When we start out blogging, we tend to have all these wild ideas about how book blogging actually works. More than that, we have so many hopes, a Iot of which seem to be ungrounded. So I’ve decided to write a post about book blogging myths we often start out with. Maybe it could prevent some confusion and disappointment in newbies? I’m certainly not saying you should skip having hopes and desires – but I think it’s a better thing to start doing anything if you have a clearer picture of what’s the general experience and how you can manage your expectations. I would have certainly been less burned out and disappointed, had I realized some of these things when I first started blogging!
An image comparing two situations: “what people think book blogging is” which has a pleasing image of tasty food, tea, and a book in someone’s hands, versus a situation that’s labelled “what book blogging can actually be”, depicting a woman with a confused and worried face, reading a book with multiple book stacks around her
Book blogging myth #1.
The more followers I have, the more traffic my blog is going to have.
While this seems to make sense and could be true for some bloggers, it hasn’t been the case for me at all. So it seems that this is just one of those things that can go either way. When I was a ‘younger’ blogger, I used to constantly berate myself about my low follow rates, and thought that my traffic must suck because of it. Surely, if I had more followers, I would have more visitors too!
Now, some two years later, I look back at my stats and realize that it turns out that I had way more blog traffic back then, when I had only half my followers of now. Shocking, huh?
The thing is, your visits don’t just depend on your follows. A lot of visitors come through search and social media too, and those are quite often the silent readers – they don’t leave comments and you don’t know who they are. They are most likely not your followers. So it’s very easy to assume they’re not there.
And then there’s another thing. Traffic also depends on how your often you post, what books you review and how active you are on social media. I would venture to say those are way more important to your visits than follows – especially because follows can “grow stale” – some of your followers never stopped following you – they stooped using WordPress altogether and just don’t read any blogs anymore.
Yes, follows are nice. But they are not everything.
Book blogging myth #2.
My follows should grow just as fast as everyone else’s.
A pencil drawing of a chart with a line that keeps going up and up, and the chart has “fame” on the vertical axis and “love” on the horizontal one
Absolutely a myth. Everyone’s follows grow at their own rate, and there are so many different reasons for the different rates. Do you blog popular books or not? Do you blog YA? Do you review comic books? How often do you post and blog hop? How active are you on social media? Have you been an Instagram influencer before you started blogging?
And these aren’t even all the questions – things like where you’re from and whether your WordPress is free or self-hosted can also change things. Blogging is a lot like real life – some people get happily married because they were at the right place and the right time and met someone cool. Some people get awesome jobs because it just so happened. You might have those same character traits as them, but your life story might have just gone differently. Hard to compare, but I feel like ultimately that’s how blog follows work too.
We just can’t compare. We shouldn’t compare.
Book blogging myth #3.
Everyone else has more blog visits / post reads than me.
That’s probably not true. There’s a great confusion about “what stats I should have as a blogger”, and so many blog posts have already been done on this. Whenever there’s a poll, it reveals that the vast majority of bloggers think “normal” blog posts get way more views than they actually do. If anything, these polls only reveal our self-deprecating nature and how prone to that we are.
Most review posts get like 50-100 views for the vast majority of bloggers throughout the lifetime of that post. Don’t beat yourself up.
Book blogging myth #4.
I have to be on every kind of social media.
A pencil drawing of a curly girl (me), juggling five balls and looking alarmed (for the record, I can barely juggle two or three)
Not true. In fact, it’s better if you’re not. Cause unless you’re independently wealthy and do nothing else but blog, you just won’t be able to handle your daily life and all that social media at once. More than that, you won’t be able to put quality content on it. And people can easily see when you’re not present.
Then there’s another thing. If someone claims some said social media site is really working out for them, it doesn’t mean you must absolutely be on it too. For example: Pinterest seems to be the social media that works REALLY well for some bloggers, but the rest have tried it and scratch their head continously, trying various tutorials, to figure out what they did wrong (I will admit, I’m one of those – Pinterest is one social media I completely don’t understand.) What I think though, is that looking for your ‘mistakes’ on a certain social media is a waste of time. Want to know why? Because if you don’t use it for fun, you won’t be able to harness it. It’s like that for me with Pinterest – I don’t use it and I don’t enjoy it. I did try to make it work and I followed all the tutorials, but it just felt like a chore. So I dropped it.
I guess what makes you good at a certain social media site is that you enjoy the process. If it starts feeling like a chore, you’re probably better off not investing time in it.
