Top Ten Tuesday: New Blogger Tips

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Over at The Broke and the Bookish (where I also review things), we like to do this thing called Top Ten Tuesday. Every week is a theme, and everyone gets to create a list.

This week, the topic is....

Top Tips I Would Give to New Book Bloggers

At this point, I guess I have been blogging closer to two years than one, mostly at The Broke and the Bookish, so I guess I do have advice... or probably more appropriately, opinions, to give away.

1. Don't use captcha. - I can't stand captcha and it has actually stopped me from leaving a comment before. So if you are one of those people who thrives on comments, captcha is not the thing to use. Turn off anonymous commenting if you are worried about spam.

2. Don't make every post a meme - This is easy to fall into, and God knows I have used them to get out of slumps or carry me over until I just finish the book. But while it is great to have your reviews interspersed with memes, its going to get a little tedious if for every review or thoughtful bookish post (take that as you will) there is 6 memes. Personal peeve I guess.

3. Take some time on your design - The number one reason I do not read a blog is design. This may be coming from the graphic classes I took in college, but if your design visually grates on me, I will stop reading, no matter what awesome things you may have. Too much clutter for me when I am trying to read sends me over the edge. So does not enough space in a middle column. I don't think my design here is over the top amazing, but I least I know (or I think at least ;) ) people can read what I am writing. :)

4. Branch out in the community - there is a HUGE community of bloggers willing to welcome you in. Find some blogs you like that fit in with you niche and start commenting, soon enough they or readers of their site may wander to yours and enjoy what they see there. Plus there is twitter and facebook. Twitter is how I think I have been involved most with the community.

5. Don't be afraid to try something new - If it flops, it flops, but it could be amazing. New ideas are meant to be tried, especially if you think they are going to make your blog stand out.

6. Do a little self promotion, but not too much - There is nothing wrong with signing your comments "Julia from CompBiblio" especially if you have made a thoughtful comment on whose ever blog you are at (and they dont have any rules against it... not that I think many do). Tweeting when your new posts are out is also a good way to let people know what's up. But don't take it overboard.

7. Give people multiple ways of following you - Many users use many different platforms (blogger, wordpress, no blog at all, googleReader) so make sure they can follow your blog if they want to. And make it easy for them to do!

8. If you are not sure what you are doing as you find someone who is, ask them for help! - Most bloggers I met are all super nice people. If they have something on their site that you think is cool but cannot figure out for the life of you how they did it, send them an email. I am sure they would be willing to help if you asked nicely :)

9. Back Up Your Blog - You never know when something might happen and for some reason your blog is gone. Do you want to lose all that hard work?

10. Make sure you find ways to love it - There is a hump, where you will feel like blogging is a job or a chore or something you dont want to do anymore. Well, to combat that, find ways to make it fun. Because that is really what it is all about :)