Courtney Discusses Writing For the Web

Courtney of Once Upon A Bookshelf is here today to discuss the most basic of blogging tips, but also one that is very important to consider for every single blog.  Please welcome Courtney.

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You have spent hours on a blog post. Writing it, editing it, finding the perfect imagery, rewriting it, and so on… Your post is a masterpiece. It can be frustrating and very discouraging if you find that users aren’t staying on your website long enough to read your full post.

I’m not going to tell you what exactly you need to write about. We all have our own niches, write for different demographics, and have our own style. Instead, today I am going to take a look at some ways that you can format your text to make it easier for your readers to get to the important points that you’ve written. 

To start out, let’s familiarize ourselves with some of the habits of current web users.

How do people access content on the web? 
More and more people are using multiple devices to access the Internet. Desktops and laptops used to be the primary way users viewed content, but mobile devices and tablets have given users access to the Internet almost anywhere and at any time, and many users are taking advantage of this.

You can no longer assume when, where or how users are accessing your blog, but there are some things in common with the majority of Internet users these days:

• Users want to find relevant information fast. 
• Users skim pages to find what they are looking for. 
• Users are more distracted when browsing the web. 

What does this mean for bloggers? 
This means that it’s more necessary for us to grab a user’s attention immediately, and to help them really get to the meat of the post. It means that we are competing with more distractions (noisy coffee shops, television shows in the background, etc.) to keep our users’ attention.

How can bloggers format content that is easier for users to read? 
Whether it’s for a cover reveal, a book review, or even an ode to your next door neighbour’s cat, there are a few things that you can do to make your content as easy for users to read as possible.

• Break your content up. Use shorter sentences and paragraphs. Shorter sentences and paragraphs will help users keep focused. 
• Use headlines, lists and bolded text. Headlines, lists and bolding important points make it easier for the information to really stand out when a user is looking over your content quickly. 

A couple of changes to the appearance of your blog can also be made. 

• Use a font that is easy to read. Fonts that are too large or small can lower readability. You want approximately 60 characters per line for best readability (between 30-50 for mobile devices, if you have a mobile or responsive layout for your blog). Also, sans serif fonts (such as Helvetica, Verdana, or Arial) are often easiest to read on a computer screen. 
• Make sure there is enough contrast between the text and the background. Low contrasting text can make your content harder to read. There are a few tools that are really easy to check to see if there’s enough contrast between text and the background it’s on. (One of the easiest to use is http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/). 

Users want content that provides them with useful information, so why not make it easy for them to find that information?

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Thank you Courtney for the practical tips today!

Do you find that you agree with all of Courtney's recommendations?  What might be some other practical tips that you think are important to consider for your blog?

Designing Blogs

Today on the blog please welcome Belle and Bryan as they discuss their viewpoints on blog design.  Stick around and add your viewpoint, too!  

Now, introductions! 

You can find Belle at  http://msbookish.com and http://msbookish.tumblr.com.

You can find Bryan at http://stillunfinished.com and as a moderator for the Book Bloggers Discussion Group.


  Belle's Take:

For me, a blog design is all about the header. I use Wordpress, and the selection of themes is really quite amazing; most of them can look quite distinctive just by adding a custom header. You can end up with quite a nice look just based on the theme alone, but a customized header makes it distinctly yours, and lets you pull everything together, by picking social media icons and colors (for links, sidebar headers, post titles, etc) that match the colors in your header.  So when I decided I wanted a redesign for my blog, MsBookish.com, I was already using the Thesis theme, which I'd bought a while back, so all I was looking mainly for a well-designed header and a set of social media icons that matched the colors in the header.

I can't remember exactly how I found my designer, Don Naylor. I think it was on Twitter - someone had tweeted about the quality of his design work, and intrigued, I'd clicked over and checked out his site. At the time, he offered Wordpress designs and worked specifically with Thesis, so I took the plunge and contacted him about a design for MsBookish.com. (Unfortunately, shortly after he completed my design, he took on a large design project and I'm not sure whether he's doing much, if any, web designing these days.)

I am probably the world's worst website design client. I had no real idea what I wanted, other than the colors I liked (greens and blues). I was really amazed at the header he produced for me. He had me write him something about myself, so I told him all about what I liked to write and read. Then he actually drew/painted the picture and background for my header. I remember looking at the jpg he sent me in amazement - it turned out I did know exactly what I wanted, and the header Don designed was it! 

