The Monster Review-a-thon - Update

So I am still participating in the Monster Review-a-thon at the Book Monsters. I have reviewed a grand total of 2/4 books. This isn't the result I had hoped for but without this challenge, I probably wouldn't have written any reviews. Hopefully I will get the other two reviews done within the next two days. I also wrote one snack review on She Likes Bento. This makes a total of three reviews. Anyway, today I want to spend some time on the mini Challenges. While the time could be better spend, writing actual reviews, some of the challenges seem useful enough to have a look at and participating is a lot of fun!

Mini Challenge 1: Rethinking your review format.

1. Are you happy with your review format currently?
Actually I am quite happy with it. I gave my format a good thought when I was participating in the bloggiesta challenge in January and I think it works really well. 

2. Scrutinize it a little more, maybe compare it to other blogs you like, anything you think you might change?
I have seen blogs that add the first sentences of a book. I do like that concept because it does give people a feel of the book. I might add that and lose the quote section, because I hardly use that anyhow.

3. Implement some basic changes and tell us what you think. Or, you can tell us one or two aspects of your reviews that you like.
I am not going to change my template around for now. A thing I do like about my reviews is that I try to give a complete package of information. I include genre, subject, publisher, number of pages, publishing year, a link to a store where the book can be bought. I know that you can find that information elsewhere, but I like it that everything is in one place.

Mini Challenge 2: Cross posting your reviews.

I haven't really done this yet because I don't really see the purpose. I only cross posted when an author asked me to. I do see the purpose for the author because sites like goodreads and amazon are visited more frequently than individual blogs, but for me as a blogger, I would want people to actually visit my blog. If I post all my reviews elsewhere, why would people visit my blog at all? So I ask of you, my fellow book bloggers, why do you crosspost your reviews? What is the purpose?

Mini Challenge 3: Setting up Future review posts.

This is such a useful feature that I started to use already since I became a book blogger. I often use this to schedule reviews from ARCs I received and I need to review close to the publish date. That way I can still post my thoughts when they are fresh in my head :) I also use it to schedule posts for weekly memes when I am out of the house that day :) In fact, the reviews that I did write for this review-a-thon are schedules ahead of time as well.

Mini Challenge 4: Updating review lists. 

I am actually quite on top of my game on this one. It was a huge task when I had to set this up. I know that falling behind on this one, is only more work in the end, so I try to update this list directly after I post a new review. Sometimes one slips through because I scheduled the post beforehand and I aren't actually behind my PC when the review goes up. I tend to be forgetful, but usually I notice when writing my next review.

Well this is it for now :) I might get to the other challenges, but if I do I will edit this page, or maybe post a new post tomorrow. For now, let's see if I can get those other reviews done!

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