Bloggiesta Finish!

Bloggiesta hosted by Natasha at Maw Books Blog finished on Monday morning - it was great to check in on the blogs of the many participants and see all the improvements everyone was making.  Thanks again to Natasha for being a fabulous host!

I had a lengthy list of goals - I didn't complete many of them but am happy with what I did finish. 

Posts

Finish my backlogged reviews - I think I have about 4 reviews waiting to be written Finished 1 of the 4

Write post about author event with Pete Hamill - DNF

Write Weekend Cooking Post - it's rare that I cook much so this is not a regular one for me but I finally have something to say! DNF

Write 1-2 bookish posts (not reviews but focus on reading/books) DNF

Blogiversary post and plan giveaway! Done - stay tuned for the giveaway next week!

Immigrant Stories Challenge

This year I am hosting my first challenge - Immigrant Stories - and I am very excited about it. I need to spend some time updating my suggested reading for the challenge and checking in on the participants. (BTW - you can still sign up so join us!) Done!  It was great to see many "new to me" blogs signed up!  Check out the list of participants!  I also updated the list of suggested reading for the challenge - there are some great immigrant stories suggestions on here. 
Challenges

In addition to my Immigrant Stories Challenge, I plan to sign up for a number of other challenges for 2011 and need to close out all my 2010 challenges
Finish my 2010 DNF challenges post (hangs head in shame) done - will be posting tomorrow

Complete 2011 Challenge sign-up post in progress

Plan books for challenges (maybe this will prevent a DNF post at the end of the year!) not done but I will work on this during the weekend (my own personal Bloggiesta!)

General Blog Tidying

Update my Books Reviewed page (it is woefully behind) finished - here is my list of reviewed books

Tame the feedreader - I need a system people! not done - another task for this weekend

Explore and analyze stats didn't finish - (ok, didn't start).  I have histats on my blog and check the sources of visits and search engine terms but would like to understand more about how I can further analyze my blog because I think it will help me make changes to matter to those that read my blog.  Any stats recommendations?

Enjoy the Party!! this I certainly did as I seem to have spent most of the weekend hopping around blogs and on twitter following #bloggiesta!  It was great to meet so many new to me bloggers such as:

IndieReader Houston
Books Fitness and Other Stuff
Bibliophile Girl
Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing
Randomize Me

I hope new visitors to my blog will continue to stop by!  thanks again to Natasha for hosting another successful Bloggiesta and thanks for all you do for the blogging community!

Bloggiesta Is Here - Ole!!

Bloggiesta is one of my favorite blogging events!  It is a great opportunity to work on the blog, learn new things and interact with your fellow bloggers (my favorite part!)   Here is the list of what I would like to work on this weekend:

Posts

Finish my backlogged reviews - I think I have about 4 reviews waiting to be written
Write post about author event with Pete Hamill
Write Weekend Cooking Post - it's rare that I cook much so this is not a regular one for me but I finally have something to say!
Write 1-2 bookish posts (not reviews but focus on reading/books)
Blogiversary post and plan giveaway!


Immigrant Stories Challenge

This year I am hosting my first challenge - Immigrant Stories - and I am very excited about it.  I need to spend some time updating my suggested reading for the challenge and checking in on the participants.  (BTW  - you can still sign up so join us!)

Challenges
In addition to my Immigrant Stories Challenge, I plan to sign up for a number of other challenges for 2011 and need to close out all my 2010 challenges

Finish my 2010 DNF challenges post (hangs head in shame)
Complete 2011 Challenge sign-up post
Plan books for challenges (maybe this will prevent a DNF post at the end of the year!)


General Blog Tidying 
Update my Books Reviewed page (it is woefully behind)
Tame the feedreader - I need a system people!
Explore and analyze stats

Enjoy the Party!!
This is my 3rd Bloggiesta and my favorite part is always partaking in all the community that the even engenders - so I will be hopping around, seeing what people are doing, meeting some new bloggers and exchanging tips.  That plus some great Mexican food and a maragarita or two = perfect weekend!

Bloggiesta: Wrap Up Post

What a blogging weekend!  It was Bloggiesta hosted by Natasha at Maw Books Blog  -
she has once again been the fabulous host of this event bringing more than 160 book bloggers together to work on their blogs and share information and tips!

