Fifteen hours, one cup of coffee* and one sleepless night later, Bloggiesta is over. Thank you so much, Natasha, for organizing this fantastic event. And thank you to all the bloggers who hosted the great mini-challenges!In some ways, I feel like I completely blew it, as I only managed to write one review and start two others (and wrote no other posts!) and didn’t even finish replying to all my comments. However, I did accomplish lots of other things:
Mini-challenges (9 out of 12):
- I updated my Google Alerts and created Technorati watchlists (Emily’s mini-challenge at Emily’s Reading Room).
- I updated my top 10 posts (as well as just about every other post on my blog!) (Jen’s mini-challenge at Devourer of Books).
- I ran my blog through Website Grader (Ruth’s mini-challenge at Bookish Ruth) and my website grade rose from 92% to 93% as a result of completing the Bloggiesta.
- I commented on approximately 20 blogs (Jill’s mini-challenge at Fizzy Thoughts).
- I cleaned up my Google Reader and added categories for the first time (Rebecca’s mini-challenge at The Book Lady’s Blog).
- I now have a blogging buddy and will hopefully find more (Amy’s mini-challenge at My Friend Amy).
- I registered with BlogCatalog and updated my profile on a couple of other directories (Lynn’s mini-challenge at Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile).
- I spend a HUGE amount of time fixing anchor text (Michelle’s mini-challenge at GalleySmith).
- I now have a gravatar (Trish’s mini-challenge at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’), though I still need to figure out how to create a favicon!
- I updated my challenge posts (thank you to Sandra at Fresh Ink Books for inspiring me to do this).
- I updated my “similar covers” posts (in some cases replacing images with larger versions; I also added a couple of images to my collection of bowler hat covers).
- I went through my entire blog and replace all the “click here” links with proper anchoring text (the only ones I didn’t bother changing were links for obsolete giveaways).
- Using the Link Evaluator add-on for Firefox (which I found out about from Wendy at caribousmom), I double-checked all the links on my blog. This also helped me spot missing links and quite a few typos!
OK, I need to go to sleep now. I’ll do the rounds and comment on folks’ wrap-up posts next week!
*This was only my second cup of coffee in the last 17 years, so it was very effective for keeping me up all night!
Edited to add:
If you’ve read this post before and wonder why it looks completely different, I just fixed the formatting, not the content!
I am out and about this morning visiting Bloggiesta participants and seeing what they did with the challenge. I like your blog and that you review books written by women fiction authors. Some of my favorite books fall under that category!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day! Looks like you had fun with the challenge. I did too. :)
It sounds like you got a lot done. I'm impressed!
ReplyDeleteAw, way to be. I think you did get a lot done even if it's not so obvious. That's alright!!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget to check out the YA carnival for you or someone you know who loves YA books.
-Lauren
Wow! Sounds exhausting but productive! Take a well-deserved break! Thanks for the wrap-up post -- there are lots of good bits in here that I'm going to come back and look at later!!! : )
ReplyDeleteThe challenges were definitely the best part of bloggiesta -- suggestions for things that you never knew you should do! which is how I got a lot of challenge done but hardly anything from my original to-do list, heh.
ReplyDeleteWow you got a lot done, thats awesome!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great challenge and a lot of fun.
TTFN!
Natalie :0)
Hey...your banner never used to say "with a focus on fiction writing by women" ... did it?
ReplyDeleteI am also not a coffee drinker. My last cup was in college.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you got an amazing amount done though.
Finally catching up on my 1000 unread blog posts!!! Congrats on finishing this event and doing it in style...you accomplished a lot!
ReplyDeleteFinally catching up with Bloggiesta! Thank you so much for participating! You really did get a lot done and your blog is better for it. Hurray!
ReplyDeleteSheila, thanks for visiting my blog and for the encouragement. And congrats on managing to comment on everyone's Bloggiesta wrap-up post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy. I was a bit bummed that I didn't get more posts written, but I am pleased with what I did manage to accomplish.
Thanks, Lauren, I did check out the YA Carnival!
Yay, I'm glad to hear that, Jenners! And thank you!
Nicola, me too! The mini-challenges were fun (and very useful), but I did spend much more time on them than on anything else.
Thanks, Natalie. I'm looking forward to the next Bloggiesta!
Brogan, you're right! I changed that as a result of one of the mini-challenges (which I didn't finish). I'm just a bit worried that folks will assume that means I mostly read "women's fiction," whereas I mean that I read fiction of all types written by women...
Lenore, it does have the advantage that one cup really has an effect (for "emergencies" such as all-night challenges)!
Wendy, congrats on catching up and thanks for the encouragement!
Thanks again, Natasha! As you can see, I'm behind on comments too!