Save Yourself the Headache (The Blogger Edition)

I don’t claim to be an expert on (book) blogging but after 5+ years you tend to learn something (at least I hope you do because otherwise I’m a bit worried). For today’s chat, I want to list some of the tips I learned over the years. Prior to these, blogging was a headache. A chore. It wasn’t fun because there were so many little things that I didn’t do that could’ve saved so much frustration.

I’m sure we’ve all been there and learned there’s an easier way to do something, so save yourself the headache with these tips!

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Review the book after you read it.

SO. MANY. TIMES. I’ve let a review go for a couple days because I want to read another book or life gets in the way or a million other excuses come up, and then I go to write the review and I’m not quite sure what to say because I’ve already forgotten bits and pieces from the story.

Take a few notes when you read a book review, either while reading or right after so when you go to review it you don’t forget and are left with a blank screen.

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Name your media files consistently.

This one is a PAIN if not done early on. I ended up going through all of mine one day and fixing names because I couldn’t find several book covers. If you consistently name media files you can easily search to find them again instead of re-uploading the same images.

My personal system is including the full title and author last name for book covers, the full author name and “author” for author images, adding in “teaser” for teasers, etc. You get the idea.

Figure out a system that works for you and stick to it so you can find everything later on.

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Schedule ahead!

I’m terrible at this but getting better, but I HIGHLY recommend scheduling your posts ahead, even by just a week. It gives you more time to focus on reading, visiting other blogs, handling your social media pages, etc.

If you know you have a big event coming up outside of the blogging world, you can schedule posts ahead of time to make sure you’re getting new content up without worrying about it during your busy time.

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Create post templates.

Like how pretty everyone’s posts look? Want consistency? You can easily create a post template that you can copy/paste in for similar posts (i.e. weekly memes, tours, etc.). It keeps your formatting consistent and you don’t have to re-do it each time.

If you’re on WordPress, you can use the free plug-in Simple Content Templates which lets you save your templates and import them when you make a new post.

If you don’t have a WP blog, you can easily use a new post to create the code for your post template and save it to a Word or Notepad/text file that you can copy/paste from.

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Don’t be afraid of change.

Want to change the look of your blog? Do it. Your reviewing style? Do it. Your blog name? Do it. The blog is yours and should be your space. Don’t be afraid to make those changes because if that’s what makes you happy, you’ll only get annoyed with the site and yourself if you let it go. The idea isn’t to make blogging less fun. It’s not supposed to be your job, but something you love to do. So have fun with it!

 

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Social media is your friend.

Most of my blog traffic comes from social media. No one goes out and searches for NovelKnight (except me sometimes for shits and giggles). Use your media platforms to your advantage. You can dedicate the space to just your blog or you can make it what you want.

There’s a whole world out there and a great way to connect with readers is to interact with them. Comments are great but I’ve found I interact most with people on Twitter and Tumblr, I get a lot of hits from Facebook, and Instagram is great to share bookish pictures. You don’t have to be on all of them but don’t ignore them when blogging.

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Read what you want.

The most frustrating aspect of blogging, I’ve found, is the pressure to read what’s popular, what will get you hits on your website, what everyone else is reading. But you know what? It’s YOUR blog. It’s YOUR time. Don’t waste it trying to conform to everyone else when you can be you and read what you want. Whether it’s an ARC or a book released 10 years ago, you’ll be a lot less stressed when you focus on the things that interest you versus what everyone else finds interesting.

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Are there any tips you have from your time blogging? Share them in the comments for others!