Building Our Community,

One Blog Roll at a Time…

In reading books such as ProBlogger and reading blogs about maximizing your blog, one fact continues to present itself time after time. One of the best ways to build your own site’s rating and optimize its Search Engine results, is to be cross referenced or “linked” on another’s blog. The way that I’m interpreting the information that I’m reading is that being linked on other sites adds “credibility” (for a lack of a better word) to your site. Hence, I have a very extensive blog roll on my site. If you’ve never checked it out, click on the “+” sign next to “Blogs Blogs Blogs.” The thing is with me, is that I’m completely addicted to my RSS Atom Reader within my email program. Therefore, if I’m out surfing the blogging world and find another blog that I want to read and subscribe to, it’s just super simple to hit that RSS Feed button and just let those posts arrive in my “inbox.” With that being said, I’ve become dependent upon my RSS Reader and have been neglecting my Blog Roll.

So, you ask, where am I headed with this? Well, I’m up to subscribing to over 200 feeds. Now, not all of them are book review blogs, but the majority of them are. How can I keep up with 200 sites? Well, not everybody posts everyday… I want to make sure that I honor all of the bloggers that I subscribe to by ensuring that they are on my Blog Roll. In addition, I also want to honor my readers. If you are a regular reader and you are a blogger… you SHOULD BE on my Blog Roll. What I’m driving at is that the bloggers I read and those who read me, I should do everything I can for (I mean, within reason… I’m not cooking you dinner tonight!). One of those ways to give back is the Blog Roll.

Today’s plea… can you please double-check to see if you are on my Blog Roll. If you are not, please leave me a comment and I’ll get you added by Sunday. I would appreciate the reciprocal benefit of being added to yours… if that’s cool with you. This only builds mutual “credibility” and enhances a stronger book review blogging community.

Lastly, if I’m totally off-base with the information that I’m reading on the Blog Roll, let me know. I can be a bit of a dinosaur sometimes. J

Don’t Forget Thursday’s Thoughts…

It seems that Booking Through Thursday will always be the crowd favorite. But, I know that there are several of you out there who really enjoy stepping out of the “book review” mode and enjoy creative writing in your blogs. I also know (brag brag) that readers really do enjoy reading a bit about your personal thoughts or life (this privileged information is, really, only from the results of polls that I’ve taken). With this being said, Thursday’s Thoughts is a weekly MEME with a thought-provoking question that you can creatively write about on your blog.

I’ve changed the format of Thursday’s Thoughts. First, there is no longer a weekly monetary prize. I’m broke. J However, there is a weekly “winner.” The winner gets added to the Thursday’s Thoughts “World Famous” Blog Roll. In addition, the winner gets to pick the question for the next week’s MEME. Why is this awesome? Because it’s not just me (Miss Lame-O) coming up with questions. It’s you… the book blogging community… coming up with these questions because you’d like to know more about your Blogging Buddies. For example, this week’s question is from Valorie at Morbid Romantic. Next week’s question is from Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit. My goal would be that we can get as many diverse book review bloggers winning and submitting their question of the week as possible. Why? I want to get to know my BLOGGING BUDDIES better. I think that a MEME is the best way of doing that.

I will, every now and then, host a book-related giveaway on Thursday’s Thoughts for a little spice in our lives!

I’ve run polls about Thursday’s Thoughts and there are more of you out there who want to keep it than to “flush it.” So, I’m breathing new life into it and can’t wait to read what you have to say on these intriguing questions!

Guest Hosting, Guest Posting…

For the first time in my life, I have done guest host posts (what else do you call them? Not sure…). I did one for Literary Menagerie and another for Books On The Brain. It was really fun. It was neat going to another Blogger’s site to read what their readers thought of my post. Truly, it’s fun. So, I would very much like to open up my blog to some guest hosts who want to write me some guest posts! Write me at anovelmenagerie@aol.com and let me know if you’re interested. I’d love to feature your writing and get to know your blog and your readers better.

Lending a Hand…

One of the most important things to me is being there for others. I want to just to put it out there that I’m totally open, ready and willing to lend anybody a hand who may need it. If you have blogging questions, technical questions, or any type of blog-related questions, I’m here for you. If I don’t know the answer, I may know someone who does. Also, I love making buttons and badges. If you need any help with that, please let me know. I really like doing them just for the creative release of it. If you have special talents that could help your BLOGGING BUDDIES, you should let them know too! It’s what sets our community apart from the others.

Thanks for letting me share on these topics!

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