Event: Busting the Newbie Blues

Small Review has a great event to help out the new bloggers and give them a chance to promote themselves as well. The event runs til Dec.31st so if you still want to check it out, you have time. There are two set of questions which can be found here, one of the newbies and one for the "prof". I strongly believe we are exactly in the middle so i will answer both sets ( it's 3 days now i struggle to decide which one to do, so....). Hope you find it useful and enjoy it.

Many questions are the same at both sets so beware! XD

New Blogger:

When did you start your blog? 
August 16th, 2010. That makes about 4 months right?
Why did you start your blog?
I love reading and watching and i love more to discuss about them. So here i am! Of course i had to put my friends in as well since i love variety too!
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
To decide what i subjects i will write (i'm sure some of the fellow authors wanna kill me for turning their ideas down) about and promote the blog.
What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?
You don't get easy followers and most importantly comments. Then you start to believe that no one reads your post and you are getting sad.
What do you find most encouraging?
Not really sure...i just like to post and read other people's thoughts. And when you are yourself, people like more what you write. I like that. Make me wanna write more.
What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?
Some memes are pretty clever so i have them there too. But i don't really like copying others. Then everyone will be the same and it's boring.
What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?
As i said above, most of them are the same. They write mostly good reviews (to get books or whatever from publishers) and lose their originality. I also dislike that everyone writes about the most famous books around and they forget old books or not so well promoted books.
Any advice for other new bloggers?
Be yourself and have fun! Then everyone will enjoy your blog too!
Anything else you’d like to share about your experience?
Have many people write with you. It's far more interesting and you keep the blog updated!
Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog?
Hmmm...i know i say books, but we also review music,movies and tv series. And we have our own memes already! Oh! And you can be an affiliate with us and be partners and promote each other:D

Established blogger:

Did you make any mistakes new bloggers can learn from?
At first i tried to copied some blogs. Thanks to my fellow author Johnny who disagreed with me, i remembered that when you are different it's much better. Now our blog, has something for everything and many people likes to visit us. Even different from each other.
How did you bring your blog to the attention of so many people?
Now that was hard...and still is. I have done a hell of promotion. Twitter,facebook,friends,forums,live communities, a bit of spamming, taking part at memes, commenting at other blogs (not stupid comments), try to know new bloggers,giveaways. And something that really helped was became an affiliate of one of the most great bloggers i know, Misha from My Love Affair With Books. We might  be so far away from each other but she is so cute and helpful. And we have many things in common!
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience?
Even at the start when no one is commenting, don't let it get it to you. It's the start. Keep writing and sharing your thoughts. 

If you have more questions feel free to ask:D
-xoxo,Yiota