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Thinking of Starting an Online Book Review Site? Here Is How to Do It!

Reviews are critical – around 90% of consumers read them to decide whether they should buy a product. When it comes to book review blogs, people also read them to learn about specific cultures

Besides being a place to share your opinion, creating a book blog might also be beneficial. You can earn money and build relationships with other readers and book bloggers.  

In this article, we’ll break down the 11 steps to start your own book blog, from picking a niche and promoting your blog to measuring its performance.  

1. Determine Your Niche

Your website should focus on one specific topic – your niche. It helps specify your target audience, minimize the competition, and provide expertise.

For a book review site, a niche often refers to a book genre. Thus, the easiest way to pick a niche is to choose a genre you like or the one with a huge reader base. 

Use a tool like Google Trends to compare the popularity level of book genres. 

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Alternatively, pick a community-focused niche, such as books about a particular gender or ethnic group. 

2. Pick a Site Platform

Generally, you have two options when picking a site platform:

  • Self-hosted platforms, like WordPress and Drupal. They offer more control, customization, and flexibility. However, you need to buy a hosting service to use them. 
  • Hosted platforms, like Squarespace and Wix. Setting them up is easier since you don’t have to think about the key features, such as hosting, a website template, and even a domain name. However, this option is more expensive and has limited customization. 

Our recommendation is to choose WordPress. 

It’s a user-friendly platform with tons of themes and plugins. Therefore, it’s possible to customize and expand the website functionality as you want. Besides, it’s relatively easy to figure out the platform since the internet is full of WordPress tutorials and forums. 

3. Choose a Domain Name

Pick a unique and short domain name for easy memorability and lasting impression. If you’re stuck, use a domain name generator to help find a perfect domain name. Just type keywords related to your website, and the tool will give you plenty of name ideas.

Also, think about the domain name extension, a suffix following the domain name, like .com, .net, and .book. Consider choosing .com over other options. More than 40% of registered domain names use this extension, making it familiar and reassuring. 

If you haven’t picked a domain, make sure to search for domain names that match your business or personal brand. Begin by conducting a thorough search for domain names across different online platforms. Remember to act promptly and register your preferred domain to prevent others from claiming it before you. If you haven’t decided on a hosting plan, you can purchase it separately to complete your online presence. Start your search for domain names today to secure the perfect fit for your website!

4. Purchase a Web Hosting Plan

This step is important if you have chosen a self-hosted platform. 

Generally, there are four types of hosting: shared, VPS, cloud, and dedicated server hosting. Each of them offers a different server capacity. For example, you have to share space with other users if you choose shared hosting, while you get private virtual resources with VPS hosting. 

Shared hosting is a suitable solution for beginner bloggers. It’s affordable and requires less work since the web host manages the server for you. 

Still, make sure to pick a scalable hosting provider, so you can upgrade your hosting easily once your website grows.  

5. Choose a Website Theme

With hosted platforms, simply pick one of the available templates. Meanwhile, WordPress users can choose a free theme from the official theme directory or purchase a premium one.  

When searching for a WordPress theme, read its description. Check whether the theme is responsive and supports other essential plugins, like page builders and SEO tools. 

Some of the best WordPress themes are Sydney, Astra, and Zakra. They’re responsive, SEO-friendly, and customizable. 

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6. Customize Your Site

After setting up the site platform, start personalizing your website elements, like typography, menus, and header. 

Hosted platform users can generally customize the website using a drag-and-drop editor containing all elements. 

For WordPress users, go to your dashboard, click Appearance -> Customize, and adjust the settings based on your preferences. 

Then, design each page layout by coding manually or using a page builder like Elementor for an easier option. 

After that, create important pages, such as:

  • Homepage. Help visitors navigate your site by putting hyperlinks to other pages. 
  • Blog page. Include all your blog posts and categorize them here. 
  • About page. Introduce yourself to readers and tell them what to expect in your book review blog. 
  • Contact page. Mention your contact information and social media profiles. This page helps visitors and potential partners contact you. 

