This is an interview that I did for College for Kids, This is the second piece that I wrote for them concerning The Olly Book Blog...
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All of the blogs for kids profiled at College by Kids are perfect for kids to read. They are also created, written and maintained by kids.
The Olly Book Blog is written by 13 year old, Oliver Hill. Oliver started the blog when he was 11 years old and over the last two years he has written book reviews for over 200 children’s books. As a contributor at College by Kids, it is exciting to share our first kid blogger interview with Oliver.
What motivated you to start your blog?
My Mum read so many books the rest of my family and I thought that she should write a book review blog. However she was more interested in reading books than reviewing them! So I started a blog instead since I also read quite a lot.
How did you decide on your blogging topic or niche?
Explained in the first question really, but book blogs are quite popular among adults so one for children is fairly unique.
How does your blog relate to your life offline?
All book reviews that I do are books that I’ve read. I mostly choose books for a particular genre. Young adult or dystopian novels usually end up being good books so I read them quite a lot. This is due to the fact that I like the thrill of adventure and exploration.
What are your goals in life?
Good question.
How much time do you spend on your blog each week?
It takes me either ten to fifteen minutes to write a post and then I look into the technical side of things, the statistics and design. I also post about my blog on social media, mainly Twitter (@TheOllyBookBlog) or Google+. So all in all maybe forty-five minutes to an hour and a half every week depending on how long reviews are or if I have people sending ARCs to me or other publishing works. (ARC: Advanced reading-proof copy)
How do you manage and maintain your blog with your other real life commitments?
It doesn’t take me too long to write a post as I know what I’m roughly going to put anyway. Since I read during my spare time quite a bit anyway blogging isn’t too hard, especially as I enjoy it so much.
What has been your biggest reward from blogging?
When an author approaches me with a book they want me to review for them the feeling is amazing! I finally feel as if the effort I’ve put into the blog has paid off. Then seeing the book in a shop (especially big brands such as Waterstones) and people then actually buying the book you got sent to review – that feeling is like no other.
What has been the most challenging aspect of blogging?
Sometimes things do get in the way of reading or spending time on my blog, so when I have lots of things to do like assignments or homework projects my blog’s homepage can become a little outdated. Usually however it is updated as soon as possible and visitors to the site start flocking in again.
What are your goals for your blog?
Fifty unique countries have seen my blog so I would love to raise that figure to maybe sixty. You can see the whole list on the about page on The Olly Book Blog. More authors mostly and more ARCs for me to review would be great as there haven’t been a few for a while, and perhaps some books to review from some well known authors. To review books that I would buy anyway!
Do you have any blogging tips for other kids?
Keep it fresh, keep it neat. Nobody wants to visit a messy website where information is hard to read or see. Clear writing is great and images attract more visitors in more than one way.
- It makes the site look nicer.
- Images are viewable on Google images and links to your blog will be made.
Also look into services like Alexa by Amazon.com. These sites display stats and information concerning your blog so that more people will get to know about it.
Last but certainly not least, keep it up, someday your work will pay off!
You can read Oliver’s book reviews at The Olly Book Blog. You may also enjoy his post about How to Choose a Good Book at College by Kids.
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