Armchair Bea: About Blog Development

Design credit:
Emily of Emily's Reading Room

Today's discussion topic is about development of your blog with the main question being "What have you done to get better as a blogger...and what do you want to do?" To participate or read on other bloggers visit Paths to Becoming a Better Blogger--Discussing Development

When I started reading a lot again due to health issues I was convinced there was some website where bookish people could keep up with their reading and maybe get recommendations from someone else on their next read. I found The Librarything and started using it. Now the social aspect of the Librarything does exist but I found it a pain to navigate so I never used it much which obviously not really helped with my plan to get recommendations from other people. But I started a new job and had less time to log every detail of my reading life anyway so I just kept it there.
When I moved to my new house I came in the situation that I had only half an hour of commute a day on my bike so not much reading done while commuting but a lot of free time to spend reading. That is when I went on the look out for the social aspect again and landed on Goodreads.
Goodreads is social, the groups are easy to navigate and though I knew they existed I never knew about the impact but there where a lot of people with their own "little" website where the blogged about their reading habits, life and other bookish things. I started stalking a few people to see what that whole community was about and what it was like. There are so many different combination and things beautiful blog designs that do not read great and not so pretty blog designs with great stories and everything in between.
At some point I knew I wanted to do that. Not so sure about my writing skills I knew one thing and that was that I needed a pretty lay out which I felt comfortable with. So on the look for a site platform (Wordpress or Blogger or something else entirely) on the look for a lay out while I kept stalking book blogs to check what I liked and not. Preparation is half the work right!!

Now with my blog live I started looking for community help with making it better. I stalked Armchair Bea last year. I stalk Parajunkee who is giving great tips in her Book Blogging 101 posts. I secretly strolled trough the Bloggiesta tag and read what other bloggers do to make things better and picked up on the things I thought would work for me and my blog. This year I decided to join in on those activities too and get feedback from other bloggers.

There are still many things I want to do with my blog though in a way I am satisfied too. I have a small group of loyal readers now. I would not mind if it would become more but actually I am pretty proud that I managed to gather those already.
I would like discussion posts. I love when I see them on other blogs, well written opinion pieces or ramblings about a subject where other people react on. But truth is I am not sure I would be very good in those so it would have to be a subject I would have to feel really strong on to write a proper post. Maybe someday...
I would like to have contact details of people who publish the books I want to read and write about on my blog. But I do not have the courage to write them anyway at this point yet. Maybe someday...

So what is it that I feel like I want at this moment with my blog.
First I want to fine-tune things, upgrade my writing and my reviews.
Second I want to create a look and feel on my blog where people will start to recognize me on.

But the most important thing I want to get out of blogging at this point is something more personal and has nothing to do with books. I am not a very brave person when it comes to social skills. Some people admire the fact that I have the courage to go out to dinner by myself if the situation asks for it (or I really want to eat in a restaurant and cannot find anybody else to join) but truth is I am not so great in asking other people to join me. Not because I am scared but because I simply forget. If you would ask people in my surroundings they do not really see this but it is how I feel. Making the thing I want to develop most with my blog to get in contact with people who read books and are passionate about them and actually make real contact and maintain those contacts. Because I feel that is one of the most important things of being a good blogger.

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