Browsing Tag

blogging

Blogging

How to Support Your Favourite Blogs in 2018

Okay, let’s get real for a second: it’s getting harder than ever for us book bloggers. Views are low, the number of comments on each post is decreasing, and this can be extremely demotivating for all of us who put lots of work into creating posts, with a very low return. I’m determined, though, to make 2018 the Year of the Blogger, so I have a few tips for things you can do this year to support your favourite blogs.

#1: Follow on social media

If you look in the sidebar of most blogs, you’ll be able to find all of the links to where the blogger lives on social media. Following social media accounts and engaging with the bloggers you follow is a great way of showing your support and letting bloggers know that there are real life people reading their posts, and not just automated bots.

I can promise you that all bloggers love having conversations on social media – they’re one of the most rewarding parts of the job. It’s great to be able to share what you’re passionate about, and even better when you find other people who are just as passionate as you. Plus, it’s a brilliant way to make new friends!

#2: Share links to new posts

Retweet links to posts you’ve liked, tweet the link yourself, quote retweet on Twitter to tell people what you loved about it; share to your Facebook friends or include it in your Instagram Story. There are endless ways to tell people not just about your own posts, but other people’s too.

I have a few favourite blogs that I will ALWAYS retweet, just because I love them and want everyone else to love them too. If we all chose 3 blogs to concentrate on this year that we faithfully spread the word about, I believe it would create an atmosphere where people looked forward to writing every single post, and felt that support was coming from all corners.

#3: Leave a comment!

Comments are a bit like the equivalent of letters – when you receive them, it’s exciting to open them up and read what’s inside. However, like emails taking over from letters, quick messages on social media are now becoming more popular than comments. Although getting any interaction is amazing, the great thing about comments on blogs is that they’re easy to find, no matter how long ago they were left, whereas with Twitter, for example, your feed has already moved on.

Back when I first started blogging, I saw blogs with, quite literally, HUNDREDS of comments. Now, bloggers are lucky if we get 10. I’d love to return to the time when people left meaningful comments, when I would spend all day on a Sunday writing comments on as many blogs as I could find. I feel like we’ve lost a bit of the commenting magic!

#4: Credit other bloggers

Take inspiration from a post that you’ve seen someone else do, or participate in a tag that’s making the rounds? Please credit the original source. Not only is crediting original ideas polite and the correct thing to do, it also spreads the word about a new blog and the original blogger is more likely to share your post to their followers.

Also, what happened to blog memes? There used to be Waiting on Wednesday, Follow Friday, Stacking the Shelves and Letterbox Love… Now, these kinds of post never seem to appear in my feeds. Whilst this format doesn’t always favour the individualistic style of blogging now, I do think that they favoured a more supportive community, so I’d love to see something similar make a return.

#5: Talk about bloggers IRL

In the past few years, particularly since I started my blog, blogging has definitely become more mainstream, but I still feel as though there’s a divide between actual bloggers and people who either consume blogs or have no idea what a blog is. I’d love to hear conversations take place about what it means to be a blogger, how people outside of the blogging community can support blogs, and the changing face of the blog as technology develops.

Blogs and vlogs are now COOL. Instagram is pretty much a micro-blogging platform. But, despite this, blogging hasn’t quite broken the barriers to the outside world, so I think that if we talk more about our favourite bloggers in real life, this will help to make blogging seem like a genuine job or hobby, rather than just something “you do on the side”. Side-hustles are valid too!

How do you think we can support our fellow bloggers this year? I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments!

 

Blogging

Organising Your Review Pile

IMG_0565

Something I’ve struggled in the past with is reading books in time for publication date, and being able to talk about a book as soon as the day of publication. Usually my review pile stacks higher and higher and eventually it becomes way too big too manage. This year, however, I’ve worked out a system to get me more organised than ever before.

Step One: Designate your review books their own section on your bookshelf

Before I’d chuck all of my review books onto my main TBR pile and it got SO confusing. Visibility is key to organisation when it comes to your review pile, and once I cleared space for my review books it became so much easier.

In my case, I’ve got two sections for my review books: published in 2015 and not published in 2015. This means that I know which books I’ve missed from previous years that I can slowly catch up on, and I can still check up on the books that are yet to be published.