There are plenty of real life chores out there – there’s no point of making your hobby into a chore too.
Looking for your 'mistakes' on certain social media sites is a waste of time. Want to know why? Because if you don't use it for fun, you won't be able to harness it. More #bookblogging myths here: Click To TweetBook blogging myth #5.
It’s going to be super easy to monetize my blog.
A pencil drawing of bookish scribbles being run through a magic black box and turning into stacks of money, which I admit I am not good at drawing so just take my word on it
See, there are definitely blogs out there that end up bringing the blogger some income. But you need to decide very early on whether you want this to be a job, or a hobby. And you need to make it one or the other.
The thing about book blogs is that the vast majority of them can’t get monetized at all. Another thing is that it’s a lot harder to monetize a book blog than, say, a lifestyle blog. Which is why I say that you need to decide early on. Book blogs tend to have much smaller audiences than beauty, lifestyle or travel blogs, so it prevents us from being able to monetize. If you want to still, maybe you could make your blog a lifestyle one, with a certain focus on books.
Another thing about monetizing is that when bloggers start out, they somehow don’t think that it will require work. Blogs are presented to look like fun, sitting around with coffee cups, cats and cake in front of bright windows, nice knit throws and great interior, and just enjoying life in general. But in reality, the only way you’ll end up being paid for product features is if you’re willing to sell out – because you can’t guarantee the product you’ll be reviewing will be that great. In this case, I’m not talking about book reviews. They’re almost never paid. If they are, you probably don’t want to read the books.
There are definitely blogs that end up bringing in some income. But you need to decide early on whether you want it to be a job or a hobby. And you need to make it one or the other. Click To TweetShort tangent though – I think Instagram is easier to monetize than blogs. l’ve heard of paid tours for bookstagram, but not for book blogs. This might be the case for booktube as well. Plus, Instagram is so much easier to branch out into seamless product features. So if you’re looking into monetization, that’s a direction you should look into.
Now, you say I haven’t even mentioned affiliate links or ad banners. HA HA HA! Because I’m not going to mention them. I have had affiliate links for two years and they have not brought in a single penny. Now you might say my blog is just shit – I’ll leave it up to you to decide. But hear me out why I say this.
Ad banners are something I have never had – because most bloggers I’ve talked to have said they barely even bring in cents, and l’ve never wanted to waste my time on dealing with the taxes for such paltry sums (that’s another thing you want to look into if you’re trying to monetize – your country will most likely tax you on it.) The best I’ve heard about monetizing is that it covers hosting fees for some bloggers. That’s like less than 10 bucks a month. I’ll leave it at that.
However, don’t think I’m telling you not to monetize. Just know what you’re up against and pick the right medium and strategy.
Blogs are presented to look like fun - sitting around with coffee cups, cats and cake in front of bright windows and just enjoying life. But is it really all that easy? Let's look at some #bookblogging myths: Click To TweetBook blogging myth #6.
I need to be this tall and this pretty to get review copies.
A drawing of a curly girl (me), looking distraught because she doesn’t measure up to a height measuring arrow that has “good blogger!” above the clouds, “mediocre blogger” slightly below them, and lastly “what are you even doing?”, my characters scores below that and there’s a sad face drawn next to it
Ah yes, the review copies. The blessing and the bane of a new blogger’s existence. The source of joy when you do get them, but regardless, a constant source of stress – whether you’re getting them or not.
The bloggers who don’t get them wonder when they’ll be “big enough” to get them. The ones that get them, request too much and can’t deal. Meanwhile, the internationals wonder if they even… count as bloggers.
Thing is, getting review copies is quite similar to getting followers – it’s individual! It depends on where you’re from. And also what books you request. And even aside from that, there are many other factors that I’ve already talked about in many posts (here, here and here). The main takeaways are:
- you are never “too small” or “too young as a blogger” to request. So just try!
- there’s also a certain etiquette to requesting and being approved, so read up on it
- it’s better to try than to wonder if you even qualify
- if you’re international, consider which region you’re requesting from (Europeans might have more luck with UK publishers, for example)
- if you’re international, you can still ABSOLUTELY get print review copies. Just not all of them and not from everywhere.
- you should really think before you request: are you requesting for the right reasons? Are you sure you can handle the time frame? Are you only requesting because of the hype, or do you genuinely want the book?
