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!
Ah, I don't have any ads on my blog. Well, not yet anyway. Maybe when I get... I don't know, like thousand of readers :-)
ReplyDeletehahaha, thousands would be nice :)
DeleteI don't have ads on my blog, but I have an affiliate thing with Book Depository. I link to BD and Amazon, but WP has a stats tool that shows you clicks and nobody clicks on either. I've wondered if I should add BN links or if people even really care. I wouldn't want to blog about things I don't care about, either. I wouldn't mind sharing products or things I thought were really useful or just enjoyable to people.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and thanks for linking the articles!
I've linked the obvious ones because people seem to find them useful, or that's the impression I get! But to be honest, linking also takes time, right?
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