Blogger Recognition Award

May 24, 2018

Over the last few (okay, several…) months, I got 3 nominations for the Blogger Recognition Award! (Aww, you like me, you really like me~) Anyways, as I’m trying to catch up on my tags and whatnot, I figured I’d go ahead and fill this one out and return the favor by passing it on to a few other bloggers. ♥ I was tagged by Kathy, Lexie, and Alex!

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the rules:

1. thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
2. write a post to show your award
3. give a brief story of how your blog started
4. give two pieces of advice to new bloggers
5. select 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to


It all started when…

I’ve always loved recommending books to friends and family, so in October of 2016, I decided to extend that to short reviews on Goodreads. More than anything, it was actually to help me remember my own likes and dislikes, because I had been reading so little, for so many years, that I had a hard time remembering what I had picked up or what I hadn’t.
Then, in January of 2017, I decided to move to a WordPress blog, just because it sounded fun and I thought it would challenge me to write longer reviews (my first 2 months’ worth of reviews were about a paragraph each), and to read a bigger variety of books instead of just rereading my old faves over and over again.
Now, it’s been almost a year and a half, and here we are! I love blogging and am so happy that I gave it a try.


My advice for new bloggers…

1. Networking is everything. In the beginning stages of blogging, most people don’t have a lot of followers, which makes it hard to keep yourself motivated to create content. Nobody likes shouting into the void, after all. The best thing I can tell you – and the biggest thing that I wish I had learned sooner than four months into my blogging career – is to go out there and “meet” people! Don’t be afraid to comment on other blogs, share your links on social media, etc. There are even “new blogger” trains on twitter all the time where you just drop your link and everyone follows each other! Making friends will boost your numbers fast, which will help your morale, and all of those new friends will give you a great community and support system (as well as more content because they might tag you in stuff!).
2. It’s okay to tailor your blog to your audience’s likes a little bit. You’ll constantly hear people say that you should only blog about what you like, and if that’s what makes you happy, that’s great – but like it or not, people are driven by success, and seeing our stats go up is always a nice feeling. I love writing mini reviews for graphic novels, but I learned very quickly that people don’t often get excited about a blog post that’s specifically for one mini review of one graphic novel – so I found ways to work around it by doing the occasional “mini review roundup”, where I throw a few short reviews into one post. People reacted so much better to those, which means my audience was happier, and their happiness made me happy – all for the cost of what was a very tiny compromise on my part. (That said, obviously don’t sacrifice your entire set of values and preferences for your posts, because then it’ll come off as fake, nobody will like it, and you’ll get burnt out AF.)


I tag…

  1. Taylor @ NerdNarration
  2. Heather @ The Sassy Book Geek
  3. Danielle @ Life of a Literary Nerd
  4. Annemieke @ A Dance With Books
  5. Chelsea @ The Suspense is Thrilling Me
  6. Dani @ Perspective of a Writer
  7. Sofia @ Bookish Wanderess
  8. Peachy @ Book Dragon Lair
  9. Julia @ Owls Reads
  10. Nicole @ A Myriad of Books
  11. Mischenko @ ReadRantRock&Roll
  12. Louise @ Foxes and Fairytales
  13. Ellyn @ allonsythornraxx
  14. Kelly @ Another Book in the Wall
  15. Amber @ The Literary Phoenix

{TWITTER . BOOKSTAGRAM . FACEBOOK . GOODREADS}

More about Destiny @ Howling Libraries

Just a horror aficionado/geek girl trying to juggle motherhood, reading, blogging, gaming, and everyday life.

Leave a comment
    1. That advice was super helpful! I keep thinking eh don’t be annoying and post everywhere, but no one seems to mind and I’ve been so surprised by how welcoming everyone is lol.

    1. Thanks for the tag! Great tips. In general, I tend not to review graphic novels either that often either.

    1. I agree that sometimes it can be good to listen to your audience for little things like you mentioned with the mini reviews. And sometimes your audience comes up with things you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of. 🙂

      1. Right, exactly! 😀 I’m glad you think so, too! ♥ Yeah, I feel like some of my favorite posts that I’ve done have been ideas from my friends and followers.

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