Top Ten Tuesday: The Top Ten Things That Make My Life as a Blogger Easier/Better

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created and hosted by The Broke and The Bookish 

Today's Topic: The Top Ten Things That Make My Life as a Blogger Easier/Better: 

1. My Library!! Without my library, I would go broke trying to read everything that I blog about. The Library not only keeps a roof over my head...but it also keeps me in new reading material! LOVE the Library.  

2. Shelfari - This is how I keep track of everything that I read.  It helps me remember which titles I haven't posted reviews for yet, and which titles I can't wait to read.

3. Rafflecopter -  This is what I use now to have contests on my blog. It makes things WAY easier, posts the final winner, and can be customized every time... for free!

4. Bloglovin - I changed over to this site when Google Reader was discontinued.  This allows me to read all the posts for the blogs that I follow in one spot. It makes it easy to see what other people are blogging about and to stay connected to the community!

5. Amazon/Goodreads - I use either one of these to easily grab the official synopsis for books that I blog about.  I don't take the time to write my own descriptions (though I admire that my friend Jen at YABooknerd does!) honestly, just because I'd rather focus on what my reaction to the book was when I'm posting. I'm trying to remember to switch over to Goodreads totally, but most of the time I forget.

6. Vine - If I want to post a video of a book display at work, I use vine to make it.  It's super easy on my iphone and then I can link it to FB or twitter or wherever to spread the video! Easy peasy.

7. Blogger - I'm basically lazy and don't want to have to learn how to code to make my blog awesome and unique, so...for now, blogger's easy template interface makes my life exactly how I want it. Stress-free in the posting zone.

8. Living in CT - There are times that living in the Northeast makes things very, very convenient.  For example, I have been able to go to Book Expo America for the last few years because it's been held in NYC and I'm close enough to go in for the day.  I also live about an hour away from a great indie bookstore called RJ Julia's that gets to host a lot of really great authors that come in to NYC for events and such...

9. My slight tendency towards OCD... (this is sort of tongue-in-cheek, but not really...) No, really. If it weren't for the crazy way that my brain makes me organize certain things, I don't think I'd be able to keep up with blogging. I still have trouble sometimes, especially if I agree to review an ecopy of something and can't *see* it all of the time, BUT with different stacks of books put in a certain order the same way every time I know which books I have to read and when... plus I now have a massive google calendar that I can use on my phone that helps me track all the commitments I make. 

10. My blogging friends in the larger YA community online.  Those times when I forget why I started my blog, or feel like maybe I don't want to keep it up...it's great to have people to chat with, commiserate with, and compare notes. There are times when the online world feels incredibly huge and then there are times when it feels nice and cozy, like everyone knows everyone else.  I like that. 

So, that's that for this week!