I’m pausing content today to mark Blogiversary #6, provide a brief blog update, and offer my sincerest thanks for all the follows, likes, shares, and comments.
(If you’re not a blogger, you might want to skip this nerdy post.)

Celebrating 6 Years of Book Blogging in July!

Find all the books I’ve reviewed here on this page.

Reflections on 6 Years:

Virtual Friendships

If you had told me that one of the greatest joys of blogging is the supportive and friendly blogging community, I don’t know if I would have believed you. I was intimidated to push “publish” on those first few posts. I was terrified to comment on a stranger’s blog and to interact with strangers on my own site. It didn’t take long for me to set aside those apprehensions and fully embrace the connections! If I interact with you regularly, you know who you are Dear Friends! Some of the lovely bloggers I interact with most frequently participated in my recent summer collaboration: “Summer’s One Must Read Book”.

My Tip For New Bloggers: Connect, Comment, and Collaborate!

Stats

The most important aspect of blogging is not the numbers. Blogging, reading, and reviewing is NOT a competition. However, I’m a stats nerd and I enjoy tracking my stats as a way to measure progress. The actual number doesn’t matter to me as much as the consistent upward trend. At six years, I feel highly satisfied with my stats. I have experienced steady growth as a result of diligent effort and persistence. My most meaningful stat at this moment is my monthly views. Last year, I set a new record for monthly views on three occasions. I dated to hope that it wasn’t an anomaly. This year so far, I have hit that number (and higher) every month and now it’s my new norm.

I hoped to reach 1,000 posts with this milestone; but alas this post is # 966 (so close!).

I’m very, very close to 2,000 followers (1,998) which is so exciting in light of that first 100 follower milestone!

My current total number of views/hits = 815, 273.

Tip For New Bloggers: Persistence in all areas–quality content, scheduling of posts, interactions with the blogging community, and (social media) promotion–is KEY.

One other important and related stat I track is the origin source of my views. Over six years, the highest source is search engines (which indicates that my SEO work is paying off). My ALL Time and 2023 View sources are shown in the graphs below. I hope you’ve checked out your stats!

Domain Authority: A stat I track out of curiosity from time to time is my Domain Authority (DA) rank. In the simplest terms, it’s how your site ranks in search engine queries. You can check your DA free: Domain Authority Checker. (and check anyone else’s as well). One way to raise your DA rank is to optimize every post for SEO. DA is the most frustrating stat because it fluctuates from day to day. I usually check it once a month. The last time I checked, I finally broke 30 (as of today, I’m at 36 but that number is not set in stone). I’ve been bouncing around the 20s for most of my blogging career. The only reasons to care about this number is that certain sites or brands you might want to work with might require a certain DA rank. You can read more about DA here.

NetGalley: Another stat I’m proud of and worked hard for is my NetGalley ratio. (NG is one way reviewers receive advanced reading copies) If you are a book reviewer and use NG, you know! I’ve maintained an above 80% ratio (currently at 97%) for two years now! I’m also close to my 200 reviews badge (at 197). I realize that 200 seems low compared with other bloggers and 6 years of blogging but I’m picky about my ARCs….I dread having to DNF them or award less than 3 Stars or request so many that my ratio suffers.

Unrelated to Reading Stat: In case you wonder if I do anything else besides read, I need to tell someone that I passed level 4,000 in Candy Crush this week! LOL It’s my brain break! Anyone else still playing CC? I work the booster reward system and have never spent a dime. I limit myself to about 10 minutes a day (unless I happen to fall into a winning streak or earn 30 min of free boosters!)

Blogging: The School of Hard Knocks

In 6 years, I’ve learned a few things (sometimes the hard way). Honestly, I jumped into the deep end of blogging without much thought or planning. Maybe I’ve shared the story….on the last bittersweet drive home from my teaching career (retired) I was bereft and knew I had to throw myself into something to fill the hours I had devoted to my students. Starting my own book review blog had been tickling my brain for a few months, but that afternoon I made the commitment and signed up with WordPress that night. This is my first post. I was right; it was all consuming and helped me transition from a demanding career to a fulfilling vocation. All my knowledge has been learned through experience and the character traits of fearless determination and persistence.

The first year is the hardest. Here’s a SHOUT OUT to my first visitors and followers! Sending cheers and encouraging vibes to all bloggers who are now in their first years!

The transition from Classic Editor to Block Editor is a work in progress: It’s been a journey! See my three Block Editor updates here, here, and here.

Currently, I’m gradually making templates and creating all new posts in Block Editor. (Yay Me!)

Elements that remain difficult (or more difficult than they need to be) include:

Color
(why can’t the color I select appear on the toolbar so I can quickly click it again instead of having to copy and paste the color code in each and every time? Also, assigning color to text is still hit or miss for me….I must be doing something wrong.)

Editing hyperlink
(if I’ve already created a hyperlink and want to add to it, it won’t pick up the hyperlink when I continue from the last letter–with Classic I could add text without any extra hassle as long as I started right next to the last letter or backspaced one letter.)

Creating a gallery
(so simple in classic….but now I have to create a columns block and add individual images that way….I had to redo this process several times in my Monday post before I got it to look right)

No toolbar menu for special characters like accent marks
(not only is it not on the toolbar — which classic had — but I can’t find a special characters feature anywhere in Block so I have to check my cheat sheet of keyboard commands)

The only reason I’m happy I made the switch is that my toolbar in Block now follows my content instead of being stuck at the stop as in Classic. I imagine that by next year I will have fully made the transition and my complaining will cease. {{{{{and all sighed in relief}}}}}

Hardest and Easiest

Transitioning to the Block Editor falls into the “annoying” category in my mind. The difficult part is my resistance to it. Over six years the most difficult part of blogging (for me) is the relentless social media promotion. Creating content (reviews and bookish posts) is the easy part, but then I face an hour or two of promotion on all the platforms. The interaction from that effort is lovely but the routine of it is uninspiring and tedious.

Tip for New Bloggers: Yes, you MUST promote on social media! (my stats reveal the effort)

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Thank You! THANK YOU!

Each visit, follow, comment, and share is so appreciated. I could not do this without you!

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QOTD:

If you blog on WordPress, are you using Classic or Block?
If you blog, how many years do you have under your belt?
If you are a new blogger or are considering a blog, do you have a blogging question for me?

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Let’s Get Social!

Thank you for visiting and reading today! I’d be honored and thrilled if you choose to enjoy and follow along (see subscribe or follow option), promote, and/or share my blog. Every share helps us grow.

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***Blog posts may contain affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, I can earn a small percentage of your purchase price.

I purchase or borrow from the library all books I review unless explicitly stated that the book is free (arc).

Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website receives all credit for book covers and author photos.

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