Bloggiesta!

Natasha over at Maw Books put together this fantastic Bloggiesta for this weekend and I decided to take part. The idea is:

The Bloggiesta will focus on blog content, improving/cleaning up your blog or working on your social network profiles.  I’m pretty open on what you can do during the bloggiesta but reading actually won’t count!  I know, I know.   The point is to catch up instead of adding another book to the “to be reviewed” pile.

There are lots of things to do:

• Write book, movie, TV, product reviews.  Any reviews really.
• Write backup posts for a rainy day.
• Write that great post idea from three months back.
• Work on series posts.
• Write guest posts.
• Put out invitations for guest posts.
• Conduct and edit author interviews.
• Create template posts for your future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so you can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities
• Clean up your tags, archives, books reviewed list, etc.
• Improve your blog template, clean up sidebars, add a favicon, install those plugins that you’ve been meaning to do.
• Add or edit your about me page, review policy, create landing pages (for example – an about me for Twitter readers page) or any other pages you might have.
• Any bloggy type housekeeping that you’ve been neglecting.
• Clean up and update your challenge lists.  Link up your posts with hosts.
• Make sure all of your social network profiles are up to date.  Brand yourself through those profiles with color scheme, images, etc.
• Go get a gravatar.
• Visit the Blogging Tips group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve your blog.
• Work on any specialized projects that you may have going.

So I’ve been working for around two hours so far (some yesterday, some this morning) cleaning up around here and in my blog reader.  I had almost 400 feeds in my reader and I’ve pared it down to a much more manageable 225 (and still counting) and am working on updating my sidebar.  I’ve also started several posts I’ve been meaning to write, with the intention of having them ready for brain-dead days when I can’t think of anything to post.   It was great having posts ready to go while I was on vacation – I could get spoiled to that!!  Look for more updates here as I continue to work.  Come Bloggiesta with me!!!

***UPDATE ONE***

I have now separated all my feeds into categories and put the feeds in their correct category. I have Author, Book, Food, Photography, Scrapbooking, and Miscellaneous Feeds.  So nice and clean and smooth! I love it!  Now I’ll just through one last time and make sure it’s perfect.  Oh, and read all the 1961 posts I have left to go.  It’s kinda rough to do this directly after vacation, but I guess it’s as good a time as any to get all caught up!

***UPDATE TWO***

Well, I got my sidebar prettyfied.  Next up will be linking up the books with their reviews.  And I’m thinking of instituting a new tradition around here…Forgotten Fridays…when I’ll post those reviews I somehow forgot to write.  That should take forever.

***UPDATE THREE***

I hate to admit it, but I petered out.  I guess I’m still tired from the ride home from vacation.  I hate long drives; they make me so tired!  But, I’d like to say here, since it came up in another post I saw somewhere, can’t remember, but if anyone would be interested in 1) doing a guest post for me or 2) me doing a guest post for YOU let me know! I’d love to do either one.

***UPDATE FOUR***

I am down to 134 posts to read in my reader!!! Squeee!!! I also completed Ruth’s Mini-challenge and graded my blog.  I got a 95!  Not too shabby!  Since WordPress.com is stupid and won’t let me use scripts, I guess you’ll have to take my word for it. *grumble*  Off to get the kids ready for church.  Happy Father’s Day!!!