1. I subscribe via email
I have a few different ways that I subscribe to blogs. If I “like” your blog, I will subscribe through Feedly or I will check back regularly. But if I LOVE your blog, I will subscribe via email. This is because I don’t want to risk missing a single update! I want all the new posts as soon as they’re available.
2. I read the new post email straight away
I have a few blogs that I subscribe to that I should really unsubscribe to. When an email about a new post comes in, I just let it sit there. And sit there. And sit there.. Until finally I just delete it. It’s because I feel like I can’t be bothered to read it, or I’m not excited about the new content. Why do I stay subscribed then? I have no idea. I’m just weird.
3. I comment on your blog often
There are some blogs I read, but I don’t comment that often. I don’t comment, because I feel like I have nothing to say!
You’re succeeding as a blogger if you MAKE me want to reply. That means you’ve made me think, and I’m just bursting to say something about your post! That’s a fabulous thing and I love it when posts desperately make me want to get involved in the conversation.
4. Your posts inspire me
One of the reasons why I’ve been doing more real life posts is because I see other bloggers doing them successfully and I get jealous. They make me want to post too! That’s inspiration. Inspiring other bloggers is what you should aim for, so if you’re inspiring me (or others), you’re right on track!
5. I keep refreshing your blog thinking, “Why are there no new posts??”
Honestly, there are some blogs I LOVE but they don’t have new content every day. Sometimes it makes me sad. Other times it makes me paranoid. I go visit the homepage wondering if maybe a new post email just didn’t come through (of course that’s never the case).
I’m not trying to force you to post every day, but the fact that I WANT you to means that I really love the posts you do publish. I can’t help it if I want more!
6. You have posts other than reviews and memes
(I think the memes part is a given—no one likes a blog that’s mostly memes!)
But lately I’ve been getting sick of book reviews. I do like reading them, but if I subscribe to a blog and it’s review after review after review, I lose interest. I just get sick of reading book reviews sometimes!
I love your blog if you mix things up a little. Publish discussion posts, or something about your real life, or some blogging tips. I love it when people have a wide variety of content. It keeps me interested.
7. Your site is faster than molasses
I’ve seen some blogs that are ridiculously slow. I mean a sidebar filled to the brim, flashing images, full blog posts on the homepage (as opposed to excerpts), millions of GIFs… all those things slow down a blog. They make it take longer to scroll down because it’s lagging, and it could even make an older computer crash/freeze completely.
I’ll love your blog if it’s simple, elegant, and quick to load.
8. Your personality shines through in your posts
Sometimes I worry that my posts don’t have enough personality, and that worries me because I LOVE blogs with personality! If it feels too try or too “professional”, I’m not interested. I love bloggers who are fun, exciting, and aren’t afraid to USE CAPSLOCK and get fangirly! If I love your personality, I’ll love reading your blog!
9. We love and hate similar books
I know it’s okay to have differing opinions, and I won’t unfollow someone because we disagree a few times. But I love blogs that mostly agree with my thoughts on books. That’s just because I don’t want to read about someone bashing a book that I adored, or praising a book that I despised. It puts me off! If it happens once in a blue moon, no biggie. But if we constantly have differing opinions, I just can’t click with the blog!
10. Blogging is your passion!
I think this really ties in with #8. If you’re passionate about your blog, it will shine through in your posts. If you’re not, your posts will probably come across as dry. Believe me, people can tell!
I love reading blogs where the author is clearly so excited to be doing what they’re doing! I can tell when they have so much fun putting a certain post together, and it makes me happy! It makes me excited to be a blog writer and a blog reader. It’s another thing that inspires me! 🙂
I tried doing some original things, but I rarely got any pageviews on the days that I posted those things, so I stopped doing it. Honestly, I don’t think there’s anyone that really loves my blog. x)
I’m sure there is! Don’t be hard on yourself!
Give it some time for people to catch on too. (Not saying you haven’t; just a suggestion).
Great list, Ash. I am the same way about commenting. Some blogs I comment because they comment on mine, and some because I love to comment because the blogger made me want to say something. Then there are blogs I just read and don’t feel the need to comment.
I don’t think I could ever do personal posts. I am weird about that stuff, Plus, my life is boring, lol, nothing to say.
I agree about the too many reviews and memes. I like reading blogs with different posts: giveaways, guest posts, discussions, reviews, interviews, tips, and so on.
Also, I so try to add personality to my blog but sometimes I just don’t have it in me. I think my moods dictate how excited I am in a post. Plus, if the book I read was average, my review tends to be average too.
