Tagged: book blogging
The Best and Worst of July 2013
Well, July was actually a pretty good month for me. I got some serious reviewing in, writing 7 reviews in one day and 5 in another (and spacing the rest out like I normally do). I also did some serious reading and have begun requesting more from NetGalley which I really shouldn’t considering my author backlog. Ah, the wonders of procrastination!
Overall monthly views are down from last July (3,937 compared to 4,350 last July), but that doesn’t really concern me at this point. It may be that WordPress changed the way they’re counting statistics or it could be that people weren’t visiting my site as much. It’s not a big deal considering that I began the month with 413 followers and ended with 462! Followers are more important than views to me, so getting almost 50 views in one month is quite an accomplishment. It seems that the more followers I already have, the more I attract.
But enough rambling. Let’s take a look at the 5 best articles of July 2013:
1. Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal
2. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. How to Write a Review Request
4. My Least Favourite Book Tropes
5. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
For once, there are four newcomers to the top 5 list, three of which were published just in July. My Game of Thrones article is frankly, no surprise. I published it at the beginning of the month and am still averaging 15 views per day on it. It’s particularly SEO friendly and clicky so it’s spread around through social media more than my rants usually do. Similarily, How to Write a Review Request and My Least Favourite Book Tropes were articles/rants that were easily shared and promoted discussion. And of course, The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome continues its streak at the top. As for The White Queen, well, The White Princess just released and there’s quite a bit of buzz surrounding the series at the moment.
So what articles were the worst 5 this month?
2. The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
3. There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack
4. Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey
5. Look What Just Arrived! (#3)
Again, no real surprises here. They’re all either self published books, old books or old articles. It’s a shame that so many good books end up on my bottom 5 list in terms of hits, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still good books. It would just be nice for the authors to have a little more publicity, especially in the case of indies.
So that was how my July went: a blur of books and work (ah, tourist season). How was yours? Are you reading anything interesting?
The Best and Worst of June 2013
Yes, my post is late today! Well, that’s because it’s Canada Day and I’m sick (again) with a sore throat and runny nose. Nothing unusual there so don’t panic; I’m just feeling miserable and am a little crankier than usual.
If you look at the stats for this time last year, they went down as well as most of my traffic seems to come from students looking for help on school assignments. That’s why in June I only received 3,803 views and 2, 014 unique visitors. Still respectable, but nothing really to brag about.
So on that note, let’s look at what my top posts in June 2013 were:
1. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
2. Why no Writer Wants to Tackle Chronic Pain
4. End of Days by Eric Walters
5. An Apology to Self-Published Writers
None of these is really that surprising. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome has made this list every month since May 2012 and the rest are either novel study books or are particularly clicky articles that people read, shared and commented on. Obviously that drove the views through the roof for these particular articles.
So then what were the worst articles/book reviews in June?
3. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
4. The 3 Best Books to Read in the Bathroom
5. Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry
None of these is all that surprising seeing as some are not particularly popular self-published books or books from older series that have already been finished. The only real puzzler here is Rot & Ruin by Jonathon Maberry because while it’s not the most popular book ever written, it does have a decent fan base. Oh well; that’s just how it goes sometimes.
I Need an eReader
I’ve given you guys lots of book recommendations over the year and a half I’ve been blogging, which is why I’m turning to you now: I need an eReader. In light of my little health problem that makes it hard to sit in one place for a long time, I can no longer stand to read books on my computer. Therefore, an eReader is the perfect solution. But to be perfectly honest, I have no idea where to start. All I really know is that I have a few pre-requisites for an eReader:
1. It must be a Kindle because indie authors who contact me are generally selling their books through Amazon.
2. It must be light so I can hold it even on bad days.
3. It must be under or only slightly over $200.
So, what do you think I should get? Why?
Some More Advice for Book Bloggers
If you haven’t already, please check out the first part of this ‘series’ by clicking here. Read it? Good, let’s get started on Part Two of my completely unplanned, irregularly scheduled series.
There’s lots of advice for bloggers out there, but very few of it applies to book bloggers. I know I was learning things on the fly as I started The Mad Reviewer and I want some resources to be available out there so not everyone has to learn while they’re going like I did. Here are some pieces of advice I really could have used:
1. Don’t obsess about free books and ARCs, especially when you’re just starting out.
Although I had no idea it existed until a month ago, there is apparently quite some envy and conflict among the book blogging community when it comes to getting review copies from publishers and ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies). Not because getting free books in exchange for reviews is controversial, but because people get jealous of reviewers who brag about all of the free stuff they get. They make it seem like all of us get sent dozens of books per month from publishers, which most of us don’t.
When you’re just starting out you need to focus on learning the technical aspects of blogging as well as improving your writing and connecting with other bloggers to build up your statistics. There is no reason for you to obsess over free books when you’re already doing all of these things. I mean, truly? Free books are awesome, but they’re not the be all, end all of book blogging. I’ve been around for almost a year and a half and I’ve been sent 3 books by publishers—and one of those was by accident.
Seriously people, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s nice when it happens, but if not it’s not the end of life as you know it and it certainly doesn’t mean you have a bad blog. Continue reading
The Best and Worst of March
No, this is not some weird April Fool’s day joke. Honest. Although, looking at my stats this month, I sort of wish it was. My overall monthly views are up from February at 3,488 hits and 1,998 unique views, but they are still lagging behind the record-setting month of January. This very likely has to do with me taking so many holidays and posting reviews of obscure books. Obscure books = less search engine traffic = less overall views. I’m happy to say that as far as I know, I’m home all of April, so we’ll see if this is a new disturbing trend or only temporary.
Now here are my 5 best posts for March:
1. The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome
3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
5. What Makes a Character Memorable?
We have two newcomers this month! Both 1984 by George Orwell and my article What Makes a Character Memorable? are completely new to my Best and Worst series. I have to say that this is a refreshing change from the usual five that top this list. Of course some of the regulars are still there, but at least there seems to be more traffic going to my newer articles. What about my ‘worst’ articles, though?
2. A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
3. The Fourth Wall by Walter Jon Williams
4. Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
Once again, every single book at the list of the worst five articles is completely new. Notice that they’re all book reviews too? It seems my articles are more popular, as I observed long ago. Well, at least the good news is that my worst articles keep rotating and aren’t like the best articles where it’s pretty much the same 5 every month.
So how did March go for you?