31 Days Challenge - Next Steps

In typical me fashion - I like to do things in bulk....

Day 6 - Email an Old Timer Reader

Mrrobbo and I joined Classroom20 and started blogging at about the same time. We've kept in pretty regular contact since we first touched base through chats on Skype where we bounce random ideas off each other. So, rather than email him while I'm chatting on Skype with him and after just responding to his latest blog entry I figured I'd be sneakier and thank him publicly for the support, ideas and discussions over the last six months.

Day 7 - Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule

Image: "Push the Button" by Storem @ flickr

Wait, what...a whole week's posts pre-planned? Please remember I've got a fear of commitment and am terrible at making long term plans (sometimes a week is long term for me - see HERE and HERE...oh and HERE to read about my thoughts on this). That being said, I need to get over it and start doing this. At least planning (and sticking to it) as to when I'll blog, maybe even going as far as having a vague idea of what to talk about...I know I need to be a more consistent blogger, I'm just so random in my thought patterns.

Day 8 - Comment on a Blog You’ve Never Commented On Before

Karl Fisch has long been an inspiration and much admired educator. His videos "The Machine is Us/ing Us" and "Information R/evolution" really spoke to me the first time I watched them and they still do after well over 15 viewings each. Oddly enough it was only fairly recently that I started following his blog The Fischbowl. Anyway, I've never posted over there, prefering to lurk (it's always intimidating the first time you leave a comment for someone you really look up to!), but his post "A Whole New Learning Experience: Take Two" really stood out to me, either because of the English curriculum links or the idea of the Wikified Research Paper which seems to strongly relate with our hypertext unit, and I left a short comment tonight.

I have to admit I find it hard to keep track of things like the comments I leave too - so I'm signing up for co.mments too - anything that helps me get organised is always welcome.

Day 10 - Declutter Your Sidebar

This has always been a priority for me - I hate crowded sidebars and even now with the few widgets I have I think it may be too much. But for now I think it's fairly uncluttered - feel free to tell me if you think otherwise.

Day 11 - Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics

I've had Site Meter account attached to this blog for some time now and it's always interesting digging in and finding out some of the stats. And after spending some time browsing through it's fairly obvious I need to stop avoiding Day 7 and start being more consistent if I want to attract a consistent readership...

31 Day Challenge - Update

In a brief pause from the flow of posts about the Wikified English project (here and here) it's high time for me to own up to the fact I'm participating in the 31 Day Challenge - and the fact that I'm already a couple of days behind, typical. Late last year I started Teach42's 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger, but life got in the way and I didn't finish it :( This time I am determined to see it through.

So, my first lot of reflections as I try and catch up...

Day One - Email a New Reader

From what I can tell most of my readers are people whose paths I cross via Twitter, Classroom20, or other blogs I've left comments on. So, usually my 'new readers' are people I have already connected with, needless to say that does not stop me from acknowledging comments and emails left for me (not that there's many). If the reader is someone I don't happen to have on my Google list or Twitter followings I generally add them in there too.

When comments are made on my posts I reply to comments to thank and extend the conversation and I message or email the person as well.

Day Two - Run a 'First Time Reader Audit'

I am ALWAYS nervous about people commenting on my blog. It seems strange really, I'm writing this blog in order to share with an open audience and yet I worry I'll end up in someone's firing line. During the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger process one of the steps I got stuck on was getting someone to read over and give me some feedback. Probably, because of my hesitation to push the matter with the people I asked.

Yesterday I called out to my Twitter network to see if anyone would give me a hand and help me conduct my audit. Patrick Black and Sue Waters both raised their hands and before I knew it I had some really helpful feedback sitting in my inbox. Thanks so much to both these wonderful people!

Patrick's feedback was really positive and he emphasised the clean cut layout. This was something I've always been worried about - I hate crowding things and kept things as simple as possible for a purely selfish reason.

Sue's feedback focused more on the need to redirect my RSS through Feedburner and a couple of adjustments to my Retaggr widget. Funnily enough, I had a Feedburner account just sitting there doing nothing - this afternoon I fixed that up and the RSS Feed button to the right is now redirected through it. I also adjusted the size of the Retaggr widget, and hopefully this fixes the issue Sue mentioned she was having - if anyone can't read the right hand side of it, could you please let me know? Thinking ahead she also suggested I consider investigating a way to include tabs to different pages along the top of the blog - honestly, I'd love to have this option and I've often wondered "How..." when I've seen the EduBlogs and Wordpress blogs with them, so this will be a long term goal for me.

I'm pretty happy with the feedback and it wasn't as scarey as I was worried about :) Again, thanks to Sue and Patrick for their help.

Day Three - Search For and Join a Forum

This one was easy! I joined Classroom20 and the Oz/NZ Educator's Network before I started this blog and I still trawl the forums and blogs over there on a daily basis. From there I branched out into Twitter and started filling my Google Reader with people's blogs. My online network of fellow educators is an amazing source of information, support and inspiration - I'd be lost without them now!

Day Four - Interlink Archived Posts

I generally try to include links to relevant posts within my entries - but I am going to go on a search for a Blogger alternative to the "Related Posts" add in I've seen on Wordpress users' blogs.

Day Five - Conduct an 'About Page' Audit

I added the Retaggr widget during the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger project last year, and try to update it regularly. Writing my profile, "this is me" bit, is something I hate doing but also see as incredibly important - it's the first real impression (beyond the look of my blog) that people will get of me. During his audit Patrick noted that my email address isn't obvious on the front page, however it is on my Blogger profile and accessible through the Contact/Connect button on my Retaggr card.

Wow, mammoth effort, but I think that brings me _almost_ up to speed with the challenge...now the challenge will be to stay on top of it!