts a thoughtful comment on my blog, I’ll hop over to theirs and comment back, and we get a bit of a conversation going.

The process of gaining followers might also sometimes seem discouraging – I would recommend not focusing on how many followers any other blogger has. If you’re new, it’s going to take time to get established, and if your reviews are good and you interact with the community, you will slowly but surely gain followers! The Book Blogger Hop is also a great way to spread the word.

5. What do you find most encouraging?

I really enjoy the sense of belonging in the book blogging community, it’s just so fabulous that there are so many other book-lovers out there (and even just the number of YA book blogs is amazing!) Also, I always find comments encouraging — sometimes a really thoughtful comment will make my day :)

6. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

I like layouts that are not too cluttered and easy to read, and graphics that aren’t hard on the eyes, so I tried to incorporate that into my blog design. I really appreciate it when a blog has a menu for their reviews (otherwise it can be difficult to find them!) and they are ordered alphabetically, so I created that for mine soon after I started.

I also noticed that some bloggers did features or memes, so I started a couple of my own (my Forget-Me-Nots feature, and a seasonal “All I Want For Christmas” meme). That was actually pretty exciting!

In terms of reviews, I like quality content with decent grammar, punctuation and spelling (otherwise I will get distracted and not be able to focus on the review itself). I enjoy reading reviews that do a good job of explaining why they loved/liked/hated the book without giving too much away. Reading a spoiler in a review can be a downer, so I appreciate it when you must highlight the text to read the spoiler (or at the very least, a clear warning a spoiler is coming). I learned to avoid this once I figured out how to make white text in my posts, so now anything I consider spoilery you can’t read unless you highlight it!

And reviews that are really long are easier to read if they are broken down somehow. I am often guilty of long, in-depth reviews, but I do usually split it into sections so it isn’t one huge paragraph that the reader can get lost in.

7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?

Pretty much the opposite of my answer for #6 :D

Clashing colours, white text on a black background, copious grammar/punctuation/spelling errors in reviews, and insufficient spoiler warnings are a few things that will frustrate me.

8. Do you have any advice for new bloggers?

Interact with other bloggers. That’s probably the number one piece of advice from me. A lot of the blogs I visit the most frequently are the ones where I feel I’ve made a connection with another blogger. Memes are a great way to do this (Top Ten Tuesday, In My Mailbox, Waiting on Wednesday, Book Blogger Hop, etc.), or even just commenting on reviews or other posts. Twitter is also helpful this way, because it’s quite casual.

Also, I’d recommend always reading some books that are purely for your enjoyment and not for review.  Once you do gain a fair number of followers you may start to feel some pressure to do things on your blog in a certain way (for instance, perhaps you find it intimidating that some bloggers post way more reviews than you do in a week). Try not to stress about any of that. Remember that it’s your blog and you can do exactly what you like with it. It should remain fun for you! :)

9. How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?

LOL, I’m not sure I’ve accomplished that yet! I think you can get exposure for your blog from a number of different things. If you’re really new, I’d suggest the Book Blogger Hop, as I found that really helpful starting out. Any participation in events around the blogosphere (memes, challenges, etc.) will help spread the word, though.

10. Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience?

Just that I’ve been enjoying myself so far and hope the new bloggers do as well!