Regardless of whether you get review copies or not, you should never judge yourself based on that. Review copies are NOT something that determines the worth of a blogger. So also, like I said before – don’t beat yourself up.
Book blogging myth #7.
I must do this popular thing everyone’s doing.
Many bloggers believe that they must read hyped books, or at the very least, YA books to have a popular blog. While it is true that it will likely bring more traffic, if you’re forcing yourself to read something you only half care about, it won’t work. Lack of enjoyment will show, and even if people were to like it, will you? How long can you keep doing something you only half like ? Another important question would be… Why?
Do I really have to review popular books to be a popular #bookblogger? This and more #bookblogging myths: Click To TweetBook blogging myth #8.
I will be an authority and have an audience when I start blogging.
I don’t know if this is a thing for many others, but it was certainly a misconception I had when I started blogging, and I think it was mostly due to the fact that I work in marketing. I looked at blogging as a marketer, and in a way, that makes sense, but it really stops when you realize you’re not talking to a crowd – you’re talking to a community. Most of us don’t even know this exists before we start blogging. And yes, it’s true that some blogs are marketing blogs – but those are usually big and actually someone’s business. Blogging in a bookish community is so very different. But I believe, also so much more fun!
So now you’re wondering… Why blog at all?
Well… I feel bad about bursting a lot of these bubbles, because whatever we may say, we do care about the follows, popularity and the review copies. But now I’ve made it all sound so hard! Should you even keep blogging after this?
Yes. Yes, you should keep blogging!
Because the biggest reward that we are often not even aware of when we first start blogging is… The book blogging community. The community is about the most positive bunch of people there is! You tell them you’re disappointed and distraught about something, they’ll write you ton of warm and lovely messages and tweets. You say you don’t get review copies, they’ll set you up with contacts or send you books. And most importantly, they’ll fangirl / fanboy with you, they’ll just plain old talk to you about your personal life and they’ll become your best friends. I’m not even kidding!
That’s why I still blog, having burned myself out, gone through all of these myths being shattered before my very eyes and realizing I don’t have enough time for the blogging and real life. And yet I still keep going, because I just love being in this amazing community. It’s about the people!!! And… okay. It’s also somewhat about the books 😉
What people think #bookblogging is VS what book blogging can actually be - the greatest book blogging myths @avalinahsbooks has encountered: Click To TweetThere are way more book blogging myths out there. But these are the ones I can come up with now. Do you have others? If so, definitely share it with me in the comments!
I’m Evelina and I blog about books that made an impression on me. I love middle grade, women’s, scifi and some literary too.
Evelina, this is such a fantastic post! I feel like I went through all these points and misconceptions since September when I really started blogging. And they’re all so TRUE. This should be an obligatory read to every new blogger because book blogging has to be all about the love for books and keeping it as a hobby. Monetizing it is so impossible right now
Thank you! 🙂 I feel like I still missed a few things, but you can’t have it all – and I just couldn’t remember. These just seem to be the most painful ones that most of us have experienced!
And yeah, I think monetizing, even for non-book blogs, is kind of… in the past now. So many people have blogs or websites now. And click prices are small. I’ve heard that not even the Youtube influencers make that much on ads anymore.
To be honest, being an authority on ANYTHING is the last thing I’d want. I am just a small human yelling my opinions out into the void and, occasionally, someone yells back.
Aw 🙂 really? I wanted to be an authority xD but now I find that ridiculous. Although I think that’s my A type personality with the authority wish thing though 😀
This is such a great post, Evelina! I loved reading all these myths that you have debunked. You’re right! Starting a book blog makes us expect sooo many things but it’s not exactly all of that. It’s so much more hardwork and if it’s not enjoyable, it can really tire someone out. The monetization is truly the biggest myth. Some people who know me in real life often assume I’m getting books and being paid to review them so that must be fun and I’m like… LOL Nah, no paying for reviews but we still love to review books because… Read more »
Thank you, Fanna <3 that's true, it's a TON of hard work (as evidenced by me, answering my comments half a year later. Yes.)
I wonder what it would feel like to get paid to read though, you know? That would be crazy 😀 (not paid to review, but to read... You know, like if you worked as a reviewer in some newspaper...) Then they'd be paying for just the content you produce, and not the review or rating itself.
Such a good post Evelina! I feel the affiliate one in my *soul* as I’ve earned about £1 since using them haha
Well that is a whole lot more than me still xD I have earned a round 0 😀 yes, truly it is “impressive” how this just doesn’t work with book blogging, for some reason. It’s a little bit sad!
