I am 100% sure we’ve all read a good amount of posts by various bloggers that tell us what someone is looking for in a blog they might want to follow and I thought I would add to those posts by sharing six ways that make me want to follow another book lover’s blog!ย
You Have A Blog Design That Appeals To Me
Obviously, what someone is going to interpret as appealing will vary for all of us as we all have different tastes in themes and the formatting of our posts and what we are looking for in other blogs. But this is probably one of the biggest factors for me when it comes to following a new blog and I know that it’s probably not the best thing to ‘judge’ a blog on, but it is the first thing I see when I visit someone’s blog. And if my immediate reaction is a negative one, I am less likely to stay and look around.
Usually what I look for in a blog design are a limited use of colors and preferably bright themes. I love a white background with a gray font and another accent color that is used throughout the entire blog. That’s my thing. Simplicity. But please make sure you are using easy to read colors when you’re picking them! Make it as easy as possible for people to read your posts – that’s what your goal is after all!
Another thing I’ve recently come to really love are divider images! So many people use them these days and I love the way they break up big chunks of texts and give your eyes a quick break before you go back to reading. I’m still trying to find the perfect one to use on our blog because I feel like I, especially, might need something to break up posts sometimes as I can get rather rambly (case in point.)!
You Update Your Blog Regularly
This is probably the second thing I will look at once I’m on your blog: how often you post to it! I love blogs who post often and more importantly regularly! I like knowing what I’m getting myself into once I start following someone! Obviously, we all have different responsibilities outside of blogging that demand our time so we can’t all post five times a week and that’s not what anyone demands from a fellow blogger. Just make sure that you post regularly – be it twice a week, just on the weekends or five times a week.
You Offer A Variety Of Posts
Whenever I visit someone else’s blog I always take a look around and see what kind of posts they share as I love reading a variety of posts from people to get a better idea of who they are and what they think and I feel like that’s best done by posting different kinds of posts.
Juliana over at Blots Of Ink And Words just recently shared a post about why a variety of posts is important to have and I couldn’t agree more with her, so I’m referring you guys to her post instead of repeating everything she’s already said!
You Interact With Your Readers And The Community In General
Some bloggers might offer the greatest kind of content but if they just simply don’t interact with their readers in any kind of way, it’s definitely a factor that will make me not want to follow them. I love seeing bloggers interact with their readers and the community in general! Often, I will check out a blogger because I keep seeing them pop up in various comment sections of other bloggers and I want to see what their blog is all about!
You Love Talking About Books
Before you start telling me how obvious this point is, give me a second! Yes, obviously I want to follow people who talk about books and love doing it as that’s why I am here too. But. What I want even more is people talking in detail about why they love a book or why they are adding something to their weekly meme posts. I’ve come across so many Top Ten Tuesdays that have just been covers or titles of books and nothing else and that’s just not something I am looking for and I’ll usually just exit out of a blog once I get to the end of the post.
How am I going to interact with you if all you’re giving me is a list of books and not a single word on why you chose said books? If you’re sharing a list of books you want to read, talk about what interests you about them! If you’re sharing a list of books you love, talk about what you loved about them! Get me invested (to a degree) in why you chose the books you did!
You And I Share Similar Interests In Books
At the end of the day, you may be doing all of the things I just mentioned but you’re blogging about mystery or thriller books and those are genres I’m not interested in. That happens and someone else is going to absolutely love your blog and hit that Follow button immediately!
I almost feel like this should be further up on my list as it’s the one thing I most definitely want but it’s also the thing that will take me the longest to discover and while I’m looking at your blog for the first time all of the things above are going to be what I see and process before I get to this point.
What About You?
What are some of the things you guys are looking for when you are thinking about following a new blogger? Do you pay more attention to design or content? Or is it a mixture of both? Do you have bloggers that pop into your mind that you think everyone should be following right this second? Let’s discuss in the comments below and please feel free to share links to your favorite blogs too!
I do much of the same when looking at blogs. Especially the frequency of when they post and the topics. I try to find at least three posts I enjoy. If I have a hard time being interested in the topics of recent posts, then I can’t expect to be interested in what follows.
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Oh yeah, I am definitely the same way! And even if I find 3 or more interesting posts, if the person only posts a couple of times a month I’m probably not going to follow their blog as I like people who post multiple times a week.
