Another Bloggiesta come and gone. Wow! That was one whirlwind of a weekend, but thankfully I was able to get quite a bit done.

Here’s a list of the things I was able to get done:

• Update my reviews on my “Reviews A-Z” page. (Again, shouldn’t take too long, but it needs to be done.) – Thanks to my lovely partner in crime over at Chick Lit Reviews…this is all done! Wahoo! Thank you Leah!
• Tag my reviews with age ranges and gender preferences for a future project. Done! Yay!
• Return the emails in my inbox. Yes, I know, kind of lame, but since Christmas I’ve fallen behind and I hate that. So this is a priority. Done! Yay!
• Write up reviews for the 5 or 6 books I’ve recently finished and schedule them for later postings.
• Finish up and send out the 5 or 6 author interviews I have lined up for the next couple of months. Done! Yay! Even emailed them all as well!
  
• How do you organize your books? A book lovers dream! Courtesy of Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelf (I need some serious help in this area and in fact asked Natasha if it might be possible to have a challenge like this for that very reason. I can’t wait!) Done! Yay!
• Email out of control? Not staying on top of it? Email best practices and solutions. – Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? (Ummm…yeah, well as you read above my email is kind of crazy. Not insane, but it needs to be handled. So I’m sure this will help.) Done! Yay!

The few things I was really hoping to get accomplished, but wasn’t able to:

• Post my reviews to the following sites: Goodreads, LibraryThing, Indiebound, Amazon, Kidlitosphere, Book Army, B&N, etc. (I have a few to catch up on with this and I’d like to be all caught up.)
• The new year is a perfect time to reevaluate your blog. On blogging goals- Amy from My Friend Amy (Any chance you can take to reevaluate where you’re going with your blog can be a great one. I’m definitely interested in making it the best it can be, so I’ll be attempting this one!)

More than anything I’m excited for the few things I picked up along the way. A few ideas I gathered from other participants. I’m planning a few different pages: A To-Be Read/PIE List that I saw over at Aths’ site Rainy Day Reading, an “Upcoming Releases” page for each Children’s and Young Adult books, an author/illustrator page and a couple of other things.

All in all, I spent close to 15 hours this weekend working on things and I’m quite pleased with how things turned out. How about you?

It’s so weird. I can now call myself an official Bloggiesta veteran. This will be my third time participating, exactly a year after the first time I did. Wow!

So, what do I have planned this time around you might wonder? Well, a lot! I have so many hopes for this year coming up with my site, but a few housekeeping details stand in the way of progress. Not a lot, but a few things I’d like to tidy up. Then, I’d like to have some fun with the mini-challenges Natasha has planned!

Here’s my “official” list of to-do’s:

• Post my reviews to the following sites: Goodreads, LibraryThing, Indiebound, Amazon, Kidlitosphere, Book Army, B&N, etc. (I have a few to catch up on with this and I’d like to be all caught up.
• Update my reviews on my “Reviews A-Z” page. (Again, shouldn’t take too long, but it needs to be done.) – Thanks to my lovely partner in crime over at Chick Lit Reviews…this is all done! Wahoo! Thank you Leah!
• Tag my reviews with age ranges and gender preferences for a future project. Done! Yay!
• Return the emails in my inbox. Yes, I know, kind of lame, but since Christmas I’ve fallen behind and I hate that. So this is a priority. Done! Yay!
• Write up reviews for the 5 or 6 books I’ve recently finished and schedule them for later postings.
• Finish up and send out the 5 or 6 author interviews I have lined up for the next couple of months. Done! Yay! Even emailed them all as well!
  

That’s it! I know, it may look like a fair amount, but really it’s not too bad. Most can be completed with a couple of hours of “quiet time”, which I’ve already scheduled. Yay! Then it will be onto the mini-challenges!

