Book Blogging 101: Major Book Blogger Mistakes Part 2

Major Book Blogger Mistakes Part II

Continued from last week's, Major Book Blogger Mistakes, here are four more mistakes that can be easily made.

Book Blogger Mistake #4 All About You

Adding a personality to your blog is one thing, making it all about you is another. I might get a few stink faces on this one, because frankly I know you guys like talking about yourself and posting updates about your dogs...cats, gerbils, etc. But, the problem lies with your readers. Those five or so close blogger buddies that you've made along the way might really be interested and respond to your personal posts all the time, but generally it is not something people want to read. The general readership doesn't care about your day-to-day mundane. Readers want interesting - funny quips about a book experience maybe, but the fact that you just did P90X for two days in a row, not really of interest. Let's face facts, you are not a celebrity and only their mundane is interesting.

If you do enjoy blogging about your dogs exploits at the dog park and the fact that you love to collect rocks that look like Jesus - that really is great, but maybe don't post it on the blog you are marketing as a book blog.

Book Blogger Mistake#5 No Collaboration

Do you know who your competition is? Maybe blogs that started up around the same time as you and cover the same genres? To really market well you have to narrow down that competition - and the fun thing about the blogging world - team up with them! Promoting your competition will generate buzz for both. It is not like you are both on the same corner selling hot dogs - there is a huge online world out there and the more book blogs the merrier, right? Collaboration can be anything from Guest Posting on another book bloggers blog, to having that same person guest post on yours. Teaming up together to do joint events, giveaways, reviews, you name it, you can team up and do it!

Networking will make or break your blog and your network is mostly other book bloggers (we are an incestuous bunch!) so get out there and make friends. Cross promotion is fun and there are tons of interesting ways to do it.

Book Blogger Mistake #6 Where is the SEO?

You are an online entity - the point of your blog is to be read - online search engines will help drive readers to your pages, so why are you ignoring them?

You really should make sure that each post that you create is SEO friendly, because those are the bread-winners. All those pretty words that you post day in and day out are getting crawled and processed and spit out there. If you have a bunch of just so-so posts that are not hot with keywords then they won't get you noticed. Yet, if you take a little bit of time to narrow down some keywords for each post you might have a little more luck on Google.

1. Your first goal is to have a descriptive and keyword rich title. If it is a giveaway, list giveaway in the title. Always list the name of the book and include the author, I even like to include review (if it is a review) i.e. PJ Review: House of Glass by Rebecca Pain. Don't neglect those titles, they are the first thing everyone sees!
2. Section headers are fun. Use those <h2> <h3> tags! For example maybe put a quotable line within an <h3> tag in the center of your review.
   

   "I loved this Paranormal Romance! It's is the best Farrah Lynn has ever written!"
   

3. Anchor links! Anchor links! Never link something to click here. Link it to a descriptive phrase. Maybe try for CLICK HERE FOR MORE BLOGGING TIPS. This is a very big deal. You always want your links to say what they are linking to. Click here = Bad, use it in a sentence if you want the link to be obvious.


4. Narrow down and utilize those keywords throughout your post. Let's say your post will be a review of Illona Andrew's Kate Daniels series. You might like to have your keywords as:

• Illona Andrews
• Kate Daniels
• Magic Bites
• Urban Fantasy
• Paranormal Romance

How to implement this? Instead of saying "Best Book Ever!" say "Best Paranormal Romance Ever!" I know it narrows it down to genre - but be specific. Use the authors name - instead of saying "the author" or she. Again, use Kate Daniels name. Repeat MAGIC BITES instead of the novel, or the book. And finally, utilize labels, all of your keywords should be labels.

Book Blogger Mistake #7 Engage the Reader

Flat posts don't get comments. Engage that reader! Ask questions, post controversial topics, or post about exciting current trends...just get them engaged and motivated to comment. Then RESPOND RESPOND RESPOND. I don't know how many times I go to a blog and they have maybe 30 comments in their queue and NO RESPONSES from the blogger. There is one particular blog that I see this at ALL the time. And it's like "HELLO? Is anyone there?" I still don't know why anyone even bothers to comment on this blog, but they do and never a response. I've even commented and tried to illicit a response, thinking maybe they responded via email. Nope. Nothing. Next time I'll comment something rude, that'll get a response I'm sure. ;) This just makes the blogger look bad if they don't respond. Or at least to me. Your blog should be a conversation. Responding builds relationships and strengthens your readership. It's said that only 1% of readers comment. Reward those comments, they are making an effort.

