I: Hi guys! Welcome to March 2018. Are you having fun yet? Not to rub it in or anything but I’m having a blast! I’m desperately trying to survive the eternal winter called Montreal – Buddy has decided his strategy is going to be to learn how to use the toilet and never go out again. It’s a pretty solid plan. Mine is – hard liquor warms the belly. I’m also working on trying to improve my blogging game. If 2017 has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t know anything about being a blogger but I DO know a whole bunch of people who are clearly experts.
I: So, in the spirit of self-improvement and avoiding the outdoors, I’ve reached out to someone I’ve been quietly admiring ever since I started this little adventure. Lita is, to put it plainly, great! She is one of the most positive and warm people I have been lucky enough to get to know recently and it really shows through in her writing. Let’s face it, I can use all the warmth I can find right now. This endearing and charming personality emanates from everything she writes which is probably why so many of you have flocked to her blog and eagerly follow her posts. Who better to give me a few pointers! And just for giggles, I’ll let you guys in on my own experiences as well.
Do you have any suggestions for a layout?
LITA: When it comes to blog layout keep it simple as possible. I’ve never bothered with the wordpress themes that you can buy. Not saying you can’t, it depends how much time you put into your content and blog. Also if your blog is monetized and and you want to make money. Investing then in a premium layout would be worthwhile to me. I personally use the free wordpress themes, limited choice. Shame there is.
Making it easy for navigation through your blog, will be appealing to people who come across your blog. In my mind keeping your layout simple reaks more benefits.
I: I’ll level with you guys, Lita and I started this collab a while ago but we both got caught up in other things and I forgot about this question when I published an entire post on layouts. I really have nothing more to add at this point, but I heartily agree with everything Lita said.
The one note I will say about premium accounts, is that they allow you to add videos to your posts which can be a fun feature.
How did you choose your posting schedule – did you find anything that works better?
LITA: Let’s face it, an eternal struggle for any blogger to stick to a schedule. It’s hard especially one when juggles life around. My blog schedule is Wednesdays where any main post I write comes out. Fridays are when my blogger features come out. My friday feature doesn’t take me long to write and my main reason for choosing Wednesdays. To give myself a decent margin gap to take my time with what I’m writing. If I’m busy in between, I’ll end up coming back to the one post before it’s goes out on a Wednesday.
LITA: This schedule for me gives me free reign in between to write anything extra as well. Spreading out your schedule over the week lets you take your time, with your posts. Is how I chose my schedule. Don’t overload yourself lots of days in your schedule. Evaluate how much you can post within a schedule, on how busy your lifestyle is. This will be your best guidance to organizing your own blog schedule.
I: Ummm… well I post everyday. I’m the sort of person that finds it much easier to stick with something once I get into a routine, so although daily may not be feasible for everyone, especially those fancypants among you who insist on “quality”, I still think there are clear benefits to a set schedule.
I: I like Lita’s reasoning here. As long as you don’t put so much on your plate that it’s no longer fun.
How do you get motivated to write?
LITA: You’ll have your moments of slump where you won’t feel like writing. What’s known as writer’s block, the words just don’t come. You won’t be in the mood, course it’s hard to find that drive. I’ve covered in a post before ways to get yourself out of writers slump, feel free to check out. To squeeze down to one answer my best one. Go back to your old roots, go back to what made you want to start your blog or writing in general. Going back through older posts, will reignite that writers flame.
LITA: It’s the same with anything when your losing focus in your hobbies. Going back to basics once in a while is a reminder. To why you started what you did. I’ve done this many times, for when I’m stuck on what I wish to write.
I: I still love watching animes and playing games. It’s what I do for fun. I find my motivation into sharing that fun with my readers. I just want to tell you guys about what I’ve discovered, even when my thoughts are basically it was a’ight, and I love reading comments. For every person that started a blog because they wanted to share and discuss their passion, the comments is the most tangible reflection of that.
I: But watching anime is time intensive. I do have a responsibility or two that won’t really allow me to watch 12 episodes a day. Besides, I wouldn’t want to. So what about the posts that aren’t reviews? Those are a little trickier. I found that my greatest source of inspiration and motivation ins the aniblogger community itself. I will read a whole bunch of posts and realize that no one has talked about a particular aspect or that people seem to be interested/have questions about a certain subject. I will follow twitter threads and occasionally a random thought I tweeted out generates enough responses that I can develop it into a short essay.
I: And sometimes, it’s simply because another blogger will have created such an amazing post that it motivates me to push myself. I’ll start researching and wracking my brain for a challenging subject (secretly trying to impress them). It usually doesn’t work.
How long should a post be?
