ARE BLOGS BETTER WITH A CO-BLOGGER?

Today, the BPR princesses are taking on co-blogging! Some of you may or may not know, but Book Princess Reviews used to only be run by Mandy. That’s right – it took about a year and half before Sha jumped on board (this sinking ship – I mean, wonderful blog of wonders that usually just features Mandy rambling in sentences that never end – much like this one!) Although you would never know since Sha has seamlessly slipped the crown right on her head and taken BPR to the stuff of fairytales. 

Co-blogging certainly has been an intriguing experience for both these book princesses with many ups and downs and Sha furiously shaking her head at Mandy’s shenanigans. Today, we are going to be looking at some pros and cons that come with co-blogging, and perhaps help you make a decision if it’s the right choice for you!

PRO: You never run out of ideas

🔸 We all know the saying: Two heads are better than one. Imagine all the creative blog ideas that grow from TWO bloggers putting their minds at work! Actually, Mandy and I don’t have to imagine… We have a fifty item list on Google Drive waiting for us. One of our fave blog-related activities is brainstorming new topics for discussions, feature posts, and polls. Whenever one of us stalls, the other steps in.

CON: You inundate your followers with posts.

🔸 Two bloggers mean double the output of posts. If we had time and energy, we could easily enough post once a day each. With this ability with lots of content creation, you want to make sure that you aren’t mass posting, which can cause your followers to feel like they are being spammed – especially your email followers. And let’s be honest, sometimes even two heads can hit a wall. That whole fifty item list? Yeah, it didn’t happen in a day, even with more than one person at work. 

PRO: You always have someone to buddy read with!

🔸 Sometimes, it’s hard to find a buddy read. Sometimes we’re too intimidated or shy to join in with a blogger we don’t know quite as well yet or our blogger friends don’t have the time or right time frame to read the same book as us. However, with a co-blogger, your buddy reader is one message away. You’re already a dynamic duo or trio or quadruple – so why not move onto reading together since you’re already mind melding. We certainly don’t always agree (why this series is literally called Princess Wars) on our end opinion of books, but it’s certainly an entertaining experience to have an epic friend and partner to discuss what you just read. 

CON: A co-blogger won’t necessarily have the same taste in books.

🔸 While we certainly have similar tastes (and a shared love for a particular Grave Mercy book), we definitely don’t have the exact taste. You won’t be seeing Sha devouring The Diviners or Mandy screaming about My Soul to Take. So, there definitely might be some hiccups when trying to pick out a shared read or sometimes a cohesive genre post/theme you are going for. 

PRO: You always have someone to get literary with.

🔸 The book community really is perfect to get literary with – we all know the excitement and love and wonder that books bring to our life. But sometimes we just want to scream about a particular bookish something with someone – and your co-blogger is definitely that someone. They’re already well versed in what is going on in the book community and if you send them a picture of the new Fairyloot special edition book, they’re not going to be like, kk, what is this??? They’re going to either scream with you in beauty or tell you they prefer the original cover. 

CON: It’s hard to find the right person to share a blog with.

🔸 Maybe no one shares your taste in books. Or your writing voice. If two radically different people come together on a blog, it might work or it might just create a disconnect with the readers. I mean, we follow bloggers we connect with, right? Or maybe you prefer running things solo, and finding a co-blogger isn’t even ON your list. Actually I don’t even think this would be a con. Since you’re then not even debating a co-blogger. Hmm. Next! 

PRO: When you need to take a hiatus, your co-blogger can take over.

🔸 If you’ve been reading our blog for the past few months, you’ve seen that we’ve certainly been experiencing a myriad of craziness. Between slumps, mental health breaks, and one of us moving across the world, we have taken a few major hiatuses. If there was just one of us, all things would have completely stopped, until things became quieter. However, with a co-blogger, one of us can take over most of the posting, commenting, hopping, and more, until you’re ready to come back and rejoin. 

CON: A blog with two or more bloggers running the show might elicit higher expectations.

🔸If I’m reading a blog with co-bloggers, you would think that there should be a certain amount of posts coming at you. These expectations don’t just from the readers, though. The bloggers themselves may place more demands on themselves. Two people should mean twice as much content, right? Twice as many books read, twice as many reviews… It can sound logical, but in effect create a lot of pressure on the bloggers.

What do you think? Would you take on a co-blogger? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Are you more of a solo blogger? Let’s discuss!

Share your thoughts in the comments below!