Today’s blogger interview is with Krystianna of Volumes and Voyages, a book and travel blog that has been going strong since 2012. I was impressed by how often she posts on her site and how long she has kept her blog going. Her dedication is something to be admired. Find out what dystopian novel inspired Krystianna to start her blog, her favorite place to travel, and the tools that she uses to draw traffic to her site. And be sure to leave a comment with any questions or comments that you have for this passionate, veteran blogger.
About the blogger
Blogger Name: Krystianna
Blog: Volumes and Voyages
Blogger links:
Genre or Niche: Books & Travel
Blog Summary: Volumes and Voyages is a book and travel blog run by Krystianna that aims to bring you your next favorite book or your next travel destination! There are 3-5 new posts every week, focusing on both books and travel.
Three posts that best sum up your blog.
1. All the places that I traveled to in 2019 is what made me find my passion for travel, ultimately leading to me choosing to add the travel portion to my blog!
2. My book review for Illuminae is my favorite review that I’ve ever written for my blog. I had a lot of fun with it and used a whole bunch of Grey’s Anatomy GIFs!
3. I feel like I just have to include the review for The Hunger Games because it’s the book that led me to find book blogs in the first place.
Talking Shop
Why did you start your blog?
I LOVE BEING ASKED THIS QUESTION. When I was 14, I read The Hunger Games for the first time, and breezed through the rest of the series within a matter of days. I just could not stop reading! Immediately after, I read the whole series through a few more times.
I loved the series so much that I knew I had to read more books like it, so I immediately hopped on Google and searched for more books like The Hunger Games. This led me to finding this amazing thing called a book blog. I perused so many blogs during this phase of my life, trying to feed my addiction to the dystopian genre.
I loved reading everyone else’s posts so much. So I decided to start my own blog called Downright Dystopian. I ran Downright Dystopian from 2012-2019. Just last year, I actually changed the name to Volumes and Voyages so that I could add another one of my passions to my blog: travel.
Do you have any other talents or hobbies that relate to your blogging?
I actually am a student studying graphic design! I think that this ties into my blog a lot, and at least helps whenever I have a tech-related issue. For the most part, I’m good at figuring it out myself.
I love graphic design so much and it’s another one of my huge passions. It also comes in handy because whenever I want to change my blog design, I don’t have to rely on anyone else to do it. I can just easily do it myself with the Adobe Creative Suite!
I’ve thought about offering book blog design services for other book bloggers looking to fix their blog headers or designs but I’ve never gotten around to it because I never knew if anyone would be interested, but it would be fun to utilize my hobby more!
How often do you post on your blog?
I try to post about 3-5 times a week, though in the past year especially this didn’t happen. Since I studied abroad, I really wasn’t attached to my computer that much. I was out exploring! Plus, when I’m in school, the blog kind of falls to the wayside a little bit.
But in a good week, I try to post at least 3 times! I even have tried applying this schedule: travel post on Monday, book discussion/Top Ten Tuesday on Tuesday, travel post Wednesday, book review Thursday, and then whatever I feel like posting on Friday! Only time will tell if I can manage to stick with this during 2020!
Do you ever feature other bloggers on your site?
Yes! I actually have book blogger interviews on my blog as well, so it’s kind of fun to be the one getting interviewed for once! I started doing book blogger interviews back when I started my blog because I loved finding new blogs to follow and sharing the blogs with my followers. It’s a great way to introduce readers to other bloggers in the book community!
How have you promoted your blog? What has worked best? What has failed?
I’ve used so many different forms of social media, though I’ve never paid for a promotion post. Instagram has never really worked a whole lot for me. I can post things on there but I never really get link clicks through to my blog.
Facebook never has been huge for my blog traffic either. Sometimes I’ll get a few link clicks when I update my page and mention a new blog post, but it’s only from a family member or two.
Twitter is a good way to meet new people which can help a lot with promotion. Just make sure you post often and join in with any interesting discussions that show up on your feed!
I have had the best results with Pinterest. This sounds terrible, but I’ve only recently started using it! I have gotten so many link clicks through it, and even started utilizing Tailwind, which I highly recommend! It’s a Pinterest scheduling tool and it helps a lot.
‘What If’ Scenarios
You’re offered to write a book about any topic. What is your book about?
