Why I Love My Blogging Community: A Top 5 List

I’ve been blogging for a little over a year and a half, and one thing that I have to say is that my blogger friends have been amazing.

I’ve connected and now have personal relationships with book bloggers and even a fabulous craft/DIY blogger (hi, Lauren @ The Thinking Closet!) who have provided invaluable information and been fabulous sounding boards!

So here’s a list of some of the many reasons why I love my blogging community.

Reason #1: Support

Whether something goes wrong or goes right, my close book blogging friends are there for me to say, “aw that sucks” or “yay, I’m so happy for you!” It’s awesome to have people who understand blogging and can relate to those instances where support is needed.

Reason #2: Sounding Boards

Whenever I have a new idea, I know I can bring it to my blogger friends and hear their opinions. Everyone’s supportive of new ideas and usually has some great tips, especially if it’s an idea they have had experience with in the past.

Reason #3: Personal Relationships

I’m so lucky to have been able to get closer personally with a few of my blogging friends. I’ve met in person The Book Wheel, River City Reading, Books Speak Volumes, My Life in Books, and Doing Dewey, plus The Thinking Closet and H2O Bungalow, who aren’t book bloggers but great girls to connect with on a bloggy and personal level.

Then I have bloggers I’m close to that I haven’t met. Catherine @ The Gilmore Guide to Books and I chat weekly about the perils of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Shahs of Sunset (I mean, it IS serious business). Not to mention how I’ve connected with fashion blogger Just Me aghan over books (who I actually did meet at Florida Blog Con 2013, but super briefly) and Tamara at Traveling with T who shares an email thread with me monthly on blogging tips.  Plus, there are a chunk of other bloggers that I chat with via FB Message and sometimes email that I’m not even listing, but you know I heart you!!!

Some of the fabulous bloggers I’ve met

Reason #4: Advice

Oh my gosh, the amount of super valuable advice that I have received from my blogger friends. . . it’s just amazing how everyone is more than willing to offer up their opinions on how to make my blog better and easier to maintain.  Recently, I even co-hosted a book blogging critique with The Book Wheel, where about 15 of us anonymously critiqued each other’s blogs on a preset scale.  I received some great constructive feedback that I’m incorporating into my blog.

Reason #5: Tutorials/Tips Sharing

Unsolicited tutorial and tip sharing has been a life saver. You don’t know what you don’t know, and until someone tells you about an amazing tip/technique/plugin/tool/whatever, you don’t know what you’re missing. There have been soooo many times that someone has mentioned, “did you know about blah blah?” and saved me hours of work.

Reasons From the Blogging Community

I even asked a few of my blogging friends to name one of the reasons why they love the blogging community.  Here are some of the responses:

Ciska’s Book Chest: “I love the blogging community because it introduced me to a lot of great new authors and genres I never would have picked up without word of people from this community!”

The Book Wheel loves the blogging community because they offer both personal and professional support.

The Relentless Reader: “When I found the blogging community I found MY PEOPLE. I’ve never known another group that GETS ME the way this community does. A giant group of book nerds!? What could be better than that?”

Words for Worms: “The blogging community has introduced me to some of my favorite people on the planet. Most of them I’d never have run into otherwise, geography being the cruel mistress she is. Friendship and laughter and bookworms for the win!”

Estella’s Revenge: “I am a very different reader now from the one I was 9 years ago thanks to the wonderful recommendations I receive. Thank you, blogging community, for making me the reader I am today!”

Wensend: “I’ve only started blogging last year, but I’ve learned so much from all the wonderful people I got to know through the blogging community: everyone’s been very welcoming and supportive and I love the way different kind of blogs can influence and interact with each other!”

My Life in Books loves the book blogging community because they completely understand her bibliophilia. She can be as book crazy as she pleases!

River City Reading: “I love that the book blogging community understands all of my bookish quirks and gets excited about the same things (book covers, pub dates, book awards) that I do in a way no one else does.”

Read Lately: “I love that within the book blogging community I find people who love books as much as I do! Nowhere else have I found this freakishly obsessive but wonderful enthusiasm. My friends aren’t readers so before I discovered blogging the best I could hope for was sharing a great book with my mom. Now I share great books with dozens of people every day! It feels like coming home.”

Book-alicious Mama loves the blogging community for its unbelievable level of support — personally and professionally; for believing in me even when I have doubts; for pushing me to constantly be my best; and for understanding my seriously sick obsession with books.

The Gilmore Guide to Books feels at home with the great women I’ve met in the blogging community. The common ground of book love is already there so everything else is gravy. Yummy, filling, rewarding gravy!

Books Speak Volumes loves the blogging community because it’s led her to a group of incredible, smart people who share her passion for reading. It’s so nice to have people to nerd out to!

Fourth Street Review loves the book blogging community for the wonderful people she’s been able to connect with. Not only does she find books that she never would have picked up before, but they make her feel totally normal for her obsession with Jane Eyre. Because that’s totally normal, right? Right?!?

So bloggers, what do you love about the blogging community?