Today is day 5 (the final day) at Armchair BEA and today’s topic is ask the experts.
I don't feel as though I have enough knowledge about the blogging world yet to really give my own advice. But the one piece of advice I keep telling myself is that I don't have to keep up with everyone else. Being competitive as I am, I have to remind myself that there is no competition here. How fast someone else reads and how often they might be able to post has no bearing upon myself. I read at the pace I read, and I post at the pace that I post. That is all I can do, and trying to put pressure on myself to do more than what I might be capable of does no one any good. Least of all me.
Now, in the spirit of “no question is a dumb question”…
How do you balance reading, maintaining your blog, having a life, and having a full-time job (assuming you have a full-time job, most of the bloggers I’ve seen do)?
What specifically is a hop or a giveaway hop?
Do you have any tips about hosting a self-sponsored giveaway?
Is there any unspoken (or spoken) giveaway etiquette?
How do you generate sponsors for giveaways?
Do you usually make being a follower of your blog mandatory for entry to your giveaways?
What are your preferred methods for following other blogs?
What do you look for as determinants for following another blog? Or do you follow just about any blog you come across?
Do you read self-published works?
Are you partnered with other sites, your local indie bookstore, or library? If so, what do you accomplish by doing so?
Do you do guest posts for other bloggers? Or do you have others write guest posts for your blog?
Do you schedule your posts ahead of time? If so, how far ahead do you schedule them?
What are your blogging pet peeves?
I’m sure there are many, many more questions that I have, but I’ll settle for any answers you can give me to these for now. Thanks guys.
*counts* Okay! Up for question no.7 I follow blogs as long as follow they follow me back. That's my cycle. And if I schedule my posts ahead of time? No. I am the Queen of Procrastination XD but when I do it (which is rare,btw.) I'll say one day ahead for book revs that is :)
ReplyDeleteHappy late Day Five of ArmchairBea to you!
My ArmchairBEA Day Five Entry
Sorry I'm late responding to this. Thanks for answering and commenting. I really appreciate your input.
DeleteOh my, so many questions! And I'm relatively new, but I'll try to answer what I can.
ReplyDeleteA hop is when a bunch of bloggers post on the same topic or for the same purpose, link up in a central location, and bloggers "hop" from one post to another, commenting on each and discovering new blogs. So ArmchairBEA is a hop!
The only tip I have about self-sponsored giveaways is make sure you can afford the shipping. And if you're in the U.S., media mail is your friend.
I do make following mandatory for giveaways, because I want to reward readers of my blog, not random people wanting free stuff.
I read self-published books, as long as the summary hooks me. There's some great ones out there.
I've scheduled some posts ahead, and wish I did more, but I'm just not organized enough. The furthest I've scheduled a post is 3 months, because I wanted to be within 1 month of the book's release.
I hope that helps! Here's my Ask the Experts post!
Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Thanks for your input and comments. I really think you make a great point about the goal being to reward the readers of your blog and not just random people wanting free stuff. Great point. Thanks again for taking the time to answer some of my questions.
DeleteThat's a lot of questions! On the giveaway hop questions, I've never hosted my own but love participating in the ones hosted by Leeswammes Blog. I never make being a follower mandatory and don't appreciate it when other blogs do so.
ReplyDeleteI don't follow most blogs I see -- there are way too many of us! Wordpress blogs are easiest to follow since I'm in wordpress too, although I'm finding twitter to be a good tool for following and generating followers.
I look for blogs that read similar things as I do (generally a mix of genres not just one); and blogs that don't just meme but write really thoughtful reviews.
Hope you get some good answers to your questions!
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer some of my questions. I really appreciate your input.
DeleteIf I sponsor the giveaway then yes, I make being a follower mandatory. But otherwise, no. :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekened, Sandy!
Thanks for commenting and stopping by!
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