Wow Bloggiesta 2012 is been and gone and I didn't miss it. Please stay with me on this post, it is a bit of a long one!
Upfront a big thank you to There's a Book and It's all about books for co-hosting the event. Also another big thank you to all those who stopped by and commented and gave me encouragement thank you, thank you, thank you!
I didn't do to bad overall, especially as I had pretty low expectations about my level of participation. But I made the choice to barely look at any other web page or did hardly any reading (poor Pinterest was sadly very much neglected all weekend. I am sure it soldiered on with out me though. Pinterest is brave like that). All spare time was devoted to bloggiesta, so I am glad I did it but what a crazy weekend I had.
I didn't do many of the mini challenges in the end, but I did some old ones instead which helped me do some blog maintenance I have wanted to do for ages. I was very keen to do more of the "technical" stuff. At the time, I did not put them in my "to do" list as they were things I figured the technical stuff I could do another time and only a "do if you have time". Ironically in the end I did mostly technical stuff!
So how did I go? here is the break down.
Commented (and meaningful ones too) on NEW blogs! - Completed. I a proud of this one, while I only did 10 blogs I made sure the comments were meaningful. I was complaining only a few weeks ago about lack of time to do this. I still don't have a lot of time but I figured if I only comment on a new blog once a week or two weeks (at the very least once a month). The I am still finding new wonderful blogs that I can read.
Backed up my blog - Completed. I have been intending to do this for a LONG time. But couldn't work out how to do it in the new blogger dashboard. I found in the Bloggiesta Flashback Mini-Challenges section a really useful post from The Book Vixen on how to back up your blog. I only paid attention to the blogger one so not sure if there was a word press one It's amazingly easy! Follow her instructions and bam you are done. Thanks Book Vixen.
Share buttons for social media - Completed. A big thanks to Tasha from Truth, Beauty, Freedom and Books who showed me the original link to do this. Also a big thanks to hubby from 1LWeb Studio for making it work and look pretty on my blog (because my efforts were pretty sad looking).
Put up a banner - Completed. I have wanted to do this for AGES. It isn't the one I ultimately want, I want one more meaningful to my blog. For now though I love it as it is cute and fun. The little kitty and the swirly magic stuff is adorable and makes me happy looking at its cuteness so for now it stays.
Update links in pages on the blog - Completed. Finally got round to updating the links on my authors and genre/topics page.
Revert blog template back to two columns - Completed. The three column thing was just annoying me. I like my two column system better.
General blog tidy up - Completed. Added some Goodreads widgets and deleted some redundant things in my side bar. Glad it is looking cleaner. Still have some more to do but that can be done later and/or next time. I am glad I could do a "currently reading" Goodreads widget cos honestly the little text box version I had getting hard to maintain and was usually out of date.
Added social media share buttons to posts - Completed. Finally added them. Took me ages to work out how to turn the damn things on.
Mini Challenge: Organisation and Scheduling - Completed. Yes I did a mini challenge *fist pump in the air* yay me. So proud of myself. I now have a review template, a weekly schedule, and a monthly schedule. I will also investigate the google calendar option. Read my full post on this on my post Bloggiesta Mini Challenge: Organisation and Scheduling.
Mini Challenge: Tips for setting up Guidelines and Polices - Completed. I actually didn't intend to do this BUT I have been wanting to do it for ages so voila I did it YAY. Thanks to A Girl Who Reads who hosted this mini challenge and put up heaps of useful tips.
Mini Challenge: Catch up on reviews - Completed. YES! I did 3 with my awesome new template that I knocked up in the organisation and scheduling challenge. Go me! Thanks to Word Lily for hosting this challenge. First review For Darkness Shows The Stars will be up later today.
Mini Challenge: Get Personal - Not started. eeek I couldn't think of anything to do for this one. I do however post a music and movie post roughly every month. But to me that is cheating and I wanted something a little bit more from this. I ummed and ahhed about cheating on this and putting my bloggiesta posts as a discussion post (I am still unsure). Not sure I will get this one done now. Thanks to Once Upon a Story for hosting this event, even though I didn't get to it, there was lots of food for thought.
Mini Challenge: 20 Discussion Post Ideas - Not started. A little bummed I didn't get to this one as I was very keen on it. But this felt a little like cheating. I have Girl xoxo's list of ideas and I will be using them in the future. I have plans, big plans, so watch out maw-hahahaha!
Phew it has been a crazy couple of days both in the "real" world and here in the "blogging" world but fun and glad I did it.
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