This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is: Top Ten Blogging Confessions.
1. I’ve always loved writing, but hated people actually reading what I’ve done. That’s why there are only 5-6 people I personally know that know I have this blog. And only 1 or 2 of them actually read it. I like the anonymity of the internet.
2. While I’ve gotten some great books from them, I never get the ones I really want on NetGalley.
3. When I have to review a book (that I got from NetGalley or an author), I can never think of what to say, but when I don’t have to review a book, I often have so much I want to say, I have a hard time containing the review.
4. I still don’t understand how Twitter works. When to put a “.” before the “@”. And why. How to view conversations. How to edit my feed. How to comment on a tweet when Retweeting it.
5. I hate rafflecopter giveaways – especially after hosting one. But I still plan to participate in them and use it again.
6. I can’t figure out how to do any type of custom widget in WordPress. I often stop caring after trying for awhile.
7. I am never happy with any review I write.
8. I “decide” about every other week that I’m completely over blogging. But then I get over it and post something.
9. I simultaneously am happily surprised, but also a little disappointed in the number of followers I have.
10. I always copy my reviews to Good Reads and post links to Twitter and Pinterest and I hate scheduling posts because it means I have to wait to do those things.
What are your blogging confessions?
Stephanie's Book Reviews 
Twitter can be overwhelming, but it’s still probably my favorite social media right now. I love Rafflecopter, but I hate giveaway cheaters. It seriously makes me want to never host another one again. I post my reviews to Goodreads as soon as I’ve written them, whether or not they’re live on my blog. Also, I use the Publicize feature in WordPress Jetpack to auto tweet and Facebook my posts, so I don’t have to remember to go back and tweet/post once it’s live on the blog. It doesn’t help with Pinterest, but it does cut down on time that way. 🙂
My bookish confessions.
I haven’t heard of WordPress Jetpack. Where do you find it at?
Here you go! http://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/
Although, wait. You’re using a WordPress for hosting, so I’m not sure you can use Jetpack, too. I thought you were self-hosted. Look into “Publicize.” I think that’s what it was called on the WordPress-hosted platform.
Thank you! I Found it!
I agree with so many of yours! I’m never happy with my reviews!
I think you do a great job on your reviews! I wish I could do better on mine.
I’m the same, as you, I haven’t really told anyone my life about my blog. There’s less pressure when no one knows who you are, you can just write exactly what you think about any book and not have to worry as much about offending someone’s tastes and them holding it to you personally.
I agree, it’s much easier to be judged by people who don’t know you than people you do!
I really hated Twitter when I first started using it, but I’ve gotten to where I understand most of the things on there. For example, I know that you put a “.” in front of the “@” so that you are not tweeting directly to that person/account. For example, if I wanted to say “@StefaniSloma is awesome” and I didn’t put the “.”, only the person I tweeted to would see it. (@StefaniSloma is my own Twitter, so I wouldn’t do that anyway. Haha). Does that make sense?
I haven’t used Rafflecopter except to enter giveaways. Why don’t you like them?
My TTT
Thanks for the info! So if you use the “.” in front of the name so everyone sees it, does it still post to the person’s page? In regards to Rafflecopter, I didn’t think the interface was very user friendly and when you want to look at the entries you can only get a “snapshot” every three hours and even then, it doesn’t update correctly (like you know there’s 10 entries and it only shoes you 6).
Yep! It’ll still tag them and let them know you’ve included them in a tweet.
That’s annoying! Why do you still want to use it? Are there redeeming factors?
I haven’t seen a lot of other options for giveaways that are so random. Also it’s good for the self promotion – make entries to follow blog, twitter, etc. But if I find something comparable I would switch in a minute.
Commenting on a retweet is only available if you use Tweetdeck *as far as I know* You could always use another method for a giveaway. I see plenty of them when I hop around to see if there are interesting books to win 🙂
Mel@thedailyprophecy
What is Tweetdeck? I’ve never heard of it!
#4 made me laugh! Twitter is totally one of the most confusing things ever! I’m 19 and don’t understand how it works, so I completely feel you! 🙂
Yeah I just don’t get it. I mostly prefer Facebook, but I use that for my personal life and the Twitter is for my blogging life.
I’m definitely self conscious with the content that I put out for reviews that within hours or a week of posting it, I’ll probably proofread it again and again until it’s “better” (but they’re never that much different haha).
Cheers,
joey via. thoughts and afterthoughts
I tend to speed write my reviews and hardly ever edit them after fact. I think I need to take more notes when I’m reading bc I always feel like I miss important points I wanted to make too.
I love how short and sweet Twitter is but it does take some getting used to. The @ is used to address someone on Twitter directly. I understand how you feel about reviews I always try to strike a balance between providing an honest and entertaining review for readers and showing the author that I respect their work even if the book wasn’t for me. Sometimes though I just feel like they fall flat and that no one is interested in what little ol me has to say. I’ve always enjoyed your review though and I think it’s awesome that you put yourself out there like this with your blogging confessions.
Thanks!