Taking Baby Steps - Armchair BEA Wednesday

So you want to be  a book blogger. To be quite honest I have not yet discussed this topic with any other blogger, ever, so I don't know how it was for everyone else. 

My thinking process went like this.

Day 1: I really want to blog about books, too.

Day 2: I'm way too dumb to get that done.

Day 3: I don't even have the time.

Day 4: Whatever. I'll just do it. Can't hurt.

So, I looked up The Story Siren's blogging tips, went to blogger and created a blog with the title Booksmartie. I still like the name, because it's short and it fits me and my blog.

What happened after the creating the blog was writing my first review. About Sarah Dessen's This Lullaby. And, oh my, did it suck. Not the book, the review, I mean. I just couldn't do it. I didn't even finish writing it, that's how much I hated what I'd written.

All of that happened in February 2012. I stopped working on my blog (it wasn't online then) until the end of March 2012. That was when I finished Divergent and just. wrote. that. damn. review.

And I uploaded the whole thing. And then I just went from there. Read, review and repeat.

I started linking the book covers to Goodreads, I started summarizing my opinion of the book at the beginning of the review to make it easier for the busy people, I created a Twitter account ... and so on and so forth.

Those are all the things you just do. It's like babies breathe without really being told or taught. Trust me, it happens. 

The next few things were what I struggled with - and still struggle with today.

Commenting

The classic. I'm lucky enough to actually like commenting. If I read something, I usually have an opinion on it - and the desire to utter that opinion. My problem is - how do I remember where I commented to see if someone responded to the comment? I honestly don't know. So, I comment on a lot of blogs, actually, but I seldom come back because I just don't remember which blogs I commented on.

Twitter

I mean, it's getting better. I used to be horrible at Twitter consistency. I'd go months without even looking at Twitter. If I use it, I love it. It's easy, it's organized, people are nice and funny on Twitter but still I find myself overwhelmed with the Twitter feed. It does get better, though, as I said. Oh, and one thing I love about Twitter are the Twitter chats/parties. They're a blast!

HTML

Attention!!!! Red Flag!!! Every experienced blogger who ever posted about HTML always has this lecturing tone when they say learning HTML (for blogging use only) is nothing more than a lot of patience and endurance, and Google. The problem? I still find myself way too lazy to even try and understand HTML. It is one of my 2013 goals, though. If only because it's so cool when people can use it.

Hosting

And by this I really mean hosting anything. A challenge, a giveaway, a Read-A-Long, a Read-a-thon. Those are the kinds of things big bloggers (in my opinion) do - and I'm terrified of the idea. I guess it's just something you grow into...once you take your fear and throw it over board :)

Vlogging

This is something I've always been tinkering with. I love Youtube, I think I would love making videos. But it's so, SO easy to just sit here and write where noone knows who I am and where noone who knows me in real life can find out that I have a slight obsession with the Vampire Academy's Dimitri.

So, that's it. The steps I've taken, the steps I still have to take. Which of these experiences have you made already? Do you have any tips or advice for me? Or questions about the few things I did manage to do? I'd love to hear!