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Same!!! ๐
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Lovely post! I pay attention to all of these things as well before I start following a blog – I definitely need to share some common bookish interests with the blogger in order to follow him ๐ I also love people talking a lot in their posts, just like you said, not just plain lists of books but TEXT as well ahah, descriptions and everything, discussions coming from the heart and all, where you can see the blogger’s personality ๐
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I’ll take a rambly blogger over a ‘short and sweet’ kind of blogger every time! ๐
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Same here ๐
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Good design is important to me and I NEED pictures. All words especially without any changes in font is extremely monotone to me, and I think pictures tell a great story. I also like a wide variety of content… beauty, lifestyle, food, kitchen, decor, family. If a blog is nicely assembled and interactive with readers, I am likely to follow!
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I kind of have a on-and-off again relationship with including pictures in my posts even though I really love seeing others use them? I’ve just gotten a bit lazy when it comes to taking pictures. But that’s definitely when formatting comes in really handy as you can break things up that way too!
Weirdly enough, I prefer blogs that are focused on one topic only. I’ve been reading some blogs for more than 6 years and even though they are DIY (of the DIY your entire house kind) and I SUCK at it, I feel like I’ve gotten to know both families so much over the years that I still read their blogs! I also really love mom blogs! Which is yet another thing that isn’t something I am but I just love reading all about their kids, etc!
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I think a variety of posts is what is most important to me! I really want to get to know more about the bloggers that I follow! I find that I won’t follow a blog of they only post book reviews, or only post memes for example!
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Oh yeah, I’m definitely the same! Whenever I come across a blog that is really awesome but only posts reviews, I definitely move along.
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Yes to all of these things!!! I still struggle with not posting the same things over and over and it’s difficult when you want to participate in the memes but don’t want to make it too repetitive ๐
But I’ve recently come up with a few ideas and I am hoping to mix things up and have a wide variety of posts that people will enjoy reading ๐
Wonderful post! โค๏ธ
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I think you’ve been doing rather great so far and as long as people talk about the books they include I’m all for it!
Oh, I can’t wait to see what you’ve got up your sleeve for the future! I’m most definitely looking forward to it!
Thank you! ๐
Oh, btw! How did you mini blogiesta go? Did you get everything done you had planned?
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Aww thank you!! Yes I agree with that! I really don’t like when people make a list of “Top Ten Books That…….” and literally just LIST them without saying anything! Aren’t you excited about these books? Do you not want to share your feelings? ๐
I can’t wait to share it with you!!! You’re welcome!
Oh no, I totally failed XD I think I managed to get 2 or 3 things done but the rest is still on my to do list! That weekend was very busy for me because I had loads to do for uni so it probably wasn’t the best choice to participate ๐
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But at least you tried and got some of it done! That’s better than none! ๐
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You’re right! I’ll just keep working on the list whenever I have time until I complete it! ๐
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This is an interesting post! I think about a lot of these things while blog-hopping, and deciding which blogs to follow. Mostly for me, it’s important for (as you mention) the blogger to like similar genres, and that they communicate!
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Thank you, I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed it! ๐
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Well, you know what I look for in a blog haha! ๐ And I TOTALLY agree with aesthetics. I mean, I’m sort of judging you and your blog for its appearance — but people who don’t spend time on the appearance of the blog often don’t spend time on the CONTENT if you know what I mean??? And yes, I think interaction is SO SO important — because if you don’t support people the way people support you, it’s not the very… nicest. XDD Great post, and I totally agree!
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Thank you! I’m happy to hear you agree! ๐
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THANK YOU FOR REFERRING THESE HUMANS TO MY BLOG POST, SWETLANA. IT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Anyways, I agreeeeeee with your post so muchhhhh. *screams* I hate it when humans have only covers of books. Like WOW WHAT AN INTERESTING POST. But also I could have gotten those same suggestions from Goodreads??? Or maybe any other recommendation website???
I love it when people ADD things to their lists, and maybe even put a twist on it.
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You’re very welcome! It was a great post and I had to share it! ๐
Yes, same! I mean, it makes for quick and easy commenting – I can just look at the covers and leave a quick sentence about any of the books I might have read, but I don’t learn why you included the book. I think Cait over at paperfury always does a great spin on meme topics and fills it with so much personality hat you just HAVE to love it!
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So many great points! The one that gets me is about Top Ten Tuesdays… when they only have books listed, it drives me crazy! When multiple people pick the same book we need to know why YOU like it, lol… I do love me a pretty blog too, of course! I know what it takes to keep those images coming… Such a thoughtful post ๐
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Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it! ๐
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Ahhh I love this!! โค I totally agree with all of what you said here. Blogs with nice design and the same interests as me are definitely two of the things that makes me follow a blog! Having different types of posts is so important as well, and I totally agree on the Top Ten Tuesday posts with only pictures–I need some text?? Some explanation, even if it’s just a few sentences because otherwise I’m there like ?? I love seeing other bloggers’ opinions and having just book titles or covers doesn’t really do that as much as I would like haha. ๐
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