Week 1: My take away from the first week of the course surrounds building and maintaining my audience. Most important to me is building an audience of dedicated fans rather than building a large audience.

Week 2: The benefit of sitting down and actually producing my business canvas became very apparent this week. It really helped me hone exactly what I am providing for my audience and the value they gain from that knowledge.

Week 3: I began this week to look at my website’s name ClaryNathanWill as a brand, as the brand of everything I do online. There is power in my name and what it represents.

Week 4: I found it very valuable when we discussed creating a style guide for my brand. This past month I took this to heart and honed a style guide for my posts. I have it organized down to which sections are which heading style and which sections have a certain background colour. This uniformity is really pleasing to me.

Week 5: The line that stuck out to me that lecture was one pertaining to writing an effective business canvas, “value propositions should answer the question why.” In my second business canvas, I mentioned specifically the why behind what I am providing. As an example, that I provide resource style posts in order to bring new readers into the know and make them dedicated readers.

Week 6: This week centered on storytelling and the power of it. It really made me look at my own story and why I am running this book blog. It caused me to grapple with my past as a reader and the future I want to build as a leader in the community.

Week 7: SEO! I knew absolutely nothing about SEO, so I was so grateful for all the information I took in that week. I applied the advice in how I structure my posts, through changing up the variety of paragraph styles and using headings that I was not using before.

Week 8: The discussion that week that surrounded the differences between content marketing, editorial, and advertising. These discussions were important for me as I took away advice on how to label my content, and to confirm that what I write is in fact sponsored content.

Week 9: This week brought great resources that I made use of over the course of the semester such as Giphy, Biteable, and Hemingway. This week will always be one I go back to in the future for the resources I was provided with.

Week 10: This week we looked at monetization and our look at it actually steered me even further away from considering it on my blog. The use of the barter system is what works for me right now, and is what will work for me for at least the next six to twelve months. I get free books that I want to read early, and in exchange I write an honest review.

Week 11: This week we did examine a business website in full detail, and through this process I was reminded about double checking that all my images and links work. A broken link or a picture that will not show up is annoying, but in some cases your audience could be led to something you do not want to be reflecting your brand.

This course has been so rewarding, as it has made my blog stronger and has infused me with a passion to continue to grow and strengthen the audience I am building into my imagined community.

The post Process Post Week 12: Takeaways from Pub 201 appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

Here is my score…

I am pretty happy with a B+ for my SEO as I have only begun to strive to consider how good my SEO as I develop and grow my site.

Some of the sites recommendations are…

I had no idea that my heading tags are actually too short, such as About Me, Subscribe, and Contact Me. I want to do further research around just how long these headings should be. If I do decide to change them, I will make them more conversational. Similar to changes I made in my actual posts where the subheadings are now in phrase form.

iFrame content is the biteable video I created as a part of the assignment to explain my brand narrative without visuals. The format of the video does not lend itself nicely to my homepage, so I have debated removing it many times. This has convinced me to do so.

My tagline “Avid NA Reader Turned Avid NA Reviewer” is also too short according to this SEO Analyzer. I was under the impression that taglines should be on the shorter side, but I will admit to never being happy with my tagline so I am looking at alternatives and are debating changing it.

I am aware that many images on my blog are missing descriptive alt tags. I plan to do an overall site maintenance soon in which I add these descriptive alt tags and double check that none of my images are broken.

Using SEO Analyzer was very helpful as it brought to my attention problems I had not even identified as problems yet.

The post Process Post Week 11: SEO Analyzer appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I fear advertising on my blog would chase away my audience for a few reasons.

1. Ads would distract from my content
2. Ads would not always benefit my content
3. Other NA book blogs also refrain from traditional digital advertising

Ads would distract from my content as they would steal away someone’s attention, maybe someone would even click on the ad bringing them away from my website entirely.

Ads would not benefit my content as the even with all the controls google provides, there is no guarantee that every ad I get on my site actually mirrors what my audience would be interested in. Worse case scenario the ads depict practices or products I staunchly disagree with.

Other NA book blogs also refrain from traditional digital advertising, and this was the largest factor in my choice to not advertise on my blog. NA book bloggers are sent ARCs and in exchange for them we provide honest reviews, this barter interaction provides me with a sort of revenue.

For these reasons I am not going to consider placing advertisements on my website.

The post Process Post Week 10: Monetization appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I chose to look at using Biteable. I have already made a traditional infographic back in Publishing 101, so Biteable represented a chance to expand upon what I previously learned.

Biteable allows for you to pinpoint what you are promoting within your brand, and then they suggest video templates for you to edit. I selected that I was explaining a concept from my brand, and I was given a template that I really liked. Biteable was easy to use and provided me with a quality video that explains where I am coming from and why I started my brand.

Check out the video below…

Background to ClaryNathanWill on Biteable.

The post Process Post Week 9: Creating a Brand Narrative appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

Since I started my blog I have mentioned at the beginning of every post where I got any graphics, teasers, and advance reader copies from. I did this based on other book reviewers I have encountered, as they will always mention if and when they receive an early copy for review. I saw this practice being used on other blogs, on Goodreads reviews, and in the descriptions of YouTube video reviews.

As someone who read reviews for years before delving into reviewing myself, I already was aware of the importance and being straightforward when you are reviewing an advance reader copy. I can remember when reviewers would get in trouble for not crediting the fact that they received an advance reader company. Not only that but it can discredit you, your opinions look bought if you do not address that your content is sponsored and that recieving the book for free in no way effected the reviw.

The post Process Post Week 8: Examining How I Address Sponsored Posts appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I had not been using headers, nor had I thought to use headers in a sentence like format. So now as you read my latest reviews you can easily identify where my bullet point thoughts start, where you can get the purchase links, and where you can follow the author online. I made sure to format these subheadings into sentences.

