Bloggiesta # 3 Wrap-Up

I am finished, kaput, throwing in the towel, and crossing the finish line on this Fiesta baby.

It has been a very worthwhile endeavour. I have learned tons and accomplished bunches, but my back is ready for the easy chair and my brain wants to vegetate in front of the boob tube!!!

First here is a list of all the challenges which I participated in over  the last three days:

• Jennifer at Girls Gone Reading - Do you have a review policy?  Do you even need or want one?
• Sarah at Puss Reboots  – What is RSS and how to make it so your feed is easily discoverable.
• Pam from MotherReader  – Be brave in your writing and push the limits of what your comfortable with.
  
• Danielle at There’s a Book  – Do you know what programs you can use to discover your stats and what the heck do they mean anyways?
• Cass at Bonjour Cass – It’s often said the best part of book blogging is the community.  Go discover them in this commenting challenge!
• Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog – Getting out from underneath the feed reader.
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads – Using categories & labels to find what you’re looking for.
• Jackie from Farm Lane Books – Do not lose it all!  How to back up your blog.
• Trish from Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’? – What the heck are favicons and gravatars and why you should have them. 
• Michelle from GalleySmith – Anchor text.  How to make the most out of your link love.
• Pam from Bookalicio.us – There is nothing worse than seeing your post on somebody else’s blog.  Talking about blog copyright and what you need to be doing to protect yourself.
• Amy from My Friend Amy – Blogging buddies!  You should get one!
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads– Creating list and opinion posts.
• Emily from Emily’s Reading Room– On vanity alerts.
• Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food– Do you have an elevator pitch?  You should be able to talk about your blog easily.
• Ruth from Bookish Ruth – Have you ever had your blog anaylzed?  Now’s the chance!
• Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile – Getting your blog listed in several blog directories.
• Jen from Devourer of Books– Got some old material?  Taking time to update key pages and posts.

Thank you ladies for making this weekend more fun and enjoyable while also teaching me so much. 

 Because of these challenges I now have

• Cleaner labels on all my posts.
• A cleaner more organized feed reader(with cool new add-ons)
• A backup of my blog
• Installed meta tags
• A favicon and gravatar
• Four fabulous blogging buddies ( more about them next week)
• A copyright statement
• A review policy
• An RSS Feed  and Twitter in my sidebar
• Actually added my design background to my Twitter page and learned how to use Twitter (still a bit unsure of this though)
• Written a list post about Cover Glam and posted it
• A couple new reviews ready to post
• An opinion piece
• Edited my About Me Page with my nearly written elevator pitch
• Spent several hours researching for possible topics in the near future

Total Time Spent over the last three day: 32 hours

Friday: 12 hours

Saturday: 10 Hours

Sunday: 10 Hours

I want to thank Maw Books for organizing this it was educational and fun, fun, fun!

Bloggiesta #3 Day 3

Today's official start time is 2:00 A.M. My eyes are trying to focus even as I write and I am wondering if I really shouldn't be back in bed in stead  of in front of the computer.

Still I have lots to get done today and hopefully once the coffee kicks in I will be off and typing.

I finished 10 hours yesterday bringing the grand total of hours to 22.

Here's what I accomplished, which to be honest isn't as much as my first day:

• Wrote a couple posts
• Organized my blog document folders
• Spent some time reading about how to improve my blog
• Created a list post ( my first)
• Learn about vanity alerts
• Tried to enhance my Google Reader with some add-ons (this unfortunately I could not get to work for me)

Today I will be concentrating mainly on writing. I hope to put in another 10-12 hours today. We'll see how it goes.

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge/Put Your Best Forward

I have been writing all my life (in some capacity or another) and have always been my own worst critic. I even wrote an entire essay about my inner critic, which was a result of not being able to find anything to write for a college writing course. I am basically never totally happy with what I write, so this particular challenge is really difficult for me. 

With that said, Tempting Persephone challenged us Bloggiesta swingers to find two posts and show them off.

1. I chose to put up the review I did of Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, one of my all time favorite authors. I really feel in love with this book because it is so touching and real and it made me cry (the book not the review). I was also totally surprised when I found that Draper had posted my review on her blog.
2. I really haven't had any fabulous post that I consider great. I did, however have one rant over the recent Book Blogging Convention that expressed my disappointment over it's timing. Hopefully, I will find my voice as I my blogging matures and perhaps feel comfortable enough to really write posts that others will actually want to read. 

Hey come to think of it this post also counts for a list, right? Score two!

Bloggiesta #3/Day 2

Good morning all you Bloggiesta partiers. I just got up for round two, day two. It is 1:00 AM. and I am hoping to log in a few hour this morning before heading off to visit my 97 year-old father.

Yesterday I got quite a lot accomplished.

• Cleaned up my tags.
• Cleaned out and organize my feed reader and blog subscriptions 
• Did a backup of my blog (will probably do another on Sunday due to all the changes I have been making)
• Created meta tags
• Created favicon 
• Got two blogging buddy (yeah)
• Created a copyright statement
• Created and revised (thanks to Judith@ Leeswamme's Blog my review policy (another mini-challenge)
• Completed commenting mini-challenge
• Completed blog directory mini-challenge
• Added RSS Feed to sidebar

My total time spent blogging yesterday was 12 hours. I am doubtful that I will be able to do that many hours today, but I will be giving it the old gun ho and see where that will take me.

Okay the coffee is kicking in, the eye drops are semi-working. Lets get this party started.

Bloggiesta #3 Let's Party!

Last January I participated in the second Bloggiesta albeit a bit late, so I am very excited about being in at the starting gate for the third Bloggiesta which begins tomorrow today at 8 AM (actually began at 2:30 AM).  To sign up and get the low down on what exactly a Bloggiesta is and how to play head over to Maw Books.

You will also find some amazing bloggers who can help you with various tasks, such set your goals, create favicon, create meta tags, etc.

My goal is to log in as many hours as I can, but I am going for at least 24 hours over the 72 hour time span. 

What I plan to do during the Bloggiesta?

• Write reviews. (I have lots to do since last weeks Read-a-Thon)
• Write backup posts for a rainy day.
• Conduct and edit author interviews (hopefully).
• Create template posts for future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so I can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities
• Clean up my tags.
• Add or edit my about me page, review policy, disclosure policy, privacy policy, create landing pages (for example – an about me for Twitter readers page) or any other pages I might have.
• Work on some specialized projects.
• Clean out and organize my feed reader and blog subscriptions (it is a real mess).
• Clean out my blog file folders (hoping to get rid of a lot of saved images and what not that I do not need any more). 
• Backup my blog
• Create meta tags
• Create favicon 
• Get a blogging buddy
• Create copyright statement
• Complete commenting mini-challenge
• Complete blog directory mini-challenge
• Added RSS Feed to sidebar

So what will you be doing during the Bloggiesta?