On what may very well bring the death of the Book Blogs Ning

[Maw Books]

SPAM! Lots and lots of spam.

[Jaime Huff]

I am going to start a thread at least for now, at least have it all pointed in one direction... maybe it will help clean up the boards. There isn't already a group for it.. yet. I will start one when I am not inundated with grad school, my daughter and book reviews! LOL

[Froggarita]

I am guilty too...I saw others doing it so I thought it was ok as well....now that I know I will limit it to the correct groups....but I would like to sidenote that not all of us are getting books from publishers or authors...I am paying for my contest out of my own pocket, actually both of the contests on my blog. I am making nothing from my blog..no ads...etc. I just picked a book I really wanted to read and figured others would to so I would offer it as a contest.
I am sorry if i upset anyone with the posts/emails...it was not my intention.

Froggy

[Grace]

Oh, wow. I am guilty as well. Never thought I would be considered a spammer. I saw that other people were posting their reviews and giveaways to the group and I, like the dunderheaded follower I am, did the same. *Dobby-slaps*. It won't happen again.

Just a question, if we do say a Sourcebooks giveaway can we post about that giveaway in the groups run by Sourcebooks publicists? Just want to make sure because I have a couple coming up.

[Harvee Lau]

Hope the discussion forums will not just "dry up".

[Maw Books]

I never visit the ning to find book reviews or giveaways. If I want to find those then I'll just visit my Google Reader where I can subscribe to the blogs feed. The Ning is where we can exchange ideas (like the Blogging Tips group), coordinate meet-ups (like my Utah Bloggers group), talk books, blogging, and for many connect with publishers. There has been a lot of discussion on Twitter on how everybody will not visit the ning anymore because it's too spammy. They were driven away from it. If anything, if it could somehow be brought under control, many members *might* find their way back and join in the conversation.

[Harvee Lau]

But does it matter that the Alexa ranking for this site is so good?

[Maw Books]

If what you are looking for is a link back from this site to yours than posting in your profile will achieve the same thing.

[Alison Rotich]

How do you get followers to your site in the beginning? I know you go to your google reader, but I want to be on your google reader...how do you find me? I twitter -but you don't know to look for me-, I blog, I post to my facebook, I am involved with BBAW this year, and I try hard to visit others blogs and make comments. What else do you recommend. BTW, Maw Books, I do visit your blog and enjoy it very much. :)

[Maw Books]

Hi Alison,

Well, the best way to get people to notice you is to engage in thoughtful conversation. You can do this by leaving comments on blogs that you like (which I did a search and didn't see anything from you on my blog - if I've missed a comment that you've made, do let me know). Most bloggers will normally check out who you are. They may or may not leave a comment depending on if they have anything useful to add. Some bloggers may also have too many followers and may not be able to comment back on every single person who comments on theirs. So don't be discouraged. Either find another blogger who will comment back or if you like their blog enough, you can continue to comment.

Twitter. Follow book bloggers on Twitter and @reply to them (I always respond to @replys). Join in on Twitter conversations like #followreader, #litchat and more and people will notice you. Twitter is a two way conversation. (I wanted to check if I follow you are not but your Twitter icon in your blog's sidebar doesn't link to your profile.)

But mostly it takes time. I blogged for 5 months before I had more than 5 hits a day. I was that far outside of the community. But once I found them and engaged in conversation that changed very quickly.

Also BBAW. Don't expect people to come find you simply because you are registered. Go find them. For example, I've left approximately 100 comments on bloggers participating in the BBAW meme. Take some time to truly browse the sites that most interest you, engage them in thoughtful comments, see if they are on Twitter, @reply them to introduce yourself.

That's my advice for now

[Tricia]

I'm also all ears if anyone has any new ideas for what we could do here. I know in the early days we did some author spotlighting, but we didn't have many members back then and discussions were slower.

[Alison Rotich]

MawBooks -
For some reason it wouldn't let me reply to your other post. I didn't think about it, but when I comment on your site I am Alipet813 not Alison. I actually get a feed to your blog every time you make a post. I read about camping and everything. Funny - the other day I clicked to a last year post that I thought was this year and almost posted about donating to Darfur or Ghana or wherever you donated last year. I recently commented on your Zlata's Diary post.
Anywho, Thanks for the words of advice to a new blogger!!

[Maw Books]

Gotcha! Just searched again and see you under both names. Don't know why it didn't pull you up before. Anyways, thanks for visiting my blog! I do put every book blogger who comments on my blog in my Google Reader. So yes, you are there! I will have to go peruse your blog deeper. Things have been crazy with BBAW lately (I'm on a few panels) but hope that once it settles down that I can get back to normal.