I haven't done a post like this in the past, mainly because I didn't think I was the right person to answer this type of question, but I've been blogging about books since 2011 so I figured I had a few things that might be helpful! So here we go...
So with that being said, below I'm going to give the advice I would have given myself if I was just starting a blog and knew what I know now.
1. The first piece of advice I would give is something I wish that I would have followed last year. The advice is to never let blogging become work or a chore. To never let reading become work or a chore. This will lead to a reading slump and blogging slump as well. I know this sounds a bit harsh, but it's true. It happened to me for over two years. I just now got out of my slump and have been able to read freely without it feeling terrible. If you get too organized and only read what you have to read, then it won't be fun at all. It will lead to a lot of pressure.
2. The second piece of advice is to make sure your voice comes out in every post. Make your posts feel like you and sound like you. Don't try to be like any of the other bloggers, be you and that will always bring in the readers.
3. Have fun! The third piece of advice is to have fun with your blog, try new things and make your blog your own. If you enjoy discussion posts, write them. If you want to only do reviews, post reviews, etc.
4. My fouth piece of advice is to not say yes to everything! You can't read everything, you can't post everything. So only pick a few things to agree to a month. Same goes for ARC's, I'm still to this day playing catch up with all the ARC's I agreed to read when I first started. This also goes for Netgalley, which I'm going to be doing a post on soon, only request a few ARC's a month. That way you aren't so far backed up with reviews that you can't dig your way out.
5. My last piece of advice is to forget about the numbers! Stats and follower counts don't matter as long as you're enjoying what your doing then readers will see that and they will come. In the begining of my blogging career I was a nervous wreck all of the time worrying about the numbers, after awhile I had a great blogging friend tell me to forget about them and just blog. That helped me so much and even now I don't worry about them.
Here is a bonus piece of advice, pick a platform that fits your needs. One that you enjoy posting to. I hope these 5 tips help you and if you like this type of post let me know and I'll do more tips in the future. I hope you all have a great day and as always...
