Happy Saturday Lovelies!!
Can you believe it is the last Saturday of the month already?? We had the first day of Fall (not in AZ, haha). September has flown by! I hope it was great for all of you! Let’s talk a little today about what I did this past month.
Life Updates:
My husband and I saw Epica and Lacuna Coil in concert a week ago! Three days ago we saw Depeche Mode in concert with my mom, and yesterday was my birthday and my announcement of my big giveaway!
I am enjoying being an Independent Distributor for Nu Skin Products! My teeth have never been whiter! My eyelashes look longer and fuller, and my face feels fantastic every time I use our mud mask. Here in Arizona we have hard city water which dries out my skin and causes it to itch like crazy! Lately I have been using our Body Cleansing Gel and I have had so much relief from switching to it. I am in love with all the products I have tried that I sell with this company and have started reviewing them on my beauty portion of my blog!
Also wanted to point out that some of our amazing products have been featured in Elle and Cosmopolitan magazine over the past few years!
Our amazing Curl and Lash Mascara has been featured too, but I couldn’t not find the picture.
Blog Updates:
So, each Saturday I will be doing beauty reviews. It will be a mix of hot beauty products in the market that I own, and products that I sell as an Independent Nu Skin Distributor. I have always loved makeup and bath and beauty products! I was the little girl that could put lipstick on perfectly without a mirror, lol!
Each time I review a product that I sell, I will provide a link to my distributor site. I am also able to take orders and ship my on hand products directly to you, sooner, for a lower shipping cost, so don’t hesitate to ask about a product you are interested in!
For the past few months I have had a pretty great schedule going. I do tags on Mondays, reviews and author interviews and spotlights Tuesdays though Thursdays, and Awards on Fridays. Saturdays are now my beauty review days, except for the last Saturday of each month, and the first Monday of each month is devoted to the Calendar Girls Book Post. I have recently decided that I would like to slow down on posting about awards and eventually stop and let other bloggers have the opportunity to keep receiving them! I absolutely adore them but would like to add something else to my blog in their place.
I am also going to be adding a day each week (maybe Friday) where I review each installation in the Timeless Fairy Tales series by K.M. Shea. Once through all of those I would add another fairy tale anthology or series.
Blog Talk:
Let’s talk about affiliate links. Do you use them? How do you feel about them? Would you buy from them?
I have been considering signing up for several affiliate link programs lately. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository. Affiliate links are secure links through the retailer website that give a commission percentage to affiliates from sales made from their links. Affiliate links are similar to monetizing ads with the upgraded version of WordPress. Sometimes these things help bring in a little extra money.
As a full time book blogger and housewife, I am always looking to see what I can do that will help with expenses. We currently have one car and I am working on health issues at the moment, so I am not working. I enjoy reading and reviewing and would never dream of trying to charge for it (like I have seen some bloggers start doing) because it is a hobby and it is my way of supporting hard working authors. Affiliate links seem like they would be a great option to bring in a little extra money but also be able to provide purchasing resources for those who read a review of mine and want to go after the book right away.
So, what are your thoughts? If you have used the, are they worth it? If you knew a blogger used them would you steer clear?
I’ve created an anonymous survey for you all to fill out that I will be sharing with a few other bloggers who are using the affiliate links.
Affiliate Links Survey
How many book reviews do you like seeing when you view another blogger’s site? Do you like following blogs that keep up with the latest trends like memes, aesthetic boards, and reading challenges?
I have seen several bloggers state that they receive more blog views and discussion when they limit to 1-2 reviews a day and the rest tags and discussions. What do you think? Would you all like to see more discussion posts? What would you like to discuss?
Would you like to see me add a meme to my weekly schedule? Which one?
Do you like one post a day? Multiple posts?
Reading Updates:
These are all the book I read for the month of September. Most of the reviews are up on my blog and Good Reads, and several of the reviews are scheduled for later.
First Came Forever was my favorite YA/Romance/Contemporary read for the month! It is also included in my giveaway!
Search for Maylee was my favorite thriller of the year! Blog tour post coming soon! So excited!
The Punch Escrow was my favorite Hard Science Fiction novel of the year!
No Vain Loss, and the entire No Ordinary Star trilogy, was my favorite YA/Science Fiction story for the year! ❤
What did you read this month? What was your favorite?
