When I started Bloggiesta last weekend, I mentioned that I was doing a lot of thinking about things and not a lot of activity. In the end I did more than think though! The things I was thinking about included what to do about my Index of Reads, my About Me page, my badges, the blogroll and a domain change.
I have pretty much decided that I am going to move my index of reads here, and once I get my new layout set up will have a tab for that. Hopefully at least. Similarly for my about me page. It is also my intention to have a tab for the Terry Pratchett Challenge.
I didn't really get around to doing something about my Twitter badges, or my facebook badge. Actually, they both used to work so I am not sure why they aren't working now.
I am still seriously considering getting my own domain name, and I think I have come up with a name that isn't too expensive but also not too far removed from my current blog name. I did ask a couple of questions in my original post, and only got a couple of responses. For people who have changed over to their own domain, people mentioned that domain name is better than a .blogspot address because it looks more professional, is more fun, and gives more control. Anyone have any more reasons for or against to add?
So, what did I do?
I spent a fair amount of time cleaning out my blogroll and cleaning out my Bloglines account. It was actually a bit hard, because I removed some links from my feed reader for blogs that I have been following for years but who have been dormant for a while. I subscribe to far too many feeds though so it was time to be ruthless. I still have my biggest category of feeds to clean through, but I will get to it eventually.
I also did quite a few of the mini-challenges. I updated my About Me blurb, backed up my blog, amongst others.
The mini challenge I wanted to chat about was Pam from MotherReader's comment challenge. The idea was to keep track of your comments, and to comment on at least 5 blogs a day, with the idea that by January 28th you would have commented on 100 blogs.
So it turns out that I don't have a problem commenting on blogs. I try to get around and comment on all the Library Loot participants blogs each week, and also on the people who participate in the ABC's of Historical Fiction. Other than that I just comment on whatever strikes my fancy. In fact, I have barely been blog hopping this week, and my feed reader is getting bigger and bigger, but I have still managed to comment on more than the 5 blogs suggested. I haven't ever tried to keep track of my commenting before. In fact, it may be that I have the opposite problem - commenting too much. In the end I commented on just over 100 blogs up until Thursday. Just call me blabbermouth! I spent a lot of time on Bloggiesta last weekend, and overall I am happy with the results. There will be more results of all that contemplation to come!
I still haven't wrote a wrap-up post to Bloggiesta. I was supposed to be working on Bloggiesta throughout the week but became sidetracked by school. You have great goals for your blog.
ReplyDeleteLove the comic!
Better late then never right? I actually began the Bloggiesta late myself, but managed to get a few things done, and I continue to work on my blog since I m new to the community. This week I managed to figure out how to change the template from two to three columns. By the way I love your layout.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool idea this bloggiesta is. On the url thing, that's hard. My author site has a url, and it is actually a wordpress theme, so it's made for a blog, but I keep it linked to my regular blogspot blog because I'm paranoid to make the leap. Oh, I also like my old header, too. But Booksmugglers did it last year. They may have posted about it!
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely advantages of having your own domain as compared to associating your work with others. You get your naming rights – registered with your own preferred *.com name and it’s shorter then say sitename.blogspot.com. You’ve basically don’t need to type the blogspot part of it which makes it simple for other users. Having your own domain name also means you can use it for email affirming your domain name and it’s also portable, which means you can carry your domain name to any other service provider. Say you now have DN with godaddy and you want to switch to network solutions, you don’t have to change to a different domain name in order to do that. Ofcourse the drawback is that there is a yearly fee to maintain and keep your own domain but it’s cheap(under $10 per year). I like readingadvetures as a domain name because it suits you, hope it is still available for you to grab. I had a godaddy domain and I think they’re good with technical support 24/7 so you can count on them at all times. . Good luck Marg.
ReplyDeleteGood work, Marg! I'm so proud of you :-) Way to be productive!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog as for me. It would be great to read more concerning this matter. Thanx for sharing that material.
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