Sometimes I feel the same way about personal posts. I see other bloggers make such interesting ones and it makes me jealous. Most of my days are spent reading or coding, so there’s not much left to talk about on a blog, or even make it interesting LOL!
And I totally agree with you on the average book = average review. I really struggle with those!
If I feel a ‘kinship’ with the blog author, I will be much more likely to subscribe or comment. Like you said about liking the same books, or their ‘voice’.
They make me laugh! I love laughing at hilarious/ridiculous posts. Definitely funky personalities for the win on blogs I love. Oh! Oh, and blogs/bloggers who comment back. ^.^
Excellent point! I also love blogs that make me laugh. 🙂
I like blogs that intro me to new books, that review in interesting ways and who don’t over-post (just once…maybe twice a day. Don’t overload me!!).
I agree with the over-posting. I think once a day is my limit.. if it gets to be much more than that then it might get annoying to have so many notifications in my inbox. 🙁
I just wanted to say that I love YOUR blog for pretty much all the reasons that you listed in your post. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! 😀 ♥
Ah, Ashley your reasons make sense to me because they’re usually *my* reasons. I’ve been asking myself if I’m passionate about all the blogs I follow, (and the books I read/want to read) and I’m going to take a look around and see what those answers are. If I sub in via email, it means I don’t want to miss a post and that’s REALLY special. And I LOVE blogs that don’t just do reviews and memes!
I completely agree! There are a lot of blogs that I visit just because I feel like I am getting to know someone through their post because it has so much personality. (Rachel from Parajunkee for instance) Others I visit because I like a particular post or agree with many of their reviews. I find myself not following those blogs that are book tour after book tour, or not posting at least every other day. Excellent post and definitely things to keep in mind.
I totally agree especially with #5. I do that a lot on Emily’s site (Chronicles.FlutterealFlight). I just loooove her posts, and she’s so hilarious and a great blogger. I get sad when I see no new posts for like 2 days in a row. I kinda start freaking out. But she doesn’t know this lol. I also like it when blogs have original but intriguing content. Sometimes I get tired of reading book reviews too. The only book reviews I read are the ones that I have read the book before. I know, I’m weird. I don’t like reading reviews of books that I haven’t read before because I feel like I’m being spoiled. I used to subscribe to bloggers via e-mail, but like you, I let it sit there until I just delete them. Now, I use bloglovin’ and I love it! It’s just easier for me to use.
I’m not a big fan of email subscriptions, so I know I love your blog when I make a point to visit it daily, to see if you’ve posted something knew. That’s probably my biggest indicator!
Fantastic list, Ashley! I agree with all the things you said. Recently all I’ve been posting is book reviews because I haven’t had time to add discussion posts, but I’m really excited because this year I have like five thousand discussion ideas to post. And I LOVE your real life posts, they are so unique and amazing, I always love getting a glimpse into a blogger’s real life outside of their blog. I definitely know what you mean about commenting though. Sometimes book reviews are too overwhelming to read a ton at a time, but I love commenting so much on certain days that I literally go on every blog I can find, even it’s a review.
Fantastic list, though! <33
I find that the blogs I love are all run by people who are open and honest about the things they dislike in books. If the negative points are brought up in a fair way and discussed clearly, I’m more likely to trust the blogger, and continue to read their posts.
I love personal blog posts, so when a blogger manages to let their personality shine in their reviews, they’ve succeeded in my eyes 😀 I love blogs with different content. I most likely unsubscribe when there are only memes/blog tours/etc.
Is it bad that this post totally made me start criticising myself? I totally want to do most of these things, but alas, I have a really bad imagination. I’m starting to try to do more, but I’m probably going to bookmark this post, just as a ref in the future. (Also, the email thing is awesome…)
I use BL to follow blogs like you use email. <333
– ova
How can I know the speed of my site?? I think it loads quickly on my computer… but I am not sure about on others? I have been trying to post once a day… but that can be tough sometimes. I make sure to visit other blogs once a day though.
Very true!!! I love blogs that are creative! like you? Who wants to be the norm all the time?! My goal for this year is A, to get back on top of blogging and write ALL the reviews, and B, to jumpstart a new discussion thread I’ve been wanting to do!
Happy New Year btw!!
Inky
I think overall it’s the sharing of similar books, or if I’ve seen several great posts (whether original or not) that I like, I’ll more than likely follow.
I agree with all those reasons! I don’t really subscribe to blogs via email because I realised after time that I never read them, I tend to just visit a couple of my favourite blogs every now and again. I also love bloggers who comment back or reply to comments! I love interacting with others.