I got my new design early last year, and since then I've switched over to a different theme. The beauty of my header is that I can use it with any Wordpress theme that lets you use a customizable header. I'm proficient enough with HTML to change things like link and text colors in a new theme, so I managed to get my post titles and link colors the way I wanted them. In order to create consistency between my blog and my Tumblr, I also used the header in the Tumblr theme I chose. I probably should figure out how to use a part of it as my Twitter background, but that's a long way down at the bottom of my to-do list!

   Bryan's Take:

What do I think is good blog design? Less.

In my life recently, I've been attempting to do away with the clutter: physically, mentally and spiritually, well, more physically and mentally so far, but the spiritually will come. With my blog, I think I've tried to do away with the clutter too. The theme I use in my attempt to accomplish that...well...thematically...is the Shelf Theme via The Theme Foundry.

The most distinctive difference is that when you visit my blog, you scroll horizontally to see more posts (and to comment) instead of vertically like you would on most other blogs. However, that's not the only difference. As a result of the theme, there are no sidebars. A menu bar and social media icons are at the top, but along with the posts themselves, which I tend to keep short in keeping with the minimalism of the theme, a photo of me, the title and subtitle of the blog, that is all you see when you visit my blog. For me, it helps me not to get distracted and the idea is that hopefully you won't be either.

Speaking of which...

Oooh! Shiny!

We've heard from Belle and Bryan.  Now, I would love to know what YOU think. What kind of blog design captures your attention?  What kind of design makes you drop everything and read that blog?  What is YOUR take?  Share in the comments!  Inquiring minds what to know!

GIFs—Why How and What Of

GIF response reviews. They're the LOLcat reviews of 2013. But how, when, and why should you use them? What are the plus and minuses? Let's take a quick look at GIFs with our words and our eyeballs.


What are these "gifs" I keep hearing about?

According to Jezebel, a GIFs are:

"graphics interchange formats"... unique to the internet, in that they utilize a short loop of soundless video-like motion to convey thoughts, feelings, memes, or retorts. 

In other words, moving pictures that show more than still pictures ever can or would. Like in Harry Potter! Sometimes the emotions, they're just too much to express in language. Or, well, you COULD express them in language, but this is more fun:

How do you pronounce GIF?

Does anyone really care about this? Apparently they do. Look, this is 'Merica, pronounce any word however you like, I don't care. However, if you pronounce GIF with a soft g, like in gift, be aware that the Someone's Wrong on the Internet-ers will climb on you like a pack of dogs and rip your vocal cords out.

See what I did there?

Pluses and Minuses of GIFs

On the plus side, GIFs are fun! And shiny and interesting. They can get whatever point you're trying to make across very quickly. And, let's face it, no one reads on the internet anyway, so unless you use pictures all people will see is a jumble of letters! What does it mean?!

The words, the mind-boggling words.

On the down side, they can be TOO distracting and hard on the eyes, especially if used gratuitously. They also take a long time to load, which can be frustrating when all you want to do is get to the point of the post, as was recently pointed out in this discussion at Book Bloggers Do it Better. Because of this, it's nice to warn people their eyes are about to be assaulted by putting GIF somewhere in the title your post.


What are some examples of these GIF reaction posts you speak of?

If you've never seen a GIF review or reaction post, here are some links to get you started:

• Rach from books i done read is the master of the GIF review post. I steal get a lot of good GIFs from her blog.
• Here's a GIF response I wrote to Helen Fielding killing off Mr. Darcy in Mad About the Boy.
• You can find lots of GIF response reviews on Goodreads. Here's a funny one of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Okay, I want to do a GIF post. But how do I find the perfect GIF to express my feels?!

Ah, the quest for the perfect GIF. It has led many bloggers astray. In an ideal situation, you know the exact GIF you want to use, either from a specific scene in a TV show or movie, or a GIF you saw on another site. In that case, it's relatively easy to find GIFs—either go to the site, or google "blah-blah-TV-show gif." Tumblr is your best bet when looking for GIFs from specific shows or movies. And, if you can't find the exact scene you want, you can make your own GIFs, either from a series of images or from video. It's actually pretty easy (says the woman who hasn't done it. But I did read the instructions!).

