Monday 14 September 2020

A Personal Bloggiesta

About 5-6 years ago, I participated in a few Bloggiesta events to help me redesign and rethink my blog. The idea was to share information about useful tools and blogging tips, visit each others sites to offer suggestions on design and template issues and generally, spend time thinking about how your blog looks and works for you and for your readers. 

I haven't heard or seen much about them in recent times, and the original hosting site seems to have turned into a Korean online fashion shop. But after my recent Stories & Shout Out post and then reading Marg @Intrepid Reader's post about social media use, I've been mulling over what's working for me and what's not. I decided it was time to bloggiesta my blog!

Marg was working out how best to integrate her SM with blogging as well as how best to record her reading journey. I'm trying to streamline processes and decrease my time on my iphone. I've also been inspired by Karen @Booker Talk throughout the year with her A-Z of Blogging tips. Many of you have been asking questions and offering comments in response to my earlier post, so this is an attempt to bring it all together in one place.

I've always been an amateur librarian with my books.

From about 8 yrs of age, I kept an exercise book with a list of all my books. At that time I started my own numbering system. I didn't want to start at number 1, as that would look weird (or so 8 yr old me thought). I started at 1000 instead. To this day, on my bookshelves, there are Enid Blyton and Trixie Belden books with 1022, 1087 etc inscribed in the top right hand corner of the titlepage.

At some point, during one of our moves, I lost this exercise book.

It wasn't until I left home for good in my early 20's, and made my very own home, that I started a new book list with all my grown-up books. In the year 2000, I got my first home computer, and converted this paper list into an alphabetised excel spreadsheet.

This continued sporadically until I decided to start using Goodreads to track my reading around 2015.

My Blog:

  • I started blogging in 2009 with very little idea of what I wanted to do or how to do it. The first few years were a wilderness of experimentation and infrequent bursts of attention. It was only when I realised that my blog was for me that I relaxed and stopped trying to write for some imaginary audience. Brona's Books became my online journal - a place for me to list and talk about the books I had read, or planned to read.
  • I prefer to think of my book posts as responses rather than reviews.
  • I aim to post something 2-3 times each week.
  • The template you see today, is the third incarnation. Each change brings in a more stream-lined, cleaner looking page. Each major overhaul sees me de-clutter the sidebar.
  • Blogspot is currently eking out a new interface which I talked about here. Some of the minor annoyances have been fixed since then (i.e. the position of the new post button, ease of adding labels and hyperlinks). I'm quite happy with the changes so far. It was long overdue and gives the site a more modern feel.
  • Thanks to Karen's A-Z posts, I developed my first ever About Me page a few months ago.
  • I moved the 'search this blog' box to the top of the sidebar. 
  • I also started re-posting the occasional older post to give them fresh air, a new look and a new audience.
  • Over the weekend I added a 'Follow this Blog by Email' option in an attempt to help WP users to track my latest posts.
  • Last night I decided to change my font. 

Social Media:

  • September is my month to decrease social media usage. Last week my daily average was 4 hrs and 31 mins. This week it is down to a daily average of 2 hrs and 8 mins. Huzzah!
  • Instagram is my preferred social media channel. I've always loved photography - travel pics and daily life. My feed mostly consists of scenes from my walks and some bookstagram images.
  • Twitter is probably my next most used site. I mostly follow bookish people and Australian journalists/news sites. I do everything I can to avoid the ranters, haters and extremists.
  • Facebook was once my darling. It's how I kept up with family and friends and shared titbits about our lives - where we were, what we enjoyed (or not), kid's achievements and milestones. I used to visit several times a day and update regularly. But slowly my feed became filled with memes and ads and other people's political opinions. It's no longer about staying in touch, but about trying to convince everyone else that they are wrong and you are right. I'm lucky to check in once a week now. If not for our personal business page, I would probably have deleted fb a couple of years ago.
  • Pinterest is not really a site I use. I tried it about 5 yrs ago to storyboard home decorating ideas and recipes, but it didn't take. By chance one day, I discovered that other people use it a lot more though and that my blog posts were attracting some attention there. Turns out some people wishlist books on Pinterest the same way I do on Goodreads. Since then, I created three boards - Brona's Books Adult, YA and Kids. After each book review is posted, I send the URL link, via my phone, with book cover image to the appropriate board.
  • Litsy is a book app that I used to play with. It's purpose is to highlight photographs of books with brief reviews and commentary. A nice way for friends and book clubs to share bookish stuff together.

