Busting the Newbie Blues (2)

Small Review is once again hosting Bustingthe Newbie Blues, an event meant to help put new YA book bloggers on the radar and get old and new bloggers to interact and share their experiences about what it's like or was like to be a new blogger. I participated in it last year and many of the blogs that I follow and comment on regularly are ones that I found through Busting the Newbie Blues. After blogging for over a year, I’m really excited to be filling out the Established Blogger Questionnaire, and am looking forward to discovering some new blogs. The event is running during the entire month of January, and you can find more the information here. 

When did you start your blog? 
I started my blog near the end of August 2010.

Do you ever still feel like a newbie?

Yes! This usually occurs when I’d like to request an ARC or am sending an email asking an author for an interview/guest post.

    

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?

The biggest challenge that I’ve faced so far is finding the time to post. When I have school, sometimes even finding the time to read can be challenging; and when I’m on holiday, procrastination kicks in and books that have been read but are waiting to be reviewed kind of pile up. I have no idea how bloggers schedule posts! Someone needs to teach me their tricks.

I still post whenever I want but try to do so now on a regular basis. As a newbie blogger, that's something I didn't do.

What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? How did you deal with this?

I think the most discouraging thing about being a new blogger was the lack of comments on my posts. When I started blogging, I kind of dove into it and had no clue what I was doing or how big the YA blogging community was. I just really wanted to share my thoughts on books I’d read and naively figured I’d get a lot of people telling me what they thought about it too. 

I continued to post semi-regularly however and left comments on other people’s blogs and soon enough, people started leaving comments back on my blog.

  

What do you find most encouraging?

How welcoming the YA blogging community is! Whenever I have a question, I’ve always been able to find someone who’s willing to take the time to offer an answer.

If you could go back in time and speak with your newbie self, what five bits of wisdom would you tell yourself? 

1) Comment, comment, comment! It’s a great way to get people to stop by your blog and start following it.

2) You don’t have to post everyday but do it regularly.

3) If you need advice, it’s okay to ask. Established book bloggers don’t bite and are more than happy to help.

4) Don’t feel like you have to review every book you read. Read books occasionally for fun.

5) Use social media like Twitter to connect with authors, publishers and other bloggers.

What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?

I love blogs that are funny, post insightful reviews and/or generate discussion. I don’t think I’m really funny and would need to find time to write a post that’s discussion-worthy, but I do my best to post honest, thoughtful reviews.

What do you dislike about blogs you’ve seen? Do you try to avoid this?

One thing I really dislike on a blog are captcha codes and so I don’t have them on mine. I don’t have a huge amount of time for commenting but when I see an interesting post on my Google Reader, I’ll sometimes try to leave a comment. If there’s a captcha code and I don’t know about it, my comment doesn’t get published because I’ve closed the tab on my browser and moved onto another blog.

How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?

I tried to find bloggers that had similar tastes in books as me, followed them, and left meaningful comments on their blogs. They would then usually reciprocate.

Another way to get publicity for your blog is through contests. This can become expensive though and doesn’t really translate into people actively following your blog.

When and how did you get your first ARC (or first few ARCs)? 

I got my first few ARCs by winning contests held by bloggers and through Goodreads’ First Reads. 

Busting the Newbie Blues

Small Review is hosting an event called Busting the Newbie Blues that is meant to help old and new bloggers interact and share their experiences about what it's like or was like to be a new blogger. It's running from December 3 to December 31, and you can find all the information here.  

As a new blogger, the following is my completed questionnaire:

1. When did you start your blog? I started my blog in late August of this year.

2. Why did you start your blog? While I love reading and talking about books, most of my friends aren’t really avid readers. It just so happened that pretty much after reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson and wishing I had somebody to share my thoughts with, I found out that there are people online who love books as much as I do. I realized then that I could have a blog too.     

3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? The biggest challenge that I’ve faced so far besides finding the time to post would have to be setting up my blog. I’m not super great with technology so it took me a few hours to figure out how to use Blogger. Then, it took me a few days to get a layout that I was finally happy with.                  

4. What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger? It’s very daunting to be just starting out! Early on, it was very easy to slack off with posting because nobody knew who I was. That however isn’t really a good way to get people to follow you.

5. What do you find most encouraging? I love how friendly the blogging community is. I find it super interesting to see that when fellow bloggers post up pictures with somebody, it’s often with someone that they’ve known from a blog but only met for the first time.  

6. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog? I love blogs where the blogger’s personality just comes through, especially if they’re funny. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m particularly funny so it would be pointless to replicate this. I hope however that my blog conveys my voice.

7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this? I dislike when a blog looks too messy or has a font in a colour that’s hard on the eyes because it becomes really hard to read, and so I’ve tried to avoid this on my blog. I also dislike when there are a lot of widgets present – one or two is fine – because it takes time for the page to load and sometimes can cause my laptop to freeze, which means I’m not going to be a happy person. 

8. Any advice for other new bloggers? I would say to join challenges and memes because they’re great for getting people to know about your blog. I’d also suggest that you try to leave comments on the blogs you do follow because a lot of bloggers will either email a reply or stop by to leave a comment.

9. Anything else you’d like to share about your experience? It’s been a great process so far and I’m very thankful to the people who liked what they saw enough to follow me. I’ll definitely post more often once exams are done and then start holding giveaways in the new year so I hope you guys stick around!

10. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog? I review YA books on my blog and while I tend to read pretty much any genre, I’m a sucker for paranormal or contemporary books.