In a slightly-less ideal situation, you know what emotion you need a GIF for, but don't know where to find it. In this case, you can google the emotion, then go to the images tab and click on search tools>type>animated. Whether or not the images that come up have anything to do with what you're searching for is purely a matter of chance, however, and in my experience a small chance at that. You can also search for GIFs on Reddit, Reaction GIFs, GIF Soup, and Tumblr (talk about being overwhelmed by GIFs).

In the worst possible situation, you decide to do a GIF response to something and you really have no idea where to even start. Three hours of searching later, your eyes are crossed, you have a massive headache, and you're like:

All of this is to say that having a cache of GIFs you like on hand at all times is a very good idea. If you like it, download it!


How do I get these suckers into my post?

In Blogger, you can insert GIFs as you would any other image, either by downloading them (right click>save as>title.gif) or by copying the image URL (right click>copy image url), but I recommend downloading them in case the image URL goes dead.

With Wordpress, it's mostly the same, but you must insert the GIF at full size in order for it to animate. Then you can resize it once it's in the post. I don't know why.

The GIFs should be animated in the editing windows of both WP and Blogger before you publish. If they aren't, your GIF isn't working—sometimes this happens for no reason. Try re-downloading it or using the image URL.


Do you have any tips on using or finding GIFs? Share them in the comments before this cute duckling falls asleep.

Back-up Your Blog: Wordpress Edition

A few weeks ago, I shared with you a step-by-step tutorial to back-up your Blogger blog to ensure you don't lose all that hard work.  Today, I am excited to introduce Rebecca from Love at First Book as she shares with us the details for backing up your Wordpress blogs.  Please give her a warm welcome and soak up her wisdom!

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Backing up your blog on a monthly basis is soooo important! You spend so much time creating each blog post – and what if one day they were all gone??? Backing up your blog prevents that potential disaster from being an issue.

Tif from Tif Talks Books and I (aka Rebecca from Love at First Book) were chatting about backing up our blogs recently. She’s a Blogger gal and I’m a WordPress user so the backup process is a little different. 

Blogger user? Check out Tif’s post about backing up your blog.

WordPress user? Stay right here! I’ll walk you through the backup process.

Step 1: Go to your Dashboard.

Step 2: Highlight Tools and scroll down to click on “Export.”

Step 3: It should automatically be on “All Content” but if not, make sure you click on “All Content.”  Then click on “Download Export File.” 

Step 4: Mine automatically downloads to my Download folder, but I don’t want to keep it there, because I always want to know where my backups are.  Create a new folder for Backups (mine is in my “Blog” folder in my Documents). 

Step 5: Move the file there.  I keep my last 3 backups and delete the older ones.

Step 6: Use a reminder and back up your blog monthly. 

I’m a paper person, so my backup is written in my planner on the first Monday of each month (which you can see below, with another note to myself for that day). 

You can also set a monthly alarm on your phone, add it to your Google or Outlook calendar, whatever works for you. But set a reminder so that you can make sure to follow this step monthly and protect both yourself and your blog.

Do you backup your blog on a regular basis? What’s your system for remembering? 

Thanks for reading,

Rebecca @ Love at First Book

Blogging NaNoWriMo

We're only about 3 weeks away from National Novel Writing Month, more popularly known as NaNoWriMo. If you've never heard of NaNoWriMo, it's where people from around the world try their hand at completing a novel (at least 50,000 words) in 30 days or less during the month of November. It's crazy and tons of fun. You can chat with other NaNos on Twitter using the hashtag #nanowrimo, meet up with fellow NaNos in your area for write-ins, race in "word wars" with other NaNos to boost your word count, follow writing prompts if you're stuck, and read excellent "pep talk" essays by established authors. I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years and highly recommend it to anyone who's thought about writing a novel, because there's so much support available that you won't get during the rest of the year. Plus, it's a freaking blast.

But. What if you don't want to write a novel, but still want to get your writing on? You could turn NaNoWriMo into NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, by challenging yourself to post to your blog every day in November.

Sound crazy? Worried about how you'll think of a topic every day? Don't be intimidated. BlogHer hosts a NaBloPoMo every month of the year (including November) with writing prompts and themed topics. You can also use one of the many random topic generators found on the interwebs, including the three I recommended in Tips for Dealing with Blogging Block.

