Do you want to join the world of book blogging? If you love reading you can start your book blog and start blogging. People no longer have time to read books.
You can take this opportunity and break it down to all those who love reading but don,t have the time.
If you are ready to jump right into it, here are a few tips to get you started.
#1. Why Start a Book Blog
Before you enter the book blogging world, decide your reasons for starting a book blog. What do you want to achieve? Whatever you decide will guide your blog moving forward so take your time on this.
Below are some ideas to consider when deciding on what you want to achieve with your book blog.
Book Reviews
If you want to share the latest book releases with other readers then writing book reviews could be what you are looking for.
With writing book reviews, you need to focus on learning how to write a book review blog and promote books for your review style to stand out from other book bloggers.
Book Recommendations
Writing book recommendations is also a route you can take. You can start by recommending books you love when writing. This will help you attract like-minded readers and other book blogs to your site.
Discussions
You can discuss any book-related topic or any blog theme with a book blog. You can discuss topics ranging from literary families with unrealistic dynamics to sci-fi world settings you might want to live in among other interesting topics.
Criticizing Books
If you like criticizing books then this is for you. You will analyze books and write book reviews for online publications. You also need to be careful with your words and provide constructive criticisms. You wouldn’t want to get into any legal battles with an author.
Tips and How-To’s on Book Blogging
Book blogging has categories such as tips for writing, writing a book from scratch, and how to boost reader engagement among others. People love bloggers who provide value and helpful content.
General Book Blog Posts
You can decide to make your blog a general book blog. You can do anything, be it writing a book review, showcasing new talent, interviewing authors, or anything in any of the categories above.
You can also take part in book tags or join in with any quirky topics.
Take all the time you need when deciding on the path to follow. You need to have a unique approach to increase your chances of success in book blogging. When you are certain about the path you want to follow, it’s time to focus on the steps necessary to get you to where you need to go.
#2. Choose A Book Niche
Let’s look at all the different niches you might want to focus on as a book blogger. When choosing a niche, keep in mind your passions and the topics that you would enjoy writing about day after day, week after week.
Book Niche has two main categories: Fiction and Nonfiction
Fiction
Fantasy
Fantasy books have a story set in a world that is not real. These stories include magic, supernatural events, and mystic creatures.
Crime
Topics in crime fiction include criminal motives, the detection of the crime, and the investigation of criminals.
Romance
Romance fiction focuses on romantic love and relationship between two people. As a result, books in this genre most of the time have an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.
Drama
Drama fiction stories are composed in prose or verse, where there are conflicts and emotions and conflicts expressed through actions and dialogue.
Horror
Horror stories are intended to produce a feeling of fear, terror, fright, or even repulsion in readers.
Mystery
Mystery stories have a suspenseful plot involving a mysterious crime. Throughout the story, various suspects and motives are considered, with clues littered along the way to help the reader find the solution.
Science Fiction
Science Fiction is futuristic and imaginative concepts like extraterrestrial life, time travel, and advanced science and technology. These stories are often set on other planets or in the future.
Graphic Novel
Graphic Novels are based on a series of hand-drawn pictures. Stories in graphic novels are told visually, with a few words mostly placed as speech bubbles or in panels at the bottom or top of the page.
Nonfiction
Biography/Autobiography
A biography is a narrative of someone’s life written by somebody else. An autobiography is an account of someone’s life as written by them.
Narrative Nonfiction
Narratives are also called creative nonfiction. They use literary techniques to create narratives that are factually accurate in a way that tells a story.
Religion and Spirituality
The Bible and self-help books are good examples of these books. They are written to help readers solve personal problems and enhance their lives.
Periodicals
Periodicals include magazines, newspapers, journals, and other publications written periodically at definitive intervals.
Reference Books
Reference Books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and other books we refer to whenever we need specific information.
#3. Choose Your Blogging Platform
There are many free blogging platforms, such as Blogger.com, Wix.com, Squarespace, Tumblr, and WordPress.com
However, I wouldn’t recommend them, and below are some of the reasons why.
Why Choose Self-Hosted (Paid) vs. Free
- You need a Professional-looking domain name if your goal is to make money from your blog.
- You need to Build audience trust and a professional-looking site will make it easier for you.
- You are not at risk of ever losing followers. This is because If you start blogging on a free platform and end up changing to a paid option, you may lose a lot of followers when switching to your new URL.
- You Don’t Own the Content when using a free website. With a free website, creator is that you technically don’t own your content. Since it’s created on their platform, their service owns the content completely.
I highly recommend using self-hosted platforms such as truehost.cloud as your blogging platform from the start.
#4. Pick a Domain Name
You should set aside an hour or two to for choosing a domain name for your book blog. Below are a few reasons why the name you choose for your book blog matters.
First Impressions.
The first thing internet users will see is your domain name. A great blog name can make a lasting positive impression, while a bad one can send readers away or make them forget your blog the minute they click away.
