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If you want to blog about books, you not only need a passion for reading and writing, but also some know-how in terms of SEO and marketing.
Book blogging: The path to becoming a book blogger
For most people, the path to a successful book blog begins as a hobby. In fact, that’s the best way to get started as a book blogger – that you’re passionate about books and writing about books.
- Find your niche: Think about what niche you could fill. Are you interested in contemporary novelists, do you have a specialist focus such as finance or psychology, or would you like to blog about children’s books? A niche that matches your interests will ensure that you build a loyal readership in the long term.
- Authenticity: Whether it’s longer blog posts or short Instagram posts – give what you write a personal touch. Let your (potential) readers feel that there is a real person with authentic thoughts and feelings behind the words. When writing, simply imagine that you are talking to a friend. This will make your texts appear approachable and authentic
- Find your own language: Your writing style is your biggest unique selling point and helps you stand out from the crowd of book bloggers. Do you want to sound like a professional literary critic or write more loosely in the first person? Is your writing style more poetic and playful or clear and concise? Take inspiration from your favorite bloggers to find your own voice.
- Consistent aesthetics: In most cases, what initially draws potential readers to you is not the content of your texts, but the aesthetics of your blog. So think about how you want to present yourself and your texts. With an Instagram blog, for example, your feed should have a uniform look. The photos accompanying the blog posts play a particularly important role here
Starting a book blog: Tips for a successful book blog
Whether as a hobby or with the aim of earning money – to become a successful book blogger, you not only need a passion for writing, an authentic writing style and a consistent aesthetic. You also need to have the right technical and technical skills.
- Platform: How you set up your blog depends on the platform, among other things. To draw people’s attention to your blog, a combination of blog website and Instagram blog is ideal. On your actual blog you publish your texts in full length, on Instagram you summarize your basic ideas concisely and in easily digestible bites.
- Learn the tools of the trade: To blog about books, you need to acquire the necessary tools. In concrete terms, this means learning how to write reviews and blog posts. The more you have internalized the formalities, the more you will be able to leave the rigid formal requirements behind and play freely with them.
- SEO optimization: To ensure that your texts are displayed to potential readers, you should also acquire basic knowledge of SEO optimization. Use websites such as Mangools to find keywords that rank on Google and optimize the headlines of your posts. Here too, the better you know the basics, the more you can play with them.
- Get books: If you blog about books, ideally you need review copies. For example, take part in book raffles on Lovelybooks or use portals such as NetGalley and Blogger Portal to get review copies.
- Networking: Network with other book bloggers. This works best on Instagram or Bookstagram. Look for personal exchanges about shared favorite books, take part in book challenges and become an active part of the Bookstagram community.
