I am so excited to be participating in my first Bloggiesta this year. I think that for the previous edition I didn't find out about it until halfway thru and I was a lurker and not a participant. After I saw all of the things that people did last year, I decided that I would definately participate this year. I have been making a list for the past month on some things that I would like to work on this weekend. And the timing couldn't be better - my boyfriend is tied up with things for school all weekend so I am totally free to blog all weekend!In case you don't know, Bloggiesta is hosted by Natasha at Maw Books. It is a whole weekend designed for you to dedicate to working to do all of those little things that you have been wanting to improve on your blog and just haven't had the time to do. It also is the perfect time to learn some new things and stretch your wings a little - and participate in some great mini-challenges.
So now for my plan of action. I will update this post/list throughout the weekend with what I am doing and how it is going.
Here are the goals:
1. Update/Plan out my February Calendar
6. Get prepared for HFBRT event (review/CP)
I am also planning on taking part in several mini-challenges which I will post about as I go.
1. Setting Goals (hosted by My Friend Amy) - I sort of accomplished this with the above post - but in terms of long range goals I am needing to work on not letting reviews pile up to be written. It can get stressful just looking at my review journal pile up!
2. Organize Thy Books! (hosted by Jen's Bookshelves) - I think I am generally pretty organized with my books, but there are a couple of tips about my review spreadsheet I would like to put into effect!
3. Google Forms (hosted by Devourer of Books) - While I did know most of this, I learned about how to change the confirmation message (I knew there had to be a way) and learned that I wasn't crazy when I was having a super hard time posting my form in Wordpress! If you have never used Google Forms (if you do giveaways you totally should), this mini-challenge lays everything out step by step for you.
4. Help A Blogger Out (hosted by Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books) - I am always willing to lend a helping hand when I can to other bloggers. The person I helped out was actually trying to do the footer challenge (#5) and had a question about what year to put down (2010 or 2011). So I explained that the post itself was from 2010, but that they should use 2011.
5. Get Your Website Footer Right (hosted by bookalicio.us) - This challenge was from a previous edition of Bloggiesta but are still valuable. I added my copyright footer to the bottom of my webiste and to my posts and feeder. For any blogger, I would recommend you check out this mini challenge - it has some super useful information about copyrighting - very simple!
6. It's Not Cheating! (hosted by There's A Book) - The goal for this challenge is to make cheat sheets with useful information that you need all of the time when blogging. I took this to make templates for my reviews. I made a book review, tv review, and movie review template so that it will hopefully take less time to write my reviews.
7. Review Policy (hosted by Girls Gone Reading) - The goal for this was to write or rework your review policy and I really felt that I needed to. The policy that I had up was written right after all of the FTC nonsense last year and I went off on a short tirade. So this one is a little better written, more easy to read, and has some more informative content.
Time Spent on Bloggiesta: 15 hrs
Well, I'm going to call this one quits at 7:30 PM on Sunday. I didn't quite finish everything that I wanted to (things took a little longer than I thought) but I still did quite a few things that I had been wanting to do for awhile. This was an awesome event and I can't wait for the next one!
Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court
Happy Bloggiesta! Looks like you have some good goals listed! Thanks for the link to the copyright mini-challenge from last year- That;s one of my goals this year!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the rest of the weekend!
Good luck with your goals. Sounds like you have everything in order.
ReplyDeleteWow -- this is a crazy helpful post! Tons of stuff I hadn't considered but I was just telling my wife that blogging has gotten to be a bit like a job -- I now needed to get better organized or I would lose it!
ReplyDeleteAlso -- I read your blog on my reader and just noticed your footer and admired it a bit jealously -- so thanks for sharing the how to! ;)
I don't have a blog that needs spiffing up, but my email account needs some serious help. I god behind in early December and it is like a traffic pile up. I have over one thousand unopened emails and prizes I need to acknowledge. It is amazing how getting behind for just a few days can end up resulting in such a mess.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you will be glad when you are finished.
Suzanne - glad I could help you out!
ReplyDeleteAudra - and if you go to here - http://blog.mawbooks.com/2011/01/20/bloggiesta-ready-set-lets-fiesta-3/ - you can take a look at some of the other informative posts - there was so much useful info! I loved being able to add the footer!
Librarypat - getting email under control can definately be tough if you get behind!