If blogging every day of the month sounds intimidating, just imagine how the people about to write a novel in a month feel! It is overwhelming and sounds nearly impossible, but that's the point: to challenge yourself to something you're not sure you can do. Whether you succeed or not, you'll have fun and learn a lot about yourself along the way.

Are you participating or have participated in either NaNoWriMo or NaBloPoMo? Let us know in the comments!

Back-up Your Blog: Blogger Edition

Do you ever worry about your blog disappearing?  All that hard work you have put into it, gone within a blink of an eye?  I know I do!  This is why it is so important to back-up your blog on a regular basis.  I have always used Bloggiesta as a way to remind myself to do this crucial task, but let's be honest ... this is a task that needs to be done more than twice a year.  While I was participating in one of the most recent Bloggiesta chats, Rebecca from Love at First Book gave me a wonderful idea, something that I was shocked that I didn't already figure out on my own.  She recommended setting a reminder on your calendar to back-up your blog on a monthly basis.  Simple, yet brilliant, right?!?

Let's take a quick look at the specific steps you need to take to make this happen.  Please Note:  This is for Blogger only.  

How to Back-up Your Content

1. Go to Settings.
2. Go to Other.
3. Click on Export Blog.
4. You will receive a notice, explaining what Export Blog means.  Select Download Blog.

Your content is now on your hard drive!  However, this just includes the content, not your actual template and design.  Let's now look at how to back-up that material as well.

How to Back-up Your Template

1. Go to Template.
2. Select Backup/Restore.

Your template is now saved as well!  If you were to lose your blog for one reason or another, you can now sleep at night knowing that your work is saved!  BUT, before we sign off, let's also take a look at scheduling those reminders in your Google Calendar.

How to Schedule Reminders on Google Calendar

1. Select Create in your Google Calendar.
2. Name your Event.  I simply call it Back-up Blog!
3. Check All day event.
4. Check Repeat.  This will bring up another box with additional information.
5. Repeat Monthly.  Repeat every 1 Month.  Repeat day of the month.  Starts on (choose date).  I select the first of every month.  Ends Never (unless you choose otherwise).  Click Done.
6. Set your Reminder. I personally select an Email reminder 1 day in advance.
7. Save.

Special Note:  I create a special calendar devoted strictly to my blogging tasks in order to keep them separate from my personal and family events.

Voila!  You are set!  Now, go back-up your blog!

Do you back-up your blog on a regular basis?  What other blog tasks do you set regular reminders for?

Bloggiesta Challenge: Book Blogging Heroes

Bloggiesta has arrived and the team here at Book Bloggers International is joining in the challenge fun! What is Bloggiesta, you might be asking? It’s a blogging fiesta! where bloggers get together for the weekend to work on their blogs, eat Mexican food, and wear sombreros (sombreros optional). If you want to join in—and you know you do—just visit the Bloggiesta site for more info and to sign up.

Now onto the challenge...

One of the best ways to help in building an audience for your own blog is to network with other bloggers, whether it may be in commenting on other blogs or interacting via social media.

Book Bloggers International also brings those connections to you, highlighting book bloggers around the world in one general location. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we highlight a different blogger, either through a set of interview questions or through a guest post. We also bring you different blogging tips once a week to help bring you resources that can assist you in your blogging world.

For this challenge, we want to focus on this networking. And because networking can occur in a variety of ways, we have a couple of options for you for the challenge . . .

Option 1: Using our tag cloud on the right OR the Bloggiesta participant list, find three (3) bloggers that are new to you and comment on their blogs. When you have completed the challenge, come back here and let us know who the three (3) lucky bloggers were in the comments section. If you choose to write a post about your new blogger friends, then feel free to link up in the linky below.

Option 2: Write a post featuring a blogger that has influenced or impacted you in your own blogging. Share with your readers how they have influenced you and don’t forget to let them know that you have chosen them. When you have completed the challenge, come back here and leave us the direct link in the linky below.

Choose one option or the other OR do both! The point is to network and help spread the blogging love. 

If you want to get in on the action here at Book Bloggers International, we are currently accepting feature submissions. Simply visit How To Be Featured and we will be in contact with you soon!

