I was SO looking forward to this edition of Bloggiesta. When I first signed up, I had grand plans to do all sorts of writing and blog improvements over the three days. I viewed that weekend as sacred - I would have nothing else on my agenda, except for blogging. Unfortunately, as the weekend arrived other important and urgent items crept into my weekend plans and my Bloggiesta goals dwindled. Considering how little I have been blogging lately, I am happy that I was able to find a little dedicated time for Bloggiesta.
So how did I do with the remaining goals?
- WRITE! I haven't written a post for my business blog all month. I have a couple of posts in draft and another forming in my head. In addition, I have been asked to guest post on two other websites. I need to spend the weekend writing.
- Yeah, well, that didn't go as planned. I got derailed by some bad news regarding a conference presentation proposal, followed by some Treasurer work for my building taking longer than expected. The guest posts did not get done. I did get a post up on my business blog, which is more than I have done in a month. It's progress, but not as much as I would like.
- Clean up my categories on my business blog.
- That got done the first night. WordPress made it really easy to get it done quickly.
- Participate in a mini-challenge. In particular, I want to check out the WordPress v. Blogger mini-challenge hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea.
- I got this done first thing Saturday morning. I then checked out the other mini-challenges and wound up completing 5 more:
- Tips for Setting Up Guidelines and Policies (always important!)
- Photo Copyright: Bloggers Doing Right By The Graphics We Use! (helpful for finding more sources for free/inexpensive photos and graphics)
- Six Techniques To Revitalize Your Old Content (some great suggestions)
- Grade Yourself! (Using a website grader - no surprises, but good to check)
- How To Use Evernote (Got me using it for more than clipping websites, plus I learned about The Secret Weapon!)
- Improve the visual appearance of both blogs.
- Sadly, didn't get to this at all. Next time... or it's something I'll do over Christmas.
- Ramp-up new editors for the PMI-Agile Community of Practice blog I edit and schedule a few more posts.
- I got the ramp-up part done just before midnight on Sunday. Whew! Just under the wire.
- Added during the weekend: Put "Popular Posts" on my sidebar, thanks to 6 Techniques To Revitalize Old Content mini-challenge.
- Didn't get to this. However, I did revitalize a couple of really old posts in the new blog post written for my business blog. So, I still put that mini-challenge toward my original goals. I consider that a win.
In the end, it was a productive weekend, even if it wasn't as productive (for blogging) as I had hoped. This was my 3rd Bloggiesta. I still find it fun and helpful to virtually hang out with a cool group of book bloggers and write, improve my blogs or just swap tips and tricks. I would highly recommend the experience to any blogger.
