What To Do With Old Posts

A while back, I had been scrolling through some old posts on the blog, and I was surprised to see how cringe-worthy some of my old posts were and went "how did I ever write this crap". We all have those posts from long ago that we're embarrassed about, and frankly, some that we'd rather not let readers see. So what should we do with them?

Keep written material as drafts.

If we're really uncomfortable about them, take them off the blog and keep them as drafts. Old posts are a great way to see how much you've improved since the beginning of blogging. Don't delete unique material you've written, such as reviews. Sometimes I love looking at old posts to see improvement and how far I've come. I remember looking through some old reviews of mine and just feeling mortified at every sentence I've written. I did get a pretty good laugh out of them, though. 

Delete the "copy paste" posts.

Over time, we will start having too many posts to keep track of. If we really want to keep our blog tidy with meaningful posts, delete those copied and pasted book blasts/blitzes and cover reveals. I usually skip these on blogs, because they're just things copied and pasted and it essentially just acts as an advertisement on blogs. We don't really get to know more and see the person behind the blog, we just see text about a book that we don't know if we'll be interested in because there aren't any thoughts or a review about it. 

Leave old posts on your blog.

Sometimes it's great to leave reminiscences of our writing style from the beginning! People who read your blog can go back to see the past self you were in resemblance to the person you are now. The more meaningful posts we have on our blogs, the better. We get to know so much more about the blogger and connect with them. 

What do you feel about old blog posts? What do you do with the old cringe-worthy posts on your blog?

Do you have to review the latest books to have a great blog?

It can be quite intimidating at first to become a book blogger, for starters you'll try to visit a lot of blogs and leave comments in the hopes of gaining some followers. Upon travelling from blog to blog you tend to see a lot of ARC reviews and all the latest book releases. It then becomes far too easy to compare these blogs to your own and leave you with the need to have every new book out there.

There seems to be some unspoken pressure that in order to be a 'good' book blogger you must constantly read and review upcoming titles and for most of us, this just isn't feasible. It's safe to assume the more recent the book is then the more views your review will get, but it's definitely more about the quality of the review which will keep people visiting your blog again and again.

Why I Love Being A Book Blogger

Tips on Finding Time to Post and Maintaining Your Book Blog

My first attempts at taking artsy photos. Yes, that's me.

For most of us in the blogging community, blogging is a huge amount of work. It is definitely something that can only be accomplished with blood and sweat, and most importantly, commitment and dedication.  But we have lives (although for some of us, blogging is our life), school, work, and families.  So how do we manage what happens in our daily lives, in addition to blogging? With school starting, here are some tips for bloggers to maintain our blogs.

Midnight Thoughts: The Love Triangle

The love triangle is obviously absolutely necessary in every YA book out there. It has us biting our nails, wiping the anxious sweat away, and longing for the next books and the series to end. For me, "WHICH CHARACTER DOES OUR MAIN CHARACTER CHOOSE??" is what's going on in my mind all the time when I'm reading a book with a love triangle. At one point, I stop reading the book for the plot, but for the triangle to end. It's the oldest trick in the book to keep us wanting to read the next instalments of a series and I have yet to come across a young adult book that doesn't have one. First, let's break down the types of love triangles.

Midnight Thoughts: Praise

I needah rant, gurl.

A few days ago, I was reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It was pretty good. But I won't be reviewing it, for this reason: when I finished it, I was feeling distinctly disappointed. I guess I could say I felt cheated. The problem wasn't the book - it was the praise.

Discussion: Blog Designs

Lately I've been spending a lot of time with my blog design, and I realized that it's become a problem. I feel like the quality of my posts aren't as good as they can be because of the time I've committed into making my blog look pretty, but I just can't seem to make up my mind about what I want. If you've stuck with me for a while, I'm pretty sure that you know what I'm talking about. I've been through a total of 5 designs but I don't feel like I'm still content with the way my blog looks. Unfortunately I don't have screenshots of all my designs since I keep on changing them so rapidly.

Duo Discussion: The Selection Series

I'm super excited today because I'm going to be introducing a new feature that's going to be on the blog!

My blogging bestie, Rachel @ A Perfection Called Books and I have decided to start a monthly 'Duo Discussion' blog post! How it will work is that each month, we will choose a bookish topic to discuss about. Feel free to join in by discussing in the comments below!

For our first Duo Discussion post, we'll be talking about The Selection series by Kiera Cass!

Olivia: Hey Rach! I'm so excited to do this chat with you today and start this feature! I hope this will be fun! And we're doing it on THE SELECTION series by Kiera Cass, one of the best light, fun, and cute romance series I've ever read! This series got be hooked and I just can't stop fangirling over Maxamer! Let's start with what you think about this series!