Once again my thanks go to Natasha and her great timing of this event. I truly feel like I have organized and enhanced my blog this weekend, and that is a great way to start the New Year!While I had a good task list when I started this challenge, as I read the activities of other participants I was encouraged to modify my goals just a bit. The following is a list of all the major - and minor - changes that I made this weekend:
- Backed-up my blog....just in case (thank you, Jackie, for that important reminder)
- Added tabs to my header for easy navigation (thanks to Candace for helping me discover the great sites for directions and colorful tab designs)
- Added a favicon for easy blog identification (Thank you Trish for supplying the links to directions; Thank you Amanda for making me aware that Chrome does not always adopt the code. I was driving myself crazy!! AND....a special, special Thank you to Ambrosia for helping me revise a faulty file code. She was SO kind and helpful. You should really check out her Design Website)
- Deleted Book Blog Guild sidebar link due to hiatus since October, 2009.
- Identified that the Grade for my blog is an 83 out of 100 --- which is certainly acceptable given the fact that I do this for fun and not for profit (thank you Ruth for providing the website information)
- Added Book Blogs Search widget to sidebar for easy book review searches (I found that idea on Becky's blog and loved it! I also have to give a special thanks to FyerFlyBooks for developing this awesome search engine for our enjoyment and convenience)
- Added Challenge Progress list to the sidebar (this was inspired by Margot and I am hopeful that the highly visible list will encourage me to stay focused and read books that will help complete these challenges)
- Created a blogging "cheat sheet" for the most common links I use on my posts (as well as the name of the person and/or blog that hosts the meme). This was a great mini-challenge idea from Danielle of There's A Book.
- Created a "favorites" folder in Google reader where I can find my 50 most favorite blogs and read them quickly - when I don't have hours to spend on the internet (this is to help me develop that sense of balance that I spoke about in this post)
- Modified labels of posts for easier navigation and neater blog sidebar (thank you, Candace, for that great mini-challenge)
- Created a comprehensive Book Review post where all book reviews will be linked in alphabetical order by genre (perhaps next Bloggiesta I will work on a comprehensive post of book reviews in by author)
- Uploaded my TBR list to my Blackberry. I know this isn't exactly blog related - but I can't tell you how many times I am in the bookstore and cannot recall the author - or title - of a book I know I want to read. I hope this will aid my frustration - and in the long run - it will help create content for the blog, right?
- Uploaded chronological order of mystery series to my Blackberry (I use the Stop You're Killing Me website to help me create the lists). Again, this is not exactly blog related, but since I am rather OCD in my reading, I do not like to read series out of order. And...since I mostly shop 2nd hand bookstores, I am not guaranteed that they will have all in the series. This will help me make wise purchase decisions, which again, will aid content of the blog.
- Wrote 4 book reviews - which means that I am caught up!! (I didn't finish reading A Moveable Feast this weekend, so that is why I only wrote 4 reviews rather than my original goal of 5). I will post the reviews periodically over the course of this week.
One of the activities that I did not accomplish - mostly because I was unsure how to do it - was to create templates of posts I write on a frequent basis (like Library Loot - Mailbox Monday - Sunday Salon, etc). The only way I can figure to do that is to "schedule" a post --but when I have done that in the past, I found that I did not have a chance to finalize -- and it posted incomplete. This is not good. If anyone has another method that I have overlooked, I would LOVE to hear it!
Well, I may not have accomplished all that I had hoped, but I sure did get a lot done. I feel that I can now start the New Year refreshed and ready to go.
Congratulations on getting so much accomplished!
ReplyDeleteFantastic!! I am super impressed with everything you have done and think I may "borrow" the challenge list idea! What a great way to keep on track.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you were able to get so much accomplished! Way to go! I'm so glad that the cheat sheet helped! Bloggiesta was just what we all needed, I think.
ReplyDeleteWow! You accomplished an amazing amount of tasks! I'm feeling a little bad, as I think I was the only blogger that didn't participate in Bloggiesta. And I really needed to! Sigh. Someday...
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I love all of the updates. Everyones blogs look so nice and organized I love it.
ReplyDeleteI just create drafts for ones that need to be finished instead of schedule :)
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job with your Bloggiesta tasks. Well done.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned templates that you didn't get done. I'm on Wordpress so it may be different for Blogger, but I do my posts ahead as drafts or I post them with dates that are way out there - a month or so away. Then when I am ready with my info I just change the date. I've learned to monitor that list on a regular basis so they don't get accidently posted. See if that will help.
Great job - you accomplished much! I like the idea of a favorites folder!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I didn't participate (or perhaps BECAUSE I didn't, hah!) I am in awe of all that the Bloggiestas did this weekend. Congrats and your blog looks great!
ReplyDeleteWow! You got a lot done!
ReplyDeleteWow! I'm totally impressed!! And I have to say, I didn't participate in Bloggiesta but reading your posts inspired me first to create tabs and then I just went and redesigned the whole entire blog, which ended up in a lot of reorganization and thinking about what was important and what was clutter. So thanks ... I caught Bloggiesta fever from you!
ReplyDeleteNow, of course, I'm totally behind on reviews and visiting blogs but I think it was worth it!
Love your new bookshelves by the way!