the friday 5

I had meant to do a series of posts for my 8 year blogging anniversary but ended up taking the whole month off – which is soooo me, I will always do the opposite of what I decide to do if I make a plan. lol

I’m going to do it as a series of Friday 5 posts instead. I’m kicking it off with the 5 things I wish I new before I started blogging. I have a few topics in mind but feel free to offer suggestions.

5 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED BLOGGING

1. HOW TIME CONSUMING BLOGGING IS: Blogging takes up so much time. SO. MUCH. TIME. Between reading, reviewing, FORMATTING (the bane of every bloggers existence), cross posting reviews, responding to emails, answering comments, visiting and commenting on other blogs, social media & a million little things you never thought you would be doing – like finding the PERFECT graphic or font. Even if you don't do all of that - just basic reading and reviewing/commenting can become a full time job. Easily.

Blogging really is hard to keep up with long term and sometimes life gets in the way or your mood/tastes change. Go easy on yourself and understand that almost all of us struggle at some point.

2. I WISH I KNEW PEOPLE WOULD READ MY BLOG: This sounds like a dumb one, but I honestly, never in a million years, thought anyone would even find my blog – never mind interact with me or care what I have to say.

This wasn’t even supposed to be a book blog when I started. It was more like…Hey, I went to the movies today and saw___, I heard this cool song on the radio this morning, or I read a book and it was good. lol

This is not a bad thing, of course! I’m thrilled that my little old blog was successful and has lasted this long – but I was totally stunned to that anyone would read it. I think I would have planned things  a little better - or like - had a plan at all - had I known this was going to become a long term thing. Viewed by actual people. Or maybe been paralyzed by fear and not started a blog at all.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

3. I WOULD HAVE COORDINATED MY BLOG AND SOCIAL MEDIA BETTER: Kind of related to number 2, but since I didn’t think anyone would read my blog, I signed up my blog on one email – quickly realized I needed an official blog email and created a different one, used @teamsheltie as my social media handle instead of the blog name, but used my real name or blog name on other things. It’s sort of a hot mess lol

I'm intensely shy and I had never intended to use my real name. I planned on doing all of this anonymously. Again, thinking no one would read it and never imagining that I would actually meet or be friends with any of you in real life!

The first few years I went to BEA, I would meet other bloggers and they would ask where I blogged. I would tell them For What It’s Worth and…blank stare. Then they would look at my badge that had my Twitter name on there and be like “OH TEAMSHELTIE! I know your dogs! I love them and I do read your blog!” I learned that my pets are way better ambassador's for my blog than I am. lol

Yes, I could fix some of it now but honestly, it kind of works for me at this point.

4. THAT I CAN’T READ OR LOVE ALL THE BOOKS: This was a real shocker for me. I read fast and can easily read up to 200 books per year and before blogging, I loved almost every single book I read – regardless of genre.

Once I started getting review requests, I accepted them all. Yay! Authors like me and are giving me books! Book cons – FREE ARC’s! OMG, are you serious??!!! Grabs all the ARC’s.

If you blog – then you know what happened next. I was completely overwhelmed by review books. I didn’t love them all and I didn’t have time to go back to my own books that I would have enjoyed. I didn't want to read at all.

This is probably the hardest lesson any new blogger will learn. Don’t say yes to everything! Don’t grab every book at a book con. I guarantee, for 99.999999% of you, you will not read or love most of those books.

Just the act of blogging will ruin your love of books. Once you turn on that reviewer gene – you can almost never read a book in the same way again. Even if you read a book for fun, some part of you will be mentally cataloging flaws or things it does well.

4. I WISH I HAD A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF HTML/CODING/SEO: You absolutely can have a blog without knowing code but it will be limiting if you do anything other than straight up text. Oh the nightmares of weird spacing/font changes/uneven picture alignment. *stabby blogger*

I was lucky. My husband does know some coding and worked night shift back in my early days. I would be practically crying at home and he would work his magic and have my post ready to go in the morning. But I could have saved myself a lot of headaches if I took a beginner’s class or read a book. At least now, there are literally hundreds of helpful posts out there.

I still don’t get SEO. I’ve read articles. I understand what it is and how it can help my blog – but incorporating it? It’s gobblygoop (as my dad used to say) to me. I need someone to stand next to me and do it so I can see lol

I could probably be here forever with this, which is why I tried limiting it to five - but please, jump in with the things you wish you knew before you started blogging…

*Related: My friend Amber has a fun post up called Thoughts Every Blogger Has