Now for some quick questions:

Hello! I've recently started my own book blog and everything has been going great; I get to meet other book addicts who are all very nice, and share my own views  too. However, I heard some book bloggers in the States receive ARCs or review copies from publishers.  As an international blogger residing in Asia, I was just wondering if there was any chance I would receive such requests as well-I know shipping is expensive! - International blogger

You might get a few, but unfortunately most publishers will not go through the trouble of shipping a book overseas. Large publishers have branches in each country - there is a Macmillan US, Macmillan UK and so on. The marketing reps that are in charge of handing out those ARCs are focused on their countries sales. Sending an ARC to Asia would be like taking out an advertisement in Russia for the Superbowl. Granted it might happen a few times, but I wouldn't count on it regularly. I personally would maybe give NetGalley a try - eARCs might be less discriminatory.

I want to link to more positive reviews of a book that really wasn't for me on other blogs. Should I email the bloggers to ask if I can link to their review first? Thanks for any advice in advance! - Anonymous

Yes. At least send out a courtesy email. "Hey I linked to your review." You are not republishing anything so you don't need permission, but the nice thing to do would be a heads up.

Ive had my blog for about a year now and I believe I have made progress considering how I was in the beginning,,Ive actually reached 119 followers thanks to you of coarse with your Follow Friday Hop and several other activities that I participate in anyway,,I was thinking about hosting a giveaway,,to celebrate getting over 100 followers but kind of nervous about it and dont have a large selection in my library,,any suggestions? - Jennifer

I would host a Book Depository contest. Pick a few books from the Book Depository that are within your budget and then give your entrants a choice. The fun thing about doing this is that it is international! That's it folks. Talk less. Read More. Happy Thursday.

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Book Blogging 101: Major Book Blogger Mistakes

Major Book Blogger Mistakes

After reading a few articles about common mistakes that businesses make when connecting with their potential clients, I thought I could easily apply this from a book bloggers perspective.

Book Blog = The Business

Clients = Readers

The difference with book blogs though, is that there is so much variety within the niche group and that most book bloggers do not approach their blogs from a professional view-point. They think of their blog as just a forum to talk about their favorite subject.

Yet, time and time again I’ve been asked the question, “How do I gain more followers?” or “How do I network my blog?” And honestly, I think it does break down to professionalism and treating your blog like a business. It’s a mentality and a way of doing things. You can still have fun and use your blog to dish out what you think is important, but if you maintain a certain decorum and process it could help ground your blog and make it into a wonder of the blogging community. That being said, in my stalking around the blogosphere these are some of the things I’ve noticed that bloggers, even myself, engage in…but should probably make a habit of avoiding.

Book Blogger Mistake #1 Bad Writing

You are a writer. You write blog posts. You have readers. Readers do not like bad writing. You might not think of yourself as a writer, but you need to change that perspective. You might not be a fiction author, but your blog can be considered a media outlet. You are constructing reviews; just like large media companies will feature in their periodicals or newspapers. How can you critique an author on sloppy writing and poor grammar if your review is riddled with the same?

Don’t think it happens? I see it all the time. A rant on the shoddily edited work that they’ve just read and there is a word in the TITLE misspelled. If you hold grammar and spelling up to a higher standards in your reading preference do the same in your own writing.

But there is more to this then just hypocrisy. There is also the fact that bad grammar and spelling errors can jumble a thought and make it hard to understand. A good idea in a poorly constructed sentence won’t be as potent.

I think therefor I am. Much more potent than, I’ve been think alot, so I must have be in existence.

This is a very obvious example of an error but I see it all the time and on the same blog over and over again. I know not everyone is a born writer, but you can at least structure a sentence properly and know that you don't end sentences in commas and not every sentence ends in an exclamation point.

Some suggestions on improving your craft can be as simple as using a word processing software to write out your posts instead of typing directly into blogger or wordpress. Programs such as Word will highlight your spelling and even grammar mistakes before you copy and paste into blogger.

Don’t want to bring over all the formatting that Word copies with it? To battle this I go to EDIT HTML in the blogger editor and PASTE the Word copy directly into there. This way it doesn’t copy over formatting that Word will auto-insert into your code. You don’t have to know HTML you are just copying your words.

Another suggestion is to research your ideas, facts and concepts before you write them out. Don’t just randomly post about facts that you think are correct. If you are awaiting a book release, research the exact date and title instead of assuming you remember it correctly.

Lastly, always proofread your work before posting.

Book Blogger Mistake#2 The Disconnected Blogger.

One of the main thing you want to do as a blogger is connect with your readers. You want to post about things they want to read. To connect best with your readers you should get to know them, this way you can cater your posts towards them. Give them information that they want and not unnecessarily information that they’ll ignore.

Here are a few things that I've noticed by reading other blogs.

Half the time in my reader I skip skip skip because most of the time it is non-relevant posts. Non-relevant to me, that is. A post about baking cookies. A cover reveal on a book that everyone has posted about, rants about another blogger. Skip, skip. They state things like “this is my blog, I’ll post what I want”. Quite fine, for you, it is your blog and you can do what you want. But, if you want to increase your followers and make a connection with your readers you might want to step back and not be so self-focused. To put it in perspective - you could have the greatest invention (in your mind) of the century, but if no one buys it, well it'll just sit in your garage and collect dust.

