It's Bloggiesta time again!

Not sure how much time I'm going to get to put into it but I'm hoping to sneak in some.

Don't know what a bloggiesta is?  Basically it's an online blog improvement challenge party.  This is the 4th Bloggiesta that Maw Books has hosted.  This time around some of the mini challenges and lessons are about Google forms and Mr. Linky, but there's lots more.

Why not check it out?

It's Bloggiesta time again!

It's been over a month since I posted here.  I kinda got in a slump, but....I'm really hoping that participating in the 3rd Edition of the Bloggiesta this weekend will break me out of that slump.  I completely missed the first bloggiesta but I did manage to participate in the second one and I learned alot while participating.  I'm hoping for the same this time around.  If you are interested in learning more about blogging and getting ideas for things to do with your blog, be sure to check out the Bloggiesta, and let me know that you do.  Now to go find some Mexican treats to enjoy during the party  ....    :)  

Learning lots at the bloggiesta festivities!

Here's my six words for today:
Learning lots at the bloggiesta festivities!

Now to expand on those six words  :)


I decided to skim the mini challenges - old and new - and I got sucked in!

Here are the Old Challenges that caught my eye:
Clean Up Your Feedreader - got rid of feeds that hadn't been updated for over a year, got rid of some that I never really read anymore, got rid of some tags - down to 110 subscriptions, 13 tags.  I know that still sounds like a lot and I may do more cleaning yet, we'll see.

Google Alert Challenge - Never heard of Google Alert before and didn't find the link provided with the challenge all that helpful so went searching for info.   I found a good explanation and instructions on how to Set Up Google Alert Yourself and set one up for my blog address and my blog title.

Elevator Pitch - didn't know what an elevator pitch was but up on reading what it was and trying to work on one I realized that I already have a really short one, at 29 words, in my banner.

Favicons and Gravatars - I had heard bout a favicon before but didn't know how to make one or install it on my blog so I decided to give it a try.  I had much trouble but also had much help from Trish and Jill.  I finally figured out how to do it from How to Add a Favicon in Blogger.  In case you don't know what a favicon is, check out the little icon in the URL box by my blog URL.  Notice that it's no longer the bright orange blogger favicon.  I created my own little J's favicon.  Isn't it cool!?  I didn't do the Gravatar part of the challenge

Anchors Aweigh -  I learned about the importance of using more descriptive anchor words for links.  I'm trying to do better at that. 

Grade Your Blog  - I did a website grader and only scored 57%!  Boy, do I need to do some work.  One of the things I need to do is include ALT text for images.  I never do that.  Another is to add meta tags.  I tried, and tried to do that yesterday but never did succeed.  I kept getting an error message when trying to save it.  Sure wish I knew what was wrong

And the new challenges that appealed to me:

Cheat Sheet - I was sort of already doing this with sticky notes on my igoogle page for daily blog posting ideas, but I like the idea of making a master cheat sheet for blogging codes.

Footers and Copyright - I did not have a footer or copyright on my blog at all but this challenge had me searching to find out how to add it.  I found a website that finally helped me figure out how to add a copyright notice to my blog.  You have to scroll down to the bottom to actually see the copyright notice.  
 
Labels and tags - I had actually already started trying to be more consistent in adding labels to my posts.  I still forget sometimes but I'm trying to stay on top of fixing it when I forget.
 
Backing Up Your Blog - I had never thought about doing it before but it's done now, thanks to this challenge.  I can't believe it was so easy to do!
 
Dead Links - I hate dead links, but they are kind of inevitable. I do, however, think it is important to fix them when you become aware of them.  I tried testing my blog for dead links but got really frustrated with trying to read the results.  I may try again later.  I'd love it if people would leave a comment when they found a dead link, because then I would find out about it and fix it.

Care to join the "Bloggiesta" this weekend?

What's a Bloggiesta, you ask?

Natasha says "In short, it’s a blogging marathon.  An opportunity to cross those nagging items off of your to-do list and improve your blog while in the good company of other awesome bloggers doing the same thing." She is hosting a bloggiesta this weekend, starting today. Find out all the details here about what it is, how to play, who can play, prizes, etc.  


I heard about this on Robin's 52 Weeks Blog.  I am definitely going to be checking out the info and mini challenges, which you can read about here.  It sounds like a great way to pick up some blogging tips and help improve your blog, no matter what type of blog it is.


Let me know if you decide to join the celebrations, and what you thought about it after the fact, if you decide to join in the fun.