What a helpful post, E! ❤️
I certainly had quite a lot of misconceptions when I first started. And you were right—the review copy one was my favorite here! I’m definitely an example that being international doesn’t stop you from getting print copies. And you’re right—they so don’t decide your worth as a blogger. It’s just one of those things.
Also, keep these illustrations coming, okay? They’re so cute!
Thank you 🙂 haha, I always remember – wasn’t it you who said you’d only take print copies and you thought they wouldn’t send them to you, but you still got overwhelmed? xD hahaha.
And thanks, I’ll try to keep it up with the drawings, but the biggest problem for me is coming up with themes and ideas for them 😀
This is so true! I was nodding my head through most of this post, lol! I definitely had similar misconceptions when I first started and, boy have I been thrown off the cloud I was on! But I agree, the book community is one of the most welcoming communities I’ve ever been a part of!
Haha, thanks 🙂 and yes, it’s true!
Love you! Your posts always rock and this one is no exception for sure.
Thank you Susan 🙂 <3
I so agree with these Evelina! I have especially found the first to be true. When I went self hosted I moved where my follow button was and my follower numbers never increased. Yet my views have steadily increased since day one. It’s kind of odd but so true! (I have since added another way to follow and now the number of followers has movied. hehehe)
Interesting! Yes, the follow stuff can be strange. I also wonder about it!
This is such a great post, Evelina! I really need to remind myself that I don’t have to be active on ALL social media in order to be successful. I particularly feel pressure to be on Instagram since that’s a super popular platform, but honestly, I just can’t keep up and put out enough quality content. So thank you for that reminder <3
Thank you! Yes, haha, the social media pressure is a lot indeed. And yes, I absolutely fail with the Instagram xD I even take the pictures and just don’t upload them (facepalm) I guess I just don’t enjoy that particular social network as much as I should.
Such a fantastic post, that really really spoke to me! 🙂 ❤ I definitely struggle with trying to compare my blog growth with others, even though I know that these things are so individual and just because you’re a bit ‘slower’ doesn’t mean your content doesn’t matter! I’m also not on every social media e.g. I’m not on Instagram at all, because it doesn’t work for me.
Thank you 🙂 I think we’re all prone to comparing. And even though I know I should, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to stop!
Great post! I loved all the illustrations you drew! Also, the misconceptions are so true and it is really helpful for new bloggers to know and understand it early on!
Thank you 🙂
This is a fantastic post!! Thank you for your myth busting! I love the illustrations too, especially the blogger with the height chart – that encapsulates exactly how I feel! But I’m not quitting, because like you say, the best bit is the community and the friends you make. B xx
Thanks Bella 🙂 yeah, definitely true! It’s all about the people 🙂
This is such a good post- and I really relate to so much of it!! I especially like what you said about social media and I always just think ?!?!?! when people talk about monetisation, cos I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to do that and don’t know any book bloggers that have managed to do that! And like how you ended on a positive note 🙂
Aww, thanks 🙂 yes, haha xD I think monetizing a) worked in the past b) maybe still works for non-book related blogs. Other than that, I don’t know! Certainly not in our community xD
Wonderful post ! I specially adored some of your answers to them myths. I also wanna bring up the myth that Book blogging shall solely be book reviews – let me tell you.. my blog gets maybe between 2-4 book reviews a month xD That’s one of the myth that made me pull off trying at the beginning.. as you see, I don’t read that much books per month! But actually, while there is some blogs “reviews only” .. It’s not my cup of tea. I rather have a mix of conversation and reviews, because well – we wanna see… Read more »
Thank you 🙂 you’re right! It’s actually so much fun to do non-book posts as well. Yeah, I also love discussion posts more. And you’re right, it’s always very interesting to learn more about the blogger!
Great post! There are a lot of great reasons to blog, but one thing I know for sure: book bloggers are great!
Thank you, and yes they are! 🙂
Nicely explained by you. I am agree with your thoughts. Anyway when I started blogging I have no idea that I could even monetize that. I just started it as a hobby. My main purpose was to share whatever I am reading. So practically I had no expectations from blog. It’s just happiness to blog about books.
I think that is the best way to start blogging, to be honest 🙂
Great post. I usually get a good laugh when people think I earn money on book blogging. Luckily I recieve 10+ review copies a year from publishers, which helps a bit in terms of my book budget.