I’ve also noticed that a blogger might talk down to their readers, take on the persona of “blogger knows best” (stop looking at me that way!!) and not account for the fact that the readers might know just as much, they are just using your blog for information gathering. I usually dub these bloggers, “blog snobs” (in a completely nice way of course). They might have great blogs, well put together, but if their posts come off with a “holier-than-thou” personality they might turn off a few readers. This can also happen without the blogger realizing it. Tone is a funny animal.

Take it to the other level, some bloggers put out a naïve, almost elementary voice when they blog. This also might turn off your readers, especially if they want a source for information and not speculation and childish type thoughts.

Then to an opposite extreme bloggers that just throw out promo copy, recitation of book synopsis, book cover reveals and release dates. Basically all they are doing is regurgitating what publishers are sending them with no personality or opinions filtered into the post.

All three of these blogging types might work for a certain audience, but you have to make sure that you are pulling in that particular audience. That “big talk” blog might work if you have a well-educated readership, but if your readers are mainly holding only ‘some-college’ you might want to tone it down a bit.

Same with the naïve, elementary writing, if your readership is mainly young adult and middle grade readers it should work, but what if you are attracting the mothers of middle graders? You might want to pepper in some maturity and start writing for moms.

How do you get to know your readers? Ask them. Put a survey out. A lot of bloggers do this to find out their target audience. Make sure to ask things like age range, sex, level of schooling, etc. Demographics will make a difference in your writing style, especially if you review books for younger audiences.

Another site I can recommend is Alexa.com, they will analyze your audience for you.

Book Blogger Mistake #3 Quantity vs. Quality

You want to publish daily but you can’t come up with suitable reviews or content to publish, so you fill in the gaps with random posts. A lot of bloggers do this, filling in the gaps with memes, hops, mundane “pass it on” type posts and spam like material.

Let me just say one thing: Two Quality Posts are worth so much more than Five Mediocre Posts.

I’m just as guilty of this as most people. I felt I had to post daily and if I couldn’t come up with something pertinent I would just throw something out there. I’ve tried to fix that.

Successful blogs have a schedule and nine times out of ten stick to that schedule. If you don’t think you can handle five quality posts a week, narrow it down to three. Make sure you always post on the same day, so loyal readers will know that X blog will always post on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Tips to making Quality your priority:

• Create a schedule of your post a week or two in advance. Know what is going up instead of just “throwing” something together at the last minute.
• Brainstorm about what kind of topics you could discuss when you don’t have a review going live.
• Take a good topic and break it up into a few posts. This can also get your readers involved and prepared. I’m actually doing that with this particular topic.

You shouldn’t just use this mantra on your posts alone. Bring this idea with you as you lay out your blog and add widgets to your sidebars. Quality over quantity. Does the widget you are adding to your sidebar matter? Will your readers be impacted by the information it is conveying? Or is it just a bit of fluff? Crazy, over-designed blogs can turn readers off by the slow blog load and the over-stimulation of too much eye-candy.

Keep these three tips in mind and you are well on your way to building a successful blog. Next week we’ll cover three more Mistakes Book Bloggers make. A little Book Blogging homework to bring back next week...what mistakes do you think you are making? What steps will you take to rectify it?

Now for some quick questions:

For your site you have a personalized icon in the tab.  I think it's cool and would love to know how to do it.  Thanks for sharing:) - Escape by Fiction

Blogger In Draft has made this easy! I would suggest you travel over to the Blogger blog and check out the awesome post that they have up. Favicon for your blogger blog.

I'm on a publisher's send out list for review copies and of course I really appreciate it but not all the books I get fit with what I like to read and I'd rather be reading books that I've bought (because I'm busy with school and can't get through both) but I feel bad not reviewing all of them. I don't want to be taken off their list altogether though. Any advice? Thank you! - Anonymous

Email your contact and be honest with them. Let them know specific genres that you prefer to review. Ask them if you can maybe approve titles before they send them out. Most publishers should be accommodating so they don't waste money and review titles.

I know that BEA is huge in the blogging world. Now that it is over for this year, are there any other conventions that are popular with bloggers, or do I have to wait a whole year before I can get in on the fun? - Sarah

There is always ALA (American Library Association) they have a winter conference. They also have some regional conferences. You might want to check out their website. Then there are always the Cons...there are tons of them. We have RomCon and ComicCon and DragonCon and Romance Writer's of America and they have Writing Conferences --- there are tons and tons. I can't give you my experiences, because I've only been to ALA - but I think BEA and ALA are the major ones where all the publishers exhibit.


That's it folks. Talk less. Read More. Happy Thursday.

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