Step Two: Organise your books into order of publication

I first set out all of my January books into a pile and organised which would be published first during the month and so on. Once January was finished, I could move on to February and it was a gradual process to make sure I had them in exactly the right order. Goodreads is a great way to find out the exact dates, and you can also check on press releases if you received one with the book!

Step Three: Constant upkeep.

It’s no good organising it once and then leaving it! As soon as books drop through my letterbox, I first add them to my haul pile and then once my book haul has been recorded, I’ll add them to my review shelf. Upkeep is such an important step in being organised!

How do you organise your review pile?

Blogging

Blog Organisation

P1000365

Whilst I think of myself as incredibly disorganised, I’ve often been told that I am, in fact, organised. When it comes to blogging, there are a few things I do in order to make sure I have control over all of the upcoming things on my blog.

Notebooks, notebooks and more notebooks

I have thousands of notebooks where I write down all of my blog post ideas, schedules and plans. I find it much easier to get ideas from my head on to paper than to write them down electronically, and I can arrange things easily too. Even though many of my notebooks are incredibly messy, I love seeing the progression from post to publish. It’s amazing how a tiny scribble can turn into a full-fledged post!

Calendars

Having some form of calendar or diary to write a schedule into is organisation at its best. Without mine, I wouldn’t have any idea when to put posts live and it’s also handy for blog tours, projects and Twitter chats. I know people who use Google Docs as a good calendar; I prefer to write big monthly calendars onto an A3 piece of paper, but I do occasionally use the calendar in my phone.

Bulk taking photos

Whether for the blog or to post on Instagram, I love taking advantage of a sunny morning and taking photos all in one go. Then I can edit them later and they’re ready to upload!

Time management

Spend one day a month focusing entirely on your blog, an afternoon a week commenting on blogs, or a weekend scheduling posts. Time management is key when blogging! Whilst Twitter is fun, it’s not always productive. Allocate yourself a set time, turn off any distractions, and get your blogging done!

Do what’s best for you

Create your own routine and figure out how you work best. Don’t force blogging or it will come across in your posts! Organisation is something all of us lack at times, so making sure you know when your productivity levels will be highest will hugely benefit you.

How do you make sure you stay organised?

Blogging Uncategorized

Blogging and Business

Blogging and Business

Since the start of September, I’ve been taking Business Studies lessons. Due to having such a passion for social media and marketing, I’m really glad I chose to take the class because I’ve learnt so much from it so far.

There are many principles in business that apply to blogging too (if not all of them!), and I’ve found that I’ve discovered so many ways to expand my blog and feel very motivated about blogging since September. I thought I’d discuss a few on the blog today:

Non-Monetary Motivational Factors:

Since learning about motivational factors, I’ve been able to change them up so that they affect the way I blog in a very positive way.

Job Rotation: By applying job rotation, where you switch between different tasks to reduce monotony, I’m trying to make sure that I’m not getting bored by a continuous routine of blogging tasks. I’ve created a rota of days to carry out different tasks – commenting on blogs, writing and scheduling posts, and creating blogging schedules, for example. It also means that I’m rotating the content going up on the blog, and the extra motivation means that it’s easier than ever to come up with fresh and original ideas.

Job Enrichment: When based on my blog, job enrichment means that I’m giving myself more interesting and challenging tasks to do. I’ve always been one for doing things that are wild and crazy, but I love having a small idea and developing it into something that is greater than I ever imagined it could be. Currently, I have a few of these on the go and I’m really excited about developing them further.

Promotion, Marketing & Research:

Market Research: It’s so important to find out just how much the consumer (or reader, in this case) is going to like an idea because that’s the person you’re catering for! The first person I try to make happy is myself; I won’t post something I’m not happy with and don’t have 100% faith in, but the second person is YOU. In the next few months, I’m going to be carrying out lots and lots of research to ensure that I’m growing my blog for the better, and not for the completely wrong reasons.

Direct Marketing: I want to try to make visiting my blog a personal experience for everyone who decides to click on, or type in, the link. I also have a few other direct marketing ideas, such as creating a monthly newsletter which I should be developing for the start of 2015.

