Armchair BEA: Tips for Book Bloggers

~ shelleyrae @ Book'd Out

 Armchair BEA is for those of us who can’t travel to the Book Expo America in New York City.

Today’s topic is Ask The Experts. In your post, ask the visitors to your blog for blogging advice. What did you always want to know about blogging but were afraid to ask? Now is the time! Alternatively, if you’ve been blogging for awhile, you’ve probably learned a thing or two. Whether you stumbled upon a something that makes blogging easier or made a mistake you’d never want anyone to repeat, share your experience and wisdom with others.

I’m not sure if I can offer any new advice to bloggers but here are my tops tips:

1.  Comment: If you want to make genuine connections with other bloggers- comment, if you read a post – comment, if you want to acknowledge a bloggers hard work  – comment, if someone comments on your blog visit them and leave a comment. Or even press that Like button so the blogger knows you stopped by.  Comment, comment, comment! And comment some more. {click here for some suggestions for commenting easier}

2.  Feed Reader: Whether its google or gator, a feed reader makes it much easier to keep up with other blogs – not sure how it works? Read my post HERE

3. Plan ahead: I know schedules don’t work for every one but I would be hopelessly lost without mine. Making note of galley and ARC deadlines means I can plan my reading so as to best meet my obligations to publishers.

4. Back up your blog: It’s easy with WordPress – just go to Tools>Export. I do this once a week.

5. Don’t feed the (drama) llama: just don’t.

I look forward to seeing what tips you offer.

Thanks for visiting Book’d Out during BEA 2012, I hope you visit again soon!

37 thoughts on “Armchair BEA: Tips for Book Bloggers”

  1. I have to say that sometimes I find it hard to comment because I’d rather leave something worthwhile and not just a generic one.

    I’ve never backed up my blog though **oops** – guess what I’d be doing this week!
    Thanks, Shelleyrae, for bringing that up!

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    1. I really don’t mind a generic comment Tien because at least then I know someone stopped by!

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  2. Thanks for this post! I’m relatively new to blogging (about books) and tips are helpful.
    I agree about comments (see, I’m doing it now!) – I’ve been blogging for about six months and have already made some great connections with like-minded readers thanks to the ‘Comments’ section.

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  3. Thank you Shellyrae! I’m relatively new to book blogging, so your tips are really useful. I have never taken backing up seriously, that was very negligent of me!
    Also, can you please explain what you mean by not feeding the drama llama? That I shouldn’t bring personal issues or grudges into my posts?

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    1. I was more specifically referring to the drama that breaks out in the community Amritorupa, – authors get upset about bad reviews, bloggers are accused of plagiarism or fake giveaways etc etc – everyone takes sides- and it gets messy. Name calling, threatening emails, twitter attacks, trolling, the drama worsens as everybody insists on having their say (google book blogger and plagarism for the most recent brouhaha). Most of it tends to be within the YA circle of bloggers but it does spill over onto the entire community. My advice is to stay out of it and let the parties directly involved deal with whatever the issue is.

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  7. Great Tips! I have talked to people who read my blog, but they never comment cause “they don’t know what to say”. I encourage them to comment so I know people read the blog! Otherwise, it’s just a guessing game.

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  12. Using a feed reader is a GREAT tip. I honestly would never be able to keep up with so many blogs if it wasn’t for my Google Reader. I even have the app on my phone!

    Happy end-of-ABEA!

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  14. Good suggestions. I need to work on planning ahead. No matter how good my intentions I’m often up into the wee hours getting that blog post finished up.

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  16. I love receiving comments, too, and I think commenting is definitely the key to connecting.

    I have noticed that in some WP sites, I leave comments that never show up…I suspect they’ve disappeared into the spam folder.

    The WP spam filter is a little harsh, sometimes, “deciding” who is spam.

    I regularly check my spam folder and often find blogger friends there, for some inexplicable reason!

    Thanks for the great tips.

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    1. Really? I have never had any real problems – I have yet to have any spam slip through and the only reason it will hold a comment from a familiar poster is because I have it set to need moderation if a post contains more than two links

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  18. I totally agree with your comment idea. I tend to not comment back on my blog a lot, because I know a lot of people might not come back again to see it…and that’s a bummer. So I ALWAYS try and comment back on someone else’s blog at one of their posts. I might answer something they mentioned on my blog, but that’s not all I do. I actually read what they wrote and leave as thoughtful of a comment as I can on it, because I appreciate when people do the same to me. And it really does make great blogger connections.

    -Lauren

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  19. I agree about commenting! They really can make someone’s day and I absolutely love having convos with commenting. I enjoy interacting with people!

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  20. Great tips! We had a few of the same ones, and I especially agree on commenting. I’ve had several established bloggers voluntarily promote my blog on their blogs or on Twitter, without me asking or knowing they were going to do it, just because I regularly comment on their blogs.

    And YES. Don’t feed the drama llama. He’s too fat as it is.

    Great post! Thanks for stopping by my Armchair BEA Ask the Experts post.

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  23. I agree totally on the commenting. I’d rather someone just comment to say hi so I know that my post has at least been read by someone than not getting anything at all.
    I also am one of the many who has never thought of backing my blog up. I must research into how to do that (if it’s even possible!) on blogger. Oooops!

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  24. Thanks for visiting my Ask the Experts post yesterday. 🙂

    Awesome tips! I especially agree about commenting to make connections! It’s pretty much the easiest thing you can do to reach out to other bloggers. And I love my feed reader…although sometimes it gets way too full! 😛 haha

    Thanks for sharing!! 😀
    Ambur

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