Haha, exactly 😀 you know, I also thought that I saved money on books by getting the review copies, but I’ve realized that ever since I’ve started blogging, I also buy more books than I used to (facepalm)
I used to think this way when I started 5 years ago. I thought I needed all the followers ever! So I’d do giveaways like crazy. In the end, I had many followers, but not many views nor engagement. So when I started again, I said to heck with followers. I’m just going to focus on posting what I want. Whoever wants to follo, will follow because they genuinely want to. And let me tell you, my engagement and views/engagement have been more in these few months than all my years combined. I also thought I had to post every… Read more »
Haha, haven’t we all! Wow, I never actually did do giveaways 🙂 (so stressful, aren’t they?) And yeah, it seems engagement and followers are two completely different things, huh 🙂 man, posting every single day is something I could never do. Just so much time! Now I barely post once a week xD I used to post three times, and now I don’t even know how I ever managed that.
Awesome post! Some people seem to think that earning money by blogging is easy. I’ve had ads on my blog for over a year, and I’ve made exactly $0. I’ve had more luck with getting donations through Ko-Fi, but I don’t think I’ll ever make a living by blogging.
Thank you, Aj. Yeah, exactly! (Somehow I’ve never made a Kofi, that would make sense though!)
Amazing post Ava!!!!!!! I still believe in some of these myth. I bookmarked this to read while I’m down.
Thank you 🙂
Such an amazing post!! Blogging is so much about what you want to do and what you’re passionate about and I think a lot of people lose track of that sometimes? Because they’re so caught up on what’s seen as popular – which is totally fine to do – but also do what you want to do.
This community is seriously like my favourite community, I just love seeing everyone chat to each other and encourage other people to read more books!
Thank you! 🙂 (and sorry for the late comment reply :D)
Oh, Evelina this post is PERFECT! I can relate to so many of these myths, especially the paperback review ARCs that everyone seems to get except me, well that was until the amazing Dianne Duvall sent me a signed copy of her upcoming Death of Darkness. I am still fangirling a week later as I’m such a huge fan of her writing I never expected her to send me a copy. Can you tell, I’m still gushing now!! Living in the UK, being a book blogger who reads adult paranormal romance but not reading YA, I sometimes feel in a… Read more »
Hahaha, thank you 🙂 yes, I’ve noticed most people thought this post was relatable! Why do we have so many misconceptions about blogging? Social media effect, I guess? That’s so awesome you got a signed copy of an author you truly love 🙂 that’s always a huge win! And yes, haha, you’re right about YA – somehow, the weird thing about it – it seems in bookstores, YA barely exists? But on the internet, it’s all YA? 😀 truly strange 🙂 and yes! A definite NO from me to Pinterest 🙂
I love this so much! I’ve had my blog for like 5 years now but when I was starting out I believed SO MUCH of this. It took time for me to realize I was wrong about 99% of my assumptions.
Haha, I think I still semi-believe some of this stuff 😀
[…] Mari from Musings of a Book Girl features author, Christina June on her blog!Destiny participated in T10T & shared Oddly Specific Settings that she wants to see more of!Steve Stred & Ladies of Horror Fiction partnered up to create the LOHF Writer’s Grant!Kat from Novels & Waffles introduces us to the Bibliosmile Project; check out her post to see how you can spread positivity & share some smiles!Noura from The Perks of Being Noura shares a printable review copy tracker!Avalinah tells us some of the greatest book blogging myths that she’s come across! […]
This is an awesome post! All of it is so true. When I started my first blog, I didn’t even know monetising any kind of blog was a thing so I was completely happy just doing my thing. When I got my first eARC, I felt like I’d won the lottery. I think that blogging is so popular now that people think it must be easy and underestimate how much work maintaining an active blog is and that burns them out quickly. My advice for someone wanting to start a blog is to just be yourself and do you. Don’t… Read more »
Thank you! Haha, you didn’t know about ARCs? 🙂 that’s actually pretty cool, cause I can imagine how happy you were 🙂 but yeah, blogging can take SO MUCH WORK AND TIME. But it’s also rewarding. Mostly because of the other people here you can talk about this stuff with 🙂
I love this so much. It is so true. I cannot, in fact, handle more than twitter and Goodreads. That’s it, stick a fork in me. I tried and failed to handle more social stuff it ended up being less fun. All I can expect from myself is to reach out into the wilderness and hope that someone reaches back, and we have a lovely conversation. That’s it. It is enough for me.