Goodreads:

  • As mentioned above this is my main place to list all the books I've read and when.
  • It's not a perfect system. I forget the occasional book and it only started properly from about 2015. Everything before that is a mystery!
  • I distrust the star rating system a lot, preferring to read the reviews left by trusted bloggers to decide whether or not I will add a book to my To Be Read folder.
  • I try to copy & paste in part of my review for each completed book, with a link back to my blog post for those who want to read the whole response.
  • The 'To Be Read' folder is more of a personal wishlist. It doesn't reflect the physical books waiting to be read in my home, but is simply a place for me to pop any books I hear about that sound interesting.
  • I've tried joining a few Goodread groups, but I don't spend enough time on there to make this a successful way to stay in touch with other readers.
  • I don't always have a lot to say about the many picture books I read for work. A quick Goodreads review is a good way for me to keep track of them. Occasionally, when a certain reading week or theme presents itself, I can then combine a few of them into a more comprehensive blog post.
  • I enjoy seeing what my Goodread friends are currently reading.
  • I participate in the yearly reading challenge as I it can motivate me during the inevitable slow patches.

Storygraph:

  • Marg alerted me to this newish book hangout.
  • It's a beta site, still finding it's way.
  • It's not the right option for me to keep track of my books right now. I've got used to how Goodreads works, for better or worse. 
  • But it's very easy to import your data from Goodreads to create interesting graphs about your reading style.
  • For instance, below is a lovely graph about all the books I've read in the past five years or so and what it says about my mood.
  • You can also sort by one year at a time or months within each year. 


  • It's clear that the majority of my books are 'reflective'. 
  • The next five spots, shuffle around a bit, but basically they are 'emotional', 'informative', 'light-hearted', 'challenging' and 'adventurous'.
  • It also showed me that I read about three-quarters more fiction than non-fiction, that most of my books are considered 'slow' reads and my average star rating is 3.61. 
  • I would have been curious to see a break down of male/female authors and books in translation too.
  • The graph below represents the books in the 'To Be Read' folder.
  • I obviously plan on reading more challenging, informative books than I actually end up doing!
  • It has been a fun exercise, but as it currently stands, I will not be spending any more time with Storygraph. 
  • Despite having all the data about the books I read and filling out their survey, it still threw up books so completely NOT me (a cowboy romance!) that I don't see the point of it at all.


To integrate these sites, I use several organising/sorting/sharing platforms.

Feedly:

  • A site I discovered thanks to one of the very first Bloggiesta events.
  • At the time I created themed folders.
  • There was an Australian group, one for Classics Club participants, Meme Hosts and YA bloggers.
  • It quickly grew too big.
  • So I redesigned the folders one rainy weekend to days of the week.
  • When this also got out of hand, I added a new favourite folders for the 12-20 bloggers I visited regularly, who left comments and responded to my blogs.
  • Last weekend, I decided it was time to clean out the weekday folders. 
  • There were still lots of bloggers I wanted to stay in touch with, but there were also a lot that I could now let go.
  • During this process I realised that a number of long-term bloggers have disappeared over the past two years.
  • I also discovered the option to 'Open in website directly'.
  • This has been a revelation and makes commenting on blogs much easier.

Buffer:

  • This is how I get my blog posts onto Twitter with an image. 
  • WP does this automatically. Blogger does not.
  • Once you sign up, you simply right click on an image in your post and select 'Buffer this Image'.
  • The post URL will be tweeted with the image/s you then select.
  • You can also schedule up to 10 tweets which is great when doing chapter-a-day readalongs or hosting an event.

IFTTT:

  • Was another Bloggiesta find.
  • They have a variety of 'Applets' that allow you to connect two or more apps or sites.
  • I use this to automatically update the feed on my Brona's Books facebook page featuring my latest blog post.
  • I set it up years ago, and haven't thought about it since.

