This week’s Book Blogger Hop question: When you view someone’s profile, what information do you like to see?
I presume this means blogger profiles… 😉 I would say that when I’m visiting a new blog and clicking over to the About page, I want to see something to tell me what to expect on the blog. That includes a little sense of the blogger’s personality and perspective, and what kind of posts they typically put up (book reviews, reflections, fiction pieces…? Oh look, I do all of those!) For book bloggers specifically, I want to know something about what they like to read, so that I can decide if they’re likely to cover books I’ll be interested in.
I also look for something that may be a little less obvious…I want the story of the blog. What is this a blog about? It’s kind of contained in the stuff listed above, but not exactly. Book blogs are usually straight-forward (it’s about books!), but could be complicated if there’s a more specific focus. If you’re reading your way through the Newbery winners in alphabetical order, say, it would be nice to have that mentioned!
More often I run into this exploring other kinds of blogs. I get frustrated when I click onto a random post midway through the life of the blog, find it interesting and get intrigued by vague references that are clearly part of the ongoing discussion…and then can’t find anything on the About page to explain!
For a positive example, I follow a blogger who writes about her adventures as an aspiring actress in New York, with (some) emphasis on dating. That’s basically the story of her blog, and she makes it really clear in her header and her sidebar. Without that explanation, I suspect I could easily click on a random post about either an odd job or a bad date, and feel lost on the context.
With an example that does it well, it seems so easy and obvious! But it is surprising how many blogs will have no About page, or one that really doesn’t explain…well, anything! And then I don’t know whether to read more posts, because I can’t figure out the story and whether it’s one I want to follow.
And yeah, of course I think of blogs as having a story rather than a topic or a focus or an area. 🙂 I’m a writer–life is a story!
What do you look for in a blogger profile?
I really love your answer. I never thought of putting my favorite genres or to tell the story of my blog.
I like both of those ideas. I am going to try to add those things to my blog.
Here is what I like to look for. I like to see a link to their blog, a first name, and an e-mail. I don’t like to have to “hunt” for their blog or find out what their first name is. I do like to call folks by their names and not their blog’s name. 🙂
THANKS…lovely blog. Going to follow.
Happy Hopping and Happy New Reading Week Coming Up!!
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My Blog Hop Answer
I just updated my profile…thanks for the ideas.
Have a great reading week.
Elizabeth, I SO agree with you on this. I want easy to find/navigate, and there have been many blogs on which I can’t find someone’s first name. I’m like you—first name basis—a person, not a blog title 🙂
I look for much the same things you do. If a blogger can’t give some context, it’s hardly worth starting to follow their blog at all. It can be too difficult to “catch up” if the blog’s been running for a while. And if they’re just getting started, I’d want to see someone tell me where they expect to take their writing, what their story will be, so I can decide if I want to follow along.
Agreed! I don’t mind doing a little work to “catch up” on the details, but a blog had better be very compelling in some other way for me to really dig in to figure things out without a bit of explanation!
This is very timely, Cheryl, as I expect to soon be able to put my full (well, as close to full as life allows) focus on getting my blogs launched. I like to know a bit about the person writing the blog and why he/she is doing so, and yes—the basic focus/subject matter I should expect to find, as you said. I do like to know what kind of books that person reads and I can typically pick that up from looking through recent posts or their titles (hoping the titles reveal the content). I’m definitely following too many blogs right now and need to figure out how to get that more manageable, but there are definitely specific ones on which I am more drawn or compelled to participate. I want the info to be EASY to find, too—let’s tone down on the clutter, shall we? Tha’s my perspective anyway 🙂 Also, I get a feel for the writer by the header and theme, too. I consider it all important.
Good luck on your blog launch! That’s always exciting. 🙂
Good point on making the info easy to find too. Too many pages and submenus can be too much to navigate. And the header is pretty essential too! I thought quite a bit about what books went into mine…