-Armchair BEA- Blogger Development

Oh clouds...

I'm the worst person to come to when wanting advice for blogging.

I'm a simple person, I know nothing about html or anything related to it nor do I know how to design or go "pro" means. And after 2 years I still remain the same clueless way.

I do know that I'd like to try a lot of things in the blog but I either don't know how to or am not sure if I want to take that or this step.

I believe I have somewhat changed from the person who started blogging 2 years ago, who was extremely shy and couldn't interact much on the network.

Silly thing is, that's what I love most about the community. The interaction, the getting to know other people who enjoy what I enjoy equally.

But other than that I really think my blog hasn't changed THAT much.



I still write weird reviews that pretty much tell you the story of how I felt throughout a reading. I still vlog silly videos in which I embarrass myself to no end, I still put some random things in between. Post some pictures...

Up until last december I never considered trying to gain some income through my blog. Never crossed my mind nor has the idea really stuck with me for long. But after the Book Depo miracle I thought of trying it out but 2-3 weeks later decided against it.

Maybe I'm crazy or something but I still can't make myself generate some kind of income through my blog.

True, I invest a LOT on the books I read, specially since I'm not such a huge fan of eBooks and I'm international which means that books cost maybe double their original price.
Not only do I invest money but time, I spend a lot of hours, daily, reading my precious books, get the evil eye from my dad, and even sometimes forget to feed myself because of that.
I also spend time writing reviews, creating blog posts that may or may not be read by my followers.

And yet, I still don't earn a thing and love it anyways.

I tried joining book blog tours last year but never really got into it until I became a host for a specific touring site whose owner I previously knew.

But seriously other than that? My blog's the same.
So...
I'm rambling but I wanted to say:
The one thing I know from these 2 years of blogging? If you just started a blog or you're thinking of starting OR joining one, you've got to keep in mind that,

You're putting yourself out there/here, you're bound to be criticized at some point and praised at others. It IS fun but blogging sometimes can become more like a burden than an outlet to things so you've got to be aware of that. Always.

You've got to be social, somehow, someway. If you want your blog to "grow" to "develop" to be "famous" if you want to be "in" in a community where things move fast, books release every week if not everyday, and authors, publicists, agents and everyone is social.
There is absolutely NO WAY you can grow or keep up a blog if you're not social, if you don't go out of your way and try to say hi to a person or two out there.

I learned that, not the hard way thank GOD, but I learned that being shy wouldn't get me anywhere and if I didn't tweet a link to my post or join a convo on twitter or try to share book covers on facebook... Then why did I even start blogging?

You want to share your love of books? Gush about a read that was just too good to be true? Want to help an author you think deserves to be a bestseller and is just "this" close to being it?
Then BE SOCIAL. INTERACT with all these other people that are in love with reading just as you are.

Some bite but the majority won't. ;)

Trust me on this. And you'll see your blogging experience will be an exciting and happy one.

And always remember, you do this-most of us-for fun! SMILE!! Be grateful!!! And have FUN!!!

Now practice some, don't be shy and leave a comment. Link me to your blog, your 2nd ArmchairBEA post. Or you can just say Hello.

I don't know if this has much to do with Blogger Development but it was the only thing I was able to come up with hehehe.

-blushes-