One of the most important things about the book blogging community is that it’s a COMMUNITY. There are all kinds of ways to support one another out here, and sometimes, the thought of doing so can be overwhelming. After all, most of us only have so much time and money, and if you throw in factors of mental health, there’s only so many spoons to go around before we can’t do more without stepping away to recharge.
But there’s still plenty of ways to support the bloggers you love, whether you’re a blogger yourself or just a reader, and I’ve compiled a list today to take out some of the time and stress of figuring out what the best way to show your love and support is.
Free Options
There’s more of these than you might think! If you’ve got just a few spare minutes, these are ways you can support bloggers without spending a dime.
Word of Mouth
The absolute best form of advertising, word of mouth is nothing to laugh at. If you like something, tell people about it, especially people who like the same things you do! I’m sure you’ve told your bookish friends “oh hey, this book is great, I think you’d like it!” before, and I’d bet more than once, the answer has been “oh cool, I’ll see if I can read it soon!”
The same principle can absolutely work for blogs. If you like a blog, tell your friends about it. Tell your followers. Tell anyone you think might like the content you’re talking about, because a personal recommendation carries a hell of a lot of power, and that recommendation may bring a blogger a new reader. Better yet, in some cases, who knows! Maybe it can also bring a new friend!
Share Their Posts
Similar to word of mouth, though perhaps a little less personalized, sharing posts is a great way to show support for a blogger. Whether you’re retweeting one of their posts, or tweeting a fresh link to it and tagging them, you’re telling your audience that they should give it a look-see if they have the chance! A wider audience can be a great thing, especially for smaller bloggers who are looking to grow.
Comment, Like, and View Their Posts
I mean, hopefully you’re already doing this if you like what a blogger is posting, but this is a great way to say “hey, I like your content!” The numbers aren’t the most important thing about blogging, but speaking from experience, it does feel pretty good when they go up. It shows people are engaging with what we’re doing, and that our content is wanted. Feeling wanted feels pretty damn good.
Also (and someone please correct me if I’m wrong!), try to actually view the post on someone’s blog, not just in the WordPress reader! If I’m not mistaken, a view from the reader doesn’t actually register as a view, while views made from the blogger’s actual site do make that little view number tick up.
Work Together
Especially true for supporting fellow bloggers, connect with each other! You can do a buddy read together, or maybe you can have them guest post on your blog (or you guest post on theirs). It’s a great way to make friends in the community, and to share that the person you’re working with is pretty darn nifty!
Nominate Them
If there are blogger awards circulating, whether it’s based on tags and pingbacks, or its an organized affair, nominate the bloggers you really like for categories they fit into! One of the best awards I can think of is the series hosted by May @ Forever and Everly, but tags like the Sunshine Blogger Award or Liebster Award also count. They’re awesome ways of showing a blogger that you appreciate their hard work, especially because they can see you appreciated your hard work. You nominated them, after all!
Paid Options
If you have a little extra money to spend, there are other ways to show bloggers your support. Obviously, this isn’t an option for everyone (I myself can’t commit to monetary support right now because of my work vs bills situation), but if you can do it, there are quite a few ways you can put your money towards supporting bloggers.
Buy Them A Coffee Through Ko-Fi
Lots of bloggers have a Ko-Fi, which allows folks who donate to them to donate $3 at a time. Lots of bloggers use this to support costs of self-hosted sites, supplement their income so they can have the time to keep blogging, buy new books, and more.
Become a Patron via Patreon
In a similar vein, you can become a blogger’s patron through Patreon! With different tiers of monthly patronage (often starting as low as $1-$2), not only do you make sure the blogger you’re supporting has a little extra money coming in every month, but you also get something in return! Some bloggers provide early access to their posts, run polls, or share exclusive stories, but there’s all kinds of things offered through Patreon, all of them dependent on the individual blogger.
Buy Something From Etsy
Last week, I wrote a whole post on the fun bookish merch you can find online, with some links to small creators. This is a great way to support bloggers who are the arts and crafts type as well, since it helps pay for crafting costs and generally puts a little bit of the profit back in their pocket.
Commission Them
Plenty of bloggers are artists or writers, and you can also pay them to create for you! Whether you’re paying them to draw a scene you love from that one book, or you’re sending money their way in exchange for copyediting your short story, or literally any other thing that can be done on a commission basis, this gives the blogger you’re supporting money, experience in their commission field, and a wider audience when you credit them on the finished product. Plus, you get that finished project. Good deal!
Send Them Gifts
I’ll admit that I have a lot of problems with Amazon, but that doesn’t change the fact that many bloggers have an Amazon wishlist that allows you to buy something for them without them ever having to share their address. It preserves their privacy, and gives them a new book, which is pretty much book blogger heaven.
Of course, if the blogger you want to send a gift to is willing to share their address because you’re friends, you don’t have to use Amazon (yay!), but that’s always up to the person who’d be giving out their mailing address.
The bottom line here is that sending a gift like a new book or maybe bookish merch, especially if it comes with a quick supportive note, can be a nice way to share the love.
As you can see, there’s all kinds of ways to give the bloggers you love a supportive boost, even if you don’t have money to spare (or don’t necessarily want to commit to anything paid right now). Most of these ways are pretty easy, too, which is always nice!
So go forth, support some bloggers, and rest easy knowing that it’s really not too hard!
This is such a great list of ways to support our favorite bloggers & creators! I think a lot of time people get wrapped up in the “I can’t afford to pay you” aspect, but really, likes/comments/shares & friendship are all this girl needs!
You’re correct! If the post is viewed in the reader (not clicked through to their blog post from the reader) the view won’t register. This is where the WP Reader referrals come from.
Yeah!! Money is only one way of many to show support, and folks seem to forget that a lot. Hopefully this works as a reminder for a lot of people that whoa! There are options!
Okay, cool, that’s what I thought! Glad to have that confirmed. 😁
This is such a lovely post Meaghan, and a great reminder to all!! I try not to read anything on the reader, and have email notifications set up for each time someone posts. It often makes my emails look out of control if I don’t get to them daily, but it also means that I don’t miss out when someone posts (because I leave all the emails there and unread until I get to them)!!
Maybe we should start linking our wishlists on our blogs too?! 😅
That’s a good way to do it! I like posts to read later, and then go through and do the full click through when I actually have time. Either way we do it, it works!
Maybe! I know lots of folks do it as part of their pinned tweet on Twitter. Usually they have a thread with an about, where to find me, and a how to support me set of tweets.