I wish it wasn’t as hard to keep up with each other as adults. Do you ever feel friendships become more difficult to maintain as we grow into adults?
After so many cancellations, I caught up with some of my friends yesterday and I can’t believe how three hours just flew away. We discussed from the disaster that Game of Thrones’ last season to what we will be doing for the next year’s literature festival.
Of course we dissected each other’s current reads and shared more recommendations – you know just bookworm things!
Anyway here is another interesting conversations I had with fellow bloggers last week about wordpress followers. You know I have been blogging for quite a while here right? But you will be shocked to know my follower count. It is so few I don’t even wanna mention it. Yes, I am not thrilled, but the others were shocked! Yes it is that low.
So help me understand how to gain more followers on WordPress. And if you had not hit the follow button on my blog yet, do it right away.
I always return them and as you know I am sincere at leaving comments on other blogs.
What I read this week
This week has been a mess of sorts in terms of my reading. I have three books that I have left halfway and completed just one of them, that a children classic. Now I need to figure it out before it turns out into a reading slump, right?
I am currently reading
Queenie
The Mystery of the Blue Train
The Unhoneymooners
I finished reading Charlotte’s web by E. B. White. Can you believe I have never even heard of this book until it was chosen to be the BOTM of the ClassicsNChristie book club?
What I watched this week
Is it just me or Big Little Lies was not all that great? I mean I enjoyed watching it but I never felt invested in any of the characters and felt utterly annoyed at every single one of them. While, I agree their acting was brilliant but I guess ‘meh’ to everything else about it.
I watched Murder Mystery with Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler and I really liked. Cheesy dialogues, a cliched Christie-sque set up and murders to solve – I mean, what is not to like!
I also caught up on a few episodes of Good girls season two and that, I truly loved and felt invested in. I might binge the rest this week. Have you watched it?
My mind blew its top as I read Kelly’s post on Does engagement equal success as a blogger? I am sure you will enjoy her perspective on successful blogging.
Do you pick books marketed as the next Harry Potter or Gone girl? Marija’s post on how important book marketing is on Inside my library mind opens a discussion on this topic.
Time for another tag but this time it is a non bookish one. I had Renee add me on this Why I am weird tag and I realized it was finally an opportunity to talk about myself again. So are you ready for this?
List ten weird things about yourself, your life or silly habits that you wouldn’t normally share.
Tag up to ten people so you can get to know them better.
Link back to the person who tagged you & the creator
Comment on the posts of people you tagged!
Lets do this
I am terrified of cats and sometimes, even have nightmares about them.
I think I might be scared of rabbits, too. But I have not seen one in real life, so I am not sure.
I totally depend on a to do list to function. If it is not in one of the many lists, I may not be doing it, ever.
Unsurprisingly, I love spreadsheets. If there is a way to do something with spreadsheet, I am already on it. Everything from my TBR list to plans for guest posts is on some spreadsheet.
People easily peg all bookworms to be introverts and it is a stereotype. I. for one, am an extrovert. I need human interactions at least online on a daily basis to keep my spirits alive.
There has been a while in my life that I had completely stopped reading books. Blame it on the pressure of dual degrees I was pursuing or the circle I was in then. I cannot believe how I even survived those two years without reading for fun.
My sun sign is Aries and I think I live true to its name. I am easily distracted, commitment phobic and love being the center of attention.
Lately, I have gotten in bad habit of using way too many exclamatory marks (!). I don’t even know if I use them correctly anymore.
I love playing the devil’s advocate, which is a very convenient excuse for my overthinking brain.
If it is not yet apparent, I love making lists and talking about myself. So yeah I enjoyed making this list and can make a longer one even.
So I tag:
Everyone who wants to do this tag and their best friend.
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Let’s chat
Do you think I am weird enough? Do you have an eccentric thing about you? Have you done this tag? Tag me when you do. And as always, let us talk.
Do you ever feel intimidated by all the blogging terms around the internet? Have you ever tried to follow a blogging tutorial to attempt to make your blog more awesome than it already is, but then gave up because it got too technical?
Trust me, I have shut more than one article just because of that. Like I don’t have time to learn all that! I just want to know what to do make my blog better without having to get a PhD on blogging. Are you with me or is it just me?
If you are like me, your girl is here to save your butt. I put together a glossary for all those pesky blogging terms so that you don’t have to search anymore. And it is beginner friendly, so fret not.
[toc]
SEO or Search Engine Optimization
As the name suggests, SEO techniques help the search engine AKA Google (or whatever you are using) to find our website.
Do you often go to the second page of results on Google? I guess not. It is essential for us to rank higher on the SERP. The higher our page shows up in the search results page, better chances of a visitor clicking it.
To put it simply, Keyword(s) is what you type on Google when you are looking for something online. If we type a bunch of words, then it is called the keyphrases (since it is a bunch of keywords).
When you look at it from the other side as a blogger, when I am writing an article on the topic 8 Common grammar mistakes to avoid while writing, I have to make sure I sprinkle the keyword “Common grammar mistakes in writing” a few times.
This will help Google know what am talking about, and to show the page to someone who is looking for it.
Alternative text/tag/attribute
Alternative text describes when the image does not get loaded or is not visible. Screen readers usually read out these Alt texts, thus helping a visually impaired reader understand the image better.