Unsplash:

  • Is a free photographic site.
  • I use this to help me source good quality images for my blog.
  • Simply type in your search parameters (i.e. 'blogging')
  • Scroll down to find an image you like.
  • Download.
  • Copy the details of the creator so you acknowledge their work appropriately.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

InLinkz:
  • Most of you probably know about this site, or other similar ones, where you can add a widget, or code, to your post that allows others to leave links to their posts on your blog.
  • It's great if you're hosting an event or readalong.
  • I prefer ones that are embedded in the post for their ease of use, even though they clutter up the look of your page.
  • The only downside side seems to be an increase in spam comments whenever you leave your link in one!

The final part is now over to you:
  • When you visit my blog, what parts work best for you?
  • Which parts are hard to navigate or find?
  • Do you checkout or use the sidebar on my blog?
  • Do you read my posts on your computer, device or phone?
  • Do you follow me on any other sites?
  • How do you find out about my latest posts?
  • Any other constructive comments or suggestions?

34 comments:

  1. This is an interesting post because I have been thinking about a blog overhaul. I like the clean, uncluttered look your blog has. I have not been happy with the new Blogger interface. I know some things have been fixed but there are tiny things I have always done a certain way and now they don't work as easily. Maybe I will adjust, maybe I will simply complain continually. I was already following you in Twitter but I am now following you on Instagram too. I use a lot of the same sites you do but I didn't know Buffer had a Chrome extension. I have that now.

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    1. The main thing to remember with buffer is to make sure you have the blog post open so that you send the URL for your post, not just your blog with the buffer tweet.

      Thanks for your comments Jennifer - my poetry reading has been very slack this year. I hope to get back to it soon as I miss it. I notice that blogger is still tweeking behind the scenes every time I write a new post, so hopefully you will find they (re)fix your favourite bits :-)

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  2. Interesting and useful post! Thanks. I know about Feedly and Storygraph, but need to explore those a bit more to really decide if they're for me. IFTTT & Buffer are new to me & sound interesting.

    As to your questions: I pay attention mostly to the posts. I follow you on Twitter, but somehow usually end up getting to your blog via my sidebar. I'm not on Goodreads or Instagram, & my Facebook account is pretty dormant and don't really use it for book-ish things. I occasionally use your sidebar, but not often.

    I always read your blog on a computer.

    And I enjoy it!

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to reply Reese. As another blogspot user, how are you finding the behind-the-scenes changes?
      I tried using the sidebar option for tracking other people's posts, but found that it got too cluttered (I have a bad habit of adding more than I can deal with regardless of forum!. After I started using Feedly, it felt like I was doubling up, so I removed the widget.

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    2. It is cluttering to have the sidebar. (As I just wrote on my blog...repeating myself.)

      I resisted the new interface for quite a while. It's improved, but I still think I prefer the old one. The labels were definitely wonky for a while. I was trying to add a new label the other day & couldn't manage it, so I briefly reverted to the old interface & got it in.

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    3. I've noticed that the label fix only just arrived with my last two published posts.

      I was having to add labels from the main post screen that listed all my posts - published and draft. There's an icon that pops up on the right hand side that allows you to add labels at this point rather than opening the whole post - handy for a published post that you've realised you forgot a label or two.

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  3. I'm going to be boringly predictable and say that I read your blog for what you have to say about books that I'm interested in. I don't care about any of the rest of it.
    I do have a Twitter and Goodreads account, and I tried for a while to rationalise the number of blogs I follow by unsubscribing from them and just using Twitter and GR to keep up, but those pesky algorithms kept deciding what *they* thought I should prioritise and I found myself missing out so I stopped doing it. I restored my subscriptions and use my email program to sort them.
    I dislike blogs that have a lot of visuals, you know... the ones where every post has its own box with an image and you have to click on it to know what it's about. I grew out of needing pictures when I was in primary school. I unsubscribe from anything with a moving scroll bar at the top, and with one exception because she's a friend of mine, I subscribe from anything with Google ads about seniors health insurance and secret tips for body fat. What matters to me is a Search box, and a clear menu.
    I'm interested to see that there are frustrations with *hmpf* "improvements" to Blogger, just as there are for Wordpress. Everything that used to work properly is now being "improved" so that it works on phones. If they keep doing this, I'll be abandoning the blog and going back to pen and paper reading journals!
    Yours, LoTech Lisa