LITA: I find this question come up a lot among blogging. Bloggers worrying that posts are meant to be novel length. Let me tell you that not every reader will want to read such a length. People have different attention spans, some like long or short. You can’t know what people’s reading preferences are. When writing a post, just let the words spill out.
LITA:Worrying people won’t read your post because it’s too long or short. Will only un-motivate you. It has never matter in my eyes how long or short a post is. What’s important is what you wanted to say projected onto your post. That fulfillment filling that what thoughts were in your head, have been expressed. Is what most important to me when it comes to blogging.
I: More confession time, I prefer shorter posts. I mean some substance is nice but I really appreciate a blogger that can get to the point. This is probably because I have a tendency to ramble on so I admire people who can discipline themselves.
I: I’ve also been reading a lot of long winded posts lately. We’re talking in the 5 to 10k word range and although a few were fantastic, others felt unedited. Basically, more is not always better here. I think what is most important is to find out exactly what point you are trying to make and get there as clearly as possible. The number of words should just fall into place naturally.
I should probably be taking my own advice here…
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This is seems like a good place to take a break! We wouldn’t want to overwhelm you guys with too much good advice (hur hur). So take a little rest and the make sure you go see the rest of these tips over on Lita’s blog!!!
*Takes notes* *takes more notes* Thank you! this is actually quite helpful for me at the moment :3
ooohhh – Good! It was super helpful to me too 😉
I also give kudos to all the bloggers out there who have a set schedule and post things on certain days… I’m still at a point where when the post is done, or I can contact the author, I’ll post it… And the National food and beverage days I celebrate can’t be planned becauee they land where they land. Lol!
Yeah – I’m the anal retentive OCD type – I post whithin the same half hour pretty much every day….
I try to do that because when I finish a post I usually set it to go out at the same time the next morning… that way I have time to wake up in the middle of the night in a panic and change things.. Lol! ;p
You care so much… I’m impressed!
Ha ha! Thanks. 😋 it’s mostly because I write things in a frenzy and half the time I don’t think of what I’m writing or how it comes off… Then i go back and cover my ass.. And my copious errors. 😉🍻
Some great points! I always love posts like this as I’ve only been logging for a few months and I’ll take all the advice I can get!! Lol!!
I know for me there was a lot of trial and even more error. Still is
Ha ha! I feel ya on that!
I for sure needed this knowing that I struggle as a new blogger, especially with such a large overarching theme (I should downsize it but I won’t probably). But I really appreicate all these tips. I was getting a little discouraged so now hopefully I can stick with it better!
I hope you don’t get discouraged. I know it takes a bit of time to get into the swing of things, a lot of new loggers have an adjustment period
I’m doing my best not to be. Growth takes time just like anything so I’ll keep going and see where it takes me!
It really does. I’ve seen so many bloggers have unreasonable expectations and get terribly disapointed
I think I honestly started a bit high expectation, but I reduced it down to personal goals. From there I’ll see how I grow. 🙂
I look forward to seeing what you do next
So I ended up reading Lita posts first. LOL But good tips none the less. I’m in my third years of blogging and I still feel like I have I’m tapping around in the dark. I found myself asking similar questions along the way. Most I came to learn on my own but I also learned from other bloggers. I appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
Same here, no clue what I’m doing 90% of the time – glad to hear even experienced bloggers go through that! I’m so happy you enjoyed the post!
Was this collab from before you did the posts with Remy? The topics don’t seem to overlap if I recall that collab correctly…
Layout: To go off what Marth said about audio, I get making a music player/monetised ads work on your blog is cool, but accidentally playing a loud tune/ad in a meeting or something would be really awkward…especially if it makes you jump in the process. I used to be heavier on GIFs, marquees and the like, but after experimenting, I figured it’s not worth maintaining. Simplicity and easy navigation are key to blog layout.
Posting schedule: Mine happened through the work of alliteration (aside from the Ode to Anime Studios, which gets its association to Saturday through the final word in its title). I put my monthly posts on the last week 1) to make sure I have enough time to get them done and 2) because it was the end of the month when I started the Spellbook anyway.
Motivation: I’m a motivation-led writer, so if the spark can be held on to long enough, I can churn out a post from scratch in a few hours. If you do have an inspiration from the community that can be traced backwards (e.g. the idea comes from reading a post), make sure to cite your source – even if you’re not doing academic work, citation goes a long way…
Post length: My writing normally clocks in at under 1000 words for one post, so if I exceed that, it’s quite notable. I don’t think readers mind length if the content is engaging, though.
