Searching for ARCs, Pageviews & Popularity, a Book Blogging 101 Discussion
How To Get a Publisher’s Attention
Head on over to Netgalley.com. I find that the requirements via their “Before You Request” section is very telling and will most likely trickle down to how they approve blogs when requests come in for paper ARCs. Before you start modifying and refining though, understand that to first, even get on their radar, you have to send the request to them. Unless you are referred by an author, or your SEO is off the charts hot, they will not come to you. You first have to go to them.
Some very common bullet points under “If you are a blogger:”
Preferences State: “Blog should be updated daily or almost daily and have a significant number of followers.”
- Blog posts should be current and active and the posts must be mostly about books.
- Unique monthly visitors must be listed. Restrictions on visitors are not posted, just that they must be listed.
- Twitter Name & Follower Count (Again a number is not posted, just that they want the number of followers listed)
- Facebook Page & Like Count (Again a number is not posted, just that they want the number of followers listed)
- Length of time reviewing (Restrictions were listed for as little as 3 months to as long as 1 year)
Some even state specific requirements:
- Minimum of 3-6 months blogging
- Minimum of 1000 blog followers
- Daily Updates
- Must have: Twitter & Facebook Accounts, Goodreads etc.
Popularity in the Book Blogging Community as Defined by Pageviews
If you measure popularity in regard to pageviews, to put a quantifying number on it, is rather hard. Do you judge your standards by what publishers want? Or do you judge your standards by what advertisers want? Or are you opposed to “selling out” and base your popularity solely on your readers and other book bloggers? It is all rather abstract. Much like labeling someone popular in real life. Mignon Faget is a very popular jewelry designer in New Orleans, so much so, if you are not wearing Mignon in high school you are very “out of touch”. Yet, someone in say, Michigan would look at me like a fool if I stated that I just bought a Mignon Sno Ball…relative. And does it have substance?
In regard to advertisers, companies like BlogAds recommend that you have a minimum of 30K pageviews monthly to pull in quality advertisers and actually make money. But, is this how a book blogger is judged on popularity? Because, some bloggers actually state that blogs that advertise are sometimes looked “down upon.” Thus, the popularity of that blog might drop.
On the other hand, publishers seem to look for pageviews also, and followers. They haven’t specifically come out and stated a pageview count, but if you take that in relation to follower count I’m guessing a 200+ pageview count is probably considered optimal.
Then, as far as readers/other bloggers this is much more hard to pin down as a number, in fact I don’t think it has anything to do with pageviews or follower counts. I really believe popularity is all based upon participation in the community, amount of hot ARCS you review (which does go back to pageviews because you are competing for publisher attention), giveaways, perceived power in the publishing industry and a certain amount of “coolness”. I’m not joking, our book blogging community is a microcosm of real life. Much like popular people in life it is usually based on the amount of toys compared to personality in relation to “what you can do” for others that distinguishes a person’s popularity, in teen years and adulthood. So, a pageview count in regards to that probably goes back to the publishers, who have still not yet come out and said exactly what they want.
A few questions you should ask yourself:
Are you trying to reach a certain goal? An end number that you can overcome and then state: “Yes, I am a popular book blog, now”? Because, I personally think that you have to set your own goals. What is a good number for you? I’ve set goals my entire blogging career and I slowly try to reach that. I track my trends, what works, what doesn’t work and get rid of the stuff that doesn’t work and do more of the stuff that does work. I don’t really think it is a good idea to compare yourself to other blogs, because personally I think that this might in the end have bitter consequences and jealousy issues. Your pageviews will continue to increase if you work on things, if you improve your content and network and track your trends.
You asked for my pageviews specifically and I’ll actually publish my Analytics graphs for you guys to take a look. But, I think you need to set your own goals and not focus on numbers. Starting as low as 50 and working your way up as the days, weeks months go by. I also recommend that you view them as months — not days, because in increasing your pageviews, monthly goals seem to work best.
I’ll also show you that everyone starts at 0, we all have to start somewhere and there are also times when we plummet back to 0, say if we forget to do something, take a sabbatical or lose focus. But the point is growth and monitoring. Take a look at how I track trends:
We all begin with nothing as shown in the chart above. This is the graph of my blogging career. As you can see it goes up and down and I make sure that I check my Google Analytics regularly. Like in May of 2010. What happened? It dropped to near nothing. I freaked. Did I blog about something that people didn’t like? Turns out I had updated my template and hadn’t installed my Analytics code. I also watched as my pageviews sky rocketed for events that I hosted with other bloggers. Then soar down as I switched form Blogger to WordPress — then again forgot to move my Analytics Code from the blogger site to the WordPress one. I had still had about 1,000 visitors that month, so they were there and so I figured it was still working. Silly me though, still had them installed on parajunkee.blogspot.com — which people were going to and then getting forwarded to the dot com.
