What I’ve learnt in Six Months of Book blogging
It’s just over six months since I posted my first book review (‘Billy Summers’ by Stephen King, on the 29th of September ‘21) and since then I’ve created 16 blog posts, 5 book lists and 60 reviews. I haven’t earned a penny, nor have I moved to a villa in the Tuscan countryside to read and write at my leisure. Looking at other book review blogs, I don’t think too many have. But I have enjoyed my fledgling book blogging career so far and I’m going to share what I have learnt.
The view from the window in the Tuscany villa from where I hope to one day post all of my book reviews
Post on your blog every other day.
This is very important. I kept reading on other book review blogs that you need to post every other day, on a consistent basis, in order to gain traction with search engines. Keep posting consistently and you will soon get noticed and have visitors flocking to your site.
I did this when I started out. I was so pleased with myself at this rate of posting that I thought, to hell with it; I can post every single day. Look at me! I’m flying!
This meant ploughing through books at a speed I wasn’t used to. All of my spare time was spent working on reviews. Soon, the big black steam train known as ‘burnout’ was bearing down on me at a frightening rate and I usually started my reviews with a heavy sigh.
I never started a blog for it to become a burden or another source of stress in my life. I wanted to blog about books because I have a passion for literature and writing and it seemed like a nice hobby and a way to interact with like minded people. If others like what I’m doing and subscribe or pop in to say something about one of my posts, that’s great.
Now, I read and write a review when I have time. A blogging idea comes into my head? I’ll take note and compose it at my leisure. This post you’re reading took about one month to finish.
I like writing. I like reading. It’s nice to relax and combine these two things.
I post at least once a week, sometimes twice, but I’m no longer tyrannical about it. So my own advice on this is to ‘post when you feel like it.’
You have to comment on other book review blogs
This was another piece of advice I came across in the Book Blogging universe. The idea is that you visit blogs that are similar to your own, interact and leave comments, and this will result in people visiting and returning the favour and your own blog will then move up the search engine rankings. Ideally you should be doing this on the in-between days when you aren’t uploading new posts.
I did this when I started, but like I said above about posting everyday, this became a bit of a drag. It was time consuming and I felt like I was commenting just for the sake of commenting. There didn’t seem to be any value to it.
What I did find out pretty early on was that the book blogging community is a diverse and welcoming one, and it’s not hard to find sites with interests similar to your own. And even if they’re not talking about the type of books you’d usually read, so what? Part of the fun of book blogging for me has been discovering new titles, authors and genres that would have remained unknown to me otherwise.
One of the best ways I have got involved in blogs has been to join book related challenges. It’s a great way of meeting other people, seeing what everyone else is reading and getting creative. Here are some of the challenges I have taken part in on other book review blogs:
Six degrees of separation #6degrees which is hosted by Kate over at Books are my favourite and best and which takes place on the first Saturday of each month. Kate suggests a book and then you link six other titles in whatever way you want and a book only has to be connected to the next one on the chain. I’ve enjoyed getting creative with this challenge but what’s been even more fun has been reading other bloggers chains and the connections they make with books. Fascinating. Here’s my April challenge
The 2022 Non Fiction challenge hosted by ShelleyRae at Book’dout has been enjoyable as it’s encouraged me to read more non-fiction, especially in areas such as Geography, Social history and Economics to name a couple that I would consider blindspots on my shelves. And like above, it’s been great to see what others are reading for the categories - I’ve discovered a couple of new titles that I can’t wait to get stuck into.
Reading Ireland Month hosted by Cathy at 746books also lit a fire under my reading arse in March as I was getting a bit slack with my Irish books, which are a huge part of my blog. I discovered lots of new titles and authors and have stocked the TBR (To be read) piles for any amount of rainy afternoons and sunny days in the garden.
