I quickly understood that an eye-catching design was essential for a good first impression, one of the key aspects of keeping the reader long enough before they make a decision on whether to read my content or move on to the next blog.

I looked at what other blogs were doing to gain more insight on what was trendy at that moment - a pretty, colorful pattern in the background, a striking header that would make your blog stand out and through which your audience would remember you by…

And so I started networking with well-established bloggers and experimenting with the Adobe Creative Suite - I self-taught Photoshop and dipped my toes into HTML and CSS for the first time to design my blog!

I started getting more interested in creating graphics and adding gadgets for my blog, whilst ensuring the readability remained to a high standard - I made sure it all looked presentable and as colourful, spacious, and clean as other designs. I customised it through HTML and CSS to make sure that the vision I had in mind would translate properly, helping my blog stand out by retaining an identity that set it apart from other blogs. This would range from designs on the landing page to the various entries themselves, depending on what section they belonged to.

The creation of graphics also meant playing around with the dimensions to ensure it was suitable as marketing collateral in other sites, such as banners used in literary directories, interviews on separate pages, or general cross-promotion by networking with other bloggers.

Understanding and engaging with your target audience also means keeping up to date with the latest trends and ways through which people consume content and how they are first attracted to it, which is connected to how a site is presented and a sign of how active or outdated it is, and ultimately how trustworthy, as it answers questions the target audience will have.

In 2022 I redesigned it again with a fresher and more minimalist look, which had recently become trendy in the blogosphere, and customised it to change with the seasons and some festivities. On top of that, I made a mascot which can be seen throughout the blog, a snail, which again fits well with the sea theme and colour palette as a mollusk.

As such, I featured him on some gadgets used to navigate the site and the number of sections I regularly write about in my blog. This further improved the UX experience, through the consistent aesthetic found throughout my blog, and as a result, my branding.

My content strategy focused around two objectives: innovative content and personal branding.

Nadine: I am going to open a book blog. I’ve finally decided! I would like you to know that with your blog you’ve influenced me to make this decision, and that I’ve advertised your blog for free.

I would make sure to have various posts prepared in advance whilst keeping an eye on any news for reactive copy. This built a sense of community and belonging within my space.

Through Google Analytics I also learned which countries my demographic was from, which was beneficial for publishing content at the right time to gain the most reach possible - as such, I understood how to analyse data to make informed decisions.

Examples on how I used tags and book titles with author names as keywords to improve UX experience, keep readers engaged for longer, and efficient indexing for search engine bots.

Content quality was another essential aspect for search engine optimisation, and so I made sure to write in-detail reviews that would create further discussion in the comment section, and provide original and engaging content that would bring value to my followers

This would help search engine bots place my blog higher organically, as it always prioritises websites that would bring good and informative content to the user.

I would often bring a range of sections as to bring variety to my website whilst keeping it relevant and engaging for the audience, using both regular sections such as book hauls and my own original sections.

Internal linking - I would link other posts found in my blog in more recent entries, such as previous reviews or related posts. This helped search engines understand the structure of my website and improved navigation for users.

I contacted and interviewed international best-selling author A. G. Howard and collaborated with her for the giveaway of signed bookplates and other promotional merchandise, as well as a copy of her latest book. I translated the interview into Spanish so that my target audience would be able to access content that hadn’t been available in their native language before, which the author helped me by retweeting. I gained a lot of traffic and 2x the engagement, and it helped me become more confident in networking and negotiating with external contacts of a higher grade of seniority and popularity.

I networked with authors to review their works in exchange of a free copy, and as a result building lasting relationships with them, as there would be authors who also started following my blog. In return, I would make my audience advocates for lesser known authors, and gain a bigger following through backlinks on their sites. As a result, more authors would increasingly approach me to request a review in exchange of their work.

I built a loyal following through my personable posts and active interaction with my target audience, which would encourage them to engage more with me. I continued this through my social media networks, as my followers would look me up and follow me there too in order to get to know me better.

Through various social media platforms I would promote my own posts, notifying my followers of when I had published a new entry. I also recruited the rest of my followers to further promote events happening on my site such as giveaways, which gained more diffusion and a higher level of engagement among old and new followers.