Here is what I set out to accomplish this weekend:

• Finish questionnaire for feature at Page Turners

• Assess blog and set goals for the Blog Improvement Project Challenge hosted by Kim of Sophisticated Dorkiness and Jackie of Farm Lane Books
• Back-Up My Blog - this was surprisingly easy
• Finish some posts that I can use in the future   - I didn't finish as many as I would have liked but did get some key ones finished
• Get a gravatar (actually did this one last night)
• Finding and showing off the best content - I always find it hard to "toot my own horn" but I did identify the following as my "best" posts: (let me know what you think!)

• 10 Great Places to Read in NYC
• My Irish Heritage, St. Patrick's Day and Irish Authors
• Review: The Anglo Files

• Analyze/grade my blog  I got an 89 which is up from 37 when I did it during the last Bloggiesta 6 mos ago!  I was so excited!
• Organize the feed reader
• Participate in the commenting mini-challenge by Cass at Bonjour Cass 
• Nail a post template to make future posts easier - DNF
• Expand review policy beyond "What I Don't Read" - DNF
• Explore Stats further (I use histats but want to check out google analytics to see if it tells me something different - "data, baby, data") - I looked into google analytics but panicked when they asked me to paste code into my blog so I decided to further analyze what I had from histats.com :)

All in all, this has been a VERY productive weekend  - I spent approximately 26 hours (wow!) on Bloggiesta activities.  I am so glad I got to participate in another Bloggiesta! Now  . . . siesta-time!

PS  - Don't forget about my Bloggiesta Giveaway - it ends at 8 am tomorrow (Monday 6/14)

Bloggiesta Starting Line - (AKA Day 2 for everyone else!)

Ok - Bloggiesta started yesterday but here I am at the Starting Line on Day 2 - I had to travel out of town unexepectedly for work yesterday and couldn't get on line - but I am here now and ready to blog away the day!

I participated in my first Bloggiesta (read about it here) in January and I learned so much over those 3 days! Since my blog was new (only about 1 month old), I was sponge just soaking up all the information from my more experienced fellow bloggers. However, what I enjoyed most about my first bloggiesta was the introduction to the wonderful community of book bloggers.

So now that my blog is a ripe 6 months old, I want to spend this Bloggiesta taking things up a notch and focusing on tasks that were too overwhelming when I was brand new to blogging. During last Bloggiesta, I pined over everyone's well designed blogs and tried to make some layout changes but since I recently acquired a new design (thanks to Staci from Blogging Bella Designs) I won't need to work on that this time and am going to focus on content. Here is what I would like to accomplish:

• Back-Up My Blog
• Finish some posts that I can use in the future (Day 2 update - in progress)
  
• Nail a post template to make future posts easier
• Get a gravatar (actually did this one last night)
• Finding and showing off the best content
• Analyze/grade my blog (eek - I did this last time and the results were abysmal!)
  
• Organize the feed reader
• Participate in the commenting mini-challenge by Cass at Bonjour Cass (I did this last time and I learned about some GREAT blogs!)

Ole!

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!

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: Best of Best

For Bloggiesta, Chelle from Tempting Persephone hosted the Put Your Forward Mini Challenge. In the challenge, she asks you to buff some old but good content that you would like to showcase.

I am new to book blogging (ok - new to blogging full stop) so my "old" stuff is relatively new but I choose three posts that I especially liked - the first is a review of The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British - this is my first review but it is also the one that brought me to book blogging. I initially did the review for a social networking site since I wanted to recommend it to friends - I discovered I enjoyed the experience of reviewing what I read and wanted to do more of it. Hence, my blog!

My second selection is not a review, but a Sunday Salon post that I wrote two weeks ago while on vacation in India. I selected this one because as much as I enjoy reading reviews on other book blog sites, I also enjoy reading other focused posts that tells me a little more about the blogger, their life and where reading fits into it. I think this post does that for me and I hope others enjoy reading it.

My final selection is a Booking Through Thursday meme response in which we were asked to provide our Best Books of 2009. I love reading other's lists because I always get good suggestions for new books and it was a good exercise for me to think through everything I read in 2009 and select the best. But what I most like about this post is the comments I received - I really felt the community of book blogging as people told me what they thought of my list, which they had read, which were on their TBRs etc. What a great conversation!!