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    1. Dear LoTech Lisa, you make me smile :-)
      And thank you for refraining from mentioning the whole blogger commenting issue!
      Like you, I also do not like moving scroll bars. My other bug-bear is too-fancy fonts or any other colour scheme than black print on white page. Anything else is too hard to read, so I don't! Especially on my phone. I read about half on my phone and half on my computer, but usually do most of my commenting on the computer. So I do appreciate the tweeks to make our blogs look better on phones. It sounds like the WP tweek is a bigger change than what is happening with blogger though, judging from Bill's recent posts.

      Thanks for taking the time comment Lisa. I appreciate it.

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  4. Hello dear! I read your blog via my computer & wanted to stop in since you asked for responses to this question: Which parts are hard to navigate or find?

    I find this occasionally on Blogger blogs: your blog is extra wide on my screen, so for the longest time I had no idea you even had a sidebar. One day I finally noticed there's a little slider at the bottom of the screen, so I moved it over to the right & -- there was your sidebar! I did a control-minus to shrink the text & make the screen normal-sized, & this made the text itself extremely small on the screen, though now I can see your sidebar. I am guessing you designed the width of the blog to your own monitor because it looked right to you. I must have a smaller monitor. I have noted the same at Great Book Study & Brian's Babbling Books, so it might be a Blogger thing. Wordpress seems to automatically fit itself to my screen.

    Because of this, I had no idea you had pages such as "about me" listed at your blog. I always look for these at the top of the screen & have wondered why you don't share who you are, your project lists, etc, at the top of your blog. I also really like category clouds and the fuller archive list that lets me see at a glance what a blogger is about & what they've been speaking about recently. I see you have dropdowns, which is neater I suppose, but not as quickly informative. (This could TOTALLY just be me. I've seen plenty of people remark that they like a clean look. I'm just sharing if it's useful. For the longest time I had no idea you even had archives or categories (labels) available because I didn't realize you had a sidebar. So I was a little lost on navigating beyond your most recent post. Possibly I'm not blog savvy, ha ha. But if it's of use, there may be others like me who failed to realize you had a sidebar.) :P

    All this is said in the spirit of feedback! I am all about doing whatever we please at our blogs, so I would never criticize. I just make the print bigger so I can read your remarks. But it has left me feeling a little lost, & since it sounds like you're looking for honest feedback, I thought I'd share, to be taken or tossed. :-)

    I think I follow you on the Wordpress reader. I'm not particularly organized about how I follow people. I just skim the day's headlines & read whatever interests me. *shrugs*

    As for what works at your blog, I like your personality. I quite like the reading journal feel here -- the focus on your own projects & ideas as opposed to a more analytical approach. I like posts like this which take stock -- posts about not just the book you recently read, but your process, your project or plan. I'm particularly interested when you talk about a book I have read so I can see what I think compared to you, or when you describe a book I might be interested in. I am not much of a commenter usually, so I guess I'm a ghost visitor. I just comment if I have something to say...

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    1. Thank you so much Jillian - that is really useful stuff to know.

      You've made me realise/remember that
      1. I work on a laptop, so screen size is different than a computer and
      2. I always have my own screen on 90% because I find most pages - on blogs or web pages too large. Therefore my blog has been set up for me to read at 90%.

      I have also noticed that Ruth and Brian's pages have large font even at 90%, although I can see their sidebars easily on my screen.
      My default font option is 'normal'.

      I'll open up to 100% and check for myself but will also see if other readers have had this problem and will consider adjusting some margin sizes.

      I really appreciate the feedback, it's what I was looking for and it really is useful to know.
      And like you, I visit and read many more blogs than I leave comments on. Sometimes I'm in too much of a rush or have nothing to say at that time this is relevant. It's where the WP like button is nice. It can at least let the blogger know you've popped by.

