Bloggiesta: Starting Line
March 30, 2012 53 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 & Cook blog and De Boekblogger (BB) – which is my Dutch-language book blog.
Here’s what’s in the planning….
Small, quick items:
- DONE – Back-up blog (LW, BB). In WordPress, go to Dashboard, Tools, Export, choose All (first option).
- DONE – Send in my entry for Kimbofo’s Triple Tuesday feature (LW)
- DONE – Play around with WordPress themes and get new one (LW) This is what my old theme looked like:
- DONE – Update challenge posts (LW)
- DONE – Add links in reviews to reviews by same author (LW)
- DONE – Find books to offer on Bookmooch
Items taking more time:
- DONE – Do at least 5 mini-challenges / old mini-challenges (LW, BB) How to write reviews faster and I wrote a review in the process; Sidebar help, deleted some buttons and I put all my challenge buttons in a separate Challenge page; I signed up for a blog event (24h readathon); mobilize – here is the post that I wrote on my phone; I changed my facebook and other share buttons on my blog posts; comment on other people’s posts.
- Look into copyright (LW)
- DONE – Update Reviews page with links (LW, BB)
- DONE – Shelfari – Update reviews. I added 20 reviews to books – copied over from my blog. A lot of work but it’s done.
Write posts:
- DONE – New Arrivals (new books)
- 4 reviews from Indie Lit Awards – DONE: King, DONE: Cline, DONE: Ness, and Grossman
- DONE – The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
- DONE –The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
- DONE – Every Last One by Anna Quindlen
- DONE – Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
- More Than You Can Say by Paul Torday
- Gij Zult bloggen by Ernst Pfauth
- DONE – A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French (from a friend, for book group)
- March overview post (LW)
- Bread baking post (LW)
- List post of translated 2012 books in NL (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?
About Leeswammes
Leeswammes' Blog 
I like how you added the e-mail above the commenting box…I’ve noticed problems with comments not showing up in some blogs I visit.
(Mostly Word Press, which surprised me, but I’ve also discovered that comments are sent to Spam when I don’t want them there, so I regularly check my spam inbox).
I’m cleaning up sidebars and pages and rearranging things. My favorite part, of course, is visiting blogs…and at the end, changing my headers and backgrounds. I used to change the themes all the time, but I’ve finally arrived at a favorite that works for me.
Have fun!
Laurel-Rain, since recently, wordpress (also) seems to have issues with commenting, it’s so annoying!
Have a good bloggiesta!
Sounds like a productive weekend in store, Judith. Good luck!
My blog definitely needs work — I mentioned that I am not officially involved in Bloggiesta but I think I will have some time tonight and tomorrow to get some things accomplished.
Sounds good, Suzanne. I think the main thing is to set yourself some dedicated time to work on your blog. Have fun!
That’s a big list! Good luck! I need to back up my blog too!
Thanks, Mary. Backing up the blog is quite simple in WordPress so that took just a few minutes.
Good luck Judith! I’m tempted to join in as I have about 6 book reviews to write as well as new arrival posts etc. Gah, need to find me some motivation 😦
Boof, Bloggiesta IS motivation! I had a few “jobs” that I’d been putting off but with Bloggiesta I happily crossed them off my list. Join in! You don’t have to spend all weekend on it. Just as much as you feel happy to do.
Hey Judith, I am finally making my way over to you. You are making progress – NICE! I am just not investigating the mini challenges. Cant wait to see all the cool things you do with your blog! 😀
Sheila, it’s going well indeed! Hope you’re making progress too.
I am impressed with how much you’ve accomplished already!
Thanks, Lola. But my day started at 9am Dutch time = 4am New York time… That helps.
Wow, you’ve been busy already. I’m still visiting the kick-off posts. Oh right, you are many hours ahead of me!
Since you posted the answer to ‘back up the blog’, and I’m on WP too, I’m going to do that one first. 🙂
Have a productive weekend.
Leslie, backing up the blog is so easy on WP! Hope you get a lot done.
Yeah, they make the text part easy, but I discovered I have to do the images manually. 😦 Maybe I’ll tackle that later in the day and listen to an audiobook while I do it… should be a fairly mindless task. Grumble.
You have already finished several tasks, good for you! This is my first time participating. I’m a little overwhelmed but I’m just going to start with something easy and move on from there!
Good luck with the rest of your list and have fun, Judith!
Amy, if you do one thing at the time, you’ll be fine. 🙂 Hope you’ll enjoy your first Bloggiesta.