SO there you have it - my best posts - so what if they represent about 15% of my total content so far!

Bloggiesta - Update 2

Ok - I am in the final leg of trip home with yet another flight delay (aka more online time for Bloggiesta!) Here is what I worked on during this delay :)

Rebecca from Book Lady’s Blog is hosting this Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge – set goals/resolutions for your blog. Here are mine:

1. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your blog and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Layout could be improved – I would like to do more with sidebars but my HTML knowledge is limited
- Add Tabs
- Add Widgets
- Goal: add Tabs and Widgets to Layout by Jan 17th
2. Take a look at your blog’s content. How can you make it better?
-Because I am establishing my blog, consistency is important. I need to post a review or meme 5 of every 7 days. To do that, I need to work on some posts that I can use when I don’t have extra time to set aside that day
- Brainstorm on some themes so that I can solidify my blog’s identity and generate a following – I have some ideas in this area that I will flesh out more. Goal: Have the first post in a theme series up by Feb 15th

3. Explore your blog stats. We’re all obsessed with our stats anyway, so you may as well make your obsession work for you, right? How would you like to see your blog grow in 2010?
- Current Stats (since Dec 10th)– 177 visitors (124 New); 7 followers
- Increase traffic by connecting with other bloggers actively (comments, etc), participating in memes and challenges
- Not sure what is realistic in terms of goals here – any suggestions on how many new visits per week/months is realistc?

4. Set goals related to the topic of your blog.
- In terms of reading goals, I don’t have a baseline since I just starting blogging and have no idea how many books I read last year. Goal: Establish a baseline in 2010 that I can build on for 2011
- I am participating in a number of challenges which should keep my reading selections pretty varied Goal: Identify books to satisfy challenges so that I have an idea of what I need to read (and how much!) in order to meet challenges – complete by Jan 17th
- Track my reading with Fyrefly’s awesome spreadsheet.

Thanks to Rebecca for this mini-challenge – it definitely helped me structure my goals - if you don’t set goals, you never meet them!

Please send me your thoughts/comments on the above goals - you all have great blogs and I would love to learn as much as I can from you!

Bloggiesta - Update

Well, it's about 24 hours into the Bloggiesta here in India (I am traveling home today from my three week trip to India) and I am really enjoying the community that the Bloggiesta has engendered. I have started and completed my first mini-challenge hosted by Mother Reader - it is a comment challenge that is actually running from 8 Jan - 28 Jan in which participants are encouraged to read others blogs and make 5 comments per day. For the duration of Bloggiesta, the goal was to discover 10 new blogs and make a comment on each.



I really enjoyed exploring new blogs - below is a list of those I have discovered and on which I made comments:

Mother Reader (http://www.motherreader.com/)

Michelle's Masterful Musings (http://www.michellesmastermusings.com)
The Book Lady's Blog (http://thebookladysblog.com/)

Anais (http://www.amidweststory.blogspot.com/)
Age 30+ . . .A Lifetime of Books (http://age30books.blogspot.com/)
Letters from a Hillfarm (http://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/)
Fyrefly's Book Blog (http://fyreflybooks.wordpress.com/)
Fizzy Thoughts (http://www.fizzythoughts.com/)
The Betty and Boo Chronicles (http://bettyboochronicles.blogspot.com/)

Book Chick City (http://www.bookchickcity.com/)

It's All About Books (http://sueysbooks.blogspot.com/)

Ok - off to make the most of my current flight delay and get some more on-line Bloggiesta stuff done!

Inaugural Bloggiesta!

The second annual Bloggiesta hosted by Maw Books starts today and continues until Sunday. I was excited when I heard about this since I am new to book blogging and like the idea of taking some dedicated time to work on my blog and bring it up to approaching the standards of some of the great book blogs I visit! The challenge for me is that I am traveling back from India during Bloggiesta but I have today and all day Sunday to work on it. In addition, I plan to work on some things offline while flying tomorrow and then upload when I am in a wi-fi connected area. Here are some of the things I want to work on:

1. sprucing up blog layout - especially working on sidebars
2. learning and implementing tips on staying current with my blog and others posts
3. write up reviews for books already read so that I can have some posts in reserve for busy weeks
4. plan some blog topics/events/themes for 2010

Off to work - ole! Now if I could track down a margarita in Bombay, things could really get started . . . .