You find out what works by watching your Analytics. You make the decision whether it works for YOU or not. I’ll tell you in all honesty my dumb “Two Cents” post about The Story Siren and her plagiarism debacle finally pushed me over a daily pageview goal that I had set for myself. I was pissed that THAT got me to my daily pageview goal. Of all the topics. But, it was a hot topic at the time and I hadn’t set out to make pageviews, just state my opinion. I’ve later broken that goal with other more “worthy” posts, so I’m not that bitter, but I make the decision on how I want to craft my little version of “popular” every time I post. You, in turn, will have to make your own decisions. Decide what type of popular you would like to be and tailor yourself to meet that goal. Because, only you can define yourself, because if you let others define you, I think you lose in the end.
Happy Thursday. Talk Less. Read More. Blog with Integrity.
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Hi! I think we are all obsessed with our page view counts and what is “good”. And I agree that it is a little like high school. A few months back I had a literary and marketing agent do a guest post about what publishers want (she’s worn a few hats in the industry). It seemed to boil down to how great your influence is. If you want to check out the post it is here Getting Noticed
Thanks Donna. From that article I never thought to give a sales report. I wouldn’t think that it would be true to representation — because the only way you could track sales links would be if you had affiliate links and not everyone buys from Amazon. Hmmm….
The publishers probably have some algorithm they use determines if there are so many sales at a place (ie Amazon) then this is the larger number of sales. I’ve also started encouraging people to add the books to their Goodreads shelves as a way to determine “sales” influence.
It’s taken a couple of years for me to get comfortable and know what I want to do with blogging but I feel like I’m finally getting there. When I first started, it was all about the ARCs on NetGalley and just how many I could get of them – childish and I’m ashamed of it. Now, I don’t even go on NetGalley that much. I haven’t posted a review of a NetGalley book in a couple of months and it doesn’t really matter to me. I can read that book in a couple of months when it’s released, nothing’s going to change! What I really want to do with my blog is make it more indie centered –
it’s still MY blog so there’s still the latest published books there but
I’m trying to read more indie books too – there’s some truly amazing
ones out there that don’t get the publicity they deserve.
I actually removed my page views widget thing this morning from my blog. I didn’t see a need for it be there, as far as I’m concerned I’m the only one that needs to see my page views, which are abysmal compared to yours of course!
As for Random House, don’t be too put off if you’re declined. I tried and failed to find out why they declined me – on Edelweiss. A day later, just for fun, I requested the exact same book on NetGalley and was accepted. My profile info is the same for each account. Hmm.
So yeah, this is a long comment! My advice to bloggers would be what we all learn after a while – does it really matter? Sure there’s amazing ARC’s out there and tons of Galleys but do you NEED them? Can you keep up with them? Is that what you want your blog to be about, the hottest YA releases? If yes, great! If not, work out what you do want. There’s a high chance your page views won’t be affected because you’re not blogging about the latest exploits of Bella.
P.S. On the topic of The Story Siren, I got the same amount of page views on that one post as I do…. in a MONTH.
Thank you for the great post.
I always look forward to these weekly posts, they are inspiring and insightful.
That said, I’m quite a bit lazy. I don’t live and die by my blog because it’s a lot of work and sometimes I just want to watch TV/play video games/drink. Half the time, I can’t even tell you what my numbers are… and I often forget to update my traffic in the About page of my blog. But now I’m wondering how I’m doing. *quickly goes to check*
1,089 Unique visitors this month. Only 37% are returning visitors, but I’ve been getting pounded with spam lately (I mean, A LOT, thank god for akismet!), so I have to guess that’s killing my numbers. 2800 page views.
I guess I’m doing alright?
I think I pay attention to my numbers too much, rather an obsession. I always get pounded with spam — but I switched to Disqus and it seems to have stopped. Maybe I just don’t see it.
Hmmm this was an interesting blog post.
I love that your blogging 101 posts always get me thinking!
*love and encouragement*
Talking about blog stats is like talking about how much money people make. Nobody wants to give numbers, but it’s hard not to wonder. And then to have no benchmarch, especially as a new blogger, it’s so hard to judge success. All I can do is judge by my own growth over time. I compare my numbers from a year ago to what they are now and it inspires me to do even better next year.
Thanks for the great info.
