This is my second Bloggiesta and it seems like just yesterday I completed my first. Time flies! Experience has taught me though to be more concise with my goals and expectations for the amazing weekend. That way I can enjoy more of the challenges and social aspects of Bloggiesta. So, without further adieu, my list of goals for the weekend:

• Schedule at least 14 Posts.
• Post my reviews to the following sites: Goodreads, LibraryThing, Indiebound, Amazon, Kidlitosphere, Book Army, B&N, etc.
• Set up a Calendar on Google. Done!
  
• Organize my Author Interviews & Websites into a separate page.
• Gather a List of Bloggers I love and post a separate page.
• Create a Book News Page.
• Create an Awards Page.

Good luck to everyone involved! Make sure to enjoy some fantastic food, cross off some goals, and enjoy the great company! I’ll see you around!
Make sure to check out my past Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: It’s Not Cheating, for those of you in need of a “back-up” list, it’s perfect!

Also, for those of you wondering, what in the heck is Bloggiesta? It’s basically a weekend long event that bloggers (primarily book bloggers, but anyone can really) join together to focus on “sprucing-up” their blogs. It could be anything from adding buttons, writing posts, requesting guest posts or cleaning up tags & categories. Truly, the sky is the limit and it’s all about your blog for an entire weekend. Interested in joining in? Checkout the sign-up post over at Maw Books Blog for all the details.

Yes, I know, “wonderfulness” is not a word, oh well! I have to say I feel like I’ve climbed a mountain with a mariachi band in tow. It was a blast and I feel like I was able to accomplish more than I ever thought I would. Whew!

Here’s the short list:

• Hours Spent: 26
• Mini-challenges completed: 14
• Comments Left: 50+ (I think it was more, but I stopped keeping track.)
• Favorite Part: Feeling of accomplishing SO much!
• Least Favorite: Not taking enough time to write.

My long list of all I did:

• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• My favicon IS working! That’s was over at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finished my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. And boy did it help! My GR is amazing now!
• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well. I’ve actually commented on well-over 20 new blogs and more than 50 total this weekend.
• Got listed at Kidlitosphere! Wohoo! Thanks to this little challenge at The Infant Bibliophile. And set up my button!
• Set up my Google Alerts thanks to Emily at Emily’s Reading Room!
• Completed the Anchors Away mini-challenge at GalleySmith’s site and know it’s been helping, my site is actually showing up in a Google Search now!
• Had my site graded and only received a 78…again. I’m thinking I’ll work on this for next Bloggiesta again. Thanks though Bookish Ruth!
• The Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader this has been really fun! I plan on keeping it up past Bloggiesta through the end of her challenge.
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. I’ve actually set up an extra months worth so far, but I’d really like to have more. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Set up an RSS email feed option as well as added some new pretty buttons for them.
• I’m set up and ready to go in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• Made my blogging buddies “official”, learned all about that from Amy!
• Fixed my contact page. I think. If you notice any problems try and let me know, I’d really appreciate it!
• Chatted with tons of great new friends in Twitter land!

What I didn’t get done and am still going to be working on:

• Believe it or not, I did not finish my own cheat sheet! I did get a lot of it put together, but I still need to do some tweaking.
• Jenn had a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I wanted to take advantage of. Alas, I will be working on this one as time goes forward.
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts. This means I will be up typing away this week, but that’s probably okay since The Baker is still studying away for his Bar Exam.
• Update Goodreads, Glue, and Amazon with reviews.
• Clean up my archive page.

All in all I feel really great about all I was able to accomplish. I can always write more and that’s the large majority of what I didn’t get to. The technical stuff I’m really happy about and it was great to have such wonderful resources available to get through it all, as well as everyone on Twitter. Next time around I think I’d like to see more about what I didn’t do great on: writing, more on grading your website and how to improve visibility. I also think it might be fun to have a challenge to see how many review we can get transfered to sites like amazon, glue, goodreads, etc. It was all great though!

Thanks again to Natasha at Maw Books Blog for organizing Bloggiesta, getting all the mini-challenges together and gathering all the wonderful prizes that will be awarded. It’s been a fabulous weekend and I’m looking forward to it again in June!