Book Bloggers Staying Organized

How do you stay organized as a book blogger?  Do you use specific tools, paper calendars, notebooks, or fly by the seat of your pants?  My personal favorite tools include a combination of hard copy weekly calendar, Google Calendar, and Evernote.  Let's take a quick look at how I use each one of these . . .

• Weekly Calendar:  Yes, I use a hard copy weekly calendar to keep track of my posts for my personal book blog!  Using only pencil, I write in what posts I have scheduled, what I hope to get scheduled, and map out all blogging and book related tasks to better plan accordingly.  And, of course, I only use pencil so that I can adjust easily when life gets in the way.
• Google Calendar:  Since I assist with multiple book-related blogs, the shared calendar feature (complete with color coordination) can be so helpful in scheduling posts and communicating with my fellow teammates.  In addition, I also keep track of blogging events along with my family events to get the bigger picture of what is coming my way and organize my time accordingly.
• Evernote:  This is my new favorite app!  If you have not checked it out, be sure to check out the website to see all the possibilities.  I use the free version, but sync it among my phone, personal computer, and laptop for easy access at all times.  I keep track of which reviews need to be written here, notes or ideas that come to me while out running errands, along with my own personal lists (i.e., things to do, groceries, etc.).  

With these three tools, I feel like I am quite organized!  But, I am also finding that I can always improve, so I put out a call to my fellow bloggers to find out what tools they use to stay organized, both for planning and with their time.  Here is what a couple of them had to say . . . 

Shannon from River City Reading 

I've tried several different tools in an effort to keep my blogging organized, but nothing has stuck like ToDoist. It's available on almost any platform or device you can imagine and has tons of features, many of which I haven't even scratched the surface of. Though I have the Android apps downloaded on my phone and Nook HD+, the main way I use ToDoist is through the Chrome Extension, which adds a little pop out icon to the top of my browser. I absolutely love the easy access of having my tasks right where I'm always working.

ToDoist works by having you set up larger projects, which are then filled by individual tasks. So, I set my projects as upcoming months and then work on filling in my monthly blogging tasks during that time period. Once a task is complete, you check it off and it disappears (though you can still find it, and awesome productivity statistics, in the web version). ToDoist also lets you tag your tasks into separate categories, which show up under the name. So, I'll set up a monthly project well before the month begins, which you can see in the October photo, just to remind me when books are being published during that month. Then, as I read those books and set up a date to review them by, I change the pub tag to review.

The nice thing about ToDoist is that it's really easy to customize. You can make the projects and tasks whatever you want, there are no rules - so it's just about playing around and figuring out what works for you!

Tanya of Mom's Small Victories

I recently read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and developed a planner of my own from a template he suggested. I adapted it for my various roles as mom (aka chef, housekeeper, educator, accountant and taxi service), wife, individual and blogger and it's color coded! Using this planner template, I create daily and weekly goals for each of my roles as well as input the Cozi appointments and commitments for the upcoming week. While much of my time is dedicated to my family, I am sure to dedicate goals and time to writing specific blog posts and networking on social media. I plan my schedule on Saturday for the following week and even copy links to recipes in the planner so it's easier for me to find them when I am ready to cook and then include them in a Small Victory Sunday post.

I print one copy to hang in the kitchen so I can stay focused on my daily tasks and check off my goals as I go along. The electronic version is maintained in Google docs so that both my husband and I can access it. If I don't accomplish a goal in the current week, it's easy enough to copy and paste the goal into the following week's planner. When it's time to work on my blog, I already have thought out what I will be writing about, it's a just matter of getting it done!

Aside from the planner in Google Docs, I also use the Cozi app and online calendar to schedule all my family's appointment. It is color coded as well and my blog has it's own color too, it's like a part of the family. I love that Cozi is accessible online and on our Android phones and that all family members can add and see appointments in the calendar. I can set reminders that are sent to everyone's email and phone when an appointment involves them. For my blog, I add the scheduled events, twitter chats and other reminders of deadlines I need to meet in the family calendar, reminders are sent to my blog's email and I can even assign a To Do list to my blog to keep a comprehensive list of my blog post ideas. The combination of my Google Docs planner and Cozi really helps ensure that I incorporate time for my blog into my busy life.

