Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Bloggiesta Finish Line

I participated in Bloggiesta over the weekend and wow! What a cool blog event. I finally made some blog-improvements that I've wanted to get to for quite some time, but simply never set aside the time to do. I learned a lot more than I expected and I even accomplished some tasks that weren't even on my list. Overall, I'm quite pleased with my first Bloggiesta experience.

What I did:

  • Added social media buttons to my sidebar. There's one for email, twitter, goodreads, instagram and facebook.
  • Added pages along the top of my blog under my header. I still have some editing to do with the page content including updating a lot of post labels so posts get sorted to the right places, but I'm pretty psyched I got this project going. I like how it gives an overview of the things I like to blog about.
  • Backed up my blog content! My first time doing so in the nearly 5 years I've had my blog and really easy to do [on Blogger, at least]. The Book Vixen has clear instructions [with pictures!] HERE. I also backed up my template. FYI: I had trouble with the back up generating a .xml file onto my hard drive using Safari, but when I tried using Firefox, I had no problems.
  • Added a Creative Commons license to the blog. Felicia with Geeky Book Girl's Blog has a great article on copyright info for bloggers. Mostly to do with photos and images, but also creative commons license. You can read her article HERE.
  • I met some new bloggers! I had hoped to be even more social than I was, but I had a lot of work to do around here, not to mention all the regular weekend stuff at home with my family and so on. I'm still going to try to hop around to other participant's wrap-up posts to make some new acquaintances.
  • Completed THREE Bloggiesta mini-challenges [possibly four]: 
  1. 20 Discussion Post Ideas for your Book Blog hosted by Tanya Patrice at Girlxoxo.com
  2. Grade Yourself! Use a Web Grader by Smash Attack at Smash Attack Reads.
  3. Evernote mini-challenge by Joy from Joy's Book Blog.
  4. I also wrote up a FTC disclaimer, a review policy and my contest terms and conditions. I haven't posted the two former yet, but they are written, and I already posted the latter in my Happy Birthday Giveaway post yesterday. Most of this I learned from Donna H. at Girl Reads Books. This might count as my 4th mini-challenge.

  • I read through almost all of the other very informative mini-challenges even though I didn't get around to doing them. I learned so much last weekend. Even a bit of html doing those social media buttons. 


By the way, if you haven't visited my Happy Birthday Giveaway post yet, please do! I'm giving away a subscription to a cool magazine, ebook or similarly valued gift from The Book Depository.

Hope you had a productive Bloggiesta, too, if you participated! :)

The next Bloggiesta is March 29-31, 2013 so mark your calendars!

7 comments:

  1. I was unaware of Bloggiesta but it seems like it was a fun event and helpful experience for bloggers. I love you little social media icons and backing up your blog and content is great and takes so little time. It's a wonder we bloggers don't do it more often!

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  2. Woohoo! Looks like a great Bloggiesta! I really like your pages along the top and the way "it gives an overview of the things I like to blog about." I may steal that....

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  3. I'm glad you liked Bloggiesta so much! I couldn't do it this year because I was out of my house most of the weekend.

    And I'll check out some of those links you posted (the copyright and the grading thing) 'cause it sounds interesting!!
    Congrats on getting so much done.

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  4. I really need to do a lot of the things you've done and am going to use you for inspiration! You did great!

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  5. Good for you Christine! I've been meaning to add the pages below my blog header for so long now. I need to just sit down with only that in mind and get it done. Thanks for all the informative links!

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  6. Great, great job Christine! I wanted to participate this time around, but didn't have time. I'm definitively marking my calendar for the next one LOL.

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  7. The next Bloggiesta is in March, but I *think* they'll be doing a mini one in January. I will post about it to remind all of you to join in when it comes up. It really was fun and productive!

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