Not only that search engines also use these texts to index the images in your post better and improves your SEO. So do not shy away from adding them to your images!
If you are posting an article on the topic8 Common grammar mistakes to avoid while writingwith relevant images, all you have to do is add descriptive text to those images in the alt tags. Here I used ‘Blogging terms to know – Keyword’. Pretty simple isn’t it?
Meta Description
Meta description is a short preview or snippet of what your post is about. These two lines are what Google shows you at the first glance before you click a link to a site.
They are also relevant for the search engines because meta elements (like meta descriptions) provide the administrative details about the author, description, date of publishing related to every post.
When you do not provide with a meta description, the search engines usually pick the first lines as the default settings, which may or not be an accurate description. So make sure your meta description is brief and straight to the point, even if your first few lines are not.
Take a look at my meta description for my review on A very large expanse of sea!
Backlinks
Backlinks refers to incoming links from other sites or blogs. For example when a blogger links to your post in their blog it is called a backlink.
Though it is not considered as important as it was once, backlinks still are important for a blog for the search engines to consider it important.
While permalink and slug are not the same, they are very similar in this context.
Permalink refers to the URL of your post in your website. Slug is a part of the permalink and it comes after your domain.
I promise I will write more on SEO and other blogging related stuff focusing on new bloggers. But you will have to wait for that. Until then you can take a look at these related posts.
Also if you have any questions or issues related to blogging you want me to address, feel free to leave a comment or contact me through social media.
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Let’s chat
Do blogging terms and techniques intimidate you? Do you follow any of such tips and tricks on your blog? Is there something specific you want me address in this series? Let us talk.
What is the most recent that made you stay up all night reading it? Quite a few books have done that to me currently, and I am totally loving that. And The Hating Game by Sally Thorne is the latest book on that list. I know everyone on the blogosphere and their brother is loving this one and read on to know how that turned out for me.
When two publishing houses that are entirely contrasting on their values merge their empolyees are forced to work together. Lucy Hutton despises Joshua Templeman and she is sure he is out to get her, just waiting for her slip up.
Things worsen when they set to compete against each other for a new post. While Lucy is well liked by the coworkers, even a pushover sometimes, Josh is feared and respected for his no nonsense attitude. Who would win the war and at what cost forms the rest of the story in The Hating Game.
Book review of The Hating Game
The Hating Game is a classic ‘hate to love’ story with fully etched characters that everyone will want to root for. In fact everyone I know loved this book and let me be honest, my reactions were lukewarm at the best. How many times does one have to read about how short she was and how athletic his body was before one can roll their eyes?
Do not get me wrong, The Hating Game has everything needed for a romance novel – sassy females, hot guy, witty dialogues and a lot of angst and frustration, all of which I totally enjoyed and liked. But at some point, Lucy started annoying me with her choices and assumptions.
Things that worked for me
I loved the writing filled with witty banter between Lucy and Josh.
I am always game for a book set in the publishing world (though it was not of any consequence here)
Things that didn’t work for me
I like the ‘hate to love’ trope but The Hating Game left me wishing for more ‘hatred’. It was more of misunderstanding between them or being irksome rather than hatred.
I wish Lucy had a bit more to her than – work and ‘hating Josh’. She literally has no friends and has been avoiding visiting her parents.
Bottom-line
If you are in the mood for an unoriginal romance that involves hate to love trope, you should pick The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. I didn’t love it, but you might.
Have you read The Hating Game by Sally Thorne? Did you love it? Do you like the hate to love trope? What was the book that kept you up all night recently? Let us talk.
Hello to everyone who is enjoying their summer while I am not. Yes spring is long gone and it is an early summer around here at Dubai. And before you ask, yes I am gonna keep complaining about the heat till it is autumn and the temperature falls – bear with it!
Anyway we went on a short vacation last during the week long holidays for Eid celebrations. We traveled to Musandam which is part of Oman but still physically surrounded by the UAE and just about three hours drive from Dubai.
While the current temperature at Musandam was almost similar to Dubai, I loved relaxing pool side and having room service delivering the food. We also took a dhow (boat) ride for snorkeling in the middle of the sea and watched the dolphins play around in their natural habitat.
Of course I clicked so many photos that my iPhone started giving out the memory warnings. I have been sharing them on my Instagram, which you should be following already.
What I read this week
After a great reading month, I hope I don’t crash with a reading slump in June. But a buddy reading kept me going.
I didn’t watch much TV this week, due to the holidays and the trip.
I have started watching a Spanish mystery thriller Alta Mar or High seas, which seems like a Christie thriller, on Netflix. Needless to say, I am enjoying it.
On my blog
I am gonna blame it on the holidays and the holidays induced coma that I had not posted as much on my blog. Here is a quick look at what is happening on my blog
Twitter is great for bookworms, but it also doesn’t lack some drama. Read about the latest drama about YA authors defending shipping problematic relationships on Your Tita Kate’s post.
I loved Britt’s post on Is blogging really dead? on Alternatively Speaking discussing how blogging has changed over the years.
I found this hilarious guide on finding the perfect book on Starry Sky Books and I am sure you will love it as well.