I’d probably write a book about all my tips and tricks I’ve learned while blogging. When I first started out blogging, there were so many things that I didn’t know. To be honest, I never even considered SEO until a few months ago, and I’ve been blogging for SEVEN YEARS. It makes me wonder if I could’ve garnered more traffic a lot longer ago if I actually paid attention to things like that! It would be great to help people who are interested in blogging really take that leap and finally do it, and also give resources to people just starting to blog! Blogging is so much fun (especially in the book blogging community) so I’d love to encourage more people to join!
You’re able to hire on an assistant to help you with your blog. What do you have them do?
Ooooh, an assistant would be so helpful! I guess I’d have them take photos and help a lot with keeping up my social media accounts for marketing and advertising. I tend to find that over the years I can never handle more than one social media wholeheartedly at a time.
If I focus on Instagram, then Twitter tends to suffer, or vice versa. It’s super hard sometimes to keep up with posting everywhere when I put up a new blog post!
You have the time and energy to write another blog. What is it about?
Though I’ve never actually done it, I do think that it would be fun to have a lifestyle blog. Then I could post about almost anything I wanted at any given time. I also love reading lifestyle blogs but don’t ever technically post anything “lifestyle-ish” in my blog!
You’re offered a free trip to go anywhere in the world for a blog post. Where do you go and why?
I’d have to say the United Kingdom! I’d go and visit all the Harry Potter sights in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales and then do a whole bunch of fun literary blog posts about travel on my blog. Plus, I think it would be surreal to see all the things that I’ve seen in movies in real life. I’m a massive Harry Potter fan so I really think this would be a huge blast!
Your dream brand offers to advertise on your site. Who is it?
Though this isn’t necessarily a brand itself, I’d love to one day qualify for Mediavine advertising on my blog! It’s one of my blogging goals, but I feel like it’d take a long time to get enough page views to qualify.
Just For Fun
Your trademark feature.
Definitely my Converse! I have worn a pair of Converse almost every day of my life for the past 10 years. I have them in so many colors and I just find them super comfortable! You could say that I have a bit of an addiction
One bucket list item you’ve completed and one that’s still on your list.
One bucket list item that I’ve completed would definitely have to be studying abroad! I was lucky enough to study abroad in Spring 2019 in Dublin, Ireland, and I completely fell in love with the city and the idea of living abroad.
This definitely leads into the one bucket list item that’s still on my list… to get my Master’s degree abroad! I miss it so much in Ireland that I’d love the chance to go back and continue my studies one day.
Favorite place you’ve visited/place you want to visit.
Besides Ireland, my favorite place that I’ve ever visited would have to be Vienna, Austria. I was able to visit on a trip while I was studying abroad and I was amazed at how beautiful Vienna is! There is so much to do there and it’s so fun to explore all the palaces in the city, like Hofburg, Belvedere, and Schönbrunn. Plus, the food there is also amazing.
The one place that I’d love to visit still actually isn’t a city, but a place… Highclere Castle! I’m a huge Downton Abbey fan and Highclere Castle is actually the filming location for the show. I’d love to visit there and explore the grounds as well as the palace itself. It’d be such an awesome experience!
Celebrity you’d want to be friends with.
I would love to be friends with Jennifer Lawrence. I find her absolutely hilarious and she’s so relatable. This is really weird to say considering she’s a celebrity. I’ve seen all of her movies so many times. Plus, she was Katniss in The Hunger Games, which is so cool.
Your most unrealistic dream job.
I’d love to get paid to travel or be a travel/book content creator (on YouTube or my blog). I’m not sure that I’d ever actually make enough to ever live off any of that, but it would be so cool if I did! I just found such a happiness while traveling and I wish I could do it every day of my life.
Pin it!
haha, that’s very interesting read and Q&A!! love it!
I’m actually following her Instagram and maybe also her blog and really love her book-related topics!
She does have one of the best Instagram accounts I’ve seen. Thanks for reading!
This was a nice article to read. Keep up the good work!
Fun read! I need to follow her blog. I have similar interests in books and places to visit. Great post and interview. Thank you.
This is such a great interview! I love the questions. I love how unique they are xx
I love the Q&A posts. This was a great one!
I absolutely love reading too. I loved learning about Krystianna, her book, and blog. Thanks for the interesting post!
Love reading this interview, you have wonderfully crafted the questions. Great interview.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you liked it.
Great interview! She seems to love her work. I am interested in possibly being interviewed too, if you’re seeking guests.
Definitely! I’ll send you the questions and instructions.