Bloggiesta Finish Line!

It has been a great - and busy - weekend participating in Bloggiesta. What a fabulous event and so well hosted by Natasha of Maw Books. I learned quite a bit and got some work done on my blog (but not as much as I had hoped . . .). First up some stats:

Total Hours Spent: 24 hours - many of them in airport lounges waiting for flights home. A non traditional blogging locale, but it worked!

Mini Challenges Completed: (*= challenge from last bloggiesta)

• Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog – 2010 Resolutions. You know you got them!
• Pam from MotherReader - Blogging is about community, so check out this Comment Challenge
• Chelle from Tempting Persephone – You have some great content. But can people find it? Here’s showing off the best of the best.
• Danielle from There’s a Book – Blogging takes time & I’m sure we’d all love to blog faster. Using a cheat sheet is just one idea of how to save time.
• Michelle from GalleySmith – Anchor text. How to make the most out of your link love **
  
• Ruth from Bookish Ruth – Have you ever had your blog anaylzed? Now’s the chance! **
• Emily from Emily’s Reading Room – On vanity alerts.**
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads – Creating list and opinion posts**

Goals/Accomplishments - Here is what I set out to do and what I actually did:

• sprucing up blog layout - especially working on sidebars

- Added a search and feed widget and a recent comments feed to sidebar

- Had my blog analyzed on Website Grader - I only got a 38 which was demoralizing but at least I know where I stand and have baseline from which to improve. I will have to study more about how the score is derived so I can target future improvements

• learning and implementing tips on staying current with my blog and others posts

- learned a lot from fellow bloggers especially from the mini-challenges and from posts such as this one from Farm Lane Books.
- Listed my blog on Fyrefly’s Book Blog Search Engine Index Page.
- Linked this week's reviews on Saturday Review of Books
- Created a cheat sheet on google docs (gotta love google)
- Found 10 New Blogs through the comment challenge hosted by Mother Reader
- Added ScribeFire to my Firefox browser so I can opitmize my blogging
-Set up Google Alerts on my blog name and URL

• write up reviews for books already read so that I can have some posts in reserve for busy

- failed on this one but I am blaming travel and jet lag :)

• plan some blog topics/events/themes for 2010

- did get this done including drafting a list post a suggested in the Mini-Challenge from Beth Fish Reads

Loved Bloggiesta! Can't wait for the next one!