My Number One Tip For Book Bloggers

While I COMPLETELY believe that there is no right way to blog, I do have advice for book bloggers. I published this post a LONG time ago. And I’ve recently realized that I have one most important tip for book bloggers who feel unhappy with their blogs. I could go on and on about my tips for blogging, but that’s not going to help every single blogger out there. People might even disagree with me! That’s totally fine. But this one tip I have applies to everyone, so I wanted to bring it up here.

I’ve seen people on Twitter sad that their blog doesn’t receive as many comments or views as another blog, or that they don’t receive ARCs like another blogger does, or that they don’t have blogger best friends like another blogger does. These feelings are totally and completely valid: I know I’ve felt them before!

I’ve thought, This blogger has been blogging for only 4 months and already has more followers than me. This is not a fun feeling to have! I felt ashamed when I felt this way. I know you probably have too.

But you need to remember: There is no way to define a “successful” book blogger using numbers and stats.

Seriously.

That’s my number one piece of advice.

Am I a “successful” book blogger? Heck no! I’ve only been blogging for less than a year.

That’s what I say in response to that question. But someone else might think, Hey, you receive physical ARCs from publishers, and I don’t. That makes you successful. 

In my mind, it doesn’t. But in theirs, it does! It’s all objective and different for each person.

While you might be thinking, My blog is nothing compared to [insert blogger here’s], someone else may be thinking, I wish my blog was more like [your blog]. 

With what can we measure blogging success?

Number of followers?

Maybe this makes sense, sure, but a person could have a large follower count with no one actually reading their posts.

Number of comments?

Maybe it’s really their mom and family and in real life friends and close blogging friends commenting. WHO KNOWS.

Pageviews?

They aren’t everything. Maybe a person receives a lot of pageviews, but barely any comments.

Number of ARCs?

There are lots of different ways to receive ARCs. Maybe the person who has a lot of ARCs receives most of them from a friend, or is able to go to book conferences a lot. That doesn’t make them more successful than you.

Years blogging?

Sure, if a person has been blogging for five years and another has been blogging for one, you might think the older blogger is more successful, just because they are more experienced. But what if the newer blogger has more followers than the older? What if the newer blogger posts more consistently than the older?

In my opinion, you really cannot measure success with numbers in book blogging.

I was chatting with my friend Jess from Princessica of Books about this topic, and what she said really resonated with me. I completely agreed, and wanted to include it in this post.

Jess was talking about how yes, success is very objective, and to her, success is when she feels good about what she’s posting. She feels successful because she’s happy with where her blog is going.

A quote from her: “You don’t have to be in a state of establishment nor state of “success.” You don’t have to be happy with what you have now, just be proud of where you are going. You know?”

This is such a great point. And really, I’m realizing now: THAT is how I measure success. Or how I try to measure my success. It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers, I know, but there is so much more than that. I enjoy blogging. I’m proud of my blog and what I’ve done and how I’ve improved and where it’s headed. And that’s how I feel successful with my blog.

Next time you’re feeling bad about your blog, DON’T. You are just as amazing as every other blogger out there, and your blog is as well. You can’t define successful for book bloggers with numbers.  

Have you ever felt disappointed with your blog? Do you agree with this post, or do you believe that you CAN measure book blogging success with numbers and stats? Does your opinion match Jess’s, and mine? If so, comment! Let’s discuss!

Thanks for reading,

Ava

Sidenote: While I was talking to Jess, she mentioned that another blogger had recently done a post like this. I hadn’t read it, and went to check it out. Immediately realizing that a few of our points were similar, I wanted to mention hers here, just so you know that I am not plagiarizing. Molly did a lovely post here. I had no clue and had never even seen the post title before writing mine. 🙂