      Thanks again Jillian.

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    2. I quickly checked my behind the scenes settings for my template & realised I had selected size 16 as my font size (while looking at it on 90%). I changed to 100% and saw how big it really was. I've now adjusted to 14, which appears to be what blogger considers 'normal' size. Let's see if that helps :-)

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    3. You're welcome, Brona! I'm glad it helped! :-) I am reading yesterday & today at 100% resolution on my screen and your blog is still a little wide on my computer, but the font size at 14 is very reasonable, & the width of the blog overall is now narrow enough to let me see a peek of a sidebar -- enough to realize you have one. I'd still have to slide over to see the sidebar in full, but this way at least I realize it's there now.

      Shrinking to 90% resolution makes your sidebar more visible & the text becomes small but not unreadable. Even at 90%, the width of the blog is large enough I cannot see the full blog. x

      (That's not a complaint -- just feedback so you can hear how it looks on my end.) :-)

      I believe it's possible to narrow the width of both your blog & sidebar under "theme," "customize" & "adjust widths" in the new editor at blogger. (I'm not on blogger so can't offer much help there, but if it's at all useful or something you even want to do, I thought I'd point it out. Also, you may already realize this, & that may be what you meant by "adjust margins," so ignore me if I am speaking to the choir.)

      Again, I think you should blog however you want & keep whatever width you want on your blog. I'm just sharing the feedback on my end because since you asked & can only see your version of your blog. It could be that adjusting it to my screen would make it too narrow on other people's screens, depending on the size of their monitor. As you say, probably very useful to ask around. :-)

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    4. Now that I'm back on 100% screen view, I can also see the margin issue. It's not as much as what you experience by the sounds of thing, but I prefer to have some white space around each post. At 100% I can see almost no white space.

      So I have now adjusted my margin widths to fix that on my screen. It is SO nice to be able to read my laptop screen again without having to always wear my reading glasses!!

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    5. On my end it is perfect now. I can see the whole sidebar. :-D

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  5. Such a great post with so many things to think about and comment on. I am not sure where start. I am glad that I was able to inspire some thinking for this post!

    I am definitely going to set up Buffer and look into IFTTT as my next thing to do.

    I did do my first review on Storygraph and, as much as I loved the pretty graphs, I definitely don't think it is going to replace Goodreads for me. I don't want to have to identify moods etc as part of my review. I like facts - gender, genre, no. of pages, so I guess I will be sticking with my own graphs, or just go there when I want some of their graphs. The ability to import the Goodreads data was super easy.

    I do need to do a new template. I have had my current template for years and it doesn't represent what I blog about any more which is a mix between books and food. I just have to go and look for a template or get someone else to do it!

    I finally swapped over to the new Blogger last week and I think it is not bad. The issues with labels seem to be resolved, I like that you can easily make your pictures bigger or smaller. The only thing I don't like is that you can't see the scheduled dates for posts in draft.

    The other thing I was contemplating was putting ads on the blog but i don't want them to be intrusive, so maybe I am not ready to take that step just yet.

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    1. Ahhh I wondered how storygraph devised their mood labels - if it's up to readers to add, then interpretation will become a factor. What I consider to be thoughtful or entertaining may be completely different to the next person (which might then explain why it threw up a couple of cowboy romances on my 'thought you might like' section. But the graphs are great!

      It's a few years now since I updated my template. I seem to recall trying a few of the newer options in the theme menu, but in the end googled free blogger templates until I found one I liked. It was easy to import and adjust.

      I haven't tried scheduling a post with the new interface...so will check that out this week.

      Unfortunately all the blogs with ads that I've seen, it is intrusive and detracts from the look/design of the blog. It would take some time to play around with the template design to get the look right I suspect.

      Thanks for stopping by Marg. I'll be curious how you go with IFTTT. It's years since I played with it, so I hope it's still as easy to use as I found it then.

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  6. What a terrific blog post, and I haven't come across a bloggiesta before, but I love the sound of it. To answer your questions, I view and comment on blogs when I'm on my laptop, rarely on my tablet and never on my phone.