My titles are already very specific to my content. I always include the author, the title, and what the post is doing. So when I write a review of an advance reader copy, I make sure to say in the title that it is an ARC Review. These are my keywords and I always repeat them in the opening line of my posts when I thank the PR company and author for the book they provided to me.

I have been breaking up my content since I started blogging. I found it useful to break my reviews down into bullet points (characters, setting, pacing, and romance) of what I deem important in a story. I also try to include a reasonable number of visuals to accompany the text heaviness of review writing. I am glad to hear these techniques are good for my search engine optimization and naturally I will continue to use them.

The post Process Post Week 7: Changes to Address SEO appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I have always been the type of reader who is mocked repeatedly for what they choose to read. Back in Elementary School I loved Twilight with a passion and was made fun of by other kids constantly for it. Throughout High School, I struggled to be open and honest about what I was reading due to being scorned in the past and the animosity in some online circles towards those reading Young Adult Literature, at the time. Then I discovered content creators on YouTube who were talking about Young Adult literature and about how much they loved it! I had discovered BookTube, and it changed my life. I began to no longer feel lesser than for what I choose to read, and some BookTubers were recommending New Adult literature. My first New Adult reads were books by Jennifer L. Armentrout and Colleen Hoover, and since then I have been hooked.

New Adult Literature as a genre is stereotyped as cheesy romance novels, bodice rippers, and is constantly overpowered by the genre’s most well-known book, Fifty Shades of Grey. Over the years I have come to terms with the fact that these are novels written by women, about women, for women. That reading these books helps me, it teaches me life lessons and how to emphasize with a variety of situations. From Tamara Webber’s Easy, which portrays the solidarity of women in the face of sexual assault, to Krista and Becca Ritchie‘s Addicted Series, which allows for the reader to gain a deeper understanding of how different addictions affect people and their family, and all the books in between the reader gains a more empathetic look on life.

After my tastes shifted away from BookTube, I found the places for New Adult readers. The blogosphere is where New Adult readers live and flourish. It is within Facebook Groups that New Adult readers all over the world gush about their favourite books daily, without fear of mockery or judgment. It breaks my heart every time I read in these groups about the readers who have to keep their reading habits a secret from their friends, or the authors who write under pseudonyms to avoid having family find out what they write about.

This brings me to why I started ClaryNathanWill. The majority of the world judges and stigmatizes the average lover of New Adult literature, so ClaryNathanWill is set up to be devoid of judgement and stigma. On ClaryNathanWill you can read what you want to and will never be mocked for it. Rather, ClaryNathanWill is instead a resource to you, offering reviews and recommendations. Along with offering a place of safety and security for any reader to express their thoughts. ClaryNathanWill is your opportunity to scream and shout from the rooftops about what you love to read, with no one permitted to drag you down.

In other exciting news, I had my very first email from an author looking to me specifically for a review. I was astounded by this and am eternally grateful to the author who reached out.

The post Process Post Week 6: Creating a Corporate Backstory and More Exciting News appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I am now signed up with Foreword PR and Marketing. This PR company was brought to my attention through signing up to be apart of the launch for Fiona Coles’ new release this spring. I am excited to be working with another PR company, in order to gain even more opportunities for review.

Now in terms of the partner, I may lose… Amazon Associates. I have ninety days officially to generate sales from my affiliate links. According to my Amazon Associates page, my links are being clicked on, what is not happening is the purchasing. Naturally, Amazon will revoke my affiliate link privileges if I am unable to generate sales for them.

I am not distraught over the threat of losing my affiliate links. I tried out affiliate links as a means of monetization for my blog, that was not banner advertisements. I gain value for the ARCs I receive anyways, I never intended to profit monetarily off of book blogging.

The post Process Post Week 5: A New Key Partner In and An Old One Out (Almost) appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I chose to screen record my blog to show off everything I discussed in the audio recording. I was able to perfectly time scrolling through my reviews while saying the names of the authors out loud. I recorded the audio in Garageband on an external microphone to ensure for the best audio quality possible.

For the content of the video I focused on what new adult literature is (for those new to the genre who discover my blog), the authors I have reviewed, and the special segments I do (Are You New to NA? and Author Spotlight).

I chose to add my promotional video to my homepage by including it in the right side bar at the very top. This makes the video accessible without having it be an annoying pop up or having it be a pinned post. I would rather have my newest content at the top as that is what always does best in any given week according to my analytics.

This process got me to really hone in on what I am building here and how to present that to others.

The post Process Post Week 4: Behind the Scenes of my Promotional Video appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.

I first examined the logos of other similar brands to mine. I went right to one of my biggest inspirations: Aestas Book Blog. Aestas is known across the NA book blogging community by her name primarily. If she is known for any specific visual it would be her social media profile picture:

On her website she does have her blog name stylized at the top:

The profile picture is very recognizable to as I discovered her blog via Goodreads so naturally, I associated her with her Goodreads profile picture. I would not stay that she has a logo though. Her name is what is truly what distinguishes her.

I specifically named this blog: ClaryNathanWill because that is my social media brand. I have had that screenname/handle since I started having social media accounts. If you were to google “ClaryNathanWill” you will find everything connected to me online. I love the uniformity of my name across platforms, that I am easy to find. Naturally I wanted to own clarynathanwill.com because that is me, that is my online self, and that is my brand.

I am known online by my name, not an image, not a logo. That is okay because I have built this uniformity and association with the name ClaryNathanWill. A brand is so much more than a logo, for me my brand is encapsulated in my name.

The post Process Post Week 3: To Logo or not to Logo? appeared first on ClaryNathanWill.