A couple of the “new” Mini-Challenges I’m looking forward to…

• How do you organize your books? A book lovers dream! Courtesy of Jenn from Jenn’s Bookshelf (I need some serious help in this area and in fact asked Natasha if it might be possible to have a challenge like this for that very reason. I can’t wait!) Done! Yay!
• The new year is a perfect time to reevaluate your blog. On blogging goals- Amy from My Friend Amy (Any chance you can take to reevaluate where you’re going with your blog can be a great one. I’m definitely interested in making it the best it can be, so I’ll be attempting this one!)
• Email out of control? Not staying on top of it? Email best practices and solutions. – Trish at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? (Ummm…yeah, well as you read above my email is kind of crazy. Not insane, but it needs to be handled. So I’m sure this will help.) Done! Yay!

And I think that’s it! Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish a lot, but really enjoy chatting with everyone else.

The last two Bloggiesta’s I participated in I was also able to host a mini-challenge myself. So make sure to check them out and do some sprucing up of your own. Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: It’s Not Cheating, for those of you in need of a “back-up” list, it’s perfect! And for those of you in need of Blog Stats make sure to check this one out first, It’s All About the Numbers.

So, what are your plans? Anything you’ve been planning just for this occasion? I’d love more suggestions!

Good luck to everyone involved! Above all, make sure to enjoy some fantastic food, cross off some goals, and enjoy the great company! I’ll see you around!
(And I apologize to my regular readers not interested in bloggiesta! Regular programming will resume very soon!)

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to host a Mini-Challenge for the 3rd Edition Bloggiesta put together by Natasha of Maw Books. The last Bloggiesta was my very first and I accomplished so much that I knew I wanted to participate again. So, without further babbling on my part…

As a book reviewer or someone just looking to improve their overall site, stats can be a very useful tool. This can also be a source of great stress and confusion for most bloggers, even those of us who have been doing it for some time now. So in an effort to help sort through the numbers and get to the information you really need to know we’re offering up this mini-challenge. The overall goal here though is to have fun, learn something new and hopefully improve on your already fabulous site!

Your assignment: Set up one account with a Stats Site and have some fun with it!

• Google Analytics (Personally, this is the one I use and I really like how easy it is to use.)
  *Added* WordPress users may want to install this plug-in to make it really easy to access your GA stats: Google Analytics for WordPress
• Woopra (Similar to Google Analytics just a different style.)
• Site Meter (I also use this as a backup, easy to grab stats. They also email you once a week.)
• StatCounter (Simple to use counter showing number of hits and location daily. Also, one of the few that work with WordPress.com websites.)
• IceRocket by Blog Tracker (Suggested by Stacy from A Novel Source)

Let’s Play Around with That Great Data Now: There are a few “Big” things that can get you started off in your journey with stats. Below is a list of suggestions to start with as well as some tips on where to find the information you’re looking for. Remember that the data you are looking at will only be from the date you started your Stats account, most don’t go back to your blog start date.

• Average Daily Hits. The number of people visiting your site everyday.
  Using Google Analytics click on the “Visitor Trending” Tab and then “Visits”. This will tell you the average number of visits per day based on the dates you put in the top right box.
• Average Monthly Page Views. The number of “pages” viewed each month. Pages can be tabs, menus, archives, anything that takes them away from the home page.
  Using Google Analytics click on the “Visitor Trending” Tab and then “Pageviews”. This will tell you the number of pageviews for your site based on the dates you put in the top right box. If you want to calculate your monthly number, just pull out your calculator and divide the number by of months during this time.
• Average Monthly Unique Visitors. The number of “brand new” visitors to your site.
  Using Google Analytics click on the “Visitor Trending” Tab and then “Absolute Unique Visitors”. This will tell you the number of unique visitors for your site based on the dates you put in the top right box. If you want to calculate your monthly number, just pull out your calculator and divide the number by of months during this time.
• Current RSS Subscribers.
  Make sure to head over to Puss Reboots Mini-Challenge to set up your RSS feed. Once this is done you can install a button that tells you how many subscribers you have or just check it from time to time.

