About Me

Name's Jessi...but you can call me Geo. I'm a stubborn and independent 24-year-old and have no idea what to do with my life, but that's okay. Cat lover. Music lover. Fluent in sarcasm. I love to read because it's how I escape reality. I could recommend books til I'm blue in the face.
geobobspinelli@gmail.com
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
Okay, so I'm a fairly new blogger myself and I'm definitely no expert...but here's some of the things that matter to me as a reader of other blogs:
1. GRAMMAR
For the love of kittens, use good grammar!! I hate when I'm reading a review and the grammar is so bad that I can't focus on the opinion being stated. Know the difference between your/you're, there/they're/their, and when to use an apostrophe. It drives me crazy to see more than one dog being called dog's. Small things like this make my eye twitch. (I've been seeing "bare with me" used a lot lately...are we getting naked together????) If you have to, USE SPELL CHECK. Preview your post and proof read it first. In my opinion, exercising outstanding grammar makes your blog more professional.
2. DESIGN
Yes, I'm shallow. I am much more likely to follow a blog that looks pretty than something just haphazardly thrown together. Designing is hard work and it takes time, but it's worth it in the end to make your blog visually appealing. I'm constantly making tweaks to mine, and I am still highly considering paying someone to make it special for me.
HTML is good to know as well. After tons of research on how to use specific codes, I've got a pretty good understanding of it. (I'm good at figuring things out on my own, though) When I don't know how to do something, I do a Google search. This is how I found out how to use <h1> and <h2> tags, post dividers, and <marquee> for my blog roll. Any questions? Ask! If I know it, I'm more than willing to share :)
Also, make your blog easy to navigate. I hate visiting a blog and not being able to find pages or archives. These are fantabulous tools that can make it much easier for readers to find things on your site. If you don't have a review archive, I'm much less likely to come back.
Be mindful of your design. Don't put flashy backgrounds or widgets that slow your load time. If I have to wait ten minutes to see your blog, I'm probably not going to come back. And for crying out loud, don't do automatic sound. That's another scare tactic to lose readers.
3. BE HONEST
Always, always be up front when reviewing. Who cares if you didn't like the book? Everybody has their own opinion. It doesn't make you the spawn of Satan if you hated something everybody else loved. In fact, I'm finding that the books with glowing reviews are usually the books I end up not liking. I'm not saying to bash the author, because they did put a lot of time and care into writing it, but state your honest opinion and back it up with reasons why you felt that way. Rants are my favorite reviews to write (and read)!
And never apologize!
4. COMMENT
I've been pretty bad about this lately, due to sheer laziness. I do read my comments and posts on other blogs, but I don't always leave a comment. Don't follow my example. It's always good to show your readers you care by returning the comment love. I've got to break myself of the lazy habit and start spending more time in this area.
That being said, leave meaningful comments. It drives me crazy when someone comes by and leaves a half-assed one liner and expects me to come visit their blog. I feel like they're just doing this for more traffic. I've also had a few copy and paste the same (irritating) generic message on every blog they come across. Don't be that person.
5. DO MEMES
But not too many!! Memes are a great way to find new blogs and increase traffic to your site. Just pick the ones you like the most (for me it's In My Mailbox and Follow Friday) and stick to those. You don't have to do one for everyday of the week. Yes, I did this as a new blogger. I have now dropped Waiting on Wednesday (unless the occasion calls for it) and this is the first Top Ten Tuesday I've done in over a month. I just haven't had the time I did when starting, and I'd rather focus on my reviews, which is why I started the blog in the first place.
6. GET RID OF CAPTCHA
I can't stress this enough. Like I said, I'm very lazy. If I have to take the extra time to figure out whether the Captcha says crazy banana or lazy cabana, I'm more likely to skip leaving a comment altogether. If you're worried about spam, make it so anonymous users can't comment.
7. NETWORK
Get a Facebook page and a Twitter account to stay connected. Twitter is my go to place when I want the latest news. Goodreads is my personal favorite because it's like Facebook for book lovers. You can see updates on books your friends are reading, and this is where I find most of the interesting looking books I add to my TBR pile.
8. DON'T DO IT FOR FREE BOOKS
If you started blogging for the pretty ARCs that you see in the blogosphere, you should stop right now. Book blogging is for those passionate about reading. Don't lose sight of that!
As a new blogger, (in my opinion) you shouldn't even be requesting ARCs. If you want advance books, set up a Netgalley account. They're pretty lenient on who they give ebooks to.
