Man, I keep getting worse and worse about getting these posts up by midnight! Curse you, heat exhaustion! So, y’all, today’s post sounds like kind of a challenge, but I think it’s like brainstorming, it’s hard at first, but once you get going it’s like a non-stop gush of ideas, at least that is my hope. Today’s prompt is a quick listing of 15 things you like to see on blogs. This post is part of a 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge that I started because I was feeling burnt out and then inspired. Check out the challenge here.
Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!
- A clean layout — I love it when blogs are quick to load.
- No noises – oh my goodness you guys, I had to stop going to one blog because every time I clicked, this countdown widget started making these very loud noises.
- A search bar — I love when I know my friends have reviewed a book that I’m writing up a post on, the search bar makes it so easy for me to find it.
- Personal posts! I LOVE getting to know the blogger beyond the books they are reading.
- Rants. Seriously, I will always, always click a link to a rant or a discussion post on twitter.
- Intelligent use of GIFs, so basically I love hilarious GIFs, but to the point where one is painstakingly chosen, not here’s 17 GIFs in one post! But even then, if those GIFs have a point and are behind a jump cut, I am down.
- Reviews! I love reading all kinds of reviews on varied sorts of books.
- AUDIOBOOKS! Be still my heart, I love when bloggers talk about audiobooks.
- Theme weeks – I love when bloggers are creative and devote a week to a particular time. I can never seem to get myself together enough to do that, but I have a lot of admiration for people who do that.
- Humor – I love when bloggers have a great sense of humor and incorporate that throughout their posts.
- Personality – this goes hand in hand with humor, but I know that personally, I’d rather read a personal sort of review than a professional sort of review. Both have value for sure, but for me, personality appeals much more.
- Reviews of books that I love — I will always pause when I have mutual love for a specific book.
- Comment replies! YAY! COMMUNITY!
- Individualism – I love it when people do their own thing and DGAF (google it, ha ha).
- Passion – I love, love, love stumbling across a totally new blog and being blown away by that person’s passion for literature and books!
Now it is your turn, what things appeal to you? Do we have anything in common?
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April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
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You make some great points! I love your point about themed weeks – I wouldn’t have the time to do it, but sounds like a great idea 🙂
I agree with all of your points. I get super excited too when I find a fellow audiobook reader. (listener?) Audiobooks are my absolute obsession so finding recommendations, discussions, & reviews featuring audio makes my day!
I’ve never seen anyone do a theme week before. What does that usually entail?
Much agreed on the rants thing, though. Book reviews are well and good (and great, sometimes) but I like to talk about more than just one book at a time. And, of course, to listen to other people talk about that.
I love comment replies, too! I try so hard to reply to ALL the comments on my blog, but it’s totally worth it. Sometimes I forget which blogs I comment on, so it can be hard to go back and have that dialogue, but when I have the time, I love to do it — just like how great it is to see people come back and reply to my replies!
And a clean layout — SO necessary. I hate clutter!
Oh my gosh, YES to no noise! I was reading blogs yesterday, and clicked on one with sound and it scared the crap out of me because I wasn’t expecting all that noise.
Oh I love many of those things. Clean layout is so important. Too much messy visual stuff and I can’t focus on the blog posts.
And though I didn’t mention it I love rants that have a humorous side to them. As long as they’re ranty and funny I enjoy. The serious ones kinda scare me though.
I totally agree with personality, not just in reviews, but in posts and blog design overall. I like to know when I land on the blog that it immediately tells me something about the blogger.
Great challenge!
Discussion posts will always make me click a link. I tend to not comment on them right away. I’ll read the post, think about it, and then come back later.
Theme weeks I like but I don’t know if I could have enough energy to keep it up an entire week. Maybe thus year I’ll go crazy for Halloween and do a theme week then.
Personality, humor, and passion are big for me to. Its nice to be reminded that there is a real person behind the posts.
A clean layout is on my list too. I love organization and easy to read and navigate blogs. I also love reading reviews and will always click on a review of a book I read and comment on it. So many other good ones on your list too 🙂
Theme weeks… Hmm I honestly have never seen these but I’m totally gonna be on the lookout for some ideas! Thanks girly!
Awesome post by the way, as always.
http://spicedlatte.blogspot.com/2013/07/15-days-challenge-day-8-what-appeals.html
I agree with you noises can be as distracting as highlighted text or the cursor that’s spreading fairy dust all over the blog.
As I am usually in the hunt for a good audio book the fact that others talk about them leads me to them like a moth to the fire only with out the horrible horrible consequences.
And discussions, rants and personal posts are part of the guilty pleasures of being a blog reader 🙂
We have so many points in common! Especially the no noise one! I like to browse some blogs at work from my phone and the noises sometimes get me caught!
I’m curious about theme weeks as well. I could probably go hard like that for one week pretty successfully. 😉
I’m with you on just a clean layout and not a lot of bells and whistles. I love gifs, but you’re right, it should be effective/clever use!
This was harder than I thought it was going to be! Not just coming up with them, but trying to actually analyze what draws me in, and then express it. I see we have some in common though! =D
Hi Everyone! I participated in a tour which included a button, I put the button on my sidebar and music started coming each time my blog is loaded, so I assumed that it was included on the button. I’ve now removed the button as I’m a HUGE no no on audio that is automatic on people’s blogs but now the music is still on there. I’m now not sure WHERE it’s coming from or HOW to get rid of it, anyone have any suggestions?
Oh, discussion posts! I can’t believe I forgot those. While I massively suck at trying to come up with them, I love participating in them!
UGH, noise. Seriously. There is probably no better way to get me to click out of your blog than to have unstoppable music playing. And I frequently won’t even stay long enough to try to figure out how to stop it.
Nailed them, as usually. I agree so much with the DGAF comment (haha). You have to keep tabs on the community, but be able to do things your own way and branch out too. Also, I love rants too. In general, passionate writing is great and it’s pretty easy to get passionate about stuff you dislike. Or, the opposite being a gush, which I enjoy equally. 😉
I’m generally a fan of clean, well-designed blogs, and have a hard time with blogs that feel too cluttered or crowded with their design. I’m more inclined to read a review if I feel like it’s written well, and expresses thoughts on things about a book that I’d be interested in – character and story and feelings. I also love when bloggers give themselves room to get personal! I feel like I really get to know them, and that’s totally awesome.