Up Close and (un)Conventional – Features and Discussions
Welcome to this week’s Up Close and (un)Conventional. This is where I discuss both things that have to do with reading and blogging, and things that just have to do with life in general. This week, I’m wondering about features and discussions, as well as other posts. See, I usually have a single post every day, because I think it’s easier for those who visit my blog to find everything that way. However, recently, I’ve had an idea for a new feature. It could be monthly, bi-weekly or weekly. But if I do that, I’d have one day less to post reviews. And that’s kind of the main thing I do here on the blog – I review the books I read!
I know many blogs that have more than one post per day, and for some, it works really well, whereas for others, it kind of seems a bit cluttered and hard to navigate. Plus, it takes time to come up with quality content – why should I post it all in one go? See my dilemma here? I know my Thirsty Thursday and Hungry Hearts feature isn’t the most popular in the blogosphere, but I really love it – and I keep finding all those great quotes I want to share. And I do have other people who participate, and yet others who comment almost every week.
I guess my question to you this week is this: do you enjoy the features and discussions as much as you enjoy the reviews? Would you still visit me if I had an extra feature each week (or every two weeks)? Do you sometimes have so many ideas you’re not sure exactly what to do with them?
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
I used to do my review and post the teasers in separate posts, but decided to do it all in one so I don’t have to do as much work. I did it so the reader could get my opinions on the book if they liked the teasers. I like coming to read the teasers you pick regardless.
Yeah, I stopped doing the Teaser Tuesday because I felt like I was having too many posts, and frankly it became too much work, too. It’s a good idea to include teasers in your review, that way, you can do both, Naomi. (I was going to call you Jana because your link goes to your review for Fling :D)
Oh my goodness I completely understand your dilemma because I’m having the same one lol. I’m trying to think of some sort of weekly feature, but I’m hesitant to make a weekly feature because then either I will have to post one less thing each week than what I’m currently posting, or I’ll have to post on Saturdays which I don’t wanna do, or I’ll have to double. But doubling seems so wasteful when it is a lot of work to think of and write out and post content. So in other words I have no helpful answer because I can’t even figure out what to do with my own blog, haha.
It is a true dilemma, right? I have some ideas I think could work pretty well, but I don’t want to start posting on Sundays. I have my weekend post up on Saturdays, and then, I can just visit other people or not do anything at all for the rest of the weekend.
Doubling up seems kind of wasteful to me, too. Even if I did that today – mostly so that I already have my challenge sign-up post out today and not on the weekend.
I’m mean today, too, because I’m kind of happy I’m not the only one who has trouble with how to deal with all the ideas and posts we could do – and trying to keep things as simple and clean as possible. Thanks for stopping by Kirsten!
Twitter: ailynk
I think as long as you are happy, one time is enough. Good discussions are always fun, once you have 2 then it gets hard to follow through
Ha 🙂 I’m quite happy with how things are, but it’s kind of sad to have a couple of new ideas and not really know for sure where to implement them 🙂
Twitter: ailynk
it’s not sad, sometimes things will work themselves out if you give it time
Twitter: BerlsS
I love features, sometimes more than reviews. I like the opportunity to just “chat” lol! As far as visiting, here’s how I decide what I’m visiting – I open my Feedly in the morning. When I see a post I want to read I save it. I know I can’t get to everyone’s posts every day. I try to visit everyone at least once a week, but I totally pick based on interest. I almost always save discussions. With reviews, I tend to pick if it’s a book I’ve read, want to read, recognize the author, have seen around a lot or something about it – title, cover, blog review title, catches my interest. Once I’ve saved posts, I clear out the rest and go to my saved posts. I start reading in the order of interest. Sometimes I manage to read them all, other times I run out of time. I do my blog reading in the mornings before work, so it’s a limited amount of time. But it’s also the only way I’ve consistently been able to visit. Not perfect, but it’s working for me.
Wow, that was kind of a rambling answer huh? Sorry! Happy Friday!! {Hugs}
See, the features kind of make me share different things about myself, and while reviews are still the main point of my blog, I enjoy branching out a little bit every now and then. However, when it comes to discussion posts, it’s hard sometimes to come up with interesting ideas on what to discuss. However, lately, I’v been very creative which is nice. Because I love it when we can all chat about lots of other things 😀
Thanks for sharing the way you go about visiting folks and commenting on their posts 🙂 {{{HUGS}}}
Yes and yes. 🙂 I do like features and discussions and I would visit if you did one. And I guess yes to the third one as well- lately I do seem to have lots of ideas. I went through a period where I couldn’t think of a discussion topic to save my life, and ideas were bare- but luckily it’s better now.
To your question though- yeah I think you should do it! I love it when bloggers roll out new features or discussions or whatever. I’ve been known to (occasionally) post twice a day but I don’t like to because it’s hard (for me anyway) to promote two posts in one day- inevitably one suffers. That’s just me, you have to do whatever works!
I guess I will just have to continue to be creative, Greg 🙂 Because having lots of visitors who take the time to comment makes my day! I’m with you, for a long time, I didn’t have any ideas at all, and then all of a sudden several at the same time 🙂
I will try to do my new feature in the new year, then. See if it’s something that can work.
