Bloggiesta Wrap Up

I accomplished so much during this year's Bloggiesta! Although I did not get everything done off of my list, I got more done than I thought I would.

Here is what I accomplished:

• made my blog mobile friendly
•  Shadow of the Sun Review
• Graded my blog: Website grade: 91/100 Blog Grade:85/100 Twitter Grade:81/100
• The Replacement Review
• Posted the winner of my CSN Stores giveaway
• Updated my Review Archive page
• Updated Goodreads
• cleaned up reader
• cleaned up sidebars
• created a button for my blog for the Design Your Own Button Challenge. Now you can grab my button if you would like to:

<a href="http://swordsforfighting.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JA4kE.gif" alt='Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!' border=0 /></a><br><a href="http://www.mybannermaker.com/">Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!</a>

• Cleaned my inbox out using tips from the Email best practices and solutions mini-challenge 
• Completed the 10 Things A Blogger Should Not Do Challenge from Hannah at Word Lily (you can read my post about it here)
• finished all of the mini challenges 
• IMM Post
• added all of my reviews to Amazon
• added all of my reviews to Random Buzzers
• redesigned my blog.
• added an About Me page
• created a Facebook Page for Swords for Fighting
• added a Facebook button
• added a Twitter button

Wow! That is a  lot of stuff I did. I actually can't believe it. In total, I spent (according to my calculations) 11 hours and 23 minutes working on my blog during Bloggiesta. (Hopefully I do well on my midterms! Yikes!)

Here is the list of things I wanted to do but never got to:

• Read Soul Stalker
• update profile
• clean up tags
• change my twitter name to match my blog
• check for dead links
• change twitter and goodreads picture to match blogger picture
• create a ratings system
• get a custom domain name
• add all books in a series to reviews
• add a signature to each blog post (I just noticed it disappeared! It probably happened when I redesigned my blog.)

Maybe my goal will be to do one of these things each week until I finish all of them.

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Day 3

Last day of Bloggiesta has come and gone! Here is what I accomplished today:

• finished all of the mini challenges 
• IMM Post
• added all of my reviews to Amazon
• added all of my reviews to Random Buzzers
• redesigned my blog. Do you like it? Let me know what you like/ don't like about it. 
• added an About Me page
• created a Facebook Page for Swords for Fighting
• added a Facebook button
• added a Twitter button

I definitely did a lot today! I am burned out. Wrap up post will be coming soon!

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Day Two

What I did today:

•  Shadow of the Sun Review
• Graded my blog: Website grade: 88/100 Blog Grade:84/100 Twitter Grade:81/100
• The Replacement Review
• Posted the winner of my CSN Stores giveaway
• Updated my Review Archive page
• Updated Goodreads
• cleaned up reader
• cleaned up sidebars
• created a button for my blog for the Design Your Own Button Challenge. Now you can grab my button if you would like to:

<a href="http://swordsforfighting.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/JA4kE.gif" alt='Create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!' border=0 /></a><br><a href="http://www.mybannermaker.com/">Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!</a>

• Cleaned my inbox out using tips from the Email best practices and solutions mini-challenge 
• Completed the 10 Things A Blogger Should Not Do Challenge from Hannah at Word Lily (you can read my post about it here)

I had a pretty productive day! Hopefully I can finish everything off of my list that I posted at the beginning of Bloggiesta.

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: 10 Things Bloggers Should Not Do

Hannah from Word Lily is hosting this Bloggiesta challenge. Here are the rules:

1. Read the post, 10 Things Bloggers Should Not Do.
2. Rate yourself (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being muy excellente) on each point. How are you doing?
3. Brainstorm examples of what you can/will do to improve your ratings in those areas that could use improvement. And/or:
4. If you feel you’re doing particularly great in one area, share examples of how you’ve reached such excellence.