(Tanya recently shared more information on this topic, complete with a link to a blank template, over on her own site.)

Thank you to Shannon and Tanya for sharing their organizational widsom!

What tools do you use to stay organized and manage your time?  What are your best blog organizational and management tips?

Three Blogging Tools To Check Out

It's not that blogging is terribly difficult (most of the time...), but when I find some tools that are useful or make blogging easier, I want to share them! Here are three apps and websites I've stumbled across recently that have made my life just that much better:

• Lazarus (Browser add-on for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) Has this ever happened to you: you're writing a post and you're almost done when you accidently hit a button and your post goes poof! into the internet ether. All you can do is stare at the screen in shock and horror as you silently scream. I know this has happened to me several times and it's a horrible, horrible feeling. Fortunately, there's Lazarus, which is a form recovery tool. Basically it saves anything you type into a form on your browser, which means if you accidentally hit delete, a post gets eaten when you submit it, or you hit the back button without saving, your work is still recoverable. Lazarus has saved my life more than once since I downloaded it. Also! It saves different versions of the same form, so if you're editing and decide you want to undo all your edits, you can easily go back to an earlier version.
• WordCounter.net (website and add-on for Chrome and Wordpress) I started using Word Counter for when I was writing press releases, which have very specific word count requirements (for some reason Pages, my word processing program, doesn't count words accurately). But it doesn't just count words! It has a keyword density tool to tell you how many times you use certain words, which is very useful for SEO; and it tells you your average sentence length, which can reflect the readability of your text. 
• Coffitivity (website and app for Mac, iPad, and iPhone) I actually heard about this tool from our fearless BBI team leader, Becca. Science shows that light background noise, like what you find in a coffee shop, helps people concentrate better than total silence. Coffitivity provides just such coffee shop sounds to help you think and be creative. Whenever I'm struggling to focus on my writing, I pull up this website and it really does help! They've even updated it recently so there are different types of background noise, and you can submit recordings from your own favorite places to write.

Have some blogging tools you love? Please share in the comments!

Making Your Own Graphics with PicMonkey

I have enjoyed using PicMonkey.com for a while now.  It is how I make all of the graphics on my blog, Lost in Books.  I cannot remember which bloggers recommended it to me, but I know it was three or four, and most likely Tasha and Tif were among them.  Once I began to play around with making my own graphics, I had to agree – it was free, simple, and looked good!

If you are not familiar with PicMonkey, allow me to show you the different ways you can create graphics for your blog and adjust photographs.

Just click in the upper left corner to Edit a Photo.  Choose any photo or background that you have saved to your computer.

I uploaded a plain blue background.

Then I added text by clicking on the P in the column on the left side of the page.  I chose a font, in this case, Quicksand, and clicked the ADD TEXT button at the top of the list.  

You can choose from a wide variety of fonts, text size, placement, color, etc. to create as simplistic or as complex a text graphic that you desire.

Sorry it's so hard to see. 

You can play around with fonts and colors and can do this on more than plain backgrounds to create all kinds of fancy buttons like this one I made for the Cover Discover feature on my blog:

Or this one I made for my What Do You Think? Discussions:

Now the tools PicMonkey has are even more numerous when a picture is involved.  To demonstrate the various tools you can utilize for pictures, I uploaded a photo of a sexy, sexy woman: Me ;) 

You can crop and resize, of course.  Standard photo stuff.

Then there is being rotated

or textured

What I call the "you fell asleep against a door screen" effect.

or perhaps softened, though I did go a teeny bit overboard on that.

.

I even "Zombied" myself.  Pardon the blood left over on my mouth...

Yum...flesh...

This is me getting a free, instant tooth whitening thanks to a tiny PicMonkey brush.  If only it were that free and instant in real life!

This is me with writing and an overlay (the heart).

How everyone (obviously) feels about me. ;)

Don’t get the wrong idea.  You don’t have to stick to just one trick.  This time I have given myself a sepia effect and tooth whitening while adding text onto a Polaroid-type frame! 

There are all kinds of possibilities on PicMonkey – including collages!

So get out there and be your blog's own designer!  Design your headers and your blog buttons, design buttons for reading challenges you created, fix up pictures of people or books or people reading books---the opportunities are endless!  And while there are upgrade options on PicMonkey, the best part is everything I showed up (plus more!) is absolutely 100% free.  (Now that's my kind of site!)