For me it’s usually that I don ‘t have the time to do most posts, nowadays I am at 5 posts a week as else I just can’t keep up with things. I usually have 2-3 reviews a week and 2-3 other posts, I usually read 2 books a week, so posting 2-3 reviews a week is my maximum, it helps to have some other content to fill in the other days. I do prefer on my own blog only one post a day as else I have a hard time keeping up with comments. But on other blogs I don’t really mind.
I usually either comment back and then pick the latest post that sounds most interesting to me or like this post it catches my attention on social media and I go and visit. So I would say give the new feature a try if you are enthusiastic about the idea and have time to implement it! You can always see how it works out and re-evaluate if it doesn’t work out. I definitely would still visit you if you had another post, although I am always sad I can’t comment and read every post.
Oh I don’t really have the time, either, Lola. But I used to do the WoW posts every single Wednesday, and sometimes, I’d have a review as well. And now, I just don’t really do WoW anymore. Both because most of the books I look forward to, I am able to get them before they’re released, and because those posts actually take quite a bit of time to prepare, and then comes all the visiting, too.
I have posts that catch my interest on social media, too, and then I’ll always take the time to go read the whole post, and leave a comment as well.
Thanks for stopping by, Lola xoxo
I prefer features and discussion to reviews. I love reviews too but only really for genres that I read. I don’t read blogs everyday but I filter through my bloglovin to see what catches my eye. And sometimes via The Sunday Post, I’ll go back and visit an earlier post from the week that I might have missed. I think the people who click on your feature might not click on other posts, but also visa versa. I
Best advise always is, just do what feels fun for you.
See, this is what I have noticed, too. My discussion posts get a lot more views and comments than my reviews. And while I understand that, it also makes me a bit sad. I don’t have time to visit all the blogs I follow every day, either, so of course it’s easy to understand that we all pick stuff that really piques our interest.
🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Trish.
I always admire bloggers who post every single day because I just don’t have time for that >> I try to post once every two days, but sometimes I don’t even make that! So more than once a day? You’ll practically have all of my admiration. I would definitely still visit, and I really like features and discussions. Which means you have my 100% approval, whatever you choose to do!
I usually try to post six times per week, with Sunday as my day off. I don’t always manage, though, and there are times when I’m very happy to have the Blog Ahead challenge so that I can stock up on reviews and other posts in advance 🙂
I don’t think I’ll have more than one post per day, though, at least not all the time – it will be too time consuming to me. Because not only do I need to have the content here, I’ll also have to respond to those who are nice enough to comment, plus, I always try to visit everyone back, too.
Thanks for stopping by, Olivia!
I think it can go a bit overboard but it can also work 😀 I do have some I follow who have 5+ posts a day and it gets really overwhelming for me as a follower. But others who will do a review and a meme a day and it works because while I might not be interested in the review I am in the meme or I want the review but the meme is one I can skip. So I still get to visit and something that interests me. If that makes sense?
Personally I try to keep to one or two posts a day on the blog. I lean more towards one but Tuesdays and Wednesdays sometimes have a meme to go with the regular scheduled review.
Yeah, going over board is not good, Anna. And I don’t want to make my blog too busy, either. More than two posts per day is too much for me to try to keep up with, so I don’t want to have the same here, you know?
You’re right that a review and a meme on the same day works, I just feel like when I do that, I also kind of feel obligated to visit all those who participate in the meme 😀
Thanks for chiming in , Anna xoxo
I like them all. I usually try to stick to one post a day since posts get lost otherwise. However I do like a variety in posts. I think I’m starting to do more of that.
Variety is definitely good, Melissa, I completely agree! Thanks for stopping by.
Its kind of funny because I have the opposite problem. I can NEVER think of anything I have to say for a discussion post or anything. So, my blog is just book reviews and sometimes I wonder if that turns some people off. I would say try it and see how it goes! If have 2 posts a day seems to affect your views, then you have your answer. If it doesn’t make your views drop or anything, then you know you can continue on!
For the longest time, I never came up with anything to discuss either, Samantha. I swear! Then, I had some ideas and shared those, and then, once more it was the desert. So yeah, my creative discussions live in a kind of ebb and flow environment somewhere in my brain 😀
I may try the feature and see how it works. It’s just that sometimes, it can take a while for it to take off, and it would be too bad if I stopped it too quickly *sighs* choices, choices 🙂
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I love discussion posts. They get me thinking about different things. I never post them because I’m horrible at thinking of topics. They are also a lot harder for me to write. I love reading them and commenting on them. I say do whatever it is you want to do.
I know exactly what you’re dealing with, wifey. I don’t like posting more than one post a day because I feel like it’s cluttered – on my blog and on others’. But I do like discussion posts. So I came up with a schedule for myself. You know I don’t usually post every day of the week but I do generally have Tuesdays open in the event there’s something I just *have* to post. I’m trying to get back in the habit of Thirsty Thursdays and That’s What HE Said because I enjoy them and I think visitors to my blog do as well. I like discussion/feature posts because they tend to facilitate more discussion and that’s fun. So if YOU want to add in a discussion/feature, do it!! You can take the review posts that would have posted on that day and schedule them further out. It’s a win-win, really. You’ll get to implement your new idea AND you’ll have review posts scheduled out which frees up some time…for more reading! 😉
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend, Lex!! <3 *BIG HUGS & LOVE* <3
I think you should do whatever works best for you. I love discussion posts and do not think they take away from the reviews at all. In fact, there are a couple of blogs I follow just for their feature and discussion posts.