Search Engine Optimization.
The name you choose can have a massive impact on your SEO. Your domain name can impact whether or not Google and other search engines send you traffic to your website. Once your website is running full speed, most of your traffic will come from your domain name.
Branding.
The domain name you choose will define your blog’s brand. You should also consider a privacy and review policy. It’s a massive branding opportunity that you can leverage to increase your brand recognition.
What You Need to Know Before Buying Your Domain Name
Buy a .com domain name.
People trust .com domains more than any other domain name extensions available these days.
Stay broad with your domain name.
Staying broad with your domain name allows you to expand and grow your book blog. Growing your book blog is hard with a super niche domain name.
Keep it short and sweet.
Avoid using long words when choosing a domain name for your book blog. Your domain name should be unique and memorable.
Don’t buy a high-priced domain name.
Start with a common domain name and focus on building your book blog first.
Avoid Hyphens and Numbers
When choosing your domain name, ensure you don’t put hyphens and numbers in the actual domain name.
A custom domain will make you be viewed as a professional by everyone from Google and your audience to authors, publishers, and even other book bloggers.
#5. Purchase Your Domain Name and Hosting
After choosing a name for your book blog, your next step is to purchase the domain and hosting.
Your domain name will be your blog’s URL or www. address.
Hosting is the home for your new book blog, it’s where your blog is going to ‘live.’
Websites are hosted (stored) on special computers known as web servers.
A web hosting provider offers the services and technologies needed to view your website on the internet. So that when someone types in your website URL, your blog pops up.
Our step-by-step tutorial will walk you through the entire process of buying your domain name and hosting. You first need to click on this link to visit truehost.cloud and follow the tutorials below.
Step 1: when you click on the link above it brings you to this page
Step 2: Click on Hosting and select Web hosting. It will bring you to this page. select the silver hosting.
Step 3: Step 2 will bring you to the screen below. Here you enter the domain you chose for your blog for registration. For example I’m going to use bookdirection.
Click on the check to see if the domain name is available. If it is not available you should try a different name until you find an available one.
Step 4: If the domain name is available, it will bring you to the screen below.
Step 5: Click on .com then scroll down and click Continue. It will bring you to this page. Choose a billing cycle of your preference. I will go with 1 month billing cycle.
Step 6: Select on the two free add-ons. ID protection is a paid add-on. And select continue.
Step 7: Check if everything is okay then click checkout.
Step 8: Step 7 will bring you to this screen as shown below. Fill in with your detail or use your google account. At the bottom of the page tick the box to agree with the terms of service and complete order.
Step 9: Your invoice
This is what your invoice looks like. It might be slightly different depending on your chosen method of payment.
#6. Install a Theme for Your Book Blog
Your book blog needs a theme to modify the way content is displayed on your website. Your theme is what a visitor sees while browsing your website. Pick a theme that looks great so that your site appears unique, fantastic, and has a professional look.
There are many free themes out there to get started with. I would recommend WordPress since it offers many free themes that you can use. WordPress makes it really easy to customize your theme with additional widgets and plugins.
If you are looking for something that looks beautiful and requires little customization, you will then have to go for a paid theme. Themes can really vary in price, they could range from $10-$1,000.
#7. Start Blogging.
Before you start blogging, you have to decide how often you will be posting on your blog. I would recommend you post at least twice or thrice a week. Choose a frequency that you will be able to stick to.
Content is not just about writing, create some short videos, fun diagrams, and educational infographics.
#8. Market Your Book Blog.
After spending a lot of your time creating content for your blog, the last thing you want is to hear crickets on your blog.
Therefore promoting your blog is a very crucial part when starting a new blog. Below are some of the most effective ways to promote your blog.
- Tell family and friends
- Promote it on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc)
- Book clubs and blogging communities
- Email list
- SEO
- Give author interviews
Remember that you should already have several blog posts written before promoting anything; otherwise, your blog will look empty when people visit your site.
#9. Monetize your blog
Now that you have got everything running, it’s time to think about monetizing your blog. There are several ways you can start making money from your book blog.
- Affiliate marketing
- Display Ads
- Direct Advertising
- Create an Information Product
- Patreon
- Sponsored Posts & Book Review Blog
Final thoughts
The above step-by-step guide is going to help you understand how to start a book blog. Remember that choosing a topic of your interest is going to make you enjoy writing hence you are more likely to stick to writing year after year.
Just like any other blog, a book blog takes time before you start enjoying the benefits. Do not give up when things do not go as you expected, instead use this post as your resource to help you take steps to get your book blog where you want it to be.
Blogging about books is not easy it needs patience and persistence for an entire year. If you can do that, you will eventually see some positive results and start to make a side income.
Focus most of your time on creating an online presence on your social media accounts without forgetting to be consistent with your blog post to help your book blog grow.
From this side, we wish you good luck on your book blog, and do not forget to have fun.