Book blogging for beginners? If you’re looking for a way to grow your book blogging business, then this blog post is the perfect place to start! We’ll be discussing how you can perfect your online presence and get more readers on board with your book.
By the end of reading this post, you will have all of the necessary tools in order to make sure that not only are you getting better at what you do but that people are actually buying what you’re selling.
There are many misconceptions about what book blogging for beginners is.
Some people think that it’s just a hobby for people who love to read, while others believe that it’s an easy way to make money online.
The truth is somewhere in the middle – you can’t expect to blog your way to riches overnight, but if you have the right strategy and work hard, you can earn some extra cash from book blogging. This guide will teach you how!
What is blogging?
Blogging is the process of writing an online journal or a website with thoughts and opinions on a certain topic.
Or:
A way in which people communicate using the World Wide Web to share their knowledge, experiences, ideas, etc. through text, images, and videos across different social networks for others to view and comment upon.
What does blogging mean for book bloggers?
The main reason why you would want to blog is so that you can hone your craft as well as connect more deeply with readers who might be interested in buying your books!
Blogging has also been proven time and time again to help increase product sales by increasing brand awareness within its target market (i.e., customers).
It’s just like how traditional media marketing works but instead we’re using the internet to get our message out.
How do I start my own book blog as a beginner?
To start book blogging for beginners, follow these steps
a). Find a niche
If blogging is not something new to you, then maybe try focusing on books from a specific genre or even by the author!
If it’s done right, these types of blogs can become very popular with their target audiences and might even turn into an actual career if blog monetization becomes possible in the future (Hey Amazon – hint-hint! You listening?!)
Otherwise, it could just be another thing for your resume when applying for jobs after college since employers love the experience.
This way they will know what kind of content you’re most interested in reading/writing about which will make them more inclined to hire you when compared to someone who doesn’t have.
Define your target audience
Look at the demographics of your favorite authors and see if their target audience is similar to yours, then use that as a guideline for what kind of books you should review.
b). Get a domain name
This is the name of your blog and it should be something catchy that describes what you’re writing about. If your book’s title contains a unique word or phrase, then use that in order to get more search engine traffic! You can also check out Truehost Cloud for cheap domain names; we like using them because they don’t charge an arm and a leg for SSL certificates (more on this later).
c). Get hosting
There are many web hosts out there but if you’re blogging as a hobby and not doing any sort of revenue-generating activities (advertising etc.)
Then I would recommend going with TrueHost which is what A LOT OF BOOK BLOGGERS USE TODAY.
They offer some pretty good deals on domain names and hosting for new users.
Choose which platform you want to blog on
WordPress or Blogger are both free options but Tumblr has more flexibility when it comes to customizing your layout so I would recommend trying out each one until you get stuck.
Design your blog
This is going to be the easiest step in the process because there are so many free website templates out there that you can choose from!
If you want to get fancy, then go with WordPress but when I first started my own book blogging business back when I was 19 years old, I just went ahead and made a simple HTML/CSS template using Notepad++ (it’s like Microsoft Word but better) and uploaded it directly onto TrueHost.
No coding experience is required whatsoever!
Just find yourself a nice looking background image of clouds or something similar and add in some sample text which we’ll fill up later with our awesome content ?
d). Build an online presence outside of blogging platforms
The next step in book blogging for beginners is to go outside your chosen platform.
You can do this by creating accounts in all major social media outlets (i.e., Instagram, Facebook, etc.).
This will help people find your blog once they start searching for other things!
For example, “book blogger” yields over 11 million results on Google! The power of SEO cannot be ignored so be sure to work it!
e). Make a schedule and stick with it
Blogging is a full-time job so if you’re going to do this, then do it right.
We all know that writers can’t just sit around on their butts for months without publishing anything new–and the same goes for blogging too!
In order to keep your blog from fizzling out after a while, set up an editorial calendar that works best with YOUR lifestyle and follow through by updating at least once every two weeks (or whatever amount of content you feel comfortable producing) in accordance with your plan.
If not, people will start losing interest in what they see which might make them leave before they even learn more about what YOU have to say.
I cannot stress how consistency is vital to book blogging for beginners.
It takes a lot of effort and sometimes you might feel like all the things that are happening in your life at home or work will prevent you from reaching your goals but if blogging has taught me anything, it’s that consistency yields results over time which makes everything worthwhile when people can finally see what magic lies beneath these words.
f). Find something unique about yourself (optional)
This could be an interesting fact about who you are as a person or even some fun trivia like “I was born with two different colored eyes”.
This doesn’t have to come before every blog post; maybe just make sure there’s always one sentence of this somewhere in your introduction so that people remember you.
How do you make blogging a successful business venture?
There are 3 main things that will help your book blog become more successful:
- Having an engaging reading community on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter;
- Constantly posting content relevant to books (reviews, interviews with authors, etc.) while also staying true to yourself as a unique writer/reader; and finally, what I think is the most important thing
- Building relationships among readers by utilizing social media tools like hashtags (#), tagging users in posts (@), and creating meaningful conversations via comments underneath each post.
Enough about why it’s important though!
Here’s how you can go about doing all of these steps properly so that people can see your blog for what it’s worth:
Promote and self-promote
It doesn’t hurt to ask people to share or retweet posts that you write when doing book blogging for beginners.
You should always be giving out free content so why not get something back in return?
At the same time, don’t spam people because they’ll close their accounts which will make this whole process useless!
If someone wants to receive updates from your account about new books/reviews etc., then let them know how often they can expect these things by asking “like us on Facebook” at the bottom of each update (or even link directly there) since more social media traffic means a bigger chance of getting recognized later down the road when book deals might come your way.
Promote the work of others
This is probably one of the most important things to remember while you’re blogging about books because if people do not feel like they are getting anything out of following your page, then why would they choose for it to be their favorite?
Trust me – I’ve seen some amazing book blogs with fantastic content go downhill after becoming so focused on promoting themselves that readers started turning away in droves!
Remember what we used to say about karma back when we were kids?
It’s a real thing and can make or break a blog depending on how generous you want to be with other writers/readers everywhere who share this passion for books together.
Follow these steps and success will eventually come knocking at your door!
I hope you found this book blogging for beginners guide helpful.