Bloggiesta: Starting Line #bloggiesta
September 28, 2012 34 Comments
Bloggiesta is organised by Suey from It’s All About Books and 1st Daughter of There’s A Book. Bloggiesta is an online event for (book) bloggers in which we are encouraged to spend the next three days working on our blog in any way we see necessary. We Plan, Edit, Develop, Review and Organise – no wonder our mascot is called PEDRO! Olé!
Hurray! It’s Bloggiesta time! I’m all ready for it. For 3 days we’re going to give our blogs a technical and artistic check-up, take it apart and put it back together again. More than 200 people signed up for this event so you may come across a few other bloggiesta-blogs this weekend.
(With apologies to those who do not have a blog or do not join in Bloggiesta this time. You will be seeing a few Bloggiesta posts on Leeswammes’ Blog between now and Sunday.)
I’ve got two blogs and will do some work on each: Leeswammes (LW) – which is my English-language Book blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog. Actually, I use Bloggiesta to work on anything related to books, reading, and reviewing, so some of the things I’ll be doing this weekend are not directly related to the blogs.
Here’s what’s in the planning…. and everything in Italics is DONE!! ****
Small, quick items:
- Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option). ****
- Add links in reviews, to reviews by same author (LW)
- Update challenges (tab and pages) (LW)
- Shelfari – update books from bookswap
- Make a list in Word of books I got this year (for next year’s challenge)
- Update ereader with Netgalley ebooks for October ****
- Email clearout (JH & LW)
Items taking more time:
- Do at least 5 mini-challenges / old mini-challenges (LW, BB)
1. Photo challenge. Rikki’s challenge introduced me to PicMonkey, which I used to change this photograph of Carlos Ruiz Zafón being interviewed into this:
- Look into copyright (LW)
- Update Reviews page with links (LW, BB) **
- Shelfari – Update reviews.
- Update tabs (LW,BB)
- Work out how many RSS subscribers I have
- Pinterest – make a page with favorite books
- Check out tweetchat and tweetdesk
- Finish the books by Dorrestein, Eggers, and Gayle
Write posts:
1st Hoofdstukken (BB)Decided not to do this, too boring. Blogging is a hobby.- New books (BB) ****
- New books (LW)
- Review The Miracle Inspector (LW)
- Review Mitchell (LW)
- Review Hayder (LW)
- September overview (LW)
- Review Cornelisse (BB)
- Review The Invisible Ones (LW)
- Translate some of the BB posts in LW (Shelter, Hope)
- Ditjes & Datjes (BB)
- New Books 2 (BB)
Part of the fun of Bloggiesta is connecting with other bloggers so I expect to spend some amount of time tweeting (#bloggiesta) and reading other people’s posts and commenting.
Good luck to everybody who is taking part. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to keep in touch with other participants. I am @leeswammes.
Could your blog use some extra work?
I will see you around this weekend. I am participating too
Good luck!
Thanks, Uniflame. Hope you get a lot done!
I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while now…I have quite a lot on my to-do list! Hope you have a productive weekend!!!
~Kristin @ Always With a Book
Kristin, same here! I have been adding to my list for a few weeks now.
Sounds like you’ll be busy!
I love the idea of adding links to reviews by the same author to your posts, I think I’ll put that on my list too!
Joanna, I always add links to older reviews by the same author, but I tend to forget to do it the other way around. It’s nice when you have them all linked up, I think.
I love bloggiesta also as I can get help on some of the things that I want to do but don’t know how. I hope you have fun!
I hope you have a good time too, Purplemoon.
I’ll be in your cheersquad, Judith! I’ve got a few reviews to write, but don’t think I’ll get to do much more than that for Bloggiesta. Not joining officially either. Perhaps some of the mini-challenges will motivate me to do some work on the blog, we’ll see
Thanks for cheering, Chinoiseries. Yes, do have a look at the mini-challenges, usually there are a few very clever ones. I did Rikki’s (photo-editing) already, but haven’t updated my post yet. You’ll see it later.
I’ve never tried TweetChat, but I’m a big fan of TweetDeck! Good luck on all of your goals
Good to hear you love TweetDeck, Amanda. I must try this.
WOWZER! You are so organized and I am impressed. Quite a list and I think I might steal a few. I also broke mine down with small, medium, and large.
Felicia, I started making this list a while ago, preparing for Bloggiesta. Steal as much as you like!
Terrific to-do list! I hadn’t heard about Bloggiesta, and won’t have much computer time this weekend, but you’ve certainly inspired me to do some tune-ups in the coming weeks. Good luck!
Good luck, Lisa. I hope you get some things done. Even going just a few things will be useful.
Quite a list, Judith! Good luck! It is going to be a fun weekend!
Thanks, Rikki. Yes, it’s a lot to aim for. But this way I can pick and choose!
Your goals gave me ideas about what I still need to do (tweetdesk, Pinterest, Pickmonkey…) But since this is my first time participating, I tried to keep it modest and doable
Good luck!
That sounds very wise, Ivana. Have a good time.
I’ll be participating too, but I’m not being as ambitious as last time. I have a few non-blog things scheduled this weekend as well.
I’ve got most of the weekend to myself, so that’s handy. But I’ll probably procrastinate more than you, Leslie.
Thanks for remind me to back up my blog, which I haven’t ever done since I start the blog 4 years ago!
as for Shelfari I do need to update as well (I just like the look of the shelf, that’s all) but recently I’m wondering if I should get on to goodreads as well but alas! I don’t have time to update so many places!!!! Good luck!
Jo, I’m on Shelfari as my main catalog of books, but I use Goodreads for reviews for books that I got fro authors or publishers (they like to see the review there as well). So, other than review books, I don’t use Goodreads. I wouldn’t bother if I were you.
Supposingly there are a lot more active readers at goodread, wouldn’t that be a draw to your blog?
You’re really organized! I started a Shelfari a while ago but I’ve never updated it. Depending on how the weekend goes I’ll work on it.
Really like how you separated your goals! I need to work on my second blog, as I’ve been neglecting it lately. Hope this weekend will be productive for us both!
I like LibraryThing, but I think GoodReads is the most social. Good luck with your goals! I like how you crossed one out because it would be boring. I don’t have any time tomorrow, and only a little today, so I’m just making a few quick visits tonight and will be around more on Sunday to work on my list.
Thank you for reminding me to back up my blog! Great idea for a task, good luck with updating both of your blogs!
In wordpress, backing up your blog is SO easy, Kelsey. I should do it more often!
I like that you’ve divided your list into two groups. Helps to check the small things off when you have just a little time, but also serves as a reminder of the bigger tasks that may take more than a weekend to complete. Good luck!
That’s right, Maria. And I’ve been alternating a bit, too, so I’m not stuck with endless jobs all the time.
Nice goals! I like the idea of adding links to book reviews that are by the same author. I might have to do that
Hope you get to finish your list!
Thanks, Jessica!