Monday, February 1, 2010

Work in Progress: BIP Week 1


What is BIP, you ask? The Blog Improvement Project is a year-long challenge hosted by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness and Jackie at Farm Lane Books Blog - during the year, there will be challenges or to-do items posted twice per month (1st and 3rd Mondays). These challenges will aim to help the blogger maker their blog better (say that fast three times)!

Being new to book blogging (well, blogging full stop), I am excited to focus on my blog through these projects and bring my blog up a notch. I see so many great blogs as I move through the blogosphere - I would like to draw on what I like about other blogs but also find a voice and identity of my own.

This week we are asked to make goals for our blog - here are mine:

Design/Navigation
  1. Improve template - I would like to get a background/header that is more customized
  2. Improve font style and colors so that they are crisp
  3. Add Tabs - move about me and blog archive to tabs (currently in right column). Create tab for challenges
  4. Create location for giveaways - either in columns or a tab
  5. Add photos of books just read/reading/to be read (other than goodreads or shelfari widgets)
Content
  1. Work on 1-2 themed posts/series that can run throughout the year - complete plans including calendars
  2. Write 1 back-up post per week that can be used during busy weeks
Outreach
  1. Brand blog with gravatar (first learn what that is!) that aligns with header and template
  2. List blog on Technorati
  3. Add email subscription option
I may come back to this over the year and update with new goals as items get completed - I am sure there is a lot I don't even know to add to the list yet! I am looking forward to learning from all the seasoned bloggers out there and improving along with all the participants!

Watch this space - good things are coming!

12 comments:

  1. those sound like great goals

    i like the themed post idea - i'm doing something like that but there is no specific timetable

    a gravatar is basically a universal avatar...it shows up whenever you post on another blog (if that blog allows gravatars)

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  2. I'm doing the BIP this year too. I'm looking forward to improving my blog and learning lots of new stuff :)

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  3. They look like a well thought out set of plans!

    I look forward to finding out what your themed posts will be about.

    Good luck!

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  4. Wow,that's a good plan, now Iam contemplating if I should join :)

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  5. Great list! I'm stealing your "back-up post" task and adding it to my list :)

    Good luck!

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  6. Sounds like you are all set for a great blogging year!

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  7. Great goals! I've been toying around with the idea of participating in the blog improvement project, just haven't had time to plan out some goals yet ;)

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  8. Those sound like good goals, and it looks like you’ve already started. Having back up posts, like book reviews, is always a good idea. You can program your blog to publish them at a set time. Listing with Technorati won’t take much time, but they are slow to update. I’ve tried updating my labels there, but it never works.

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  9. Thanks Sarah. I do feel like having the back-up posts and/or some more structure to how I post would help me feel less pressured during the busy weeks!

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  10. I like your goals! Great ideas and manageable too.

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  11. great plan! I'm checking this out right now. Thans for the heads up!

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  12. Sounds good! I like your blog now and am looking forward to the improvements to come!

    The Blog Improvement Project sounds good - will look into it. Thanks for the heads up!

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