1. You Must Not Expect Results Overnight:
I think I am pretty good on this point. I never expected to get where it is today. I started Swords for Fighting because I wanted a place to keep track of the books I read. It turned into so much more than that, though. I have always blogged for myself because I like to do it.
Rating: 5/5

2. You Must Not Ignore Your Readers:
I try not to ignore my readers, but I know I can work on this. I do try to reply to every comment I get, but it is hard when my readers don't have an email I can respond to.
Rating: 3.5/5

3. You Must Not Scrape Another Bloggers Content:
I credit my sources, and I don't steal content from other bloggers. I am definitely good on this part.
Rating:5/5

4. You Must Not Expect Success Without Promoting: Many people think blogging is like setting up a shop at the road side and that all they need to do is wait for people to start finding them. Build and they will come, as the saying goes. This unfortunately is not true. Even if you have great content you’ll need to work your butt off getting people to visit your blog and read it.
I definitely need to promote more. One of the ways I am going to do this is by making a Facebook page for Swords for Fighting. I hope to have it up and running before Bloggiesta ends!
Rating: 2/5

5. You Must Not Be Another Blogger:
I try to be myself all the time.
Rating: 5/5

6. You Must Not Fail To Update Your Blog Regularly: You will see some bloggers telling you they want to be a problogger, only to leave their blog without updates for weeks. If you can’t commit to updating your blog regularly, why would you expect people to commit to reading it regularly?
I update almost everyday, so I have no problem here.
Rating: 5/5

7. You Must Not Ignore SEO:
I have no idea what SEO is, but I am going to learn all about it after this post!
Rating:1/5

8. You Must Not Ignore Networking:
I do a small amount of networking. I definitely need to do more.
Rating: 2/5


9. You Must Not Have An Unreadable/Unnavigable Site:
I think Swords for Fighting is easy to read and navigate through. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve it, let me know!
Rating: 4/5

10. You Must Not Throw Mud Around:
I definitely don't attack other bloggers. I think people who do that are petty. I know it happens, but I don't understand it.
Rating:5/5

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Day One

Here is what I accomplished today:

• I completed these Mini-Challenges: Setting Goals, Google Forms, Organize Thy Books,
• made my blog mobile friendly

That is all I did during day one. I did not complete much, but at least I accomplished a couple things. I am geared up for day two!

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Starting Line

Bloggiesta is back! I had so much fun doing this last year, and I accomplished so much! Unfortunately, midterms are coming up, so I have to focus on more on studying than my blog this weekend. I will still try to accomplish some of my goals.

Goals:

• Shadow of the Sun Review
• The Replacement Review
• Read Soul Stalker
• Post winner of CSN giveaway
• Update Book Reviews Page
• Update Goodreads
• clean up reader
• clean up sidebars
• participate in all of the mini challenges (8/8)
• Add reviews to Amazon, Random Buzzers
  
• Add About Me Page
• Make a Facebook for my blog
• update profile
• clean up tags
• change my twitter name to match my blog
• check for dead links
• update Paperback Swap wishlist
• make my blog mobile friendly
• change twitter and goodreads picture to match blogger picture
• create a button
• create a ratings system
• get a custom domain name
• website, blog, and twitter grader
• twitter button
• add all books in a series to reviews
• IMM post
  

I will probably add more goals as I think of them.

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta! Finish Line

Bloggiesta is now over. I have no idea how many hours I put in, but I know it was a lot!

Here is everything that I did:

• Catch up on reviews: I caught up all the way! I wrote 8 different reviews and scheduled them to be posted throughout the month The reviews that I wrote were: Looking For Alaska, English Trifle, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead-Tossed Waves, The Goose Girl, Beastly, Thirteen Reasons, and The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner



• updated my bookshelf on goodreads
  


• Redesigned my blog: I actually had a lot of fun with this!Not completely finished, but I think it is good enough for now


• cleaned up the sidebars


• participated in some of the mini-challenges: (5 in total) Write Your Blogging To-Do List, Your Review Policy, Bloggiesta RSS Mini-Challenge, Embracing Community, and It’s All About the Numbers


• Scheduled some posts: 11 posts!


• updated my review policy


• Added Pages to my blog


• Created a new email just for blogging


• Set up an RSS feed and added a RSS button for subscriptions


• Set up a Subscribe by Email option


• Posted my In My Mailbox post


• Started a Teaser Tuesday Post


• Created a Google Analytics account and made sure it was working


• Cleaned up labels


• Add a Favicon


• started to read Burned

Here is what I hoped to do but did not find the time to do so:

• Add reviews to goodreads/amazon


• clean up my reader


• add About Me page

I had a lot of fun. I will definitely try to participate next time around, too since I accomplished so much!

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta! Day 3

Day 1 and 2 have come and gone. I did not get as much done during Day 2 as I would have liked, but at least I accomplished some things.


