The Blog Squad: A Blogger Collaboration - Part VI
We are a group of three book bloggers situated on different continents but brought together by our love for books and a penchant for talking about them. We’ve joined our forces to create a collaborative series of posts about book blogging and we hope you’ll enjoy the discussions.
A MAGICAL WORLD OF WORDS - AmyNikita
BOOKS.BAGS.BURGERS - Uma K
BOOK REVIEWS BY DI - Di Hewlett
Blog scheduling - Do you do it?
I’ve only ever properly scheduled The Blog Squad posts as the three of us live in different time zones and posting at the same time can only be achieved by scheduling. That being said, while I don’t “schedule” my other posts, I do plan them pretty well. I have a diary in which I write out outlines of posts (other than reviews) so it’s easy for me. But sadly, I haven’t been able to do that of late due to my college life being hectic! I’ll be completing my undergraduate degree in a couple of months and currently the only thing I’m planning are study time tables and stuff like that #notfun
But I do know that once my exams are over, like Amy, I’ll be epicly organized with blogging. For me, planning posts beforehand makes blogging so much easier and I always feel more relaxed when I know what’s going up on my blog the whole of next week or so.
Scheduling in the sense that you set a date and time and your post goes up automatically: I only do that for Blog Squad posts since we’re in different time zones and it gets really confusing otherwise.
But for me, scheduling kind of means something different. I plan posts way in advance, and often do them (or half of them) days before I actually publish them. That’s what I call scheduling, and my diary is packed with “post schedules”. I literally never type a post on the day it goes up (unless it’s a review), and I work on it way before that date; whenever I have time, basically. I’m a bit *too* organised with blogging, and am rather rigid with my schedule and often plan weeks in a advance.
That’s what scheduling means for me: while I don’t set posts to go up automatically, I plan them and write them way in advance. It means that I literally never stress about posts or worry about whether I’ll have time to do them; it makes things a lot easier, and I don’t think I’d be able to cope otherwise!
I really admire Di for how she does it; I don’t think I’d ever be able to be like that!
Is there an acceptable number of posts per week for a book blog?
Okay this is quite a tricky question. I for one don’t like to post everyday. At the same time, I can’t not post at least once every week. A blogger does have to reasonably active. One post a month or so is NOT active. While I used to post about 4 times a week, currently it has reduced to 2 per week because of-you guessed it- exams! I’ll probably go back to 3-4 times a week after the exams but not more. I have many reasons for that.
A statistical reason is that find I get more comments on a post if it's on top of my blog for at least 2 days. If I were to post everyday, while I’ll probably get the same amount of comments overall, they’d be scattered across my various posts. (Does that make sense?) I think that’s because when we visit blogs for the first time, it’s the first post we decide to check out. The longer a post is at the top of the blog, more the traffic it gets. (but this definitely does not mean you should post just once or twice a month)
Another reason is that I don’t want to overwhelm my regular visitors. Readers can’t visit my blog everyday. I don’t want them to be faced with 7 or 8 new posts every time they visit.
Another more important reason is I don’t want to overwhelm MYSELF. I can only plan fun and enjoyable posts when I like doing it. Now if I start giving myself deadlines and pressures, I can hardly write happily.
I think it’s important to be active on your blog, and in the blogosphere. Commenting and interacting on other blogs is as important as posting on your own. You could post everyday and write amazing posts but for people to find your blog, they first need to know it exists. So go out there and make friends in the blogosphere!
I say yes, because as a blog follower I want to see regular posts from the blogs I follow, and as a blogger I want to assure my readers of consistency and keep them coming back. I personally have 3 “set” posts per week on my blog: Weekly Round-Up on Sunday, Waiting on Wednesday on Wednesday, and The Blog Squad on Friday. In between, I’ll do reviews and other posts, but they aren’t cast in stone.
I like to see posts from bloggers about two to three times a week. It keeps me interested, keeps me following, and shows they’re taking their blogging seriously and are committed to it. I personally think consistency is the biggest factor in getting publicity and followers for your blog, especially if you’ve just started blogging. I had no followers for a long time when I first started, but I posted three times a week all the same; I wanted people to see that I was sticking around, that I would always have posts up on those days, and so on. It helps build a following, and keeps your readers coming back and knowing what to expect.
Book Blitzes and Blog Tours - Your take
I have participated in just 2 or 3 book blitzes and one blog tour.and truthfully I quite enjoyed them. Programs like Xpresso Book Tours do a really good job of organizing blitzes and tours. I do think these are a great way to get to know about new books; especially indie books.
I love book tours for you get so much information about a single book within the span - multiple reviews, author interviews and more help one get a pretty three dimensional idea of the book. I enjoy taking part and following book tours for this very reason.
I will be actively taking part in book tours from the month of May and hopefully help some wonderful indie authors and their books be recognized!
I haven’t done many blog tours or blitzes (counting: one blitz, and one blog tour that fell through when I didn’t like the book they sent me to review….oops). But I think they are both excellent things to participate in, and a program like Xpresso Book Tours is an awesome way to get involved, get free books, and meet new people.
But a large part of not participating in blog tours, is because I don’t read e-books. If I did, I would be able to take part in a lot more tours and blitzes. As it is, print copies are not usually offered for review as part of a blog tour; for example, Xpresso Book Tours only offer e-books.
Of course, there are tours and blitzes where you don’t need to review the book or read it. Unfortunately, considering the ones I’ve looked at, those often don’t offer books I’m interested in. Most of the books I’ve seen or been offered to advertise are ones I would never read or otherwise support, and thus I don’t feel comfortable publicizing them on my blog.
In all honesty, I’m not as active as I could be when it comes to looking at blog tour options and blitzes. If I’m emailed and offered to participate, then I’ll consider it, but I don’t really go out looking for opportunities.
To see my answers make sure to visit the other collab posts!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our discussion post! Please talk to us and let us know YOUR answers below. What do you think of our responses? If you have any specific questions you’d like us to address in the future, please let us know in the comments section below. Stay tuned for next week’s questions!
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