They will make navigating your website easier.

7. Start Writing Reviews

Begin with a book’s summary to give readers context. Explain the most important aspects of the book, like theme, plot, writing style, and characters. 

However, avoid going into too much detail because it can be a spoiler. Instead, share important takeaways or insights from the books. 

Next, describe what you like and dislike about the book. It’s also possible to include short quotes to support your reviews. Finally, give the review a star rating and conclude whether you recommend it or not. 

To fasten the writing process, consider installing plugins like Recencio Book Reviews and GS Books Showcase. These plugins provide review formats to organize your reviews based on categories like star rates and authors.

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8. Optimize Your Site for Search Engines

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps you gain visibility and higher rankings without paying for ads. 70% of marketers even say SEO is more effective than pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. 

Here are three important points on SEO for your books review blog:

  • Keyword-based reviews. Include relevant keywords in your reviews so users and Google can understand what your content is about. Find keywords on tools like Keywordtool.io and Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.

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  • Image optimization. Describe the images in the Alt text box and compress your image files to reduce the loading time and save space on the hosting storage. 
  • Technical practices. Ensure that the book review site has a fast loading time using a tool like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom. Also, check whether your website is mobile-friendly because around 50% of web traffic worldwide comes from mobile devices. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check the responsiveness.  

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9. Promote Your Site

After building the website and writing reviews, it’s finally time to launch and promote your blog. 

Below are some website promotion ideas:

  • Use social media. Post a sneak peek of your reviews using an attractive photo and a caption. Integrate popular hashtags like #bookreview and #bookstagram to reach a wider audience. 
  • Share your site on book clubs. The members are more likely to visit your book website because they’re interested in this topic. 
  • Connect with other book bloggers. Help gain backlinks and tips for growing your book blog. 
  • Join forums. Answer book-related questions on online forums like Reddit and Quora. Then, encourage them to visit your website for more book content. 

10. Consider Monetization Methods

Once your book review website starts growing, think about how you will make money from it. 

Here are some popular monetization methods for blogs:

  • Advertising. Join an ad network like Google AdSense or Monumetrick and make money every time people click or see the ads. Alternatively, sell space directly to companies, such as booksellers or publishers. This option can generate better returns than ad networks.    
  • Affiliate marketing. Earn a commission when someone clicks or buys a book from your referral links. Popular affiliate marketing programs for book website owners are from The Book Depository and Amazon

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  • Sponsored reviews. Authors usually reach out to popular book sites to write their books’ reviews. If you know some authors who want to publish their books, contact them first and offer a partnership. 

11. Track and Monitor Site Performance

Tracking site performance can give you insights about your readers, so you will know overall trends and what to improve in the future. Hosted platforms usually have built-in analytics. For WordPress users, install analytics plugins like Google Analytics and Jetpack

Key site performance indicators are: 

  • Traffic, including its sources and the number of unique visitors.
  • Your search ranking.
  • Most popular content.
  • Engagement, like bounce rate and page duration.
  • Audience demographics and interests.

Conclusion

Starting a book review site has many advantages, such as making money, connecting with other readers, and helping people learn about particular books and cultures. 

Follow the 11 steps we’ve covered above to start your book blog:

  1. Find a niche based on what you or the target audience likes. 
  2. Choose a blogging platform: hosted or self-hosted. 
  3. Pick and buy a domain name. 
  4. Purchase a web hosting service if you choose a self-hosted platform. 
  5. Decide on a website theme or template. 
  6. Personalize your website. 
  7. Write your book reviews. 
  8. Optimize the website for search engines. 
  9. Promote the site on social media, book clubs, and others. 
  10. Consider monetizing your book blog. 
  11. Track the website performance. 

Creating a book blog can be a long and tedious process. However, with creativity and perseverance, it’s about time you have a high-traffic book blog and reap the benefits above. 

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