Continue the discussion:

-Have you ever used PicMonkey?  What are your experiences with it?

-If you’ve never used PicMonkey or a similar site, did this article help?

Creating Perfect Posts in the Social Media World

As a book blogger, it is not uncommon for us to branch out and make connections using different forms of social media.  I can personally say that I utilize Facebook, Goodreads, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter.  That's six things OUTSIDE of my blog!!  How do we decide which ones to focus on and which platform will be the most effective in getting the word out and create those conversations that we are always trying to achieve.  Whether you are a hobby blogger or want more, social media is a must in the world of book blogging to help in building our sites to become bigger and better ... and, let's admit it, it can be a lot of fun!

When I began doing a bit of research on this very topic a couple of months ago, I was shared this amazing graphic from two fellow book bloggers (Ex Libris Bitsy and I Heart Monster).  Today, I share it with you.  Study it, then let's chat!!

For the original article featuring this infographic, click here.

After checking out this infographic filled with lots of information, what do you think?  What social media platforms have you found to be the most successful for your purposes?  Do you have any other tips that you feel are not included?  

Trolls: What they are and how to deal

The Urban Dictionary defines a troll as, "One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument." Chances are, if you blog for any length of time, you'll come across a troll in one of your posts' comments. So how do you deal with these fun-suckers?

This is really something you need to decide on before you encounter trolls. Are you going to delete their comment or let it stand? Whichever way you decide to go, you should make it and your rationale clear in your commenting policies, if you have them. Just remember the number one rule for dealing with trolls: DO NOT ENGAGE. That way madness lies.

Now, there are two types of trolls. The obvious kind simply spits vitriol at you or another commenter without referencing the post at all. These trolls are easy to ignore/delete.

But there's another, sneakier sort of troll out there. These people have Google alerts for their favorite topics so they can visit peoples' blogs and yell at anyone who doesn't agree with them. These types of trolls are harder to ignore because:

1. They insult your integrity/intelligence/pride.
2. They push one or many of your "Someone on the internet is wrong!" buttons.
3. They reference the post, so you can't in good conscience delete their comment.
4. You think they must have misunderstood what you were trying to say. And if you just esplaiiiiin to them, they'll realize the error of their ways.

They will not realize the error of their ways, they will not admit you are right. They are trying to start an argument for the sole purpose of amusing themselves and upsetting you. DO NOT ENGAGE.

Now, this second type of troll can be a little tricky to recognize, so here are some signs your upsetting commenter is a troll:

• They're upsetting you.
• You have never seen him/her anywhere on the bookternet before.
• Their comment contains straw man arguments or ad hominem attacks (which are some pretty sophisticated rhetorical tools... these people are professional assholes, like politicians).
• The commenter seems to be spoiling for a fight.

If you think a commenter might be one of these trolls, it's best to let their comment stand and IGNORE THEM. You can have your friends call them out for you, but I know from personal experience this does no favor to your friends and doesn't reflect well on your blog, either. You know that phrase from the Bible, Turn the other cheek? That's just as good a policy on the internet as in real life. Allow the comment sink slowly to the bottom of the thread and let it go.

So, just to review, what's the first rule of dealing with trolls?

Tips for Dealing with Blogging Block

In Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, Lawrence Block wrote, "...when I want to write and can’t write I find myself possessed of murderous rage." I don't believe in forcing yourself to blog when you don't feel like it, because this is a hobby. It's supposed to be fun. But what about when you really do want to blog but have no idea what to blog about? So frustrating! Here are a few strategies I've collected:

