TAG YOU'RE IT! - Blogger Recognition Award

A big thank you to Greg from BOOK HAVEN for the tag! You can peruse his answers: HERE.

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As usual I tag EVERYONE because I have no idea who has done this already, who has been tagged by someone else, and who hasn't.

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THE RULES

THANK YOUR NOMINATOR AND LINK THEM

WRITE A POST

TELL HOW YOUR BLOG STARTED

GIVE TWO PIECES OF ADVICE FOR NEWBIES

NOMINATE FIFTEEN BLOGGERS

(no, ha ha)

MY START

I was a member of a Harry Potter social site called MyLeaky and we had a book club that fed my need to discuss books. When we found out they were going to shut the site down, some of the book club members recommended checking out Goodreads. When I got on Goodreads I saw there was a fanpage for a book that I loved, two teen MyLeaky members begged me to read, Splintered, so I joined the group and told the story of how I came to read the book. To my surprise the author, A.G. Howard, replied to my comment. I found out that she was a regular in her group and I got to know her pretty well.

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She was having a giveaway for an ARC of the second book, via Rafflecopter, and when I thought I was making a Google Friends Connect account (so I could get an entry for following her) I accidentally made a Blogger account instead!

THIS IS WHY I AM THE ACCIDENTAL BLOGGER

Did I win the ARC, no, but I won one on another blog. Ha!

BAZ MANCHILD THE BOOK WRANGLER

I ended up winning the third ARC in the trilogy, too! I traded for a collector's flip ARC of the first book. I have been waiting for a boxed set for an eternity, but it is soft covers, so I am going to be buying them as separate hardcovers.

I don't have a photo of Unhinged because the mothy guy, Morpheus, and I don't get along; he reminds me too much of The Ex. I guess I should remedy this now that I have an IG account.
@LaLaCanifshewants2

TWO BITS OF UNWANTED ADVICE
ONE
Do what you want thematically and content wise with your blog. Don't let anyone tell you you have to do reviews on your blog (many of the big blogs don't), or that your blog design is awful, that you need to find a tight niche, or post every day, etc.
 BUT...
That's different from other bloggers giving you tips on making your blog user friendly like: your font is too small, light in color, or too fancy squiggly to easily read. Or your blog takes too long to load because you have too much stuff on your sidebar(s). If you comment here and I don't visit your blog very often it is most likely because I have trouble reading it. My pet peeve is no Goodreads links. You want people to come back to your blog so these types of suggestions are constructive. Accept them with a nod and a thank you.

TWO
Interact! Either reply to the comments on your blog or comment back on theirs. Both is best, but for some bloggers with work and a family, school and work, or having small children at home doing both is next to impossible. I get asked by newish bloggers all the time about low commenting stats for their blogs. They want to know if they should post more pop culture content, or do giveaways, or review more popular and hyped books; and usually when they have to ask, it is because they don't reply to the comments on their blogs, or comment on other blogs. This is one of those tips you nod and say thank you for. Heh heh.

TAG YOU'RE IT!