I don’t mind giving out my numbers, you can easily check my numbers if you click on my advertising promo stuff…I actually tell the truth, LOL I think as long as you grow and continue to increase, you must be doing something right
This is extremely helpful. I like Google Analytics a lot more than I thought I would. It’s a very good tool. Tells me things that worked and don’t work. Everyone should read this post.
Grace
Thanks Grace. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the wealth of information that is conveyed with Google Analytics though :S
Bahaha, it IS like high school. I visit all these blogs and they have pictures of stacks of ARCs and I look around and have … nothing. So I feel the peer pressure. Like I have to do these spectacular giveaways and stuff just to feel important. It still took me a long time to feel like I was in a good enough place to request my first physical ARCs. Thanks to your BB101 posts, I felt like I was coming into it enough prepared that I sent out a few just to see. I’ve already been approved for one and I couldn’t be more excited! Somehow it’s almost easier for me to work with NetGalley and Edelweiss. It feels less … personal, somehow.
Also, re: Random House on NetGalley – there is something wacky with their approvals. I requested two different titles and got one but was declined for the other for not having enough information or something. I have yet to understand that at all.
Page views are also the strangest things. of course my blog has more traffic when I’m running more giveaways, but sometimes it’s like the luck of the draw. I’ve posted on some days where the post is scheduled but I’m actually “out of the office” so I can’t promote, and all the sudden my pageviews spike anyways. I track my numbers obsessively, but sometimes you just have those days were I just don’t get it. XD
It is kinda — but I will tell you something. I wouldn’t even call it High School, I call it life. People clique up and act “childish” and materialistic in all stages of life. People get these pile of ARCs mostly from going to conventions and I found out you CAN’T read them in time. I fell bad when I get a big weekly haul, because I know, probably half will sit on the shelf and never get read in time.
About the pageviews, you might want to check referrals. I had a huge spike one day and I was like WTF? And I looked for links in — and I found a blog posts about me and an article I wrote on an author blog. Luckily complimentary.
Then another time, I saw a huge spike on a review I wrote like in 2009 and come to find out a COMMENT was made a month ago about that review and then someone just noticed that comment tweeted — and my super sluething led me to the tweet and then comment — you just never know.
Great topic Rach . Yes only you can define your own blogging goals and what you want from Your blog. Awesome as always
Great post, as always, Rachel. I admit, sometimes I get a little bummed by my numbers, but then I remember WHY I blog: to share my love for books with those who feel the same. Is it nice to get ARCs and galleys? Absolutely! Does it make you a little giddy inside when you get more than 4-5 comments on your posts, or when your page-views spike? DUH!
But. And this is a big BUT – if I can convince even _one_ person to read a book they otherwise wouldn’t have, I have accomplished what I set out to do. Maya Angelou once wrote, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” This quote is by my desk as a reminder to be successful in everything I do – every day.
That is awesome Katie. A wonderful attitude and we can only aspire to be like minded.
Popularity is really hard to define, even when we dont consider numbers. I still feel like a small blog, even after 3 years of blogging, and I’m always surprised when people reach to me saying that I’m “a big blog” and what not. My good friend Lucy keeps saying I’m super popular, but I think she;s just being nice haha.
Being Canadian also make it harder to compare myself regarding hot ARCs, as you mentionned, because publishing house don’t really send ARCs internationally.
Great post Rachel! I honestly wonder where I stand on the “poularity sale”, not that it would change anything, but I’m curious hehe
Who can judge it right? I’ve been told that I have a popular blog — but I feel like I’m always licking on the heels of others that are bigger and more “popular”. But, I really have that never satisfied attitude when it comes to this baby, but it is more out of the line of “constant improvement” and not I need it better, bigger, and bestest.
For a time, I was judging myself from other standards, why didn’t I get that book? What is wrong with my blog that I was denied? Gawd Insurgent made me jealous LOL. But, I think it usually isn’t anything that I can help, maybe they just wanted people solely focused on YA and they happened to check out my blog when I had a PNR review up — who knows. You can never tell…
True! How I wanted Insurgent too. I wanted to read it before the baby was born lol but no such luck!
This was a great blog post. I find since I’m only a month in and VERY impatient I want to try and get big like some other sites. At the same time, I have been watching my trends and am slowly myself down and just focusing on my blog goal and I know in due time it will come. I emailed publishers, some are sending me books others said I was “too young” it all just depends. Thanks for sharing Rachel! I love your Thursday blogging posts.
The exact same thing happened to me with Random House. Declined on Edelweiss and accepted on Netgalley. Sofa king weird.