So my visiting and commenting on other book review blogs has been helped by these challenges because it’s more organic. I respond to other comments, visit and subscribe to blogs and get emails from nice people when they’ve made a new post. I feel like I’ve something to contribute because the books and topics align more naturally with my bookish interests but I’m happy to go off track and I’ve come to enjoy peoples updates on other aspects of their lives, especially their cultural interests. Which has inspired my own monthly blog post of cultural delights. It encourages me to get out and about a bit more to events.
What has been particularly satisfying is that other people have subscribed to my site. Some of them are friends and family (hello!), those I have become friends with in my short blogging career (hey there!) whilst others have simply come across my posts, liked them and been kind enough to subscribe and stick around (a big Tá fáilte romhaibh to you - that’s an irish welcome greeting).
So, whilst I still visit and comment on other book review blogs, I’m a bit more relaxed about it and happy to attract subscribers who want regular updates. I have changed this advice to comment on other blogs when you feel like it.
Don’t forget about the Web Crawler
I have no idea what a web crawler looks like but I wasn’t going to include a picture of a spider.
My understanding of a web crawler is that it is sent out at by a search engine at night, crawls through the World Wide Web and makes a note of the URL and the keywords on each page, then reports back in the morning, has supper then sleeps through the day. The search engine can then produce this information when someone types in those keywords.
The web crawler also notices backlinks - these are links to your page that appear on other sites, giving your pages more weight in the rankings. If these links are appearing on other pages, especially sites that are popular and well known to the search engines already, those links must be good.
That’s a very basic understanding of how web crawling works. Early on, in terms of my posts, I became fixated on keywords for my books. How many times could I get the title of the book, the authors name, the genre etc and what would I type in if I was looking to read this book?
Again, this became time consuming. I do include SEO in my book reviews but I have the reader in mind as much as the web crawler. And it seems to work as people are visiting my pages. I just try to make my reviews as readable, informative and entertaining as possible.
Some book review blogs include a list of blogs that they have established links with, usually appearing in a sidebar on their site. Those links are based on relationships built up over time. Again, it’s possible to create backlinks to other sites, but I’m much happier to create those in an organic, natural way, just in the same way I comment on other blogs.
So I’d say don’t forget the web crawler, but equally important is to write for readers and build up organic, natural backlinks.
Read all the books!
Before I put a fingertip to a keyboard, I did a fair bit of research on book blogging. One of the things I read was that you would have to include books in genres that were popular. That would guarantee lot of visits and clicks.
To be honest, I don’t think this was ever going to work for me, as there are some genres I have tried and they just don’t engage me enough. I don’t see what benefit is to be gained from my reading something I don’t like and then saying this in the review, where I always try to be fair and honest.
So I continue to pick the books I want to read and review. But at the same time, by taking part in challenges such as ‘the 2022 non-fiction challenge’ I am pushing myself to read in areas that I usually don’t, and this takes me outside of my comfort zone. And I’m in a book club, where we take turns to pick titles, so I am open to exploring new genres and challenging myself.
Looking at other book review blogs, I can see there are genres of books that have voracious readers and I’m sure generate a lot of traffic. Reading them, you can tell the passion the readers have for certain titles, and I don’t believe you can replicate that. Cozy mysteries, YA, crime and romance are just some of those I have come across, but there are so many.
I’m reading more than I ever did because other bloggers have recommended great titles. I’ve been introduced to lots of new authors I wouldn’t previously have encountered and because I’m reviewing the books, I’ve found that automatically I read a bit more deeply, and I let the book settle for a few days before I write my review.
So read all the books you want, certainly, but don’t read and review books because you feel you have to because they are in popular genres. That will show in your reviews. There’s lots of books out there, enjoy reading in your own favourite genre, as to me that’s what book blogging is all about - enjoyment.
You need to be active across Social Media to maximise blog visits.
I knew early on that I would have to be active on social media if anyone was to find my book review blog. What I had to do was focus on those sites that synergised (my favourite social media buzzword) with my own. But there were just so many.
The big one is Facebook, which I don’t engage with. I had an account that I deactivated about five years ago and have never used again. Starting a blog didn’t seem like a good enough reason to start it up again, as my reasons for leaving hadn’t changed.