Lovely post, Ashley! <33
I’m SO with you. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who will sit at the computer and refresh a blog way too many times hoping for a new post! I used to just check the blogs I loved the most by hand but then I realized I wanted the to be able to count me as one of the followers (in the official numbers) so I either follow with bloglovin’ or email. It depends on the blog really. But those are my two primary ways of following a blog.
Personality is what makes reading a blog fun if you ask me. I kind of worry I don’t put enough personality in my posts but I’ve noticed that the more comfortable I get, the more personality there is.
Awesome post, Ashley!
Fantastic post!
I also LOVE reading discussion posts and personal posts, which I am going to try and include more of in my blog this year! Brilliant post, once again! 😀
Great list! And I love your blog because of your way of writing and your love for books!
This post is perfect!! It’s EXACTLY how I feel about bloggers and blogs and exactly why I follow, too! I’m very picky about who I follow by email. Although I’m bad about letting posts sit in my inbox…not because I don’t want to read them, but because I don’t have the time or I feel lazy haha.
I don’t comment very much either…which makes me feel kind of bad because some of the people that comment on my posts comment ALL the time…but I can’t comment if I don’t have anything to say 🙁
“But lately I’ve been getting sick of book reviews. I do like reading them, but if I subscribe to a blog and it’s review after review after review, I lose interest. I just get sick of reading book reviews sometimes!”
YES! I honestly rarely ever read book reviews anymore, unless it’s a book I’ve already read and want to compare opinions. Even then, I probably won’t comment. I just want to know what the blogger thought!
I feel like lately I’m steering more toward bookish discussions and real life posts. If I follow by email, then I like the blogger enough to want to know those things!
Your list almost completely matches mine! Especially site speed (which is why I’m so anal about mine lol) Though I don’t subscribe via email (it would just get buried) I actually use Twitter lists which is where I’ll see almost every post from blogs I like AND personality from their tweets so it’s like 2 in 1! 😉
It’s funny how people seem to be getting tired of book reviews but ultimately that’s what book blogs are started for (in most cases at least). On my blog I notice review posts actually get more comments and views than discussion posts (UNLESS it’s a drama post – like when I was plagiarized – which I don’t like to do because, well drama!!). So, monthly, most of our posts are definitely reviews, but we like to do discussions and “fun” memes like when TTT has a fun topic etc. We also do tours which I like to ask really fun guest post topics so mix it up. I also notice that if a review is pre-release date it will get most notice than post-release so we always schedule it in before it’s out.
I do think that whatever way you manage your blog, SOMEONE will think you’re doing too much or this or too little of that. I don’t believe there’s a perfect way to do it, I just think you have to make it your own. Balance it the way YOU enjoy it. If you love to post 5 memes a week, do it in style, if you love to post 12 reviews a week, go for it. The most important is to make it your passion (#10- which I think also brings in #8) and you can’t do that by trying to make it a “perfect blog” which is really incredibly subjective. Once it becomes your passion, you can also tell in the quality of each post (even if it’s “just a meme”, too) and that’s also how personality comes through. When someone posts “just because” they thought they had to, you can tell it’s half assedly put together bc they didn’t truly care.
Anyways this is getting kinda long haha. The sign of an awesome post! 😉
I started blogging in November, and I’ve been having tons of fun. I’m a student journalist, so simply writing reviews is a great stress reliever when schoolwork gets hectic. My blog is mostly reviews, and I’ve been wanting to get different content up, but I feel somewhat… uninspired. I have this tinge of insecurity that says, “what’s the point?” because I sort feel like no one would bother to join in if I start putting discussions on my blog. I’ve also considered posting some “real life” stuff, but that same insecurity hits me.
Any advice?
I think it helps to start branching out after you’ve built up a decent following.
I’ve had two blogs before this one, and both times I wrote what I thought were awesome, thought provoking posts.. but I hadn’t built up a following yet so they often got zero comments and I had that same “what’s the point?” feeling.
On Nose Graze, my first few months of blogging were pretty boring in terms of content. The posts were almost entirely reviews and memes. But, the point is, I spent that time building up a decent readership. I started getting regular comments on my posts. Once I got to that point, I felt a lot more confident about posting original content and “real life” posts, because I felt like I knew people would actually read them and maybe leave comments.
So I think building up a good readership first will help you get the confidence you need to start branching out.
Good luck! 🙂
I basically agree with all your reasons for loving blogs, and how you show it! I honestly don’t do email subscriptions, but I will read and comment on your posts if I really enjoy your blog. Even though I’m not necessarily able to do it regularly, I do try and play catch-up whenever I can. Great post, Ashley!