Tagged: discussion
Discussion: Blog Traffic Patterns
One odd thing I’ve noticed over the years is that Mondays are my absolute best traffic days but Fridays are my worst. This isn’t that odd when you think about it: people love to procrastinate at work on Mondays whereas on Fridays they’re more focused on going out. But what’s interesting to me is what happens when there’s a holiday in North America (primarily in the United States): traffic goes down.
With everyone at home, you’d think my traffic would go up. Yet the week of American Thanksgiving always finds virtual tumbleweeds blowing across the expanse of my blog. What gives? Do people only visit during work hours to procrastinate or when it’s a holiday do more people spend time with their families instead of on the internet? It’s an interesting question and I wonder if it’s the same for a lot of other blogs or even larger websites.
Well, what do you guys think? If you’re a blogger, do you have this happen as well?
Discussion: Reducing the TBR Pile
Like most book bloggers out there, my TBR pile is getting insane. It includes not only books I’ve agreed to review for authors who contacted me while submissions were open but also books I requested from authors, NetGalley requests and of course my own personal collection (which grows by the month). I’m starting to think I have a problem with cutting down on books.
However, these past few weeks since I’ve been back blogging I’ve drastically reduced my TBR pile. I haven’t bought any new books and I’ve been going through my NetGalley dashboard to make sure I read and review all of the books on my shelf before I request any new ones. Then I’m going to tackle the books I promised to review for authors and publishers, then books I requested from authors personally and finally the books I bought for myself. I have no illusions: I’m never going to actually cut down my TBR pile to zero. However, I hope to get it down to at least less than 100. It’s getting a little ridiculous.
So what do your TBR piles look like? What strategies do you have for cutting them down to a more appropriate size?
Discussion: Finding New Books
One of the things I’ve never struggled with since becoming a book blogger is finding new books and new authors to read. I mean, I’ve had to close my submissions twice in order to catch up with the absolute deluge of requests that have flooded in. In addition to that, I of course find new books from the recommendations of other reviewers, book tours companies, NetGalley and general Goodreads browsing. But I’m curious: how do you personally come across new books?
Do you mostly find them when you’re browsing online or in a bookstore? Are they mostly recommended to you by friends? Or are you a fellow blogger and find lots of interesting books from the reviews of other book bloggers?
Let me know in the comments below!
Discussion: Pinterest and Blogging
I joined Pinterest just a few months ago in part because I noticed how many referrals I was getting from it. (Not an insane amount, but a couple every day do add up over time.) So I started creating various boards of varying levels of relevance to my blog and waited. I was pleasantly surprised when my referrals from Pinterest went up, particularly from the cover images of books I reviewed that I later pinned.
So what I want to know now is this: If you’re a blogger and/or author, do you use Pinterest? Has it driven any traffic to your blog? Why or why not?
Discussion: Getting Out of a Reading Slump
Currently I’m on a roll with reading books but there have been times when the last thing I wanted to do was read. I call these ‘reading slumps’ and it seems like every book blogger and/or avid reader has them on occasion. So how do we get over them and get back blogging?
For me, writing about something else seems to help. If I write about something book-related but don’t actually do reviews, sometimes it rekindles that urge to read again. And a little ranting once in a while is good for you anyway. Sometimes I don’t have a miracle cure for reading slumps; I just snap out of them without warning. Other times it’s re-reading an old favourite that helps me. I don’t really have a surefire way to get out of a reading slump and I think methods for getting out of reading slumps are very individualized. What works for one blogger doesn’t necessarily work for another.
So what I want to know now is this: How do you get out of your reading slumps? Does your method always work or work some of the time?