The Blog Squad: A Blogger Collaboration - Part XXIII

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

What are blog buttons?

A blog button is a badge (an image) with a HTML code linking to your blog. When other bloggers copy the HTML code and paste it on their blog sidebar, it appears as a cute image. Clicking on that image leads people to your blog! I didn’t use any generator but searched for the HTML code on Google, uploaded my button image to Google photos and worked it out! Using a generator would be so much easier!
 
I like how it’s a cute way of showing off the blog you love on your own blog without it seeming spammy!

Blog buttons are basically images that are embedded with your blog link. You can design them through Grab My Button Generator , and then copy the HTMl code to a widget, etc, on your blog, and it’ll show up. It’s your logo, so to speak.
Other people can then copy that same HTML code onto their blogs, your blog button will show up, and if people click on it they’re taken to your blog. It’s a form of advertising.
 
I LOVE blog buttons, but I’ve been without one for a while because of the lack of sidebar space. Hopefully I’ll be able to bring mine back sometime in the future; they always look so cute and cool in your sidebar!
I love them.   

What are your top ‘widgets’ that you use on your blog?

Holy heavens I think I use a lot of widgets? But not so much that it doesn’t allow my blog to load!
 
The widgets in my blog are-
 
GFC Follower
 
In one of my earlier Squad posts, How to Map your Blog , I talked about how extremely important it is to have a visible blog button that your visitors can follow easily. So I kept it high up on my right sidebar.
 
Google Plus Profile and Follow Me
 
It’s great to have people follow your blog in more than one manner which is why I have Google Plus follow widget too.
 
Search This Blog
 
If you’re looking for a particular post of mine, it’s so easy to just type it in there.
 
Bloglovin Follow Gadget
 
Another way to follow my blog!
 
Popular Posts and Blog Archive
 
Popular posts ‘cause that tells you what others love on my blog and Archive because as Amy says, it’s professional and helpful!
 
Twitter and Pinterest Widgets
 
A great way of finding me in those places! Both my Twitter and pinterest are very bookish - reading stuff or writing stuff!

I only go with the bare essentials because of my limited sidebar space (I’m thinking about adding a second one soon, though…)
 
My widgets are:

• GFC followers widget so people can follow me.
• Blogger profile blurb so people can get a glimpse of who I am and what my blog’s about.
• Blog Archive because it’s professional and helpful and basically essential
• My social media links so peeps can stalk me elsewhere
• My tiny blog roll because I love advertising other blogs
• My Goodreads challenge just because

 
There are a ton of other widgets I’d love to add, but because of my limited space and because I don’t want clutter or slow page loading speed, those are the ones I stick with.

Do you have a “Blog Roll” on your Blog?

I have a blog roll in my blog but like Amy’s, mine is tiny and it’s more a list that a roll? It shows my favorite in the order of latest activity. It doesn’t show their latest posts though! I need to work on my sidebars a bit for that!

I do but it’s SO TINY! *sigh* There are a million other blogs out there (slight exaggeration) I’d love to include in my blog roll, but my sidebar space is extremely limited. I could add more, but then the sidebar would be longer than the blog post homepage and things will look messy. Believe me, I’ve tried to find a way around this and it just ain’t happening.

To see my answers make sure to visit the other collab posts!

A MAGICAL WORLD OF WORDS

BOOKS.BAGS.BURGERS

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!