NB: I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow them to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account.
I recently did a Q&A and one of the questions there was about my first blog post. Having read that feature every time it has appeared since, I noticed that most of us are pretty horrified or embarrassed by our early efforts at blog posts! I thought it might be fun to look back at how a blog and its contents can evolve in just a few short years.
I started my book blog to promote Indie authors and books, as many of them write great stuff that just never get the attention they deserve. I always mean to go back and re-do a few of these posts, not in content, but in format so they look a bit nicer, but of course, I don't have time. I will be starting a new feature that looks at great books, authors and fun features from my early blog posts, basically revamping what used to be Chuckles Retro Reviews. But I digress from the topic at hand!
Looking at my first month is interesting. New Release Posts, Author Profiles, Featured Author, Author Interviews, Book Reviews, Series Spotlights. But of course, nobody was seeing these posts because it was a brand new blog and I had few followers to start with. I think I could count on one hand the number of comments I'd received, and those were authors thanking me. In my second month I got a little smarter and starting joining book memes and Twitter. My promotion of authors needed refining too. I'd have 5 posts over a couple of days all about the one author. I think that might have been a bit much for my early followers! By my third month, I had features similar to my Cover Love and taking part in a few more memes to help me meet people on other blogs. By month four, I started doing book tours and promo/cover reveals.
By the time I was into 2014 I was up to my eyes in book reviews and getting stressed over deadlines. I also committed to too many of these blog tour events and it was all getting a bit much, especially with my mum's terminal cancer and I started easing back on that stuff. And to be honest, hardly anyone was leaving comments on these promo posts anyway. For me, I tend to skim the cover displayed in a blog promo post but if it sounds like stuff I don't read ie romance or contemporary, well I don't see the point in continually leaving comments to say it doesn't interest me. It would make me feel like I'm being negative and spoiling the point of the blog tour which is to promote the book and author. So for those of you who do these promo things on blogs and rarely see me comment on them, this is why I don't do it! I might comment on a few horror or UF that sound interesting or have a good cover but mostly I don't comment.
When I ditched the promos from my blog, I started doing things of my own which over the years have proved more popular ie Around The Blogs looks at great posts on your blogs. I still do the popular memes like TTT and CWW as well as newer things like BFTB but I do fun stuff that I enjoy as well like book tags and posts about life in general. I guess over the last 18 months I feel as if I finally feel happy with my blog. I'm still reviewing, buying and showcasing lots of Indie books but I enjoy my blog better now than I did back then when it felt like a lot of hard work for little reward!
What were your first blog posts like? How has your blog evolved over the years? What are your favourite features on your blog now?
I know I used to just keep my reviews for books in one big monthly post. It makes for a nightmare now for searching, hence my very slowly making new posts for each review.
ReplyDeleteBut it wasn't until I left GR in '13 and moved to booklikes for a couple of years that I started blogging like a book reviewer, ie, for others. And my move to wordpress hasn't seen much of a change from that :-)
I don't participate, or read, blog tours, author Q&A's, that kind of post. I also don't follow people who have more "day of the week memes" than reviews when I check out their site. The occasional non-review post is really nice, but I'm interested in the books...
My early blog was a real mess-the thought of going back and fixing it all is a nightmare so I have sympathy for the amount of work ahead of you. This week the book reviews are back and I can tackle the backlog. Time has just been against me recently but I hope I'm on top of things now!
DeleteWLABB was an established blog when I joined, so they knew a little bit about what they were doing. I think the biggest mistake I made was in requesting books via EW and NG. My requests would pend for eternity, so I would request more, and then I was getting 31 books approved at a time. I have scaled back a lot. I also used to try to read a variety of genres, because I thought it was important to have a mix on the blog, like we did when all 4 WLABBers were contributing. Now I just read what I want.
ReplyDeleteIt is so easy to get carried away with review books. For me it was getting the books from all those Goodreads books, thinking I had plenty time to fit them into the month and then realising they had similar deadlines and getting freaked out! Netgalley sounds trickier because you don't know if and when you'll be approved and if they do all arrive together I can imagine that being a nightmare! I can see why you felt you needed to branch out the reading to have a mix on the blog. I used to wonder if I should do that but my blog will always be a small fish so I decided to stick to the genres I like!