1. Plan ahead—I don't know about you, but my desk is littered with note cards that have ideas and notes scribbled randomly all over them. I also have notes on my phone, most of which are completely obscure even to me. For example, "Someone shows up demanding heroine save her true love whom she's never met re: Grimm." I have no idea which episode of Grimm I was referencing there, but interesting idea. Or, "The polis—people outside aren't human. Anna Karenina." Hmmm, I know I wrote that in my Ancient Greek class but I have no idea what Anna Karenina has to do with it. Still, it might fit into another idea I have in the future. Some of these ideas I'll write about when I have time, some I won't, but when you're searching for a topic it's always good to have a list of ideas somewhere to go back to.
2. Read through some of your old posts—You can also go through your blog history and see if there are any posts you can expand on or update. Maybe you'll notice a theme or trend in your reading that you hadn't before, or you've been neglecting one of your features.
3. Read through other blogs—Another great place for inspiration is other blogs! Naturally I don't mean stealing their content, but maybe you can curate a list of favorite posts by topic, or create a wish list of books or bookish things. You can also respond to others' posts: do you agree with a top ten list (answer: no, no one ever agrees with lists)? What would you have chosen instead? Did a certain article about a topic you care about go far enough? And so on.
4. Random topic generators—If you're REALLY desperate or just feeling lucky, you can try a random topic generator. There's a ton of these all over the intertubes. A few I've come across are
   
   • Big Huge Thesaurus http://words.bighugelabs.com/blog.php
   • Blog Tap http://www.blogtap.net/blogtopicgenerator/
   • Writing Exercises http://www.writingexercises.co.uk/subjectgenerator.php
   • and Blog Post Idea Generator http://www.generatorland.com/glgenerator.aspx?id=122
5. Go off topic—Sometimes you're just not in the mood to blog about books. So blog about something else! It may feel like cheating, but per Murphy's Law these posts usually end up being the most popular. The most popular post on my blog is the one where I basically just collected a bunch of pictures of Christopher Gorham shirtless, no joke.

Those are my strategies, but I'm sure you have your own! Share them in the comments.

Creating Blog Features

Where I wish I was right now...

Features are one of the best ways to make your blog unique, "meet" new bloggers, are useful for having something ready to post when you're searching for a topic, and keep bringing people back to your blog. Sounds like a win-win-win, right?

So what are feature posts? Basically they're themed or linked posts that regularly appear on your blog.

Examples of Features

I know that definition was a little broad, so let me give some concrete examples of feature posts. Both of my fellow BBI managers have great features on their blogs. My favorites are Take Me Away... at I'm Lost in Books, Becca's blog, and Fairy Tale Fridays at Tif Talks Books, Tif's blog. Some other successful blog features are Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads, In My Mailbox at The Story Siren, and Top Ten Tuesday at the Broke and Bookish.

Notice I didn't include things like The Sunday Salon, Wordless Wednesday, or Booking Through Thursday (is that still going?). That's because these are considered memes, not features. Keep reading to find out why.

Sounds great! But how do I create my own feature?

I'm glad you asked. Starting your own feature is as simple as writing a blog post, but there are some things you should keep in mind when coming up with your own features:

• What makes you/your blog unique? Feature posts should reflect special features related to you and your personality. Are you really interested in art, music, design? Do you know a lot about food or history? Features don't have to have anything to do with books even if you're running a book blog! In fact, it's sometimes more fun if they don't.
• How often/long can you keep this up? You might have noticed most of the features I mentioned are weekly—Fairy Tale Fridays, Weekend Cooking, etc. That doesn't mean your feature has to be weekly! It doesn't even need to have a set schedule. But you SHOULD be sure when you start that you can keep posting on the topic on a regular basis for a long time. Horrible at keeping up with things? That doesn't mean you can't have features, just run them for a short time. For example, when I first started my blog I did a weekly feature called Museum Mondays for one month. One month is about all I can manage when it comes to features. I know this about myself.
• Do you want to turn your feature into a meme? When you post something regularly on your blog, it's a feature. When other people take your topic and post about it on their own blog, it's a meme. That's why The Sunday Salon is considered a meme and not a feature: no particular blogger "owns" or features it. Whereas, even though Weekend Cooking is a meme, it's still a feature on Beth Fish Reads that she created. Make sense? All of that is kind of a prelude to saying you don't HAVE to turn your feature into a meme. In fact, most features are never turned into memes and remain native to one person's blog. THIS IS TOTALLY OKAY. Features will still help make your blog unique and help to bring new/different types of readers to your blog. Keep in mind, too, that hosting memes can be a lot of work. You'll have to promote the meme and comment on all the posts about it. On the other hand, it's fun to grow a community around what you're interested in, and if you build it they will come—don't NOT ask people to join in simply because you're afraid no one will. They will!

Do have any features on your blog? Tell us about them in the comments!