Here is all I have done and hope to do:

• Catch up on reviews: So far I have written 3- Looking For Alaska, English Trifle, and The Forest of Hands and Teeth



• Add reviews to goodreads/amazon



• update bookshelf on goodreads



• possibly mess around with redesigning my blog a bit: I actually had a lot of fun with this!Not completely finished, but I think it is good enough for now



• clean up the sidebars



• participate in some of the mini-challenges: (4 so far) Write Your Blogging To-Do List, Your Review Policy, Bloggiesta RSS Mini-Challenge, and Embracing Community



• schedule some posts: 6 so far



• update review policy



• clean up reader



• add Pages to my blog



• add About Me page



• Create a new email just for blogging



• Set up an RSS feed and added a RSS button for subscriptions



• Set up a Subscribe by Email option



• Post In My Mailbox post



• Start Teaser Tuesday Post



• Create a Google Analytics account: (hopefully it worked!)



• Check if Google Analytics worked: says it is receiving data at the moment :)


• Create Google Docs for IMM, Teaser Tuesday, WoW, Book Blogger Hop and Mega Swagbucks
• Add a Favicon

I am going to try really hard to finish everything. I do not know if I will be able to do it, but we will see.

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Update #2!

Today has been slower than yesterday. I have not really done a lot.

Today I have:

• Wrote and scheduled my English Trifle review




• Created Google Docs for IMM, Teaser Tuesday, WoW, Book Blogger Hop and Mega Swagbucks



• The Forest of Hands and Teeth Review



• Scheduled Swagbucks post and Book Blogger Hop post for Friday

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta! Day 2

Day 1 was a success, so I am on to day 2!

Here are my original goals/to-do list and some new ones:

• Catch up on reviews: So far I have written 1


• Add reviews to goodreads/amazon


• update bookshelf on goodreads


• possibly mess around with redesigning my blog a bit: I actually had a lot of fun with this!Not completely finished, but I think it is good enough for now


• clean up the sidebars


• participate in some of the mini-challenges: 3 so far!


• schedule some posts: I have scheduled Looking For Alaska review and Waiting on Wednesday post


• update review policy


• clean up reader


• add Pages to my blog


• add About Me page


• Create a new email just for blogging


• Set up an RSS feed and added a RSS button for subscriptions


• Set up a Subscribe by Email option


• Write and schedule In My Mailbox post


• Start Teaser Tuesday Post


• Create a Google Analytics account: (hopefully it worked!)


• Check if Google Analytics worked: says it is receiving data at the moment :)
• Create Google Docs for IMM, Teaser Tuesday, WoW, Book Blogger Hop and Mega Swagbucks

Now to start trying to accomplish more!

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta Update!

I have accomplished a lot so far!

This is what I have done:

• Changed my blog layout and design


• Added Pages to my blog: Home, Book Reviews, Contact Me, and Review Policy (I'm actually surprised I figured out how to do this!)


• Participated in the following Bloggiesta Mini-Challenges: Write Your Blogging To-Do List, Your Review Policy, and Bloggiesta RSS Mini-Challenge

• Wrote a Review Policy
  

• Cleaned up the sidebars a bit


• Created a new email just for blogging :)


• Looking For Alaska review (scheduled)


• Waiting On Wednesday post (scheduled)
  

• Set up an RSS feed and added a RSS button for subscriptions


• Set up a Subscribe by Email option


• started some posts: In My Mailbox and Teaser Tuesday

• Create a Google Analytics account (hopefully it worked!)

I have done a lot, but I have only written one review. I will attempt to focus on reviews tomorrow.

How is everyone else doing?

Swords are for fighting,

Blog Layout

I thought this would be one of the last things I would do during Bloggiesta, but as you can see, I have changed my layout using the new Template Designer on Blogger. As of right now, it is a work in progress, but I am curious...What do you think of it? Do you have any suggestions? Criticism? Anything?

Please let me know!

Swords are for fighting,

Bloggiesta!

Bloggiesta is an event where your goal is to improve your blog! You can find out all the details through the link.

Here are some of my goals/to-do list:

• Catch up on reviews
• Add reviews to goodreads/amazon
• update bookshelf on goodreads
• possibly mess around with redesigning my blog a bit
• clean up the sidebars
• participate in some of the mini-challenges
• schedule some posts
• update review policy
• clean up reader

I will probably be updating this post throughout the event by adding more things I want to do!

Anyone else participating?

Swords are for fighting,