Day 19 into our Chocolate Challenge of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Energy levels feeling low, Berroccas (a vitamin supplement) maybe needed. But like the 2 girls getting through 24 hours on Berroccas we are going well and gaining from this challenge. Check out Darren’s 31 Day project page for the detailed information on the daily tasks we have to complete.
Day 7 – Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule
Last week I did take Darren’s advice about planning a week’s worth of posts. It was hard work – because most days I was posting on the blogging challenge and write a new post on my niche area.
The hard work was extremely worthwhile because it forced me to actually post on my niche area which resulted in new readers. The original purpose of my sites was to document use of mobile technology in mlearning (mobile learning) however over time I made the decision to broaden to include both elearning and Web2.0. By posting on mobile technology it increased people’s awareness that I am actually into mobile technology and mlearning = new readers visiting my site – my post on UMPCs was very popular probably because not many people have posted on the use of UMPCs in mlearning (mobile learning).
Progress = Completed 🙂
Day 11 – Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics
Statistics are important for tracking what is happening on your site. I still can’t believe I didn’t add Google Analytics sooner.
Progress = ongoing 🙂
Day 14 – Analyse your Blog Competition
Still working on this task from my last update. Why – because when doing this task I have discovered there were issues with how blog search engines handle my posts. I have spent considerable time researching this topic because:
- many of my favourite bloggers prefer to read posts by subscribing to technorati tags than to blogs
- people use blog search engines to locate blogs worth reading
Check out the changes I needed to make for Technorati. Many bloggers are now preferring to use Google Blog Search which works differently from Technorati however when searching post on topics both blog search engines rely heavily on the search term being in the post.
To optimise post visibility in blog search engines:
- Insert technorati tags (but if there are variations on tag terms people use then you will need to use all e.g. m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning)
- Use the terms within your actual post, but somehow you will need to use all variations e.g. m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning
Make sure you do an audit of your blog using both Technorati and Google Blog Search; with Technorati search tag terms and blog directory (read my post on technorati to see how). Also subscribe to tag feeds from both Technorati and Google Blog Search to make sure your post looks good when viewed in their feeds.
Progress = Ongoing 🙂
Day 15 – Make Your Most Popular Posts Sticky
Michelle’s did this by adding at the bottom of a few key posts an RSS icon and then added the words“If you liked this article, you may want to sign up to be automatically updated the next time I post new content. Learn more Here (the Learn more Here links to her page on RSS).
So I finally got around to creating my page on RSS – tried to think of a term that new Readers could relate to so have gone with New Posts Notification (if you can think of a better phrase let me know). I also checked out some ideas from Michelle’s RSS page to get ideas on how to write – thanks Michelle.
Looks like I will need to manually add If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! because this plugin is not available for Edublogs but if you are using WordPress check out the plugin recommended by the Indian Blogger!
Progress = Ongoing 🙂
Day 16 – Create a Heatmap of Where Readers Click on Your Blog
Unfortunately I am unable to create a Heatmap because Edublogs does not support the Java Script required. Check out Laura’s post to see how a Heatmap works.
Progress = task completed! 🙂
Day 17 – Run a StumbleUpon Campaign for Your Blog
Michelle said the following about StumbleUpon:
“My observation with StumbleUpon is that a lot of those people are looking to be entertained, not educated–at least not on the types of things I write about. If I had funny videos or awesome photography, then I’d do it, but my topic area isn’t really designed for StumbleUpon users.”
Michelle and her husband are self confessed StumbleUpon addicts, so she would know the value of her site to StumbleUpon users. If her topic area isn’t really designed for StumbleUpon users than there is no way my topic area is = no point me doing this task!
Progress = task completed! 🙂
Day 18 – Create a Sneeze Page and Propel Readers Deep Within Your Blog
Oh boy – just when I thought I had finally caught up – here is a new task that is going to take time. All good (where are those Berroccas) it has been on “my to-do-list” to create an easier, faster method for my readers to locate the information they want on my site.
Progress = ongoing 🙂
Day 19 – Respond to Reader Comments
I feel like Michelle says “Finally! A task that I already do exactly as Darren suggests. I live for reader comments, so I always try to respond, usually in the comments thread as well as via email.”
Well – lets be honest – I really sucked at this before starting this blogging challenge, but this challenge has made me more efficient, and made it second nature now to do this and Cammy gave me the mechanism by telling me about co-mment to manage effectively how I comment and engage in conversation on other people’s blogs.
But I have not being doing this important tip of Darren’s
“Click the links of those who leave comments on your blog. When you do this you’ll find that some of those who leave comments on your blog who check their own blog’s referral statistics will notice your visit and come back to see if their comments have been responded to.” Good point Darren not everyone knows how to track comments on other peoples blogs – I didn’t so you need to let them know you have commented back!
PARTICIPANT UPDATE
We now have another new participant, Evil Sue, if you get a chance please go past and welcome her to the team! She is definitely one who will need the Berrocas because no doubt she will attempt to do from day 1-19 in 24 hours.
Sue Waters 
Leave a comment