    I keep up with what you're reading on GoodReads, but am unable to keep up with my newsfeed on Twitter or Instagram unless I'm tagged in a post etc.

    I'm also a Blogger user and was unhappy with the update but am used to it now. I purchased my own domain name years ago and more recently purchased a template for blogger and someone to handle the changes. This allows me to incorporate a FB like button and stars etc.

    I like sidebars on a blog and I actually have two sidebars, so clearly I'm a fan.

    Like another commenter mentioned, I am old school in that I like menu headings to be across the top of the page. Even if you want additional links to your other Pages, I think a more prominent About Me section at the top would really enhance your blog.

    And this might be a personal thing, but I always love to see one page with an A-Z of books read/reviewed. Mine is called 'Books by Author' but once you've set it up, it takes no time to link your review there. As a review slips further (and eventually off) your front page, this is a way for readers to find reviews from years ago etc. Looking at my stats, this is my third most popular page, after Contact and About Me.

    Anyway, hope that helps and good luck tweaking your blog. It's so rewarding to make little improvements here and there.

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    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment Tracey. This has been a very informative exercise.

      I used to have a pages tab across the top but it got too cluttered - I have nearly 30 different pages!! And I've always had an a-z of books read and reviewed, but they were obviously getting lost on the sidebar with all the other pages.
      I've worked out how to have a header and sidebar pages tab and have now separated them to see if I like it or not, calling the sidebar one Prizes and Reading Challenges.
      I prefer the uncluttered header myself, but have noticed that it looks less cluttered on the phone as it appears there as a drop down menu.
      I've noticed that blogger has made another tweek to the adding photo overnight. I hope these tweeks are coming about because of blogger feedback and not just some internal person thinking they know what's best!

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    2. You're very welcome, I just noticed you've made some tweaks and I love the menu headings across the top, well done! Love how visible your About page is now, looks awesome! You can always use drop down menus so you can keep it nice and clean with only one row of headings and then further sub-headings in drop downs. This is what I like to do too.

      And I love what you've done with your sidebar too. The new Prizes and Challenges section looks so organised now that it's in alphabetical order.

      Keep up the great work!

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    3. Unfortunately drop down sub-headings do not appear to be a feature of blogger yet (I've used them on WP blogs though, so I know what you mean). But having them in 2 separate spots works okay for me - I don't why I didn't think of that when too many pages became an issue all those years ago!

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    4. If you ever want the details of someone who can create drop down sub-headings for you (very reasonably priced) just let me know. I've used Zera Zoya and she's fantastic.

      Oh, and don't forget to add links to your social media profiles like Twitter etc. You can add it in the side bar, and/or on your About page.

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    5. Thanks Tracey. My SM buttons got lost with the last template change a few years back & I didn't get around to replacing them!

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  7. Wow, that's a lot of information you've collected! I am so sad that so many neat bloggers have evaporated over the last couple of years. I really can't stand Twitter, and Instagram is lovely but too much for me. I might play with Storygraph -- I can't be doing with new platforms that will require a lot of work, but if it's easy I'll try it.

    I'm liking the new Blogger format fine, except the tags have disappeared and I have to guess at what my tags are! Agh!

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    1. I have to hope the label tag drop down box will reappear when someone realises it is missing! The labels and images seem to be the 2 things they have fiddled with the most - tweeking one bit of coding can sometimes have unexpected flow on effects!

      Storygram was (fun and easy) to get the mood charts, but I can't see the point of it beyond that right now.

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  8. Thank you so much for the kind mention - I'm delighted that you thought my warblings were of value. Your About Me page is excellent - it shows a personality and also explains what people will find on your site. I never knew your name is Bronwyn!

    Good idea to put the site search box right at the top of your side menu. I'm constantly changing mine - trying to think what would be of most help to visitors. When I go to a site I'm not familiar with, I use the category/tags cloud you often find in a side menu to give me a sense of what kind of books the person reads (if they are mainly YA then I know its not for me). I'm thinking that the little graphics you have of your various projects are pretty but I didn't realise they would take me to any section of your site. I thought they were just for decoration. Maybe you need to add a tiny bit of text to indicate readers can click them to find more info??

