Title: Blog Events: The Secret to Engaging Your Community, Growing Your Network, and Establishing Your Expertise
Author: Amanda Shofner
Genre: Nonfiction, Reference
Source: free Kindle book
Published: August 4, 2013 (self-published)
How do you draw your community to your blog while growing your network and establishing your expertise?Blog events.
They're not just for hobby bloggers--they'll help your business too.
And Blog Events provides a framework for setting up your own successful event.
You'll cover why blog events are beneficial to you, how to define your event's purpose, what to consider when deciding on particulars, tricks for developing an effective marketing plan, how to tackle systems and responsibilities, and how to deal with the wrap-up.
Blog Events also has a special bonus section, filled with the secrets of a veteran blog event host--from what makes an event successful to tips that'll help keep your sanity intact. Because you can never be too prepared.
Why I Read this Book: I love learning and if I can learn something based on someone else's own experience, trials, and tribulations, all the better. Note: I consider Amanda a friend. That said, my review is my unbiased and honest opinion.
What I Liked: Blog Events is a great reference guide. When I first read this ebook, I thought it was good information to file away for use at a later time. When I re-read this book during the plotting phase of my Write On review-a-thon event, it proved to be an immensely helpful resource for me. And while I still have kinks to work out with my event, this book gave me a great starting advantage. It’s a quick enough read that I was able to get the information I needed without any fluff added. Plus there’s an added bonus that comes with this ebook: a downloadable PDF that recaps the main points from each section in the book; like a checklist of sorts. I felt prepared, organized, and ready to host my blog event thanks to this book.
Amanda not only talks about the reasons to host a blog event, she also talks about what is in it for you and your audience. I also liked the "what we covered" recaps at the end of each section. This book is a great resource to have readily available. There were lots of good tips and tricks, things that make sense but I may not have thought of at first myself. There's a lot to gain from Amanda's own experience, especially considering she has hosted the Bouts of Books read-a-thon 9 times now, with the most recent one having over 700 participants.
What I Didn’t Like: I wish the book came with a little mini-Amanda so that I could pick her brain 24/7. A mini-Amanda would look great on my desk.
Overall Impression: If you are planning a blog event, this book would be a great resource to have on hand. I think even someone who has previously hosted a blog event can benefit from this book as well. It's always nice to get a different perspective on how to do things. I know I am always looking for a better and/or simpler way to do things.
I want to talk about the price of this book. This book is 34 pages long, which isn't really long at all. I've seen reference and 'how to' ebooks priced at $15 and above for 50 pages, which is too rich for my blood. So at $1.99, this book to me is a great deal. Yes, I was lucky enough to pick this book up as a free Kindle book but I would have gladly pay $1.99 for it. But you don't have to take my word for it because I am going to give away one Kindle copy of Blog Events. If you would like to borrow my Kindle copy of the book via Amazon's Lending feature, leave a comment letting me know. (First to comment letting me know they would like to borrow it from me is the one I will lend my copy to.) Note: You will be able to borrow the ebook for a period of 14 days.
Brianna’s Rating:
One lucky winner will receive a Kindle copy of Blog Events by Amanda Shofner. This giveaway is sponsored by The Book Vixen and will be gifted to the winner via Amazon.com. (You do not have to have a Kindle device to enter. You can read the ebook with one of the free Kindle reading apps.) Good luck to all who enter!
- No purchase necessary.
- Must be 18 years old or older to enter.
- Giveaway open Internationally, so as long as I can gift the book to you via my Amazon.com account. Void where prohibited by law.
- Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received.
- You must use the Rafflecopter widget to enter giveaway. Please see Rafflecopter form information on how to enter this giveaway.
- Please read TBV's Giveaway Policy before entering.
- Giveaway ends 9:01 pm (Pacific Time) on 3/16/2014.
I am an author who needs to promote her own work and likes to sponsor other authors, so I am interested in the best way of doing both.
ReplyDeleteI would like to read this because I host a reading challenge (first time this year) I am thrilled there are 43 participates but I would love the read it to see how would I get more and how do the big blog hops get so many folks. Humm!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on hosting your first reading challenge!
DeleteI've hosted a few blog events before, but I definitely need help making them better (also maybe bigger). I love that this was written by a blogger who has a track record of successful blog events!
ReplyDelete-- Anastasia @ Here There Be Books
Typos are no fun :( Let's try this again!
ReplyDeleteI'm always looking for ways to improve my blog, and this sounds like a great resource :)