Top Ten Tuesday: Why I Love Your Book Blog

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is my top ten favorite book blogs. My current favorite blogs are always over there --->, in the Blog Stalker. Please click on them! (Well, click on them after you read this post.) Since my favorites are already in the sidebar, I thought I’d talk about what makes me love a book blog.*

*Please remember that these are my opinions. I’m not trying to criticize anybody’s blog. Feel free to ignore me.

Ten Things That Will Make Me Love Your Book Blog

We have similar reading tastes

This is the biggest thing that will make me love a blog. If we’ve both read the same books, we’ll have something to fangirl about. Luckily, my reading tastes are pretty eclectic. We’ll usually have a few books in common. 

Your blog is high-contrast and low-clutter

I have eye problems. If your font is rainbow colored, I probably won’t be able to read it. I need dark font on light backgrounds. Light pink on white and light gray on white seem to be popular right now. Sorry, I can’t read them unless I use the zoom button or smash my face against the screen.

I do my blogging on an elderly laptop. I appreciate it when websites load quickly. Ask yourself if you really need fifteen gifs in your review. Or if you really need that mailing list pop-up. (Hint: nobody likes pop-ups.) 

You reply to comments and/or comment back

I know that this is difficult. I live with a permanent case of comment guilt. There are so many comments and so little time! But, if I leave a bunch of comments on your blog and never get any response, I’ll probably stop commenting. I might still read your posts, but I won’t bother with comments. I joined the book blogging community because I want to be part of a community. I don’t want to talk to a wall. (I can do that perfectly well without the computer.) 

You’re not a robot

My favorite bloggers write lots of original content and show their personalities. Any robot can copy/paste a cover and synopsis from Goodreads. Those posts are okay sometimes, but I want to know that there’s a human running your blog. I love discussions, reviews, brief life updates, photos, artwork, whatever shows off your personality and opinions.

Your comment section requires minimal clicking

I want to scroll to the bottom of a post and leave a comment. I don’t want to click a link, check a thousand boxes, squint at a captcha, or prove I’m not a robot. I’m lazy and have a lot of blogs to read.

Remember when I said that I have eye problems? A lot of comment systems have small fonts or hard-to-see colors. That’s why I type all of my comments in Microsoft Word and copy/paste them into the comment box. Sometimes when I do this, the blog has a pop-up that says it doesn’t allow copy/pasted content. I understand that you’re trying to protect your work and reduce spam, but if I can’t copy/paste my comment, you’re not getting a comment from me. 

Your social media buttons are easy to find and functional

If I like your blog, I want to follow you everywhere. (Not in a creepy way. I promise.) Don’t make this challenging! Put your social media links where they’re easy to see. Also, test your buttons to make sure they link to the correct place. I recently clicked on a blogger’s Pinterest button, and it went to a profile that clearly does not belong to the blogger. (Unless the blogger is secretly a boy-obsessed twelve-year-old from South Korea. In that case, I apologize. You seemed much older and much less obsessed with shirtless teens on your book blog.)

I understand what you’re talking about

I recently clicked on a blog post, and it was just a bunch of book covers. No words at all. Not even a title for the post. Okaaay. What is this post about? Why am I looking at a bunch of random book covers? You don’t have to write a long introduction to every post, but I appreciate knowing what I’m looking at. 

You don’t post a million times a day

If I like your blog, I’ll follow it on Bloglovin’. That’s the site I use to manage my blog-reading life. If you flood my feed with posts, I’ll quickly unfollow you. I used to follow a blogger who loved taking photos and posting them on her blog. She put one photo in each post, and she posted a lot of photos. Then my whole Bloglovin’ feed was just her photos. I had to scroll forever to get past them all. If you want to post photos, put a bunch of them in one post. Then I won’t get a notification for each photo. Because that's annoying.

You start conversations

The best blog posts introduce a compelling question and spark a conversation in the comment section. That’s why blogs have comment sections. So people can share their (angry, uninformed) opinions. Give me something to have an opinion about! I want to participate in the conversation. (Or in the rage-fueled mudslinging, whatever.)

You keep your posts under 1000 words

I bet you’re skimming this post right now. That’s because it’s getting very close to 1000 words. You’re getting bored. I don’t blame you. People on the Internet have short attention spans and don’t concentrate deeply on what they’re reading. I like blog posts that get to the point quickly. Short posts with graphics and white space are better than giant walls of text. (And . . . I've just hit 1000 words. This post is done.)

What will make you love a blog?