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    1. Thank you for your feedback Karen.
      I have been rethinking the various images and projects in my sidebar, so I was pleased that someone brought them up.
      1. I want to revisit these projects that were started up to 5 yrs ago and haven't been loved much since. If I decide to keep them on the sidebar, I will definitely add some extra info.
      2. I got one started in draft to work on while away on holidays, but I've spent most of the week with this little project instead!
      3. I've moved the label search box higher up the sidebar to make it easier to find.

      Thanks again.

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  9. Which parts are hard to navigate or find?
    *Recent Posts: eg from last week or so because I only visit most blogs once or twice a week and that list let’s me see what else you have posted between visits, which I can click on if interested.
    *Follow Options: You might want to group your ‘follow options’ so people can choose whatever option suits them best, at the moment they are a bit scattered in your sidebar

    Do you checkout or use the sidebar on my blog?
    Do you read my posts on your computer, device or phone?
    * I read on my iPad, on the default reader view, your sidebar doesn’t show, nor do your top menu tags. In mobile or desktop view I can see everything now (I use to have to scroll sideways to see your sidebar)

    Do you follow me on any other sites?
    I follow on Bloglovin and Feedly - Feedly is what I regularly use, you might want to consider a Feedly add button on your blog

    How do you find out about my latest posts?
    I browse through Feedly a few times a week, occasionally I’ll see a link on Twitter and click through.

    Any other constructive comments or suggestions?
    You can add a sidebar badge to link to the Aussie Book Bloggers Directory or Twitter account :)

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    1. Thanks Shelley. I used to have my social media follow buttons on here, but forgot to put them back in after the last template change. Same for the Aussie Book Bloggers Directory, although I'm not sure how much traffic comes from that avenue.

      Thank you for taking time to pass on your feedback. I really appreciate it.

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  10. Just stopped back for a peek. It's looking great, Brona!

    I love the pages across the top. I had no idea you had lists of books read! Those were likely there all along. I'm so sorry! My brain tends to overload with too much visual information, so I must have somehow malfunctioned & missed it. :P I'd say you were right (in my case at least) not to leave so many pages across the top menu. I like that you have included the relevant ones. The way it is now seems way easier to navigate. :-)

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    1. I had got used to my long list of pages, but like you. I tend to not see stuff when there is too much visual stimulation - so your suggestion was very pertinent and useful. Thanks again. Glad you like the tweeks :-)

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  11. I have entered my hotmail address in "follow this blog by email" though I notice "comment as" is still using my business email address.
    That's definitely the right place for 'search' which is a function I use on most blogs I read.
    I don't organize or record my reading at all so most of the rest was beyond me.
    Bill

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    1. Hi Bill, I can only think that your business email is the one linked to your google account, which is why it defers to that all the time when commenting. I think you can add a new default email or back up emails to your google account, so that may be a way around this issue?
      I'm assuming by following me now by email, you will get an email notification every time I post a new post? Let me know how that works for you :-)

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  12. I've been looking at The Storygraph. The founder says they are planning a ton more stats. Stuff like author stats. I ENJOY STATS.

    About being shown a cowboy romance: you can take their "reading preferences" survey, & it will filter out romance if you check that box. I notice they occasionally recommend books I have already read :-) but I assume that's something they'll fix as they refine the site.

    What I think is most interesting is that you can go through your own tbr pile & filter it for "funny" books (or whatever), & find a title that fits your mood. You can even do this with the books you own. :-)

    No idea if this info is helpful, but I have a feeling the site will become pretty popular. I don't think it will replace Goodreads for everyone, but it's a nice alternative site. And depending on how they tweak things going forward, it may eventually replace Goodreads for many who are disenchanted with the features there.

    I do notice there's no place there for discussion, & that may be a miss.

    HOW I DO RUN ON. Just putting in some thoughts on The Storygraph, ha ha. WITH WHICH I AM NOT AT ALL AFFILIATED. x

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    1. I haven't had time to explore much more with Storygraph, but I like the sound of being able to filter my TBR by mood. Great idea!

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