Actually Lita had mentionned that she wanted to do something similar to the decorum post I did with Remy after it published so I talked to her about this collab shortly after. I’m pretty sure I kept both posts relatively dinstinct and tries to make sure I wasn’t reusing the same or too similar questions but the format is the same. (I gots no creativity)
1000 is a great lenght. I think my personal sweet spot as a reader is anywhere between 700 and 2000.
Thank you so much for your input. One day I need to collect these comments and give them their own post. You will all be unwilling collaborators – mwahaha
It was a pleasure to read the thoughts from you two excellent bloggers. Your comment about how you appreciate it when a post is to-the-point led me to lop off 100 words in a post that’s coming out in a few hours, haha. That’s all thanks to you!
Also, like what Chizure said, what an adorable gif.
Awww – I never found your posts too long but I look forward to reading this new one.
I love that gif too.
Agree on a simple layout, but even more importantly, organization! Some nice blogs out there, but some have either never heard of categories or like put everything in one. Also, a search box is one of those things I think every blog should have.
And here I was thinking of joining the fancypants..
But seriously, like I said on the other part of this collab post – about having one’s personality in your posts. You really got that part down, Avery. I admit I read this while marveling on how you do exactly that and share some cool advice too.
Awesome collab post!
PuhLeaze Chizue – If someone has a gist for personal yet always clear and insightful tone, it’s you. But I’ll take praise from Caesar any day!
I’m too baffled (and humble) to take that praise. But you really think so? Okay, I’ll take it. Thank you 😋 You do have that habit of throwing back a compliment which makes me want to say moore
Is that my new cognomen now or you’ll stick to Chizu? Either way I like it. Maybe it’s because they both start with C.
I don’t flatter, I observe! I kinda like Chizue, it’s cute and you’re adorable so it fits
Chizue it is. ☺️
Lots of great insight here. I’ve got some new ideas on how to go about a few things now. And a new blog to follow! Thanks so much for sharing this! 🙂
Oh really, well now you’ve got me curious
What lovely insight into one of our bigger bloggers in the community. Thanks for sharing the interview, and that gif at the end is soooo cute!
I love that gif so much. Lita is quite the rockstart, isn’t she!
im not cut out for stuff like this because my mentality is always “this is what i do, but im pretty sure it’s not correct”, but meh…i cant help but weigh in
– layouts: im pretty much in agreement that a simpler layout is usually better. i have some minor rules like “avoid moving parts that are visible when you open the page (putting them lower on the page is usually fine)” and “no auto-playing audio (to the guy who keeps saying i should add sfx)”. i also dislike that one layout that has a giant image on the left side because that image is often really low-res.
– schedule: im with irina here. i think im someone who has an easier time sticking to a schedule once i get into a routine. i also give myself what i call a “chill day”. it’s usually friday (depending on the airing schedule), and i just write the post on saturday morning.
– motivation: i really cant help here. i do this because i want to do it and i’ll stop when that’s no longer the case (which will be any day now?)
– post length: my approach tends to be writing around a list of specific points i want to make, so my posts are usually short. that being said, i often wonder if my point gets across, so i honestly dont know if it would be more beneficial to ramble on some more. it’s not really in my nature
Well I really appreciate you taking the time to share some tips with us. I’ve always admired your discipline and I know you know what you’re doing. That’s a lot of *knows*.
I really hope you don’t lose motivation any time soon…
thanks…im always grateful for any confirmation that im not just some idiot shouting into nothing 😀
like i said, i can never help myself when it comes chucking in my opinion when i have one. but i felt like i was agreeing with you a lot, so i want to state for the record that the advice in this post seemed pretty sound to me.
Sweet! I’m glad I wasn’t completely off. I was confident in Lita – she also knows her stuff. I’m pretty sure a lot of people will be disapointed if you stop shouting 🙂
I’m with Marth on the no auto-play audio when you can avoid it (those with ads on their blog sometimes can’t, but that’s another story). I’m often on my blog and very early hours of the morning and when I open a post from someone else to read and sound starts blaring my first impulse is to close the window rather than find the source of the sound and try to turn it off.
Same!!! Hate those
Unless you are making a fortune off those adds, not worth it!
Nice collab 😃 I need to steal that motivation beam for non-blog-related activities!
Honestly – motivation beam is one of the best super powers ever.
The point about wanting to share your joy in a hobby or something you love with other people is a really important one. It’s why I do what I do, and in the case of other bloggers who do the same thing, it really comes across in their writing. Passion and enthusiasm is infectious and inspiring!
Very well said. I’m always a little sad to hear a blogger say “GAAHHH, I HAVE to watch this anime because I HAVE to review something…” at that point you might as well do something else before you burn out.