 

Do you think it’s important to run your blog strategically, or do you prefer to ‘go with the flow’?

Uncategorized Where to Start

My Blogging Manifesto

 

bloggingmanifesto

I, Lucy Powrie, blogger behind Queen of Contemporary, hereby declare that I will…

1. Write with passion

I want to write with full belief in the topic I’m talking about and convey that passion.

2. Share the love

Sharing the blog and book love is one of the things I love most about blogging. It’s why I want to put more of a focus on other blogs that I love and really help to showcase other people. I also want to work hard at commenting on other blogs, and interacting more on Twitter with new people.

3. Banish all resentment

There can be a lot of jealousy in the blogging community and I HATE it! Jealousy is one of the worst things ever and I’ve really managed to stop getting so caught up with other people’s achievements lately, and it’s so freeing!

4. Be weird, be wonderful

I want to share my little quirks and the things that make me “me” because I’m not a perfect person and I don’t want to be!

5. Carry no weight on my shoulders

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ll probably know just how much I struggle with pressure, and I don’t want to do this anymore, because there’s absolutely no need for it!

6. Inspire, aspire

I want to inspire other people but also be inspired myself.

7. Embrace new opportunities

I want to be adventurous and try out new things because it’s so much fun, and it’s easy to just get used to one thing and stick with it until it’s overdone. This will happen no more!

8. Reflect, reflect, reflect

Reflection is so important to me because it means that you get to evaluate what’s working and what’s not and change it accordingly. It means you’re constantly progressing and working on new ideas, which I think is a fundamental blogging tool to have!

9. Focus on the positives

Negative Lucy, be gone! I can get quite negative sometimes which is a bad blogging formula!

10. Remember your roots

I think it’s important to remember that we all started from 0 followers and, no matter what, you’re just doing this for fun!

I’m hoping that following these will make for a much happier blogging experience, and maybe I’ll do an update post a few months down the line. Wish me luck!

Do you have a blogging manifesto, or any rules you’ve set yourself? Tell me yours!

Uncategorized

Dear Past Blogging Lucy…

dearlucy

Lucy, I know this is weird. Please don’t freak out, but this is you. From the future. No, you are not in a YA time travel novel, or in Harry Potter (which you still haven’t read, but I promise you it will happen!). You often hear people being asked, ‘What would you change if you could talk to your past self?’ and my answer is: Absolutely nothing.

Because I’m writing this to you on the day you sit down and make your blog, Read, Write, Sleep, Eat! I want to tell you to stick in there. Things will be tough – at points you’ll have people be really mean to you but, in the end, it won’t bother you anymore because it happens everywhere. The blogging community, however amazing, is no different. There will be points where you’ll want to give it all up and will be on the verge of just stopping and quitting. Hang in there, buddy!

No matter how important you think page views and comments and followers are, one day you’ll be in a position where you don’t have to worry anymore, and once you get to that point you’ll feel like all of your work over the two years is worth it. This blog will be like a diary to you, a diary that just happens to be read by quite a lot of people. More than you could ever have imagined.

Put the effort in, Lucy, but also don’t put so much pressure on yourself. That’s one of the things you really should stop doing, because it will get you nowhere!

Lucy, you are going to make some amazing friends who you would like to see all day every day. It’s not possible right now as I’m writing this, but I really hope it will be one day. These friends will completely understand you and you can talk to them about anything. There are a few people you should probably just not talk to in the first place, but you will learn from your mistakes so I won’t warn you off too much. Keep going, Lucy!

Starting your blog is one of the best decisions you will ever make and I really hope that never changes.

Lots of love,

Future Lucy

Uncategorized

Summer Reading: Blogs

summerreadingblogs.png

Summer is here which means I, and many of you, get to catch up on lots of reading. Rather than writing out a list of ten billion books I think you should all read, I thought I’d do something a bit different and talk about some of the blogs you absolutely must check out over the summer.

1. Gingerly Pale

I’ve only recently found Gingerly Pale but Jess’ blog has quickly risen right to the top of my list of favourite blogs. I check Gingerly Pale several times a day to check for new posts and I really do think I’m a little bit obsessed. As it’s only a recent find, I’ve really loved reading through all of her older posts and I don’t think Jess has ever written a post not worth reading!