Yes! I mean, if you don’t have any other life or work committments, maybe you could – but like.. If you have stuff to do besides the social media, then it’s just impossible. It’s so easy to see how blogging could just be a full time, all-consuming thing!
[…] Book Blogging Myths […]
oh AGREED. So so many misconceptions! like I used to have amazing traffic and 100s of comments…but honestly not that many followers. And I always thought that was a huge failing for me?! But in reality…eh. It is what it is. Really you just have to work with what you have AND blog how you like! Another misconception I had when I started blogging was that if you took a hiatus everything would INSTANTLY DESIST and lol, that’s very bad for one’s mental health to never take breaks! It’s ok to take breaks!!
I feel like you have more followers than most people I know, really! Although most of yours are on Bloglovin, I guess? But yeah, follows… Are disappointing xD I guess maybe they matter more on social media? I don’t even know. Follows are like potential views, I guess, but it’s your content that makes them into views. So I suppose it’s a combination of both. Haha, I also thought that about hiatuses, and I sort of still do. Everything went South for my blog when I took my first one xD
It seems so hard to enjoy something just for being something that you enjoy and get little other rewards out of it. And yet, for many of us, that’s what book blogging is. While it would be fantastic if we could get paid enough to live on by just plodding along with our reviews and other bookish posts it’s just not feasible or realistic. Instead, we need the reminder to step back and be thankful for what we really do get out of this hobby – friends, a community, a past-time, and access to some fantastic books (even if it… Read more »
Yeah, it’s sort of an interesting balance – and one very easy to lose, unfortunately! Ultimately, it must be worth it, cause we’d all drop it.
Such a fantastic post, and after close to 5 years of blogging about books – I’ve to say, I couldn’t agree more – with every single point you have mentioned! And I completely get the frustration that is Pinterest. I’ve been in the same boat. Not only did I not enjoy it, whenever I got close to understanding all the darn rules, they changed it – every single time! So much so that they made me want to ugly cry and scream at the same time!! And I love your ending note. It’s so very true. Even though this a… Read more »
Thank you! And thanks for tweeting about the post as well 🙂 hah, wow – they changed Pinterest? Well I’m sort of glad I never did try earnestly, because it’s totally not worth it when you’re not enjoying it. Hm, sadly I am now thinking of quitting because of the community precisely. Ironic how that post came out at a time like this, huh. But this community has indeed given me a lot of happy times as well, so it’s still true.
Firstly – I loved the drawings, I think they are so cool and great for this post. Secondly, this is a great post and it is inspiring and informative as well, plus a good advice to keep on blogging because these myths are just myths.
I recently returned back to blogging after a hot-n-cold relationship this year and it is hard to get back to where I was – especially to balance blogging, being active in the community, reading and real life! I have no idea how I did it before, but that first picture is exactly how I feel.
I know what you mean, I’ve been on off all year myself. I’m serious thinking of quitting right now due to the latest Twitter drama though. Don’t know if I want to stay after that. And yeah lol, I think the balance is something of an illusion that you create for yourself in the first year – and it seems to be working out because you stop doing everything, just so you could blog. Eventually it crumbles, and here we are. I wonder if there’s a more sustainable way to blog!
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Lovely post, Evelina 🙂 I so agree with you on all the points. Starting a blog certainly looks like a cakewalk but later you realise it is nowhere near to that. I have still quite a low following, even after 2 years, but this doesn’t affect my will to blog. Dedication is certainly needed for blogging and I know I haven’t been the most dedicated one this year. I do agree with you on monetization. It is so hard for book bloggers to monetize our blogs. I haven’t earned a single penny too. I don’t know how book bloggers even… Read more »
Yes, haha! Cakewalk is a good word for it. And I can’t believe you’ve already blogged for two years – doesn’t time just fly? Hahaha, the “free” thing as well xD I don’t know, I guess we just enjoy the company of other bloggers 🙂
[…] Evelinah @AvilanahBooks shared some book blogging myths. […]
These myths are so acurate! It’s hard coming into blogging for the first time because you think you’ll have all of this free time but it’s not like that at all. I’m still learning how to balance my life and blogging and it’s been two years!
