This new feature, Bubbly Berls Babbles (or BBB), is kind of an adaptation of my old feature, Fun Questions, back at Fantasy is More Fun. And the title tells it all. I’m Bubbly, I’m Berls, and I’m about to Babble about something! I hope you’ll babble along with me 🙂
Today Bubbly Berls is Babbling about: What keeps you blogging?
In the past year, so many blogs that were established before I started blogging and many which actually inspired me to blog have shut down. And as you all – or at least most of you – know, I came EXTREMELY close to stopping blogging as well about a year ago when Michelle adopted me as part of Because Reading. And a couple of my other blogging friends – Lexxie and Brandee – recently made the decision to merge their blogs and become (Un)conventional Bookworms.
So this has me wondering – what is it that keeps us blogging? Those of you out there that are still maintaining a solo blog, what is it that makes you keep going? And then for those like me, who considering quitting, what about blogging made you decide it was worth it to join forces with another blogger so you could continue? (I know there are more out there like Michelle, Brandee, Lexxie, and myself).
I know why I didn’t want to quit – the community. I love the connection to all you wonderful people, even when I’m doing an awful job keeping up with the blog, it feels great to have the connection. A place that I can go to and find great friends that will enjoy blabbing with me about books and all the things that go with that. I also understand why many have stopped because blogging is so much work and it takes up a lot of time. Pressures of real life can just get to a point where it doesn’t feel fun or worth it anymore. For me, it almost got there, but having someone to share the responsibility with kept me from quitting and I’m so glad I did. I don’t know what I’d do without the blog community to come back to!
But I know my reasons aren’t the same as everyone’s so…
I’ve been in a bit of a slump off and on over this past year, and I’ve wondered sometimes if I should just give it up. But I love the sense of community and the online friends I’ve made through blogging, and I would miss having a place to talk about what I’m reading. I think perhaps I need to go back to basics, take fewer ARCs, read and review the books I really want to read, and worry less about the additional social media, which has become hard to keep up with.
Oh yes, the social media is something I hardly bother with anymore. Just too much work. The basics and the community, focus on that and hopefully 🤞🤞you will last a long time!
It’s interesting because I blog for 2 reasons: the community (of course) and I love books. I’ve never actually solo blogged I started out reviewing at a friend’s blog and then moved to another when she shut down, then the second one shut down. But when I started my blog I recruited my friends to join me. One, Melanie, is a seasoned and prolific blogger. But the others were book lovers who were new to blogging. I think it’s worked out great and I love all the different books they review as well as mine. I also enjoy it because it gets me to organize my reading and assimilate my thoughts enough to write reviews. Anne – Books of My Heart
I blog on two (and at one point three) blogs. I’m like you, community. I like sharing my thoughts on books. I love hearing that someone read a review of mine, tried the book and loved it as much as I did. That is the big reason I like to blog. I want to share my love of the stories. I love having a place to talk to people about books. I do talk on Goodreads some, but not as much as on blogs. Great topic and I’m glad that you haven’t stopped blogging. I know that time/life gets in the way often. I would like more time to visit other’s blogs, but such as it is.
I definitely keep blogging because of the community! I’ve made so many wonderful bookish friends because of blogging <3 One of the things that really helped me when I considered stopping was just loosening up a bit. I used to post every single day but now I just post when I have something ready!
I continue to maintain my blog because I still love it. I love sharing my thoughts with others, and luckily I still have time to squeeze out posts. I used to have 6 other woman sharing the burden of writing reviews (I still did all the posting, scheduling, etc.). Unfortunately, I’ve lost most of them, including my most prolific readers/reviewers this year. SO… We’ll see if I start to struggle this year. It was tough over the summer. My reading/listening diminishes, but luckily, I have a stock of reviewed audiobooks that I’ve not shared on my blog to help fill in gaps.
But back to why I do it… it’s just something in me. I love talking about books and audiobooks. I love interacting with other readers, authors, and narrators. I don’t worry about numbers and views, but share because I love to.
Blogging is the only way to talk to others about books as nobody in my everyday life reads like I do. It’s fun, but there have been times when I have come close to calling it quits because I get in a bit of a slump but I think I wouldn’t be me without my blog. 🙂
I know what you mean! It’s so rare to find people who share our love of books 🙂
Well, Lexxie and my reasons are similar to yours, Berls. We both love the blogging community, the friends we’ve made, and felt we’d built something we didn’t want to let go of. But, at the same time, blogging does take a lot of time and it’d become more of a chore – the actual blogging part – and with the things going on in our personal lives, blogging was getting put on the back burner. Merging was the perfect solution for us. We can share the responsibility – carry the load when one of us is more busy than the other, etc. And some of the things we’ve started and are planning to do in the near future have made blogging FUN again. I wouldn’t trade the friends I’ve made in this community for anything and I’m honored that y’all have been so supportive of the merge. So really, I guess it boils down to YOU and this community…that’s what keeps me (and Lexxie) blogging.
That’s EXACTLY how I felt when I was hitting that point of not being able to maintain a blog on my own. Because it really can become a chore. I do think doing it with someone makes it a lot more fun and less pressure. I’ve really been enjoying all your blogger wife chats too 🙂 I’m glad y’all stuck around, we would have missed you!!! <3 {{HUGS}}