So I understand that the title of this post might be the most absurd you've ever heard (it rhymes, lol). But I have to be honest with you, I am in no place to give out advice to new bloggers based on my experience, because I, myself, am a new blogger. I mean, there are tons of other old, successful bloggers giving out advice, and chances are, theirs will make more sense than mine. But one thing that I as a newbie know, is the stress, the feeling like you're not good enough, and that no one is reading your blog. I got you back, bro. I know how it feels, so I decided to write down a few handy tips for when you are feeling down.
1. You blog stats for the first couple of months will suck, and nothing is wrong with that. You're just starting out, people have not heard of you before, and so it's natural that the hits you get during your first couple of months will be.. crappy. In my first month of blogging, I got 20 page views! That's right, 20! And 10 of them were me checking in on my own blog. DIE WITH ENVY BLOGOSPHERE.
One thing I can assure you is, stats will change. You'll start to gain a few hundred hits per month, then a thousand, then a few thousand, and so on. That's the beauty of blogging, son. Your goals get bigger and bigger as your blog does.
2. Get dem followers, son. To make sure you don't fall into the why-doesn't-anyone-read-my-blog land, you need to get followers. And don't assume that means spamming/kidnapping people and forcing them into following you (although that sounds brilliant, why didn't I think of that?!). No one likes a spammer. Fortunately, you don't have to be; the book blogging community has those little gold mines called memes, or features, where you can follow and get a follow back, and get to know other bloggers as well. Feature and Follow Friday is an awesome example.
3. Post the right things. OK, first off, that just sounded obnoxious. There is no right thing to post, and don't let any one tell you that, certainly not me (fun fact: I tend to be a hypocrite on Mondays). You want to post about your day? Or that upcoming tsunami? Or how your cat snores in her sleep and you're worried about her health? You go Glenn Coco. Do that! It's your blog and you should post whatever you feel like. But from my little experience, I found that discussion posts get the most feedback. That includes page views and comments. Everyone loves a good discussion post, my self included.
I have read a few discussion posts on what makes us, readers, follow your blog. The one thing I remember the most is that the majority of readers don't want a meme-filled blog. One or two memes per week is okay, but a whole bunch of them? Not so much. Personally, another thing that turns me off from following a blog is the amount of blog tours/cover reveals/author interviews that are in it. I don't know about the rest, but they're just not my thing. Supporting an indie author is great, don't get me wrong, but those kind of posts rarely get my attention. I admit I do post some of them here, but only once or twice a month.
4. Don't worry about ARCs, you'll get them when the time is right. Personally, I am predisposed to not worry about ARCs because I'll never get them. This has nothing to do with my blog, and more with my location (Egypt). For a publishing company to send me all the new and hot ARCs would mean they'd go bankrupt within a few weeks. The transportation fees from the US/Europe to Egypt are a bitch, so I don't blame them. If, however, you are one of those lucky bloggers living a somewhat reasonable distance from publishing companies, you need to read those posts, because the bloggers who wrote them know more that I do. Check out this one, this one, and this one.
5. Know your fellow bloggers, and be active. I have to admit, when I first started blogging, I didn't read/comment on any other blogs. I didn't see the point of it, but let me tell you something, I was missing out. Once you start blogging, you'll keep hearing the word "the book blogging community is awesome and friendly." and let me tell you something, that is completely true! The best thing about blogging is those other bloggers whom you can gush with over books. So communicate with them, talk to them on twitter. Most of us are always up for a discussion, and we don't bite (most of the time anyway). Also, it makes things easier if you follow blogs through Bloglovin' or Feedly instead of checking up on them every once in a while.
I hope you find this helpful. Remember, the most important thing is to have fun (I think I just won an award for the cheesiest closing line ever written, but whatever).
This is some GREAT advice! I love all of your funny comments in it :) Old GFC follower and new bloglovin follower!
K @ My Favorite Escape
I feel like I only have one appropriate response to this post...
Word.
Thanks Kelley :) And yeah, I do check both Netgalley and Edelweiss every once in a while, even if I don't feel comfortable reading ebooks, sometimes you gotta make an exception, you know? :D
You're a smart cookie! It's actually kind of clever that a newbie would give advise to newbies because it's still fresh in your mind.
P. S.: I didn't understand a thing from my comment. I hope you will xD
You seem to forget we have an evil connection. I KNOW AND UNDERSTAND WHATEVER GOES ON YOUR MIND. Creeped out yet? :D
Well, shit! Please tell me you're not spying on my dreams? :| The amount of embarassing info suitable for blackmail is horrifying.....
I won't use the info against you, I pinkie promise.
Not yet, anyway >;)
Ah! I wish I had all this advice when I'd started out. Don't worry, this isn't absurd at all; I agree with Eve: you're smart to do this, and it's a fab idea as well! I totally agree with #3. Based on experience, I noticed that a lot of newbie bloggers LOVE participating in blog tours. I've got nothing against that, honest, but blog tours are like memes: don't overdo them! That's why I tend to skip over blogs that have blog your posts every day. And I wish someone told me about #4, too. I can totally sympathize with you, because I don't live in America or any of those western countries either. *sigh* Sucks to be us.
#5 is probably the most important!
It's time for me now to gush about how much I love this post! Definitely good advice that everyone (even veteran bloggers) should check out! Thanks, Reem. :)
I like this a lot! All really good advice. I had to stop checking my stats my first month because itching for every page view was making me go crazy!
You know, I think I was kind of fortunate to not participate in all of those blog tours starting out, because I wouldn't have known better. I think the bright side of living in a far far land, is that I don't have to worry or stress over getting ARCs. I know it sucks to be in our position, but here's to hoping ... I dunno, international shipping will be cheaper or something. There's always the eARCs, though ;)
I agree, #5 is the most important part. The whole point of blogging for me is to get to know awesome fellow bloggers like you :) Thanks for the nice words, and for stopping by, Meg ;)
I know, right? It becomes pretty addictive. It's also stressful because I'm obsessing over a site that doesn't get much traffic (over the first few months, that is.)
