So I started my blog about a month ago now and it has been such an experience.
I started my bookstagram without a clue of what I was going to be doing or how to do it! To date after a month, I feel I am still in that position, I am still learning. I am still reading how-to guides for blogs, downloading apps to help with photos and scheduling of posts, trying to understand what an SEO is or my RSS. Reading if you want to target a wider audience you need to be on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Goodreads, Bloglovin’ etc, so obediently I signed up to everything and now trying to figure out how to use it effectively. My brain is just going kablooey! With being a single mother at the moment, husband is a soldier who’s currently abroad, to a lively 4-year-old girl and working full-time in Finance my attention span in the evenings is not great as expected.
Sometimes in my downtime, I wonder if I am just getting carried away and should just enjoy what I have created for myself. But having OCD like I do, I want to be able to reach out to as many people I can. I want my blog to be a place where people can come and have a little read and chat about books.
But then I reflect on what I have achieved in this month alone.
- Having this blog it has helped me improve on my writing skills as I spend all day with numbers!
- I am constantly trying to improve my posts and posting strategies
- I discovered Net Galley and I have been approved to read 75 books (last count) by publishers of which I have finished 1 and posted my review for it!
- I have gained some confidence in myself as I reached out to 3 authors following my book reviews and all agreed to do a Q&A for me (the most recent will published in a couple of weeks) and all gave me some really positive words. This to me is just amazing in itself! I am just the little person (literally)
- I have spoken to some really amazing book bloggers on Instagram and starting to build a small little community of friends on there
- Most importantly, I created a blog! I love what I have achieved with it and always looking for ways to improve it and myself
My passion for books has increased ten-fold, I was enjoying reading just for me. Now I feel that I take more care when reading as I want to enjoy them for everyone. When reading, and creating this blog, I am constantly trying to think what would I want to know if I wasn’t doing this. What sells a book to me? What do I want to see when looking at my blog? layout? look? All this being increasingly motivating for me. So does it really matter if I don’t use the correct SEO, or pictures on Instagram. I am still getting great feedback and it is makes me happy.
However, at the end of the day, this blog is for me, it is a place for me to vocalise my thoughts on books. This blog started from encouragement from my friends and I think of this as a Ruth Ware and AJ Finn love child (read my post about how the blog started to understand why, read it here https://wp.me/p9Etmu-1j) and I really have achieved more than I thought I would in such a short space of time. I think the passion I have found for this blog has actually made some of my friends stop and pick up a book, I know my little girl has!
Stay and have a chat :)