Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week we’re sharing advice for new bloggers. I’m not going to lie, I feel way under-qualified to advise anyone. Most of this sounds like advice I give to my kids about school.
1. Be Yourself- Don’t change for anyone else, don’t hide who you are or what you love. Chances are, if you’re a blogger, you’re a super-nerd… so embrace it. (Nerds are hot anyway, as we’ve discussed).
It sort of reminds me of the Blind Melon video (did I just totally date myself or what?). I always hated the song, but I loved the video with the little girl dressed as a bumble bee. Everyone laughs at her and she just doesn’t fit in, but she keeps wearing that darn bumble bee costume and she keeps on dorking it up until she find herself a big ‘ol group of other bumble bee geeks and yea! everyone can dance around and be happy. Anyway, blogging is sort of like that. You won’t fit in everywhere, but sooner or later you’ll find your place.
2. Do What You Love- Blog about what you love, or at least what you feel passionately about. If you’re a book blogger, don’t feel compelled to read the books everyone is raving about because you think you “should” (for example, I have to avoid faerie books, even though people love them. This is because faerie books make me want to stab myself in the eye). And don’t feel you have to review every book offered to you. Yes, it’s wonderful that people want you to read their books, but the outcome will be better for all parties if you go after the projects that truly interest you and if you’re writing about what you love. For me, that was YA books (with a need to talk about the characters that make my heart go pitter patter).
3. Make Friends- Visit other blogs, read other blogs, comment and participate in features. It’s fun to see how others do things and to make new friends along the way. And always play nicely.
4. Be Social- Link up your Twitter, your Goodreads, your Facebook, and your Tumblr to your blog. I mean, I haven’t done any of this because I’m too lazy to figure it out, but I think it’s a good idea.
5. Unleash Your Inner Geek- This goes back to being yourself. Write freely and with humor. Let the way you talk and think truly shine through. Enjoy yourself.
6. Link your business up- Link up your posts so that people have an opportunity to see other pages. Like, did you know that me and The Cullen have something in common? Guess you have to read for yourself. See how I just slipped a link in there? Try it.
7. Be Brief- Yeah, I’m not always good here, but most people skim blogs, so get to the freaking point already!
8. Be Organized- Set up a calendar and schedule your posts. Then write them as far in advance as possible and schedule them to post automatically. And stick to your dates. It makes life so much easier (then you have more time to read)!
9. Have fun! Otherwise, why are you doing this?
That’s all I’ve got!
YA Crush 
Fantastic! I, too, have a problem with being brief. I’m a rambler… I admit it. Also, the Blind Melon video? Fantastic! (Yeah, I just dated myself too, whatevs 🙂 )
It makes us cool. Right? Yeah.
Setting up a scheduling calendar on Google Calendars with the WordPress scheduling feature was the BEST thing I ever did. So much less stress!
Wait! I don’t think I’ve done that. I’ll look into it. I have it set up in Yahoo Calendars and scheduled in WordPress (which took me, oh, like nine months to figure out once I started blogging because I’m lame that way), but they aren’t linked in any way. Pretty awesome idea!
ha, blind melon. I think I was the only person in my graduating class that didn’t have that tape. (yes, i said tape. i totally just aged myself.)
Ahh yes, tapes. Mine were thrown all over my car (lots of hair bands, I’m sorry to say). We’re such old ladies.
Love the tips – especially about reading the books that you like instead of because it’s so popular on blogs! And scheduling & an editorial calendar is a stress-buster for me. I HATE trying to write a blog post the day of.
I know! I used to do that, or I’d try to crank it out the night before. It’s too stressful that way and it becomes a chore. Planning is much better (though sometimes you have to break the schedule to get a sneaky extra fun one in there).
No Rain is one of my favorite songs… and my husband’s ring tone. I definitely plan on implementing a few changes after this TTT– need to work on scheduling/calendaring more and on linking to other blogs. I am pretty sure I already let my inner nerd shine, though, so at least I’m doing something right 😉
I think that the inner nerd part is the most important part. It’s why we blog! 🙂
So I’m brief, but my deadlines for paid work keep getting the best of me, so I’m afraid I’ve turned into a sucktastic book blogger, despite my best intentions. Thank you for the reminder that the edit calendar can be my best friend!
You are not sucktastic! You are awesome. And hey, being a wife and mama is first and foremost and then doing actual real paid work is a priority. I don’t think blogging should ever feel like a job. Even though we have integrity and we do our best, it’s still our fun outlet.
I think numbers 3 and 4 are connected and are both so important! Twitter has helped me get connected to the book blogger community. I feel much more confident in my own blogging knowing that there are others out there who I can go to if I need help and just to chat about books! 🙂 Thanks for your list!
Twitter really is an amazing tool. I used to check my feeds so often that I was actually wasting so much time, but now that I’m not as active on it I feel like I’m missing so much. It’s hard to find a balance because it’s SO addictive!
Love your list! Especially Unleash Your Inner Geek. Very important to geek it up every now and then. 🙂
We gotta let our geek flags fly sistah (I think we’re good at this though). 🙂
Um, I have a question – how DO you schedule blog posts?
Oh it’s easy. You are going to LOVE it. I’m going to be your new best friend!!!! 🙂 You know that blue “Publish” box at the right of a WordPress post? There is a line that says Publish and next to it is an edit tab. Click that and you can pick the month, date, even the time of day you want it to publish. Then you have to click “OK” and then “Schedule”. And that’s all. Presto! Here is the link to the support page about it: http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/schedule-a-post/
Sometimes I schedule things just a day or two in advance, but sometimes I’m able to get a few weeks or even a month ahead (with certain memes or with reviews that I’ve promised will run on a specific date). This will make your life so much easier.
You are my new best friend. This is awesome, thank you!!!
🙂 You are SO welcome!
Writing and Scheduling posts ahead of time has got to be the best advice of the day. If only I had the ideas ahead of time. :p
Yeah, sometimes the best ideas are the ones that just come to you in the spur of the moment. But if you have lots of books you’ve read, you can get ahead on entering the reviews, or if you have memes that have a schedule you know in advance you can try to get ahead on those. Even getting one or two things a week scheduled frees up time to work on those last minute projects.
Perfect timing for this post! I’m just starting my first blog, and I needed some advice!
Welcome to the world of blogging! It’s such a fun place and there are so many great people and resources. I’m no pro, but hopefully these ideas helped a bit.