DeleteHorrified is a good word for some of my blog posts. =)
ReplyDeleteSince my blog is less than a year I can't really say but I guess I will evolve over time like everyone.
Mary
It feels weird to think of my blog evolving in just five years but it's amazing how much it has changed! Like Bookstooge, I'd like to go back and sort them out, or at least format the posts better as they are a mess!
DeleteInteresting! For the first two years, all of my posts were discussions. I’d just choose a topic and talk about it. Most times, it wasn’t a bookish topic. I didn’t start doing memes like The Sunday Post or Top Ten Tuesday until 2015, when I decided that my blog was going to be books only.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I think everyone struggles with getting bstarted in blogging, whether it is interacting with others, blog identity or in my case just not having a clue how to do it! I think you have a good mix of things on your blog AJ!
DeleteI definitely agree that early posts can be a bit embarrassing! I wasn't really formatting or making them look nice and that has evolved over time. I think participating in features and memes helped a ton. Top Ten Tuesday, First Line Friday, State of the ARC, those are my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI cringe when I look at the faded writing with no graphics and everything looking so untidy! The memes certainly helped me to meet other bloggers and I still enjoy that today.
DeleteIt's interesting to learn how your blogging journey has evolved and what worked for you. I'm happy with my Literary Flits book blog now, but am still trying to find a balance for the Stephanie Jane one. There's so much I want to write about :-)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't handle doing two blogs! I spend enough time each day on one!
DeleteMy first two posts were a Top 10 list of favorite reads from 2012 and a book review of Now You See Me. And I think like 2 people saw them. ;D
ReplyDeleteThat's two more than looked at mine! Mind you, I'm kind of glad that nobody saw those early posts now!
DeleteIsn't it amazing how much a blog can change over time. I was really inconsistent at first and didn't comment back because I had no idea what I was doing. Then I did a bunch of blog tours. I started getting involved with the community more a few years ago by joining some memes and cutting back on blog tours. I will only do a blog tour now if it is a book that I want to read and plan to post a review in conjunction with the tour post. I now know what I want to see on my blog and try to make that happen.
ReplyDeleteI felt the blog tours started to dominate my blog and I noticed that few people wanted to comment on them. I'm glad I started doing the memes as visiting other blogs gave me an idea of where I wanted to go with mine and showed up the mistakes I was making!
DeleteWhen I first started my blog it wasn't even a book blog. i didn't know that was a thing lol It ried to talk about my life and that included a few books - which led to authors requesting reviews.
ReplyDeleteI used to blog 7 days a week and host events and I was completely overwhelmed with everything so I've backed off and just do what feels fun these days.
Page view wise - these days are long gone but I'm so much happier and have better engagement with followers.
Karen @ For What It's Worth
I started with a general blog but my life was so dull I ran out of things to say! That's when I switched to a book blog and I'm glad I did. I think we all start off trying to do too much and worrying about visitor numbers! I'm much happier now without that stress!
DeleteI need to start doing more memes again. I enjoyed them and I find more blogs that I like and get some ideas from them. I would like to do more travel posts, but they take a lot of time and I don't seem to get around to it. I am hoping to make some organizational changes that will make it easier. Keep up the great work everyone.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental
I enjoy things like TTT, CWW, BFTB...it's a good excuse to talk about books and see what everyone else is reading and buying! I had planned to do some travel posts this year about good places I've visited but you're right, it was time consuming trying to find the memory cards with the right photos and in the end I couldn't be bothered!
DeleteI keep meaning to go back and clean up my first posts. That's 6 years ago, I can't find time for it, and hopefully nobody goes that far back and sees them. LOL I'd like to do more discussion posts but the few I did didn't get many comments. I wouldn't mind changing up my blog somewhat, just not sure how.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like such a huge task doesn't it! I tell myself that npobody looks at every old blog post I wrote and that's the excuse for not sorting the stuff! I'm thinking about changing the header and background just as a change as I'm in horror mode right now!
Delete