Jess is so inspirational and as we’re both teenagers I find that I can relate to her so much more. There are gorgeous pictures, beautiful and emotional text, and regular posts too – a bonus!

You can find Jess on Twitter here | Follow via Bloglovin’ 

2. Books of Amber

I kind of hate Amber’s blog and that’s for one reason: I can’t stop by without wanting to buy every single book she mentions. Amber must have magical powers, because whenever I talk to her or read her blog I seem to lose all reason and MUST. BUY. ALL. THE. BOOKS.

Amber’s blog also has a really awesome design and is super easy to navigate. Well worth a read!

Amber on Twitter | Follow via Bloglovin’

3. Through a Cat’s Eyes

Over the last month or two, I’ve become totally obsessed with Cat’s blog. With a mixture of posts about her life, books and other awesome things, I’ve kind of turned into Cat’s little stalker. Cat is way, way awesome and is a blogger I would like to shout to everyone about. You need to go and discover the awesomeness of Cat’s blog right after reading this post, please! That’s an order.

Cat on Twitter | Follow via Bloglovin’ 

4. Hardcore Heroines 

Tilly, who runs Hardcore Heroines, is seriously one of the best people ever and is so lovely and cool and awesome and ALL THE POSITIVE WORDS! I would really love to be Tilly’s bestest friend and I was in the same building as her the other week and I had no idea which makes me incredibly sad. I could read every single one of Tilly’s posts over and over again. Seriously.

Follow Tilly on Twitter | Follow via Bloglovin’  

5. The Bibliomaniac

Not only is Georgia one of the kindest and most loveliest people you will ever meet, she puts so much work into her blog and it really pays off. Recently, one of the things that has made me frequently visit her blog is to take a look at her wonderful book photography. She also does brilliant graphic reviews of books, which makes a nice change from your typical review.

I really trust Georgia’s opinion, and I’m more likely to buy something if I know she’s read, reviewed and loved it.

Georgia on Twitter | Follow via Bloglovin’ 

What blogs will you be reading non-stop this summer?

Uncategorized

Blogging and Reading Through Other People’s Eyes

I’ve never made it a secret that I love reading. In fact, I like to reveal that part of myself just as much as people like talking about their favourite football team or band. The thing with reading, though, is that people view it as weird and because I like reading I’m seen as a geek or a nerd. Not that I have a problem with this, because it really doesn’t bother me. Blogging about books, though? People find that hard to understand.

By blogging I’m taking my nerd levels to extreme heights. So, how exactly do people react?

Some people are genuinely interested and ask me questions. They ask me about reviewing for publishers and how it works, whether I get paid (I have had people ask this millions of times, and they don’t seem to understand that, no, I don’t get paid), and I don’t mind talking to people like this. It’s surprised me sometimes when some people ask and it’s totally out of character. I enjoy talking about what I do and sharing it with other people, because they’re not really familiar with anything like it.

Then there is the other type of person that thinks I’m stupid and wonders why on Earth I do what I do. And I understand completely why they might think that. It is quite a weird thing for a teenager to be doing. I put so much work into my blog and sometimes I’m not exactly sure what I get out of it. But I enjoy it and I don’t want to stop. I like sharing a part of my life with you all and I love you guys to pieces. People who aren’t a part of our community won’t realise just how amazing it is.

I want to set myself a few goals. When people ask me condescendingly if I’ve reviewed the book I’m currently reading (‘Well, I’m not going to review it if I’m in the middle of reading it, am I?’), I won’t bite their heads off with a snarky reply. After all, they have no idea what I actually do and I suppose it’s my job to educate them.

The other goal I’m going to set myself is to stop worrying what other people think. I’m generally good at doing this, but sometimes things do bother me and I want to try and stop this. Everyone has something they geek out about and my geeky thing is books. I’m not going to apologise for that, and I don’t feel I have to.

I love reading, and I’m proud to say it.

If people know about your reading and blogging, how have they reacted? If not, is there a reason you don’t tell anyone? Let me know!