15 Day Book Blogger Challenge: Day 8 - 15 things that appeal to you on blogs

I stumbled across the 15 Day Book Blogger Challenge hosted by April from Good Books Good Wine and it looks like so much fun that I have to take part. You can find out all about the challenge and how to join in HERE. Obviously the idea of the challenge is to take part 15 days in a row but I don't have enough time for that and since April is so relaxed over the rules I've decided  dedicate one day a week to the challenge.

The Day 8 topic is: Quick! Write 15 bullet points of things that appeal to you on blogs!

1. A layout that is easy to read (no dark backgrounds with bright writing please it hurts my eyes and I won't be back for another visit!)
2. A master list of reviews already posted. If I find a new blog I like I love to look through some of their previous reviews to get a feel of whether we have a similar taste in books.
3. An easy way to follow you (my current favourite is bloglovin' but it's better to have a few different options available)
4. Reviews (I guess that should probably have been at the top of my list!) I love to find reviewers with their own style - whether the reviews are funny or serious as long as the writer has something intelligent to say about the book they've read I want to read it. 
5. Personal posts - I have to admit that I'm not very good at writing personal posts but I do love to read them. It's a great way of getting to know the person behind a blog!
6. Event write ups - I love to hear about book signings / publisher events or any other book related events you may have been too. It might make me green with envy if I wasn't able to go but I can live vicariously through my friends :o)
7. Info about new releases. I love to discover new books that I want to add to my wish list!
8. On the same note I also love to see reviews / spotlights for older books and series. I get bored when every blog I follow is all reviewing the same books so if you review something older I'm more likely to drop by to find out more.
9. A good balance between the amount of text versus the number of pictures. Too many pics can make a blog slow to load but a whole load of text with nothing to break them up is just boring.
10. Don't fill your sidebars with a million widgets (especially ones that make irritating noises!), it just makes your blog slow to load and I won't be coming back to visit.
11. Giveaways! I love both hosting and entering giveaways but please make it clear if your giveaway is international or not. I don't want to spend ages entering only to find out it was for US winners only! 
12. Reading challenges - I love taking part in reading challenges (I'm hosting the British Books Challenge this year) as a way of keeping track of the types of books I'm reading.
13. A range of different posts, if your blog is nothing but memes then I'm not going to follow you. There is nothing wrong with memes but you don't need to take part in hundreds of them and I want to see other content on your blogs too.
14. Discussion Posts, again this is something that I'm not very good at doing but I'm working on it and taking part in this challenge was a great way to get me started!
15. Be honest! I don't care if you don't have the same opinions as I do about every single book you read (although it helps if we have a few things in common LOL) but I do want to know I can trust you to give an honest review.

Wow it was harder than I thought it would be to come up with 15 answers! What are the things that most appeal to you on other blogs? Is there anything I've missed?