Here it is, Day 3, wow! This really has been a whirlwind of a great adventure! Let’s start off with all the fabulous things I’ve been able to accomplish:

• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• Make sure my favicon keeps working, it comes and goes like it’s visiting other sites or something. That’s at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finish my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. That’s the first thing to get going! Yay! I did it!
• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Okay, so I just keep adding and adding, but Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well.
• Got listed at Kidlitosphere! Wohoo! Thanks to this little challenge at The Infant Bibliophile.
• Set up my Google Alerts thanks to Emily at Emily’s Reading Room!
• Completed the Anchors Away mini-challenge at GalleySmith’s site and know it’s been helping, my site is actually showing up in a Google Search now!
• Had my site graded and only received a 78…again. I’m thinking I’ll work on this for next Bloggiesta again. Thanks though Bookish Ruth!

What I want to accomplish today:

• Keep going with the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, yesterday I made about 20 comments at all new sites I’d never commented at before and I’d like to keep that up. It has been really fun!
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. I’ve actually set up a few so far, but I’d really like to have more. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts.
• Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Set up my Kidlitosphere button! I just found out today that I’ve been added to the site, which also helps to knock off another challenge!
• Believe it or not, I need to work on my own cheat sheet and get a little more organized that way!
• I’m really interested in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• I need to make my blogging buddies “official”, learn more from Amy! Done! Wohoo!
• Clean up my archive page.

Wow! That’s a lot to do today, but I think I can manage to get quite a lot of it done. If not, I’ll just keep going through the week. Thanks again to Natasha at Maw Books for organizing this event, it has been fabulous!

On a side note, I’d like to mention that Kristen over at Bookworming in the 21st Century is featuring yours truly! If you have a minute, take a look!

Well, here goes day two of Bloggiesta! Day one was fabulous even if I feel like I spent most of the day on cleaning out my Google Reader (and it’s still not done, almost). Hopefully today I’ll be able to accomplish quite a bit since I have no kiddos to keep track of for the most part. I do have to make a quick run to the library and to the store, but the rest of the day will be spent with my eyes glued to the screen. Here’s what’s on the agenda for today:

• Keep going with the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, yesterday I made about 20 comments at all new sites I’d never commented at before and I’d like to keep that up. It was really fun!
• Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting.
• Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Make sure my favicon keeps working, it comes and goes like it’s visiting other sites or something. That’s at Trish’s site for those of you interested.
• Finish my Google Reader with Rebecca’s mini-challenge on how to get things under control. That’s the first thing to get going! Yay! I did it!
• Set up a few more feature spotlights. If you’re interested in participating just let me know!
• Write at least this weeks worth of posts.
• If I get done with that I’ll refer to my first day’s list and go from there.

Just Added:

• Over at Farm Lane Books Blog Jackie is hosting a super-easy mini-challenge that will be a life saver in the event you lose your blog sometime. I did it in a matter of seconds, honestly, it took longer to write the follow-up comment. Check it out and back up your blog!
• Great way to get your site organized: Label and categorize your posts! Check out Beth’s post at Beth Fish Read’s and start labeling. I was lucky enough to start doing this from the get go and man does it make a difference!
• Checked out my deadlinks with Karin at Karin’s Book Nook. Great reference material for future use as well!
• Okay, so I just keep adding and adding, but Jill’s comment challenge coincided nicely with Mother Reader’s and I was able to complete that as well.

Good luck to everyone participating and I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around! If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late, go do it!

