THE NEW BOOK BLOGGER HOP
I'm a tad bit late to this week's blog hop, now hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer, but I didn't want to miss this week's question (submitted by kero.)
The question is:
Book blogging is more than just reading. Who
helped you set up or run your blog? Or did you do it all yourself?
My answer is: I am technology fearful. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. This is the path I go down every time I attempt something new on the computer. So the mere thought of setting up a blog put me in a bad mood--even though I wanted to be able to blog. Not only am I technologically. . not exactly incompetent but mentally lazy when it comes to it, but also, I don't have a good artistic eye. So, I was envisioning something ugly that would never work right.
Who helped me avoid that disaster? Maddee at XUNI.COM, my extremely helpful website designer. She set it up through blogger and reassured me that the rest would be easy.
I maintain it myself. Most of the time that just means posting. Every once in awhile, I have to do something like figure out how to put up one of those percentage bars to track my challenges. Or I have tried doing FORMS for giveaways, but that was way too tricky to repeat. I'd rather make my own spreadsheet later. The thought of figuring out rafflecopter gives me the willies. And whenever google changes something on blogger, which happens too frequently for my comfort, I fume for a week and consider quitting, but eventually settle down and figure it out, after going through the anger, hate and suffering stages. Sometimes, I even feel a burst of pride. Look at what I did!!! (My kids roll their eyes.)
But the most important things about running a blog I've learned from other bloggers. I've learned about blog hops. I've learned the necessity of prominently mentioning any time a book comes to me free from an author or publisher (rare for me but it does happen from time to time.) I've learned about "challenges." (and read-a-thons, although I haven't taken part in one of those yet, one day I will.) So even though I run my blog "all by myself," I don't think I would keep doing it if I didn't feel like I was part of a larger community of book bloggers, a community of readers who still love books enough to shout about them to anyone who will listen.
What a wonderful, wonderful answer!! I love the detail, the honest acknowledgement of "tech fear" (which I share with you, by the way!), the warm, welcoming tone of this post. It was such a joy to read!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you had help when you started out, since starting a blog IS a daunting, even intimidating task. I remember all too well my days as "a blogging newbie"! In fact, I still consider myself to be one.... I'll have to check out Maddee at XUNI.COM. She sure knows her stuff!
I use Rafflecopter for all my giveaways. It looks complicated at first, but, once you get the hang of it, believe me, you won't want to do your giveaways any other way! I used to pick little folded papers out of a hat....and these were papers that I cut up from printed sheets of giveaway participants' names, which I had previously typed up in Word....NOT fun.
Thanks for such a great post!! Hope you're having a nice weekend!! : )
Good answer. You are doing a great job. Nice to hear you had some help to get you started.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work
My answer is in the link below.
Happy Hopping!!
Elizabeth
Silver's Reviews
My Blog Hop Answer
That's right, I have learned a lot of things from other fellow bloggers too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Kero's Book Blog.
LOL super glad you had help and made things much easier for you mind. Helps is always great and making friends to help is also wonderful!
ReplyDelete