9. DON'T GET CAUGHT UP WITH STATS
Don't worry about how many pageviews or followers you have. Not gonna lie, I did this a lot as a new blogger. It will just stress you out and take the fun out of it.
10. DON'T FEEL OBLIGATED
You don't have to accept every single review request. When I got my first one, I was ecstatic!! And for the first several, I said yes no matter what. And guess what? Now I'm stuck with books I don't want to read. Reading should never, ever be a chore. This isn't high school anymore. Read whatever the heck you want, whenever you want to!
I had this problem with Netgalley, too. I went on a giant requesting spree when I first started and again, I'm stuck with books I don't want to read. Be picky about the review requests you accept. Just be polite when you say no!
Leave me your links loverlies :)
Labels:Top ten Tuesday
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Great advice. I hate hate hate hate hate captcha. No one needs that on their blog.
ReplyDeleteFirst things someone advised me was to turn off the captcha!
ReplyDeleteVery annoying when I have to do it so now I understand why they advised that.
I think don't feel obligated is good advice for more than just review books... don't feel obligated to follow every blog you come across, don't feel obligated to read that book that everyone else is loving, etc... do what makes you happy, right?
ReplyDeleteThis is great. I've had my blog for about 3 months and I am constantly getting caught up in my stats instead of focusing on why I wanted to start a blog in the first place which was to have a place to capture my thoughts on books I read.
ReplyDelete"Do what makes you happy" - that's exactly what I was going for!! :D
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - and don't get upset if someone doesn't like your favorite book. I forgot that one. It drives me crazy when people comment on a 1 or 2 star review like, "I can't believe you didn't like this, blah blah blah."
ReplyDeleteBoo to captcha. And your advice on saying 'no' is definitely something you need to learn quickly. Networking and commenting seem to be a common theme today. Must be because everybody loves comments and making friends... ;)
ReplyDeleteMy Top Ten. Don't forget to check out my <a href="http://www.manda-rae-reads.com/2012/04/author-interview-and-giveaway-hollow-of.html'>giveaway</a>.
I think sometimes I need to work on my grammer and writing, but I don't always catch what I write sometimes (and just for you, I fixed up my comment with the grammer, I hope)! OH MAN!!!! captcha drives me so crazy!!!! And what sucked, is that I had it on my blog and didn't even know it!!!! gah!!!!! I think people seriously need to check this crap!!! great tips!!!
ReplyDeleteTara's Top Ten and Giveaway
GREAT List! I got caught up in netgalley when I first signed up for it... and now, I will occasionally look to see what is offered... not every other day like I used to. I didn't follow your 'don't feel obligated' one at first... now I have learned. I love GoodReads too... and that is exactly how I phrased it - FB for booklovers! Thanks for a great list!
ReplyDeleteGRAMMAR. This bothers me so much! Mix-ups of homonyms drive me crazy.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for saying that rants are your favorite reviews to write. I always feel bad for thinking that, but it's so true :P
Thanks for stopping by my post!
Love the tips! Thank you so much for posting them. My brain has officially turned to mush from over-saturation of the most incredibly helpful advice today :)
ReplyDeleteFellow CAPTCHA-hater,
Angela @ AJ Arndt Books Blog
Thankyou for the tips, I'm a new blogger myself :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a fellow bad-grammar hater. I literally had a meltdown when my Mum sent me an email that said house's instead of houses (!)
And I can sympathize with the comment thing, I hate hate hate it when people copy and paste- big no-no.
-Abbey
http://teacupsandbooks.blogspot.co.uk/
LOVE it! You hit the nail on the head. I will admit that I sometimes have grammar issues in my posts since the majority of the time I type them up in the morning when I am still chuggin' my java. However, I always reread my posts and have been known to correct older posts because I saw something that just didn't sound right.
ReplyDeleteDesign- I still having issues with. I could mess with that baby all day and not be 100% satisfied. Sometimes I need to just walk away.
Honesty is always key. I hate bloggers who LOVE every book they read. I don't sugar coat my reviews but I do always have a favorite part tagged at the bottom of the review to always try to end it on a good note.
For me Captcha would have been number one. You could type your review shorthand and have the busiest blog on the net but please for the love of God take down the CAPTCHA!
With all this being said you and I are very similar and I am now a follower :oP
I'm a fairly new blogger, but I completely agree with everything you wrote here. Design - yeah I'm shall too. God I spend so much time messing with my design. And Captcha - makes me want to throw things. I know I make the occasional grammar mistake, but when posts are riddled with mistakes I cringe. Anyway, thanks for sharing your tips!
ReplyDelete