That is weird. I get declined by Random House all the time. It might be that two different interns work on different sites…
I’d go further and guess that they have multiple interns working around each other on various sites. Kind of a “right hand doesn’t know what left hand is doing” sort of thing.
Awesome information. I always forget to update things on NetGalley! Though now that I’m not with GFC, I have no clue about “followers.” While I want traffic, I hate that popularity term. I don’t want to be in the spotlight as all that stuff comes with so much baggage. And drama. And more drama. And haters.
I’m on the side of just having great readers and visitors. Took me awhile to figure that out though. I found that spending all my time trying to become known was just not my thing. I wasn’t super popular in school and I can’t imagine trying for that now.
I just signed up for Analytics this month which started midway through one of my days so the results are already skewed. And apparently it tracks my own visits, which I’m not thrilled about. Sitemeter at least allows me to not track my IP address in the count. But I had no idea pubs only care about 200+ pageviews per day. Good to know!
And I would say popularity is a relative term. I mean when I told my dude traffic to one of my posts that I was thrilled about, he said, “Is that it? That’s nothing.” Yeah. Crushed. But he reads blogs that get multiple thousands of views a day, so I wasn’t discouraged for too long.
Okay, I’ll stop oversharing. Just got to say I love these weekly post topics! Can’t wait to see what next week’s topic will be.
It is always relative — a ton of hits for one is nothing to another. Think about some of these large blog that generate 100K hits daily, while me, I peed my pants when I got 1K a day for the first time…
I haven’t ever gone to look at our page counts! Maybe I should but it might just stress me out . I am happy with where my blog is right now. One tip for beginning bloggers that worked for me is to cultivate a relationship with your favorite blogs and authors through Facebook and personal blogs. Be active in conversations let people get to know your personality and how passionate you are about books. Then when I finally got into blogging many of the authors I knew were more than willing to send me ARCs or give my name to their publisher. Other bloggers were supportive especially Jackie over at LE. When ever I had a question she was glad to help
The blogging community I deal with has had nothing but respect for each other and it has been fun.
Thank you for this one today…very interesting today.
Great post, Rachel. This is very helpful. I’ve done the same thing when switching designs. Last time I went a week or so before I realized that I hadn’t put the code in. Oops!
Once again, really informative and great information for a newbie blogger! Thanks for the information.
Tammy @http://bosbooknook.blogspot.com/
Great post, Rachel. I love these posts you know that and I sometimes get totally bummed by the numbers but then I just realize I do this for fun so why worry so much about it. When I reached 500 followers I was so excited though, now I’m trying to get my page views up so thanks for posting this very insightful post on this topic!!!
It’s a bit disheartening to see that some publishers want daily (or near-daily) posts to take a blog seriously. But then I realized that I don’t post daily because I’m too busy, and I’m also too busy to read vociferously … so I don’t need ARCs right now. Heh.
Sometimes I feel a little “uncool” and not popular because most of the people I talk to on Twitter and my blogging friends have a lot more followers and viewers than I do. And when I went to BEA, they were going to all of the publisher parties, which made me a little jealous inside, not going to lie.
But then I think, you know, I’m glad I don’t get a lot of ARCs and galleys because I don’t really have that much time to review all of them! I don’t post as much as other bloggers do and I’m actually a slow reader, unfortunately.
What I do care about though, is reader interaction. I would love to know what my readers think of my content through comments. The blogging community is really the one thing that I do care about. Sometimes, I get a load of comments while other times I don’t get any.
Anyway, I kind of went off topic but great post! Really interesting
Great post!! I know that so many people get hung up on numbers, but to me, I just do it because I enjoy doing it. I may not have a ton of followers, but I do get pretty consistent page views and I am pleased with that. It’s hard to not care about the numbers a little though, especially when it matters to the publishers, but I figure, I have tons of books to read, so if I don’t get that hot ARC that I want it’s not the end of the world lol!! Though when I do, I jump around like a giddy little girl.
I guess particularly when you start out as a blogger those numbers have a whole different meaning to a blogger. You get really excited with the first couple page views and then you watch how you get more and more … until you reach a plateau and wonder whether something is wrong with your blog when you haven’t reached a new peak in the next month. But the thing is, and I think you will all agree, that there will always be ups and downs. For the life of me, I have no clue why the page views on my blog skyrocketed during Feb/March this year and then barreled down again. This one peak makes my blog stat curve look kinda funny. But that’s just how it is and I don’t get myself strung up because of this. And ultimately it should be about our love of books or blogging in general and not just those numbers.