Thanks for reading and chatting with me today! I look forward to some fun discussion in the comment! ❤
Have a great weekend! ❤
Darque Dreamer
Blogger/ Punk Rocker / Quirky Housewife
Whoop; Epica and Lacuna Coil!! I saw Papa Roach just yesterday and again tomorrow; looking forward to it so much. [Hi weekend-long adrenalin-rush]
And happy belated birthday, haha. Hope you enjoyed it!
I don’t really care much about the affiliate links; honestly, it rarely happens that I’d go and buy a book immediately after reading something about it. I’m more of a “Let’s add to goodreads and see what I can buy off that list at some point”-kind of person.
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It was an amazing concert! I remember listening to Papa Roach in high school, lol!
Thank you so much!
And thanks for the feedback. I am usually an add and buy later person too, so it helps to know if more people are that way.
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I’ve been listening to them for over ten years; it never gets old, haha.
You’re welcome!
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Wait, wait…….did I know you lived in Arizona?? We just moved from the Phoenix area in August!!
I used to listen to Lacuna Coil all the time! What a voice!!
Have a great weekend!!
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We moved to AZ almost a year ago. I don’t mention it often. I’m afraid I would always complain about the heat if I did, lol.
Lacuna Coil is so amazing! I saw them in 2003 and I have always thought it was so amazing that such a powerful voice could come out of a tiny body!! Lol.
I hope you have a great weekend too!
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Hahaha why do you think we left? Five long years in that hole in the ground!! Enough!! We lived in Chandler……
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Ugh!! So HOT!! Lol. I miss snow!
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Interesting questions! Affiliate links don’t bother me, but I have never used one, partially because I buy few books in the first place (yay, library!) and partially because I don’t really read reviews and then immediately buy a book. My book-buying is more planned.
I like a mix of reviews and discussions. I don’t read a lot of tags or memes, to be honest.
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Thanks for the feedback! I wish we had a better local library. It is pretty sad. I am usually the same way where I plan my book buys.
I like a few of the memes, but I feel like I see the same ones so often that they get old.
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I’m excited to see your thoughts on Before I Fall!
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🙂
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Oh Lacuna Coil would have been amazing! She’s got such a great voice!
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I saw them in 2003 with In This Moment and Within Temptation and again 2 years ago with Halestorm. They never cease to amaze me! She has such a powerful voice!
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My hubby saw them a few times and said they were amazing. Both times I couldn’t be there unfortunately 🙁
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Hopefully you will see them one day!
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Sorry, I don’t ever use affiliate links! It’s purely a security thing and I never click on links to anything except Goodreads. If I want to buy a book I go direct to Amazon. TBH I don’t mind how many reviews or memes or tags a blogger posts as it is their blog and whatever suits them is ok by me. I personally like Top Ten Tuesday and Can’t Wait Wednesday, I enjoy discussion posts, tags, award posts, book and film reviews. I generally don’t look at blog tour posts, reviews in genres I don’t like, beauty and fashion, giveaways, music, celebrity gossip. I post two or three posts a day so I’m ok with whatever number of posts a blogger wants to do in a day or a week.
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Thanks for your feedback on the affiliate links.
It seems like those two memes are the most popular so far.
Do you look at blog tour posts if they contain reviews? I had someone else mention they don’t care for the blog tours either. Just wondering if knowing it contains an honest review sways you at all.
I definitely hate celebrity gossip!
I’m still trying to decided if I want to stick to the one post a day thing or not. I see some people post multiple a day but have always wondered if others think its too much.
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wow, you had a great reading month in september! 🙂
i usually don’t use affiliate links, because i do not order that much online. but if that were the case i would definitely support my friends 🙂 (i did the survey, too)
as for the schedule. i really don’t care. the most important thing for me is that the blogger has fun doing, what he or she is doing. just go with what you feel good and your readers will read it anyways. 🙂 i love all you posts and i will read all of them, doesn’t matter what post it is 🙂 ❤
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Thanks so much for the feedback and support! ❤ You are so awesome! It is looking like the affiliate links may not be as successful as I would like.
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i guess that many people don’t know what they are…
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Could be. I think some might be worried about security, which is totally understandable.
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yes, totally!
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