15 Day Blogger Challenge - Blog Appeal
Thursday, September 26, 2013
I was late to know about this awesome challenge out together by Good Books and Good Wine,
so when a friend wanted to start it late, I jumped it. There are
several of us joining in - every Friday for 15 weeks, Christina of A Reader of Fictions, Lili of Lili's Reflections, Mickey of I'm A Book Shark and I will post our challenge answers. Stop by their blogs to see their answers!
There are a lot of blogs out there, and it can be hard to find ones that you can rely on and like. It took me a while to find the ones I consult the most often, and this list is what helped my find blogs suited for me.
If your blog is 90% memes, that's not helpful to your audience. There is nothing wrong with doing TTT, or WoW, or STS. But if that is all you post, with little to no reviews -- chances are I won't be following.
I like to hear someone's voice in what they write. I like for blogs to do things on their own and try for something new. Like Reader of Fiction's weekly Cover Snark posts - an original and awesome feature that Christina utilizes well.
Do something out of the box! Get my attention! Let your bookish side show! Like Gillian at Writer of Wrongs Baking the Books idea. That's creative -- and it showcases a whole new side of Gillian.
If you dislike a book, rate it accordingly. If all I see are 4 and 5-star reviews, I'm not going to view your reviews as accurate. No one loves every book they read. Even if you are the champ of DNFing, some books disappoint halfway through, or the ending falls flat. Be honest with how you feel.
People find favorite genres, but I am drawn more to blogs that feature more than just fantasy, or contemporary. Change it up! Variety is the spice of life. If you like and review sci fi, YA, contemporary, dystopia, and post-apocalyptic? I'm sold.
I'm a sucker for anything funny. If you snark, or like puns, or can make creative post titles, I'm halfway to being a fan based on that alone. I do like solid, serious reviews, but not always. Some books deserve humor/snark/etc.
Captcha is evil. No one likes it. And chances are, if you have it enabled, I won't be commenting... no matter how much I like your posts.
Book blogging is all about the community. If you never comment back, or reply, I'm going to assume my time spent on your blog was wasted. You get what you give, and if you're a non-commenter, I won't put in the effort.
I know I am supposed to list 15 things, but those are the key ones for me. Those are the guidelines I use when exploring for new blogs to follow.
And, obviously, all these opinions are just mine and not indicative of what any/everyone else likes to see.
Jessie, I agree - CAPTCHA IS EVIL. I sometimes find myself on blogs that comment frequently on mine and wonder why I don't comment frequently on their blogs and then I discover captcha! -.-
ReplyDeleteI love your list, though. Content and Honesty draw me forth the most, though I love a Creative blog, especially one with Diversity. (I probably need to work on that...!) WONDERFUL post, dear! :)
So many blogs. Sometimes it astonishes me how few I really know.
ReplyDeleteTrue. But I, er, really like memes for when someone comments on my blog with like 2 sentences and I feel the need to reply. Plus TTTs are so much fun :). And would you believe this - my friend, when I'd first started blogging, was inspired by WoW? For her thesis on whether the physical book was disappearing. I was so astonished by that.
Yes. Yes to originality. Have you looked at Asti at A Bookish Heart's posts? She's on a hiatus right now, but she has some really cool features too, like "Bookish Finds" (art work related to books) and "Bookish Games" (inspired by the Hunger Games). I wish I had Christina's brain so that I could come up with something like CS :P.
And like Gillian's Baking the Books. I'm not enough of a cook to do that either o.O. But I love her recipes and try to link to them whenever I can.
I used to think that about only positive reviews, but I also wondered if I was being too harsh. There are some people who are fine with most books they read, or they just don't read books they don't expect to love and maybe they don't have higher expectations getting disappointed as a result? I don't know, but I feel weird now thinking that. While I personally tend to like blogs that also feature negative reviews, I also follow one blogger who rates pretty highly and I've learned to recognize little tidbits in her review that indicates things that would bother me more than they did her. Her critiques just don't show in the rating, I suppose.
I can't do snark or puns sadly. I tend to either be silly or sarcastic. I, er, may have told my cousin that he looked like an Easter egg (he was wearing a vivid orange shirt and robin's egg blue shorts with blue shoes and orange shoelaces). But I do enjoy other humor, and I agree that it helps liven up the blog and show the blogger's enthusiasm for some books :).
Captcha is very evil. There is a blog that I will comment on by the end of tonight that has it and I wonder if I should mention something. But *sigh*
Reciprocity! I was supposed to write a post for today but then decided that my time would be better spent catching up with emails and comments o.O. I agree that commenting back and replying make me feel like my comment is warranted. I've commented like 5-6 times on some blogs and gotten no reply, no comment in return and I just stopped commenting. *shrug*
Captcha will always be the death of me. And not just because I cannot spell it.
ReplyDeleteI tend to review with sarcasm, much how I leave reviews, with sarcasm. Because it's just me. I mean, you know. Oh wait. NO. NO YOU DO NOT KNOW ME
I could not agree more about CAPTCHA! It is so annoying! I do like some memes; my TBR is way too long thanks to WOW and TT!
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that really annoys me is when the link to leaving a comment is hidden. If I can't find the comment button in less than 5 seconds, that great thought I had is going to go left unsaid!