So, here it is! Bloggiesta! Wohoo! I have a long list of what I want to accomplish and a pretty free weekend ever since I informed The Baker of my voluntary exile behind a computer screen for the duration. First things first, mini-challenges. There are so many, including the one I am hosting that you definitely need to check out if you are at all interested in saving time. I don’t think I will be able to get to them all, but here are a few I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth into:

• I’m already in for the Comment Challenge hosted by Mother Reader, I just need to sign up on Mr.Linky.
• Believe it or not, I need to work on my own cheat sheet and get a little more organized that way!
• Definitely going to check out Pam’s mini-challenge on copyrighting, I’ve already seen some of my images and words dragged places I don’t want them.
• I’m really interested in Kristen’s blogging mentor program.
• Even if my site is relatively new I really don’t want to lose any of it. I’ve never had this problem with past blogs, but I’ve never used WordPress before so who’s to say it can’t happen? So, I’m heading over to Jackie’s post on backing up your blog at some point.
• And who doesn’t need an excuse to have posts saved for a rainy day? Jenn has a great post all about creating 10 Post ideas that I’m going to take advantage of!
• Done!!! YAY! I highly recommend doing this, so easy: I’ve really, and I mean really got to figure out my favicon thingy. It’s all added but for some reason, not working. So, that’s on the list over at Trish’s site.
• I need to make my blogging buddies “official”, learn more from Amy!
• Listed a few places, but could probably use some more. This is where The Infant Bibliophile comes in..
• Boy do I need to clean up my feedreader! Rebecca has got an excellent post on how to get things under control and I’m going to take full advantage of it.

That’s the list from all the places I plan to go this weekend, it may be more I just have to see how much I can get done. Here’s the list I want to accomplish all on my own:

• Get my business cards set up and ordered.
• Manage and set up all the reading challenges I plan on doing this year.
• Set up a few more features I want to have lined up and ready to go.
• Write at least 5 review posts.
• Clean up my archive page.

Those are just a few things, but I’m already getting worried so I think I’ll stop there for now. If I get it all done, maybe I’ll treat myself to a new book! Either way I think this is going to be a great weekend and one where I will be able to accomplish A LOT! I’m loving Bloggiesta and if you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late, go do it!

I’m so excited to have the opportunity to host a Mini-Challenge for the 2nd Edition Bloggiesta put together by Natasha of Maw Books.

My blog was relatively new when I initially hosted this mini-challenge. But even then I knew how important it was to keep a back-up “cheat sheet” for all the little bits of random information that can pile up before your very eyes. When I started out, my intention was to write reviews and do a few features, but oh how they can pile up when you get bogged down with the “little things”. And I’m not talking about doing the dishes or watching the kids, although those I can’t really control. But here’s something you can control: A CHEAT SHEET!

Your assignment: Create a cheat sheet for your blog.

Your cheat sheet could contain url’s, links, and html code or it could just be a template that you use every time you want to write a review. It’s also a good idea to have one available as a text file on your computer and another as a Google Doc so you can access it online if needed.  The great thing about having it set up this way is that it’s searchable.  If you want to refer someone to a book review or a post that you wrote a year ago, you don’t have to search your blog every single time you’re looking for the URL.  Rather, you can just do a CTRL-F in your cheat sheet and have the URL in seconds. I’ve created a “mock cheat sheet” of some simple headings you can use to get started, but I suggest starting your own page just for your site. Use tabs you already have set up in your blog as an easy guide and list any documentation under each heading.

Here are a few questions to think about when creating a cheat sheet:

• Are there URL’s that you are constantly looking for?  (Authors, publishers, archives, etc.)
• Links that you are continually referencing? (Affiliate relationships, photo sharing sites, meme links, etc.)
• Do you use the same format every time you post a review? Would it help to have a form/template ready to go?
• What happens if you lose content, a side bar or my about page? Can you throw together a new page or would it be easier to have the code saved somewhere?
• Do you have a template for author interviews or features you’d like to be more easily accessible?

I’m sure there are a lot of other questions you could think of when putting your own cheat sheet together. If you think of any or have any other tips let us know! I’d personally love more help on the subject, as someone whose fairly new and wants to get ahead of the game.

Natasha has some wonderful prizes for those of you who participate in these challenges so once you’ve put together your cheat sheet come back and let me know how it went in the comments. You have until the end of Bloggiesta to complete this mini-challenge and report.

When you’re done here make sure to check out the other mini-challenges new this go-around as well as the challenges of the past Bloggiesta events!

Enjoy the Bloggiesta festivities and ‘Ole’!