Bloggiesta Fall 2012: Goals and Updates

 
Suey from It’s All About Books and Danielle from There's a Book are hosting Bloggiesta Fall 2012 edition September 28th through the 30th.

Bloggiesta is your chance to (copied from Suey's post):

spiff up your blog

try something new on your blog, fix something, add something or delete something

catch up on reviews, Google Reader, email, or anything else that's out of control

work and party together with other bloggers

learn new things from blogging experts

join several mini challenges and win prizes

have fun for three days blogging and connecting with your blogging friends!

MY GOALS:

What I should do:

• link and cross-post the majority of my hundred and something book reviews to Goodreads (a task left over from the last Bloggiesta)
• come up with a way to more prominently display my ratings and update the reviews accordingly or at least use it in my future reviews (currently my ratings are only displayed as labels, and I've noticed through the comments I get that a lot of people seem not to notice them. My bad, so it's time to correct it. Also, after two years, I only yesterday (*head desk*) realised labels don't show in Google reader, so people who read my review there have no idea about my rating)

Instead, I want to:

• make a new blog header and a matching button, finally
• change my blog theme to something more autumn-ish
• learn how to make drop-down menus and make at least one

Anyway, I will:

• back up my blog
• update review policy
• try to participate in one twitter party (probably the Saturday one, because the time suits me most)
• see what the challenges are about and maybe do some
• see what is with this feedburner going away and do something about it

UPDATES:

I will update on Twitter (@StrangeNewWords) and below for the previous day:

Friday, September 28:

Things done: 0

I didn't have much time, but I did play around with making a new header. I figured out some solutions for what I want. However, it's quite a time-consuming task, so I'll leave it for sometimes in the future.

Saturday, September 29:

Things done:

I gave my blog a fall makeover and updated my review policy. I read some mini-challenges posts, but I didn't officially do any. However, I learned a lot and made a mental note of some ideas for the future.

Heidenkind's (as well as Ivana's) post on the feedburner issue was very informative and helpful, but after some consideration I decided to wait a bit. I backed-up my e-mail subscriber's e- mail addresses and I'll keep an eye on the situation and in case feedburner shuts down completely I'll most probably switch to FeedCat.

I also researched making drop down menus; there is a ton of advice, tutorials, etc. on the Internet, and some of it is really comprehensive and easy to follow, but as the task requires quite some time, patience and focus I'll also leave it for the future, too.

Lastly, the twitter party was lots of fun, although I had to quit somewhere in the middle because I had some things to do around the house. I met some nice people and learned a few things, too, so it was great.

How was your day two? Have you accomplished what you wanted and had fun? I hope so!

Sunday, September 30:

Things done:

I basically finished making new rating graphics, I only need to polish them a bit to make them look all pretty.

WRAP-UP:

I actually got quite a lot of things done. However, I still have to do the big and tedious task of linking/cross posting/updating the reviews. I think I'll just have to do a little bit each day and I can get it done in a week or two.

Overall, I really enjoyed bloggiesta. I managed to do some work on my blog and I got some ideas for the future.

Most of all, bloggiesta gave a huge boost to my enthusiasm for blogging which has been a little low lately.

So, thanks to Suey and Danielle for hosting and all the mini-challenges hosts for great post, and all my fellow participants for making this such a great experience. I'm already looking forward to the next bloggiesta!