Bloggiesta - The Finish Line

The Finish line! I made it, but just barely. Somehow I was out of steam when Sunday morning came along. I still got a bit done, but I had lost my Bloggiesta mojo.

Yesterday, I added about 40 old reviews to my review pages. This took a surprisingly long time. I was doing one at a time and checking the links before moving on to the next. I guess I could have done a bunch at a time, but I tried that once and missed a HTML tag. It was hell to find. One at a time might take longer but it was sure better for my sanity. I also fixed some formatting and tags on the old reviews as I was accessing them. I didn't visit very many blogs, but I did find a few wonderful ones to follow. All in all, I spent about 4 sporadic hours on blogging before calling it quits.

Total time spent this weekend: about 14 hours.

I have a number of outstanding tasks that I didn't get to. I'll try to work on these in the next few weeks/months. If not, there's always the next Bloggiesta in June! I also have started a list of other tasks to take a look at that other bloggers had on their to-do lists. I'll be taking a closer look at these and deciding how/when to tackle them.

Thanks once again to Natasha at Maw Books for hosting this event, guiding us through the process, and tweeting her butt off. I don't know how you do it.

For my readers who were not participating in Bloggiesta, thanks for your patience. I should have regular content (i.e. reviews) posted sometime today or tomorrow.

Bloggiesta Update #2

I spent about 6 hours yesterday (Saturday) working on my blog.

Here's what I got done:
• wrote 3 reviews, which will be posted sometime this week.
• visited a bunch of other blogs (lost count).
• Answered emails from those who visited my blog. Visited those blogs and commented.
• Answered emails from cheerleaders. Thanks guys!
• Followed Twitter WAY TOO MUCH! It was mostly Bloggiesta stuff with links that I got caught up in. I followed the links, skimmed the material, but because I was supposed to be doing something else, I put the tasks on a to-do list rather than complete them. Uggg... Anyway, this coming week, I'll revisit the links and hopefully accomplish some of these tasks.

Today, I'm going to be writing a couple more reviews. I'm still five behind and hope to get a few of these done. I honestly didn't want to be writing reviews during Bloggiesta. I should have had these done already. I wanted to work on my blog as a whole or items that make my blog better, not just individual posts. But I guess it needs to be done. I'm also going to be adding more old reviews to my review pages. Again, I hope to visit some other blogs.

Good luck to all the other participates! I hope you all get a lot done.

Olé.

Bloggiesta Update

I spent about 4 hours yesterday (Friday) working on my blog.

Here's what I got done:
• visited 10 blogs/commented on 10 blogs. At first, I was thinking I was going to visit all blogging participates and leave a comment. HA! I know now that there are just too many. I will, however, make time to visit more today and hopefully many more tomorrow.

• cleaned up old tags. I looked at the one tag that was driving me nuts, but I'm still undecided what to do about it. So I did nothing. :(

• cleaned up several broken links. I don't know if I caught them all, but it's a start.

• added a few tags to reviews as I was added them to review pages.

• Added 22 old reviews to review pages (title and author). There are lots more to do.

• create a Facebook page for my blog. I'm not sure if I'm done, but here's what I did for this:
- Created a FB fan page and added it to Networked Blogs.
- Added Networked Blog box to my blog.
- Syndicated blog to my personal Facebook page, blog Fan page and my personal Twitter account.
- Added a FB badge to blog
- invited some friends to "like" me. A HUGE thanks to those who already have.

That's it for now. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, but today I'm going to be writing reviews. I'm still haven't written reviews for the books I read when I had a cold at Christmas time. I'm not even sure I remember that much about them. Wish me luck.

Olé.

Bloggiesta - The Starting Line

It's Bloggiesta time. Olé.

This is my official starting post. I'm super excited to be participating, but I'm not off to a great start. I was out of town for 3 days this week (mostly unplanned), arriving home yesterday to a house that needs cleaning and laundry that needs doing and an empty fridge. I'm going to participate, but I may take more breaks and not get everything done.

Anyway, here's what I have planned:
• write reviews
• clean up old tags (there's one in particular that been driving me nuts)
• clean up some broken links
• add tags to old reviews
• add old review to newish review pages
• rewrite/add-to my "about me" page
• add book cover photos to older reviews (low priority)
• clean up my templates
• create a few new templates
• write some "rainy day" posts
• create a Facebook page for my blog
• complete some mini-challenges (to be determined)
• create a list of outstanding items that didn't get done/items others are doing that I wished I'd done

That's a good list to start with. I'm most likely going to add to it once I get into it and see what others are doing.

Thanks to Natasha at Maw Books for once again hosting this event. You're the best!

Let's get this party started!

Bloggiesta - The Finish Line

I made it. The finish line. Woohoo! I'm so glad I joined in on the fun for this Bloggiesta. I had a blast and got some stuff done on my blog. Of course, I didn't get everything done I wanted to, but I now have a nice list to tackle in the future. I think my first Bloggiesta was extremely successful. I can't wait for the next one.

The mini-challenges I completed:
Mini-Challenge: Blog Improvement Project
Mini-Challenge: Clean Up Your Reader Feeder
Mini-Challenge: Create a Favicon and Gravatar
Mini-Challenge: Set up RSS Feeds

Other tasks:
- New layout. (This was a huge accomplishment for me.)
- Cleaned up a few tags and links.
- Created a template for reviews.
- Started reviews for 12 future reads.
- Started my review policy. (not enough to enter the mini-challenge).
- Wrote two reviews.
- Added some publisher links to my new link page.
- Review some of the other mini-challenges for future consideration.
- Added a few blogs to my Google Reader.

