What separates your blog from the next? What makes your blog unique? How do you distinguish your blog?
Julie:
With so many blogs out there, it is certainly not easy to stand out. I think Chapter Break stands out based on our personalities that we put into our posts, and all the different features we have. We run a meme, That’s What He Said Thursdays, so that is a unique feature only found here. We also do these lovely weekly discussion posts, which I think are fun and interactive. I think they’re a good way to distinguish this blog since they are definitely our most popular feature. I’ve also been doing the somewhat weekly Sharing the Bookish Love posts, and our followers are definitely enjoying it. So I think those special things we do here help distinguish our blog. How about you?
Rose:
Hmmm …. this is a tough one. I don’t think I worried about this problem until after Julie and I had been blogging for a couple of months. The main reason I began blogging was to talk about my favorite books. I didn’t care that everyone else did the same thing. I was just happy to participate and enjoyed learning new things and getting to know new people. After having blogged for over a year, I think I worry more now about how to distinguish Chapter Break from other blogs. I think the main way we attempt to do that is by our dual reviews, our That’s What HE Said Thursday meme, our Chat Between Chapters discussion post we do every Sunday morning, and also something we just started recently, posting our Book Club Discussion Guides. However, I honestly don’t worry too much about distinguishing Chapter Break from other blogs. I just try to enjoy the experience and make new blogging friends. Do other bloggers worry about this???
Interesting post! I’m a Paris-based author and this is something I think about… There are tons of authors out there who have blogs. I agree with you: focusing on enjoying the blogging experience is important! And having different features also helps too!
Adria J. Cimino recently posted…The Magic of Paris in July…
Thanks Adria! I think this is something that all bloggers think about at some point or another.
I think I stand out a bit, because I only read/blog about library books. That sets me apart from pretty much every other book blogger out there, lol. I realized pretty quickly how quirky I really was, by not participating in ARCs and the like.
Now I’ll be standing out even more, because I’ll be the weird blogger who no longer writes traditional reviews, has deleted my TBR list and I no longer have a Goodreads account. I’m going in a totally different direction on my blog and it may work, or it may be an epic fail eep!
Finley Jayne recently posted…{Big Changes are Here!} I’m Totally Revamping My Reading System: Part Four
Good luck! I am addicted to my GR shelves, so I cannot ditch them at this time, but I understand why people do. I like that you only review library books. That is def unique.
I don’t fret too much about it but I do think I do a good job of making mine stand out in the crowd. From name to logo to features I host. Plus just letting my own voice come through and not worrying that it’s PC or proper and whatnot 🙂
anna@herding cats & burning soup recently posted…The Bucket List…a la herding cats!
I love your blog name, Anna!
I will have to check out your Thursday meme, looks fun!
Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings
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yes yes Missie. Thanks!
I’m with the ‘I think about it but don’t worry about it (too) much’ crowd. I took over the Spread the Love from Rebecca at Love at First Book – but I’m not sure how ‘stand-outy’ it is, as there are a billion linkups out there.
I guess the most ‘different’ thing about my blog is the atheist angle. Since I read and review books by and for Christians (and try to do it in a fair way) I have a tiny weird niche there. It’s not present in every review or post that I write – but I definitely get more traffic on those posts (from sources outside the blogging circles that I run in) than on others.
April @ The Steadfast Reader recently posted…Spread the Love 2.0: Week Twenty-One
April, so are you an atheist reviewing Christian books? or a Christian book reviewer trying to be fair/unbiased in reviewing Christian books? (either way, this is unique I think.)
Sorry for the delay! I usually get notification when you guys reply – but it must have slipped through the cracks.
I’m an atheist that reviews Christian books (though not Christian fiction, I just don’t think I could deal with that. 😉 )
April @ The Steadfast Reader recently posted…Haters Gonna Hate: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
April, I am not sure our notification via email has been working properly lately because it seems like people are slower to respond than usual lately, if at all. Then again, it could be the holiday weekend. So, okay, that face that you are an atheist and review Christian books is interesting to me. So do you enjoy what you read? This is just so unique to me.
It really depends. I go into every Christian book that I read with an open mind and realizing that it hasn’t been written FOR me. The more progressive Christian books that I read (Pastrix is a great example for a memoir and ‘The Answer to Bad Religion is Not No Religion’ is an good example of an apologetic) I generally do enjoy.
The more conservative Christian books ehhh….. generally not so much, but I try to keep my reviews in perspective and I think that many Christians appreciate the outside perspective.
My mission, if you want to call it that, is to lead to an understanding that most atheists are reasonable people and just want to get along – by reading these books I’m trying to get perspective of the other side, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
All those reviews are filed under the ‘religion’ tag on the blog, if you’re interested. 🙂
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That is really interesting April. I will have to check some of those reviews how. Very unique indeed.
I guess it’s something I think about, but not really stress about. I think just the fact that I focus on thrillers makes my blog stand apart; there are lots of eclectic bloggers who might sometimes write about thrillers, but very few niche bloggers for this genre. Also, I feel like doing the same memes every week can make blogs tend to blend together, so I only do them if I really have something to say.
So, even if I don’t have any stand-out features that I’m known for, I don’t totally blend into the mass of other blogs either.
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Good answer Charleen. Julie and I do participate in a few memes, but I sometimes find it hard to make the time for all that, so I try to limit my meme participation to only the ones that I am excited to post something about.
It’s definitely something I’ve worried about, but I think Second Run Reviews is unique. I don’t focus on the latest and greatest books which for relieves some pressure. I also enjoy a wide variety of books so I’m not stuck with a particular genre or age group. So that provides some flexibility in my posts as well.
I have tried very hard to place a limit on the number of posts that publish in a day. So I carefully plan out my reviews which are typically reserved for Mondays, Thursday is Feature & Follow, Friday is my Quote of the Week and Sunday’s are The Sunday Post. So some weeks I have posts every week and other week’s there’s not.
As the week’s have gone on, I’ve gathered some ideas from other blogs and come up with some creative ideas like the Rewind Review. I want to do more discussion/sharing type posts that will allow me to geek out about something other than books. I hoping those posts set me apart as well.
I’ve also discovered the importance of promoting other blogs. So every week I gather links and then tweet them out/share them on Facebook. This has been a lot of fun for me and seems to give some purpose to my web surfing.
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I like that you review some books that are older or have been out longer. It DOES take the pressure off. I will have to check out the rewind review. I like that you share via twitter of fb the links to blog posts that you read and liked. That is what I need to try and do more of. I read a lot of posts and never get a chance to share them. I should make this a habit I form.