Additional Tools:

• Problogger: If you haven’t subscribed to Problogger’s site, I would highly recommend it. He always has a ton of great tips for improving your site. His article 17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog is perfect for anyone at any level and will give you some extra fun things to look at with your blog stats over time.
• Google Analytics Blog: This is perfect because if you have a question, they’re sure to have an answer. If you are a beginner, they even have a category to use to get started called Beginner Topics.
• YouTube also has a great video by Google called, Beginning Analytics: Interpreting and Acting on Your Data, just don’t pay attention to the bit about e-commerce unless you’re really interested in it. There are also some other great Analytics videos on there you can check out.
• Smashing Voice also has a fantastic Guide to Using Google Analytics and Tools.
• Woopra has a great set of posts all about Using Woopra, as well as a video review that has me thinking about trying it out.

Remember, this should be fun! Play around with the stats and use them to make your site better. If you notice a particular month has low visits, take a look at what you blogged about and compare it to a more visited month. You may find that your visitors like a certain post more than another. Use these tools to keep improving and enjoying your blogging experience.

I’m by no means an expert, but if you have questions, again, feel free to contact me either on Twitter, via email (the1stdaughter {at} gmail {dot} com) or on my contact page.

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

Enjoy the Bloggiesta festivities and ‘Ole’!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last couple of days. I know you’re all devastated! Now that I’m back and starting to feel a bit better I thought I’d take some time to get things spruced up around here and focus my efforts.

During the Bloggiesta event a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to join a Book Blogging Community Forum called The Bloggie Cult. The main purpose is to provide bloggers (mainly book bloggers, but anyone is welcome) the opportunity to share and gain knowledge from others in the online community. Be it technical or just emotional support, the forum is there to help. So, in an effort to make my site better for my readers I decided to join and hopefully acquire a “Blogging Mentor”. Well, the day has come and I’m excited to say I was given the great opportunity to work with Kate from The Neverending Shelf! To say I’m excited is putting it lightly. She has a fabulous blog and I always love her reviews. To begin she asked that I put together a post detailing some of the things I’d like to accomplish over the next few weeks through this process. So, I’m going to first list my goals, but I’d also like to ask you as my readers, What would you like to see more of? Is there something in particular you’ve like or not that you’d like to see? Any feedback is welcome and I can’t wait to hear what you have to share!

The list:

• Gain a better focus. I’d like to not feel so scattered. This may come by way of a more structured schedule or something else, but I need to hone things in.
• Be in touch with what my readers are interested in. Is it the newest thing or something else entirely, I just don’t know at this point.
• Improve the sites accessibility. I’d like to make sure everyone enjoys coming to the site, that it’s easy to navigate and doesn’t take too much time to load.
• Stats. I’d be lying if I didn’t include this in some of my goals. I graded the blog over the Bloggiesta weekend and came up flat. Honestly, I’ve tried it before and I just don’t know how to make it better. So, I need some help in this area.

I’m pretty sure that’s it. I don’t feel like delving too much further because I don’t want to overstretch myself. So far I’ve really been loving book blogging. The comments I’ve received and friends I’ve made have been fabulous. It’s what is really driving me to make things better.

So, like I said, if you have any suggestions…even things like “I can’t see the entire background, the reviews are too short, etc.” let me know! Any constructive input is welcome. Thanks again to all my readers and here’s to hoping things keep going wonderfully!

Kelly over at YAnnabe had a great idea to preview a few Young Adult titles that may have been passed by in our hurry to pick up the next hot book. So, the above are a few books that I can honestly say I would recommend and enjoyed reading, although they may have been passed over by something more flashy. Enjoy! And check out Kelly’s site for more great recommendations from around the book blogging community.

I have recently reviewed both Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan and The Maze Runner by James Dashner, make sure to check them out!

These books were purchased for our home library and/or reviewed from a library copy.
Purchasing products by clicking through the links in this post will provide us a modest commission through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.com.

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!