Bread baking post!! I like the sound of that. 🙂 You’ve got a lot of great things on your list–and thanks for reminding me to back up my blog! That’s a GREAT item for anyone’s bloggiesta list. I won’t be able to “officially” start participating until later in the event but I can’t wait!
Trish, yes, the bread baking is my one attempt at “eating home-made food”. It never worked out to do one or more days like you. 😦
You’re doing a fantastic job already! Wonderful! Seems like a lot of people are looking for new themes, myself included. Good luck and thanks for joining in Bloggiesta!
Stumped or need more to-do for Bloggiesta? Check out the New Mini-Challenges and the Past Mini-Challenges to find more!
Thanks, 1stdaughter. Hope you get some work done yourself!
Looks like you’re doing well getting through your goals.
Thanks, Chris. I got a lot done on Friday.
Wow. You have been super busy. I think I’m going to join in. I can’t tomorrow, but I can work this evening and Sunday.
Impressed by how much you’ve done already. I really need to link my reviews to Shelfari and Goodreads.
HAve fun!
Picky girl, hope you did decide to join in and get some things done. Not only is it useful, it’s fun too!
Glad to hear you’ve completed my challenge! Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog, and best of luck with bloggiesta.
Thanks, Melanie.
Hi there Lee! You do have a lot on your plate here. The Bloggiesta actually came as a great [and timely] exercise for us, since we really do a lot of blog-related things during the weekend. However, this time around we get to be more goal-specific and visit more blogs and make new friends in the process. Can’t wait to see how your ‘new look’ would be like here in your blog. Putting it apart and building it up again sounds pretty scary, truth be told. 🙂
Thanks for your comment, myragarcesbacsal. Bloggiesta is ideal for making new friends. Have fun!
Wow! I’m impressed. I didn’t sign up but it’s a rainy day here so I hope to participate ‘from afar’. There’s a lot one can learn from reading blogs this weekend.
Good luck!
Mari, yes, there is so much you can do on a blog. I’m learning a lot too!
Gosh, you’ve got a lot done already! I need to get back to the several piles of laundry from holiday now so I’m afraid Bloggiesta won’t be as productive as I’d hoped.
Kate, I didn’t do all that much today, I think. This morning was sleeping in and shopping, so only this afternoon I did a few things. Yesterday was good, though. Laundry goes in the washing machine… it’ll do all the work for you! 🙂
Wow, you already worked hard, Judith. Congratulations. I am not officially participating, but all afternoon I worked on my categories and tags… But I am still not satisfied with them.
Nadine, hopefully you have some more time to work on the tags etc. It’s boring work.
Looks like you’ve done a lot already, even if you’re saying you haven’t. Keep it up. Things are looking great over here. 🙂
Your blog looks lovely. I feel happy, as if I’ve done good work today, too.
Now I need to find someone who has come up with a good way to organize book reviews….
Good luck with that, Debnance! There’s always more work to do, isn’t there?
You’ve tackled LOTS! Go you! Plus you still have one more day to go!
Thanks, Jacinda. I hope to get a lot more done this final day.
Hmmm… maybe I should do the challenge for how to write reviews faster. I’ve spent most of Bloggiesta writing reviews! You’re crossing a lot off from your to do list. Keep up the good work.
Shonda, I have so many reviews to write (as you can see) – so I will use this trick
I started with the big ticket items on my to-do list, got stuck and then did a few small ones to boost enthusiasm 🙂
I’ve surprised myself with the hours I’ve found – given a newborn baby to look after 🙂
Have fun! I like the chocolate background you have here.
Dee, very good that you manage to get so much done with a newborn baby in the house! Hope today, Sunday, will be a good day for you too.
I’m impressed you can maintain three blogs! Good for you! But if you’re always as productive as it looks like you’ve been this weekend, then you’re one organized woman 🙂 Pass some of that this way, please?
“Only” two blogs, novalibrarymom! I’m really marathon blogging at the moment, normally, I’m not that active. Here’s some good thoughts your way…
You’re doing great! I now need to go read your review of The Imperfectionists – or is it up yet? I thought it excellent.
Care, no, I’m saving my reviews for now – I’ll post them one a day over the next few weeks or so (when I have no other posts). I didn’t like The Imperfectionists quite so much. It was too much of a short-story book for me.
And now, I also need to look into how you added your email address to the Please-Comment-If-You-Are-Having trouble… that is editable? (I have wp, too. Off I go, if I don’t figure it out, I’ll be back to bug you…)
That’s in Dashboard, Settings, Discussion (towards the bottom). Good luck!
FOUND IT! 🙂
You crossed so many things off the list! Congratulations! You’re doing an amazing job!
Thanks, Lu.