Blogging Tips #2: Voice and Content

Hello and welcome to another Blogging Tips post!  I love to encourage people to blog, whether about books or not, and actually have a friend who has recently started blogging.  But that's neither here nor there.  Basically, I want to help out people who are new to blogging by giving advice.  And I want your help!  If you have tips you think would be great to give newcomers, please let me know in the comments, or email me at tsundokublog(at)gmail(dot)com.  These tips come courtesy of Lauren Stoolfire who I talked with in the comments of the last post, which you can access here.  Thanks, Lauren!

Her advice: Blog about what you like.

My thoughts: Definitely.  For me, that's blogs.  For my friend, that's writing.  I've seen blogs for everything imaginable, so if you're looking for a community to join, it probably exists.  And it's well worth joining.  Even if you're just blogging about your life for an outlet, it's a great medium.  It's cathartic and you control every aspect of it.  Plus, with blogs, as long as you have internet access, you can blog from any device.  But, yes, don't force yourself to blog about something you couldn't care less about.  And don't force content.  This is super important!  Sometimes, as a book blogger, I feel the need to force myself to read certain books, or at least a certain amount of books.  And this can become arduous, and blogging ceases being fun at that point.  Content will come if you care about your topic.

Her advice: Let your voice come through.

My thoughts: Yes!  It may seem like you have to put on a persona to blog, but that's really not the best way to go about doing it.  I use a pen name, but I write like I would normally write under my real name (I've discussed why I use a pen name here, if you're curious).  You probably will change how you "speak" on the internet a little bit, especially as you spend more time blogging, but making sure your voice in genuine is really important.  If readers don't feel like you're being genuine in your words, then they won't be as eager to read what you're writing. 

My advice: Be creative.

It's important to be creative and to have something about your blog that really catches the attention of readers.  But don't feel like it has to be the most original idea ever.  A good name can do most of the work.  In fact, when deciding to blog, the name was half the battle for me.  I eventually settled on Tsundoku because I came across it on pinterest and I thought it was rather spiffy.  But your creativity doesn't have to be in the title.  It could be the art you use on your blog.  The way you rate things.  The format.  Or just a generally creative blog.  Don't be stifled!  But also don't despair if you feel your blog isn't the most unique or creative.  Mine certainly isn't!  It takes time to really cultivate your own original ideas and then even more time to design the blog the way you want.  Just be patient and don't give up.

So, yeah, that's some advice I would give.  I'll be doing another post in a few weeks.  If you have advice for blogging, let me know in the comments, or email me.  I think the next post will be about what to include in book reviews if you want to be a book blogger, so if you have particular advice for that I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by!