Guiltless Reading Confessions is a new feature where I can blabber about bookish things, bloggy things, and generally just speak my mind. I warn you, this is mostly just "streams of consciousness" so please don't nitpick. Feel free to jump in with your own two cents. I look forward to chatting with you! I'm linking up my confessions to "Let's Discuss" hosted by Oh Chrys! and The Fiction Conniption. Don't forget to check out more bookish discussions!
I often wonder how people decide which books, products, brands to blog about, or even what affiliate programs to join.
I troll around on the web and always seem to gravitate towards blogs that are visually pretty and have rather full sidebars ... but I only really pay attention when the sidebar links actually seems to jibe with the content of the blog. Obviously a lot of these are ads or affiliate programs and I'm a sucker for a pretty picture or a cute animated gif. I don't mind clicking through. In fact I discover quite a lot of cool things this way.
Now, as a book blogger, I have a few of my own go-to's. There the obvious affiliate programs for book lovers, such as Amazon.com, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble, among others. But I also joined in Threadless.com's program (back when they still had Street Points) because I just adore their t-shirts and think the community behind it is such an awesome one! I joined Modcloth at one time because again, their pretty stuff. just . spoke . to . me.
I can only blog or feature books I'd read myself, or products that I already use, would have a tendency towards using, or at the least I find them interesting or intriguing. I don't think I could blog about something I don't care about; really, what a waste of my energy, right? I also don't think I could blog just for the money; at the least is that I blog about something I enjoy and not make this entire blog as a copywriting gig.
One thing I can't stress enough is that we need to be careful. There are a lot of scammers out there, so pick and choose wisely!
What about you? How do you choose? Weigh in!