SBPT15 Week 6: "Successful Bloggers Reveal Their Secret" - 10 Blogging Tips by Amber & Jessica (The Book Bratz)

THE INTRO

Welcome to the Summer Blogger Promo Tour, hosted by The Book Bratz! 

If you're not familiar with it, the SBPT is like a temporary meme, only much more fun and interesting. Basically, a grand total of 56 bloggers who signed up for it have been divided in groups of 8 bloggers each. Every group gets to swap posts through the whole summer - that is, every blogger in the group (plus the host) is featured on one of their companions' blogs every Sunday, always contributing with a different and original post. You can read all about the SBPT here and here.

As for me, this week I'm not featured on any SBPT blogs - every one of us has a "week off" during the tour, and this is mine. But stay tuned - next Sunday I'll be posting my favourite Agatha Christie books on Little Book Heaven!

And now, without further ado, let me introduce one of my blog tour pals!
Well...two, as a matter of fact. Offbeat YA is proud to present Amber and Jessica (The Book Bratz), that is, the minds behind this fun blog tour! Since their blog has grown tremendously in only a couple of years, I asked them to share a few tips for running a successful blog, and they graciously accepted. Thank you girls!

THE BLOGGERS

Names: Amber & Jessica | Blog: The Book Bratz | Twitter: @TheBookBratz

Amber & Jessica are both high school girls and longtime good friends. They started The Book Bratz back in 2014 and spent all of their free time reading and fangirling about books. Some of their favorite activities include reading, writing, sleeping, eating, and texting (duh). Today, The Book Bratz and its followers have grown tremendously and they’re super excited to be the co-hosts of the 2015 Summer Blogger Promo Tour! Drop on by to The Book Bratz and say hi - it’s always a good time! 

THE POST

Successful Bloggers Reveal their Secret - 10 Tips for Running a Successful Blog
Tips by Amber & Jessica (The Book Bratz)

Hey there, Offbeat YA readers! We're Amber and Jessica, co-bloggers over at The Book Bratz and the hosts of the 2015 Summer Blogger Promo Tour! Roberta was awesome enough to feature us on her blog with a super great guest post - what it's like running a successful blog! Instead of turning this into a bragging fest, however, we decided to turn it into an advice session - ten tips on how to run a successful blog! So, if you're a successful blogger looking for some more tips, or a newer blogger looking to raise yourself in the ranks, here are some things that we both think are key to getting your blog up there and being as successful as you can possibly be!

The Book Bratz's 10 Tips for Running a Successful Blog (in no particular order):

1. Reach out and find friends! This is highly encouraged! Nobody makes it in the blogging world alone - you need to reach out through Twitter and meet other bloggers, check out their blogs, follow them, talk to them, and maybe even collaborate on a couple of things. Build a family of blogger friends. You'll have people to talk to and rely on.

2. Reach out to publishers and publicity services when you're just starting out. As time will go on, these services will start seeking you out instead of vice versa, but nobody will come to you right away. Higher-up companies may request your blog's stats, which, being a new blogger, you may not have yet, but there are a good amount that will be happy to send you stuff to review without requesting any further information. Especially debut and indie authors!

3. Use social media to your advantage. Twitter will be a book blogger's absolute best friend. Develop yours, follow other bloggers and authors and see what they're up to, and INVOLVE YOURSELF IN THE CONVERSATION. Make yourself known and get friendly through social media, and Tweet links to your posts on your blog often! Social media will become your best friend. On The Book Bratz, more than half of our daily income of our blog traffic comes from "t.co" - which is Twitter!

4. Buy some business cards/swag! Some bloggers use business cards, some buy customized bookmarks - whatever you want to do, find a way to pass out info on your blog! Make sure to include your name (it can just be your first name if you aren't comfortable sharing your last), your blog's name, URL, email, and Twitter handle. It only costs about $10 for 250 cards through companies like Vistaprint! Bring these along with you to book-based events to pass out to friends and authors and publishers you meet, and also slip one inside of books when you host giveaways. It never hurts to promote yourself! (Something funny that I do is that every time I return a book I read to my library, I slip a business card somewhere inside the pages! -Jessica)

5. Attend book-based events! Get yourself tickets to YALLFest, BookCon, Apollycon, author signings, release parties, events at bookstores, and even BEA! (Although it may take a little longer before you can get to BEA - give your blog about a year or so to develop substantially before you head there.)  Bring your business cards along and meet up with other bloggers, friends, authors and publishers. TALK TO PEOPLE. Make yourself known!

6. Just because you're new doesn't mean you're worthless. If you're a new blogger, you're obviously going to have less followers and less traffic than blogs that have been running for years. Expect it for the first few months, and deal with it. Don't get discouraged. It's completely normal.

7. Post, post, post! To keep traffic on your blog constant, aim for at least four posts a week. (If you have a co-blogger, aim for one post a day - with two of you, it's more than possible!) Schedule posts in advance and constantly participate in weekly memes and conversations. Sign up for blitz, cover reveals, and ARC reviews! Get your hand in wherever you can. It'll benefit you in the long run!

8. Participate in Memes! There are a couple of memes out there that you can participate in. There is Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday, Stacking the Shelves, and tons of more to participate in. Don't overdue it with memes though, 2 or 3 memes a week is a good number.

9. Participate in Giveaway Hops! If you watch around on twitter sometimes people tweet links to giveaways hosted by authors or bloggers, sometimes they are independent and other times through giveaway hops (it is like a chain giveaway, after you enter one giveaway you enter the next on the linky) Giveaways bring in some traffic to your blog as well as some new followers.

10. Personalize your posts! I love personalizing my posts. It is easy to tell which posts are mine too. I use lots of GIFs in my reviews and posts, make graphics, etc. It is your blog, your rules!

So there you have it! Those are our ten most important tips for making your blog super successful - we hope that everyone thinks about them and uses those key tips to their advantage! Remember that if you're a new blog, don't worry - every single one of us started out slow at some point. And if you're a big blog, stay humble - be a good template for new blogs to want to base themselves off of!

We'd like to thank Roberta again for having us drop in to visit Offbeat YA! Check out her blog every Sunday in August to meet a new blogger each week! :-) Enjoy the rest of the SBPT, guys!!