Book Blogger Confessions (2)

Hi everyone! I'm participating in a bi-weekly event hosted by Karen at For What It's Worth and Tiger at Tiger's All-Consuming Media. Book Blogger Confessions is all about discussing topics that are relevant to book bloggers in a respectful way.

You can check out the other posts and link up your own here!

This week's topic is: 

Memes. Love em' or hate em'? How many do you participate in? Which kinds do you like best? Do you feel like there are too many?

My response:

I think memes are really fun and they are a great way to interact with other bloggers. By linking up in a link list or at a certain post, you feel like you've been 'invited' to stop by someone's blog. It's a great way for everyone to feel included and welcome.

My favorite meme is probably Waiting on Wednesday at Breaking the Spine, because I have a never ending virtual list of books that I am waiting to be released. It's never tough for me to find one to feature. And I have found SO many great new books by reading other bloggers' WoW posts. That's probably why my list is so long haha.

I also really like Teaser Tuesday at Should be Reading, even though I don't always have time to participate in that one. By seeing other bloggers' teasers, I have been able to find a lot of books that I never would have picked up otherwise, because they have a fun teaser that appealed to me.

Mailbox posts and 'what are you reading' memes are other fun events to participate in, and usually promote a lot of interaction.

A new event that I've found that I really enjoyed is Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads. I don't review that many cookbooks, but when I do, I make sure to link up there, because it's a really fun community and there's a lot of interaction.

I've personally been really hit or miss with the Friday follow memes. These are the only events where I've had bad experiences. I've had snarky comments about how my responses aren't long enough, etc, which created an air of negativity for me. When I do participate, I go to TGIF at Greads because it seems to be a positive event so far!

I don't think there are too many memes, there's a variety because not everyone likes the same things. I think everyone has their favorites that they participate in, for whatever reason. Maybe they like the event itself, or maybe they like the blogger who hosts or those who participate.

 "What are your thoughts on memes and weekly blog events???"

Book Blogger Confessions (1)

Hi everyone! This week, I am going to be participating in a new bi-weekly event hosted by Karen at For What It's Worth and Tiger at Tiger's All-Consuming Media. Book Blogger Confessions is all about discussing topics that are relevant to book bloggers in a respectful way.

You can check out the other posts and link up your own here!

This week's topic is: 

Comments. The holy grail of blogging success! What type of posts do you leave comments on? How do you try to encourage more comments on your own blog? Do you respond to people who leave comments on your posts? How do you handle negative/spam comments? Do you use captcha?

My response:

I love comments!! Interacting with other bloggers is really the reason why I blog, I love to talk about books! And the best way to interact is to leave comments on other blogs, and read comments on your own posts!

If someone comments on my blog, I always try to go and check out their blog and leave a comment on one of their recent posts, as long as I can find their link in their blog profile. I make an effort to respond to every comment on my blog this way (unless I'm having a huge contest, I don't reply to every contest entry).

I don't leave a reply on my own blog post, because I feel like the reader is not going to come back to that post and read the reply. Instead I visit their blog and leave a reciprocal comment. If the commenter asks me a specific question I might reply by email or just leave them a comment that says "to answer your question about...."

I will delete spam comments, especially if they leave a link to a non-bookish or non-family oriented blog, and the comment is in no way related to the post. I don't use captcha because I don't like dealing with it when I visit other blogs. I don't think deleting a few spam messages a month is that bad. I haven't gotten very many negative comments, but I usually leave them there, but don't respond to them. I mean negative and disrespectful, not something along the lines of and "I disagree, and I enjoyed this book more than you" type of thing. If it's a polite disagreement, I totally welcome it! I love to hear other opinions on the books I've read.

Which brings me to what type of posts that I leave comments on. I love commenting on another's review of a book that I've read too. It's great to see the similar as well as different things they had to say about it. I also like to leave comments on memes that I'm participating in. Basically, if I've read a post, I might as well leave a comment just to let them know I was there and read it, why not?

To encourage readers to comment, I try to end my post with a question like....

 "What are your thoughts on blog commenting???"