It's that time again! Time to polish up your blog until it shines!
Remember: All of these items won't apply to everybody. If you already have a system in place for handling certain things (review requests, updating your archive, etc), great. Don't feel the urge to change it. This is more of a reminder to do the little things than anything else.
Felicia @ Geeky Bloggers Book Blog mentioned that she was going to focus on one big task a month (on top of all the little things). I think that is an OUTSTANDING idea. My goal is to redo my About page and write up a review policy by the end of the month. Boom! Let's do this!
(edited to add: So. I wrote this up last weekend and then decided to make these two tasks something to work on during this past week. I am pleased to say that I have completed these tasks and I still have LOTS of time left in the month to do MORE!)
Update:
- review archive - are you responsible for sites other than your own? Don't forget about those
- sidebar - check for buttons or links for events that have ended. Have any new events coming up? Now's the time to add them.
- reading challenges - update your progress, add links to challenges where you can link up.
- blogrolls - clean 'em up!
- crosspost - do you crosspost to Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, Library Thing? Don't forget to add your reviews to Netgalley for those ARCs.
- check your subscription links - Felicia (she has good ideas, people!) mentioned that add-ons and plug-ins can sometimes cause problems -- in her case, her RSS feed was giving an error when new people tried to subscribe (check out her Tech Tips for ideas on what to do if this is an issue for you). If this isn't something that you normally check, now's an excellent time to make sure it's doing what it should be doing.
- check your static pages (About, Review Policy, etc) for outdated information, broken links, etc.*
- review your profiles* - when was the last time you updated your Goodreads or Facebook profiles? Is everything up to date?
Get ahead:
- January's half over... do you have your meme posts drafted? Weekly/monthly wrap-up posts? Have you been making lists of ideas for future discussion posts? If not... start now!
- respond to review requests and other bloggy emails
- check your spam folder - legitimate emails can sometimes slip through, catch them now.
- check the spam filter on the blog - get rid of the spam! save the legits!
- make the rounds - check back on blogs where you left comments, maybe spread a few new comments around like candy.
BACK UP YOUR BLOG!
Leave a comment letting us know what you're working on this time around. If you have any ideas about items you'd like to see in the next post (scheduled for 2/2), shout them out. Last housekeeping session, I kept a running update on my FB page on what I was working on. Feel free to join me over there. I WILL CHEER YOU ON IN (almost) REAL TIME!
You know, I think I was better about a lot of this stuff over the past few weeks just because you started doing this. I'd be halfway through the week, and I'd think "Oh hey, there's a blog housekeeping reminder post coming up, and if I do XYZ *now* then I'll have less to do when Kelly puts it up!" So YAY for encouragement :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDude. That makes me feel all tingly inside. Seriously, that's awesome. I feel like I'm HELPING! YAY!
DeleteYou don't just *feel* like you're helping, you ARE helping! :D
DeleteEVEN BETTER!
DeleteI've read your & Felicia's post and I want to do something to my blog. I just can't think of anything it really needs. Due to my over abundance of free time I stay on top of it.
ReplyDeleteBeing on top of things is nothing to sneeze about. Do you have any tips or tricks to share for keeping up with some of the pesky tasks?
DeleteGreat ideas, I need to clean more on mine, just got a whole new look to my blog a few weeks ago, so need to go back to old post, and make sure all the colorings are all good, etc.
ReplyDeleteI am a new follower, I also Liked your FB, did Friend req at Goodreads too. and twitter. Come by and and follow if you want.
I also need to find out how to make my RSS feedburner update, its stuck on an old post from the summer, and no matter what I do, I can't get it to update, I tried pinging it and everything. Really sucks, as it shows more thn 600 subs in that, (not the email the RSS readers,) if you know anyway to fix that, or who to ask, let me know. :)
Michelle's Paranormal Vault of Books x
Welcome! I don't know how to fix that, I'm sorry to say. I will ask around, though, and see what I can find out.
DeleteThank you for this! I saw the post on Twitter this morning then got into housekeeping mode this afternoon. Feels good to get caught up! :)
ReplyDeleteYay! I like hearing this!
DeleteI am coming down to the wire with my Jan task! I will finish it, I will :)
ReplyDeleteNext month I am going to categorize all of 2010 (the joys of moving from blogger to wordpress--the old posts are just kind of sitting there).
You have...umm, 10 more days now? I think. You can totally complete your task. Totally!
DeleteI am a big-o-sucktard at this kind of stuff. I did get my GRs cross posts updated. I had to travel back in time to October to get caught up. Shame. Shame.
ReplyDeleteLol! Wow. That's a ways back! Now you can do it every two weeks. I WILL REMIND YOU!
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