AWESOME post Reem, just awesome!!!
btw, I don't get physical ARCs either (I live in Europe), so I'm a little envious of those lucky US/UK bloggers who get them, but I don't blog for free books but becasue I enjoy talking about books :)
Aww, thank you Cayce! Glad you like this :)
And I totally agree, if I obsess over the free books I will never enjoy the other aspects of blogging.
Thanks for stopping by K Marie, glad you liked it :D
It's the kind of response I'm looking for anyway, lol :D
All great advice, Reem!
As far as ARCs... if you someday ARE interested, there's always egalleys, through NetGalley and Edelweiss. But I seem to recall you not liking ebooks much. ;)
I think it's a great idea for a new blogger to post about the different things you have learned as you started to blog! There are some things I wish I had known in the very beginning, and at the same time, I am still learning new things quite often even after one year of blogging :)
Great post!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
Thanks for linking up with Let's Discuss!! I think all of this advice is absolutely golden! :)
Yay for one year of blogging! Quite honestly I didn't think I would make it as far as six months, but it's been really interesting. There is so much to learn, I agree.
Thanks for stopping by, Lexxie :) Glad you liked it.
Thank you! Glad you liked it. :)
You raised pretty much all the points.
I don't get ARCs either since I'm living in a different continent from all those publishers. I think those eARCs are still possible, but I haven't tried. I already have a stack of books I want to read...I don't need to add review copies to the stack :).
Yeah, it's a little tough not being able to get ARCs, but I think you should atleast try to contact a publicist. I've heard they make exception if they like your blog :D
I can relate to this so much because I'm a newbie blogger myself! Hi.
And wow, Egypt. What's it like.
Excellent post :) I would add that sometimes your stats will continue to suck or magically start to suck and it's probably not you, it's probably a holiday or the summer, etc, etc. It's a lot more fun when you don't even look at your stats for weeks at a time in my opinion, otherwise I start overanalyzing every dip D:
Reem, I could hug you for this post! Being a newbie book blogger myself, sometimes I really don't know what I'm doing or have a block on what to post. Your advice is really helpful and concise :D
Oh, that's great! Good luck with your blog, I hope you're enjoying it.
It's a lot different here I suppose :P
I wish I could turn a blind eye to my blog for a week, but it's kind of hard. Especially if I've just posted a new review and I need to know how well it's doing. But yeah, if you can do that, it is A LOT less stressful.
Haha! Thanks Jessylyn <3 Glad you like this. I think you'll figure out what kind of blogger you want to be and what posts you like to do along the way :D
Great advice! I just started blogging in Feb and I am loving it. Everything you said is totally right. I actually feel overwhelmed if I have too many Arcs because it takes away time from some of the books I want to read but don't have too. :-)
Great post! I'm a relatively new blogger as well and sometimes I'm afraid its going to be a boring blog. But I just post what I like and try not to worry too much if I don't get tons of followers or comments. I mean, I'm doing this to share my love of books, not to get thousands of people on my page (though it wouldn't hurt) (:
Pagesofcomfort.blogspot.com
New follower via bloglovin
Great advice Reem! :) Being new to blogging within an actual community myself, I can say I agree with all these points. I stopped checking my stats altogether and try to find a new person's blog to comment on every other day at least (and of course keep up with my friends' posts!). I should probably be focusing more on my OWN content right now than other people's, but I've gotta troll for ideas right? ;)
I'm personally not worried about ARCs either. I would feel guilty getting them with the giant TBR pile I already have at home, and then feeling like I HAVE to read the ARC first and post a review ASAP. That seems like it would take some of the fun out of it.
Exactly, you shouldn't worry about ARCs. I've seen a lot of bloggers say they're not all that any way.
Thanks for stopping by, Chelsea :)
I know, I was a little insecure when I started out, and was afraid people won't like the things I post, but it all turned out well :D You gain more confidence as you go.
Glad you like this, Leanne! That's great that you find new people's to comment and make friends with everyday. The advantages of commenting far outweigh the disadvantages. I wouldn't have got to know other bloggers had I not commented on their posts before.
ARCs sound aesome when it's a book you can't wait for it to be published, but other than that, they are a lot of work I agree.
Yes, I definitely have gotten more confident the longer I've been on this. It also helps a lot when I visit and comment on other peoples posts to see how they do things and get more involved in the blogging community
I've got to join in on this freakin' fantastic post! My blog is one month new and my goodness I have learned so much in this past month. I've found that sharing my blog posts on social media has allowed me to connect with readers in my university community AND get more unique visitors (not that I'm counting but...).
Last night I made a netgalley profile, today I received my first ARC! (and I even know what that means now!) Everything from HTML, Disqus comments, widgets (love that word), Bloglovin', Goodreads. A month ago this would have sounded like gibberish, and now I'M COMPLETELY OBSESSED. Us baby blogs need to band together! Thanks for posting this - I don't feel so alone! (new follower on bloglovin')
Yaay for being a new blogger! I'm sure you'll love it. I agree, HTML sounded like a complicated mess before I started out, but now I understand a lot of it, and I admit.. it makes me feel like a big shot :P
And congratulations on your first ARC! I suggest you check out Edelweiss too. It works the same way as Netgalley, but I think the variety is bigger.
I agree, we definitely need to band together! If you have anything, don't hesitate to ask me :) Thanks for the follow, off to check your new blog, Erin :)
Great post, as a newbie (three weeks in) I needed to hear all of this! Thanks, learning lots!
Yay! Good luck with blogging!