Total time spent:
about 13 hours over the 3 days.

I'm afraid I forgot to count the number of other blogs I visited or how many comments I left. I was quickly overwhelmed by the RSS Bloggiesta feed. I know I didn't get to everyone, probably not even a quarter of the participants. I hope to visit more of them in the next couple of weeks.

A huge thank you to Natasha at Maw Books Blog for hosting this Bloggiesta and for making it a whole lot of fun.

Bloggiesta - Day Three - Accomplishments

Today (Sunday) was not a good day for blogging. I had good intentions in the morning, but that was before I saw the weather forecast. It was going to be a beautiful sunny day and since we've had lots and lots of rain in the last few weeks with more to come in a few days, I just had to get outside.

I managed to get a few bloggy things done anyway:
- wrote one review

- Mini-challenge: Getting out from underneath the feed reader. I created folders, used Google Trends to weed out a few blogs and renamed some of them to include the blogger's name.

- added a few blogs to my reader.

I still have to added up all of the time I spent and make a final list of everything I accomplished. I'll post that later.

Olé.

Bloggiesta - Day Three - The Home Stretch

Yesterday I spent the day doing review related items:

- created a template for reviews (a few of them actually)
- started twelve reviews for future reads
- started on my review policy
- wrote a review and started another one.

Other things I did yesterday:

Flashback Mini-Challenge: Gravatar and Favicon. I created my favicon today. It was fairly easy and I love it. (I did my gravatar yesterday).

Mini-Challenge: Set up RSS and Email Subscriptions - I did this yesterday, but I wasn't sure it was completed. With Sarah's help, it's done. Added my link to Mr. Linky.

Added some publisher links to my new link page.

I also looked at some of the other mini-challenges and bookmarked them for later. These are ones I won't get to this weekend, but I'd like to tackle them a some point.

On deck for today:
- finish one outstanding review.
- start another one for a book I'm almost done reading.
- Mini-challenge: Getting out from underneath the feed reader.
- Read more of the RSS Bloggiesta Feed. I didn't do this yesterday and have lots to catch up on.

I still haven't added any new blogs to my Google reader. I'm going to make a point to add some today.

That's about it for now. Have a great day everyone.

Bloggiesta - Day Two

Yesterday I had a lot of fun setting up my new layout. Thanks for all of the positive comments so far.

Other things I did yesterday:
Mini-Challenge: Blog Improvement Project. I admit I did the minimum on this. I listed one short term goal and one long term goal. For me that's not enough. I'm going to make note of this item and think about it in the weeks to come.

Mini-Challenge: Set up RSS and Email Subscriptions - I had tons of trouble with this mostly because I didn't understand what I was reading. I didn't know what to do. I finally figured it out and it turned out to be quite easy. I still don't have my head around feeds, so that's something I'm going to have to work out later.

Created a Gravatar. Easy peasy.

Cleaned up a few tags (more to do) and a few links (again, more to do).

Started going through the RSS feed for Bloggiesta and quickly got overwhelmed. I visited a bunch of sites, left some comments on posts, but I mostly concentrated on Bloggiesta posts to see what others were doing and to offer encouragement. This was a dangerous thing for me. Seeing what others were doing gave me many, many, many more ideas on what I could/should do on my blog. I've added them to a list for later.

On deck for today: Reviews!
- write (or start writing) my two outstanding reviews.
- create templates for reviews/future reads
- Take more breaks.
- Review policy - I might get to this today.
- Go through more of the RSS Bloggiesta feed. Make some comments, connect with more bloggers, find some blogs to follow.

Oh, a quick update: Welcome to my new followers. Thanks a lot!

That's about it for now. Have a great day everyone.

New Layout!

It's Bloggiesta time and I'm having a blast! I spent this morning doing a few cleanup tasks and then tackled a new layout.

I lost a little time (about 1/2 hour) because stupid IE and the beautiful new Blogger Template Designer were not cooperating. The preview wouldn't fully load so I couldn't see what my blog would look like with the new layout. Not cool. Anyway, I switched to the MacBook to for a bit and ta-da!

So, what do you think? I'm thrilled with the daisy background, but I'm still tinkering with the text colours, fonts and layout . I'm relieved that I got this far. It wasn't that hard, but a little daunting.

I'm not going to mark this one done just yet, but it's a start.

Olé.

It's Bloggiesta Time!

I'm so excited to be participating in my first Bloggiesta. What's a Bloggiesta you ask? Well, it's a blogging marathon taking place over three days, June 11 - 13. It's hosted by Natasha over at Maw Books Blog. Here's the signup post and all of the details.

My main goal is to connect with other bloggers and to find some new blogs to read and follow. For me a huge added bonus would be to gain some new followers, but I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't. I just want to have fun, meet some new people and catch up on some blogging tasks.

As far as blogging tasks go, here's my list:
- New layout
- Clean out and add my to Google Reader
- Clean up Edwards Magazine links and other links
- Clean up tags
- Write reviews
- Write Review policy page
- Write an About Me page
- Clean up/add to sidebars i.e. GoodReads
- Add to Blogroll
- Create templates for reviews/future reads
- Create a cheat sheet for HTML codes
- Visit the Blogging Tips Group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve my blog
- Participate in some mini-challenges, which might cover some of these items.

And a few maybes:
- Create a Facebook page for my blog
- Create a Favicon and/or Gravatar

Now that I look at the list, I'm not sure how I'm going to get that all done, but we'll see. I'm planning to spend at least 3-4 hours a day on this. I don't want to burnout on my first Bloggiesta.

I'm probably forgetting something but I think I'm ready to go.

Wish me luck!