Design credit: Nina of Nina Reads
 Photo credit: mollermarketing.com "With the right stage and the right voice there's no limit to the size of your audience." Visit and comment on other blogs This is a win-win because you'll be opening the door for conversation and possibly starting a relationship. Also this will allow others viewing that blog to see you and possibly lead them to check out your blog. Commenting particularly is very hard for me to keep up with because I work all day then have many tasks to do when I get home in the evenings. I've found a few blogs that I really like and I try my best to keep up on commenting on those at the very least. I keep trying to improve in this area! Team up with other bloggers I want to interact more with local book bloggers so I thought up the GLBBA! Great Lakes Book Blogger Alliance. This group is for book bloggers in the Great Lakes regions! I have two wonderful blogger co-chairs, Meagan and Stephanie, helping me develop this group and get the ball rolling! As a result of making connections with the GLBBA, I was invited to co-host a read-a-thon! I was introduced to a wonderful group of ladies by Meagan, one of the GLBBA co-chairs. I do believe I've made blogger friends for life! Want to know more about the Summer Lovin read-a-thon? Check out the details at Read-A-Thon Central! The Summer Lovin’ Readathon is a week-long readathon event hosted by seven independent bloggers! (Oh, Chrys!, Tumbling Books, Effortlessly Reading, Love Life Read, Shelf Addiction, Read Sleep Repeat, and Reviewing Wonderland) Sign-ups will be open through July 6th. I’m in, are you?! | This post is all about blog development and what approaches we have taken or will take to improve our blogs. I'm looking forward to reading many others thoughts on this subject because even though I've been blogging for 3-4 years on various topics, there is still so much to learn! Especially since my book blog is only 1 1/2 years old. I'm taking positive steps in the right direction to end up where I'd like to be. Here are the things that I've done so far and that I recommend. Create your own unique feature Create your own unique feature that will help get your name out there. For example, I thought up my Summer of Indie Author Features event. Preparing for this event has introduced me to authors I wouldn't have known before, and hopefully new readers who love Indie books will find my blog as a result. Particpate in MEMEs Personally I haven't had much success participating in MEME's, but others have had great results. Try it out! What to create your own MEME? Go for it! Besides MEMEs you can participate in read-a-thons, read-a-longs and other group type events. You're already making a great start by participating in Armchair BEA! Become a social media maven! Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, etc. Again, this also take a pretty large time commitment, but the more you do it, the easier it will become. It's difficult at first to dive in and begin talking with strangers, but there is no easy way. Just do it! You'll meet some very cool people and be glad that you did. Remember you must go further than just posting your reviews. Really try to interact with others. Yes, some of the bloggers seem to be a bit clicky, but keep chatting and before long you'll find blogger friends! Also, be apart of Twitter parties! It may take you a try or two to get used to the flow of it, but they are always fun and informative. Join blogger & reader groups These can be on Facebook, Goodreads, Google + or whatever you enjoy using best. The goal is to develop relationships with more people in the community. For example, I am a member of 2 live in person book clubs and several online book clubs. These are great opportunities to find out about new books and authors and allow me to make even more connections! |
What's in the Shelf Addiction blogs future? I'd love to take on one or two reviewers. I'm not sure how I'll incorporate that quite yet, but I'd love to bring on reviewers that read the genres that I don't, which will allow for more diversity. In addition to adding more diversity, I will strive to keep my content fresh and interesting.
My advice? First figure out what your blogging goals are. Once you know where you want to end up, you can draft the road to get there. Stay true to yourself. Be genuine and don't worry what others think. Remember that it's impossible to please all of the people all of the time. Just be you and the like minded readers and bloggers will find you!
Find what you like and stick to it. Just consider that while it's great to be comfortable with what you're doing, you'll be even greater if you step outside of your comfort zone and try new things! You may discover something awesome!
What's your take on blogger development? I'd love to hear your ideas!
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
My advice? First figure out what your blogging goals are. Once you know where you want to end up, you can draft the road to get there. Stay true to yourself. Be genuine and don't worry what others think. Remember that it's impossible to please all of the people all of the time. Just be you and the like minded readers and bloggers will find you!
Find what you like and stick to it. Just consider that while it's great to be comfortable with what you're doing, you'll be even greater if you step outside of your comfort zone and try new things! You may discover something awesome!
What's your take on blogger development? I'd love to hear your ideas!
Happy Reading,
~Tamara