Haha, thanks 🙂 I am just chilling out and NOT POSTING most of the time now xD and I constantly struggle with wondering whether I’m still a blogger or not 😀
Hahahaaa!!! This is so accurate! I wish I had a guide like this when I started blogging…. sigh…
“Meanwhile, the internationals wonder if they even… count as bloggers.”- this.hit.hard. it’s a tough job being a book blogger but being an international book blogger? I can’t say that there haven’t been rimes when I questioned the reasons I blogged about books! Especially since Netgalley started disregarding us all and added the “wish for it” thing.
Yeah, don’t we all 😀 but would you have believed it? I’m not sure I would have. I know I sort of “knew”, but didn’t really believe a lot of those things when I started out.
So many points that are Oh So True! I love that you put this post together and only wish I could have read it five years ago when I started seriously blogging!
Haha, thank you 🙂
[…] @ Avalinah’s Books has an excellent post about The Greatest Blogging Myths she’s […]
I hear you re Pinterest. I spent a lot of time and effort on it a few years ago and it made not one iota of difference in traffic to my site. I’ve come to realise its the electronic equivalent of a scrapbook – people see a pic in a magazine, think it looks good and cut it out and stick it in a scrapbook. They would never think of contacting the magazine or the photographer to get more info. Similarly with Pinterest, people just add a pin they like to their own board and that;s it. So zero interaction.
That is true – or I guess, maybe it’s good if they actually want to buy the things they put in their scrapbook? I guess it’s more useful for interiot decorating items or clothes that way, than in blogging about books. Either way, Pinterest remains a mystery to me.
I finally had time to read this post Evelina! This is just very enlightening and I can totally find myself in these “myths”. After three years now I’ve made peace with most of them as I’ve realized that slowing down and just posting the ay it makes me happy is more important if I still want to enjoy blogging. I would say the best advice I could give to someone is “be you and do you, to hell with what everyone is saying you “should” do” 😉
Thank you for taking the time to write such post Evelina!
You’re definitely right 🙂 thank you, Sophie – and I’m glad you liked my post 🙂 thanks for reading!
Interesting point about which is the most meaningful statistic – numbers of followers or number of visitors. I used to think it was followers that I should pay more attention to but am slow,y do I g to realise that seem people click on follow me buttons purely in the hope that you will follow them, back . They are not that interested in engaging with you on your blog,
Yes, that is true! Then again, when you go past like 200 followers, it’s really hard to keep reciprocating because that’s a lot of people!
This is such a brilliant post. You’ve summarised it so well and I learned quite a new things, namely that I don’t have to active on EVERY social media site. I feel you with marketing, I’m from a marketing and sales background as well, so I have to still work on that part, but I think I’ve been practically had that sales mindset ingrained into me since I was a child, so giving it up is basically not being me. Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you! Haha, yes, isn’t it like that – although I think that the “successful” big bloggers do use the “marketing mindset”. But then again, they probably miss out on being a part of a community – so I don’t know.. That would be so lonely.
I’m so glad I read this so early in my blogging days! Thank you for this, I think we all need a reminder to blog for the right reasons!
I’m so glad it has been useful 🙂
I love this post! Although I have to admit that when I started blogging many moons ago, I didn’t know what most of those things you are talking about, were. I was totally certain that I would never do anything with social media and sure, you don’t have to do it. And you’re totally right when you say that it drains your energy. I feel that. But unfortunately it also helps with engagement and with being seen. I feel like my blog has only picked up when I started a twitter account two months ago. I don’t know how to… Read more »
I actually had social media before I even had a blog 😀 I started it to check out the waters, so to say. Get an idea how things work and if I really want to do it. Agreed, without social media almost nobody will come to your blog, unfortunately – because they don’t even know it exists. The internet is too big to just enable you to be found without putting yourself out there somehow 🙂
A terrific post. Wonderful insight.
Thank you!
I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement with every debunking point you made. I see so many bloggers get worked up when their stats fall even a little, they only read X number of books so far this year, they have too many review copies to read. I’d love to tell every one of them that it really doesn’t matter. You went into blogging for fun (apart from those people who thought they could make money) but somewhere along the line they’ve forgotten that.
Yes, absolutely! Somewhere along the way we forget it, and it’s so easy, because it does get quite competitive, for whatever reason. But I guess that is true of most things in life 🙂
I would MUCH appreciate it if you wrote a post on monetizing your Bookstagram! 🙂
I wish I could! I don’t monetize it myself. I don’t really have an active Bookstagram at the moment either.