I set up a twitter account, and have made some good connections with other book bloggers. It still feel’s like a largely positive space to hang out in, and with the news of possible takeovers, I hope that continues. It’s not a huge source of traffic for me but I enjoy chatting with other users and sharing my reviews and keeping up to date with book releases from publishers.
Bookstagram was a funny one for me, and to begin with, I couldn’t understand the point of it. I’d try to find the perfect place for a book pic, inside or out. I thought about getting props but decided against it. It was just too time consuming and I’m not really that artistically minded visually.
It began to feel like that dreaded word again; work.
But what I have noticed is that when I’m out for a walk, I can take a quick pic of my book. My ipad/Kindle aren’t as visually stimulating as a nice book cover but I take a quick snap anyway, as it only takes a minute. It’s also encouraged me to explore some new places where I live, looking for that perfect pic.
I do enjoy taking my books outside for fresh air and they don’t seem to mind being photographed amongst the Irish foliage and greenery, as long as the weather’s dry. Some of them were looking a bit peaky and wan on my shelves and I can see the difference these walks have made to them.
Often when I’m leaving the house I’ll hear a thud as they fall from the bookshelves in a desperate bid to go with me. But I just can’t take them all. Next time lads, I say.
This is me out in the garden, summoning my inner artist via the gods of nature and creation. They didn’t answer, but I went ahead and tried to make some nice designs for my Pinterest pins anyway.
Pinterest was a word I’d heard and stored in the back of my mind but I’d never visited the site before I began book blogging. Creating pins of book covers and posting them on boards. Say again??
But you know what - I’ve actually enjoyed creating these. My inner artist has been imprisoned since I was a child, when even my stickmen looked like they had been driven and reversed over repeatedly.
I couldn’t find a picture of a Christmas Log, only chocolate ones.
I also recall when I was about 14 and in an art class being given by a nun, when we were doing still life and were drawing a Christmas log - a real one, not the chocolate variety. Some fella was acting the maggot and I remember the nun that was ‘teaching’ the class lifting the log, bedecked in tinsel and holly, and hitting this same fella across the knuckles with it. Not very festive, I think you’ll agree. I think the trauma of this might also have dented any budding artistic aspirations and I dropped art soon after.
I digress. I’ve downloaded Canva and I’ve enjoyed playing with book covers, sourcing pictures for blog posts and letting my inner artist run wild. Traffic has been minimal and I’m not even sure if I’m doing it right, but sometimes creativity is just messing around. When I see children playing freely with paints and crayons, I always think that’s our inner artist right there. What a pity to lose that purity of self expression.
So I’d say, certainly be active across social media but on the sites you enjoy. It has becomes part of this great book blogging hobby for me. Perhaps I’d have more traffic if I was on Facebook, but hey ho; it’s not a site for me. I enjoying engaging with other book bloggers on Instagram and twitter, and enjoy the creative side of Pinterest. That’s enough to keep me busy.
That’s it! Follow those steps and you too can earn $0 on your book review blog!
I don’t have enough traffic to install adverts, or earn anything from my affiliate commissions.
I look at my statistics once, maybe twice a week. If people want to visit, they will.
I’m not going to be ditching the day job any time soon, or moving to Tuscany (but I can dream).
You are in the wrong industry if you want to get rich book blogging, and I’m sure there are much more lucrative niches out there.
Hosting my blog costs money, as does using packages such as Canva, tailwind and mailchimp. I don’t have to use them, but I choose to. I’d say this blog had resulted in me losing money, but that doesn’t bother me.
When you enjoy a hobby, you don’t mind spending time on it.
Whether it’s golf, fishing, embroidery, deep sea diving - it doesn't matter. Find something you enjoy doing and make a hobby out of it.
For me that’s reading, writing about reading, talking about reading. Anything to do with books and I’m happy.
‘Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy.’ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami, 1995.
‘Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.’ – Jim Rohn