I have been working on my blog for the past few weeks now, and I am learning a lot about how to write with a certain audience in mind. Although I pretty much lack an audience at all on my blog, with only one follower so far, I feel like I am getting a lot out of this blog in terms of how to write for a specific group while also having my own voice.
My main goal so far has been to grasp the conventions of popular book blogs and incorporate those into my own. One thing I have put into some of my post, that many popular book blogs do, is a question to encourage engagement among my followers. For example, in one of my posts, I ask , “Do you ever feel obligated to read classics?” After asking the question, I go into a brief spiel about why I often do feel obligated to read classic and how I feel about it. I try to be comical and lighthearted, while also being relatable in content, and I believe these questions help with that. It is difficult to gauge the effectiveness of this technique due to my small number of followers; however, it is still fun and informative to play around with different ideas and voices.
Another important factor of my blog are the images I share. I try to make them as clear and visually appealing as possible. I like to lower the contrast when I edit the images to keep them in tune with the muted earth tones of my blog. One picture I think looks really good on my site is the one I posted of the novel, Wise Blood! I like that it features many of the colors in my side bar image and creates consistence among the blogs color palette.
I also began posting different types of content. I didn’t just want to post reviews all the time, so I made a few posts to include my TBR (to be read) pile, random books I’ve read with engaging copy, reblogs from other blogs, and random bookish thoughts I may have. I think this breaks up the monotony of viewers having to see the same content and me having to write the same content.
In the next week, I am going to try to make a post a day. This has proven itself to be surprisingly challenging, but nonetheless, I will do my best!