Good morning everyone. :D

I thought I’d talk a little bit today about staying true to yourself as a blogger, and also posting content that interests you and that you’d like to read, and not posting things you don’t necessarily care about because you think it’s expected.

Don’t compare yourself to other bloggers.

When I first started book blogging, I have to admit, I was in a little over my head. I visited a whole bunch of blogs and generally knew that in order to run a book blog, you’d need to be able to post certain things apart from reviews if you want to have a successful blog. A lot of my original posts were really trial and error.. mostly error if I am honest about it! haha

It’s very easy to fall into this trap of feeling like you have to “keep up with the Joneses”. You know what I mean - Sally posts a whole lot of author interviews, and so maybe I should post author interviews too. Or Marie participates in so many blog tours… to be successful maybe I need to also?

Stop for a minute before you go down this route and think - is this something I really want to do because I think it sounds fun? Or am I just doing it because I feel like I need to?

Find your voice.

It’s tough, especially when you’re a new blogger. I know when you first start, you want to be like everyone else, just for guidance if for nothing else. There’s nothing wrong with being different.

Every successful blogger that I know of in the book blogging community has gotten this way by being unique or unusual. There are so many book blogs out there that have the same features, and same memes and same templates and look and when you compare them to the blogs that have major followings, it’s very clear what the difference is. Owners of successful blogs are not afraid to try new things, or to do things differently to how they’ve traditionally been done. They take risks, and they post things on their blog that they find really engaging themselves. And traditionally, at least with the blogs that I follow, they’re all really good communicators. They’ve found their voice, and their niche and they’re sticking with it.

Post content that you would genuinely want to read on other blogs.

I can’t stress that enough.

I am not perfect at this, it’s easier said than done. But seriously - when you’re about to hit publish on your latest post - firsly imagine yourself going to a blog you really enjoy and respect. Imagine reading that post on their blog. Is it engaging? Is it something you would honestly like to read? Is it boring? (Not a fun question to ask yourself, but we sometimes need to ask the tough questions) Am I just posting this because I feel I have to as a book blogger?

If you cannot say 100% that you’re enjoying what you’re posting - do not post it. That simple.

And I know some of you right now are sitting back and thinking “Der.. who’s going to post something they don’t love?”, but to tell you the truth, it happens all the time.

Think about the types of posts you mostly like to read when you visit other blogs. Whatever those posts are that you enjoy, that’s the type of thing you need to post more of on your own blog. The beauty of this is that we are all different people, and things that don’t really interest me all that much are the same things that other people absolutely love - and vica versa.

Personally speaking, I know blog tours and author interviews on a general level don’t interest me, and I’ll mostly scroll past these without a second glance. That’s why you won’t come here expecting to see a lot of these on this blog. That being said, if you ever do see interviews and blog tours, it’s because something has really excited me! lol

Because I am always trying to improve and trying to do better you’ll see a lot more discussion posts, blogging tips and posts where we actually get to communicate better with our readers, because I personally know when I visit other blogs, those are the posts that I really enjoy the most.

I hope you find some of this useful! As I said last week, I will post more things like this in the coming weeks. If you have a question or something you want to know more about, let me know in the comments below, or email me at booknerdreviews@gmail.com and I might just answer your question in an upcoming blog. :)