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.
*Something magical happened recently, I crossposted my weekly reviews to Amazon without this post prompting me. This is one task that I put off with all my might, so for me to say that I did it automatically this past week is nothing short of miraculous.
**Task I'd like to complete by the end of the month - crossposting 2 months of older reviews to Amazon. I'll let you know how I'm doing with this in the next Housekeeping post.
***My most favorite partner in crime, Amanda, has an excellent "Through a visitor's eyes" worksheet that can help you look at your site critically. She has some great ideas there that can help you streamline your blog and make it more user friendly.
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. If you're a challenge host, do you try to comment on linked reviews? Now's your chance!
- 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 and social media links - 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 out Felicia's Tech Tips for ideas on what to do if you're getting errors on your subscription link)
- check your static pages (About, Review Policy, etc) for outdated information, broken links, etc.*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:
- February's here! Have you drafted your weekly wrap-up posts? Do you prepare review posts for upcoming books so you can simply write up the review once you've finished reading? I've found that I'm better about staying on top of reviews when the post is readied ahead of time.
- 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 2/16), 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!
I am going to keep a running update of my progress on YOUR FB page. *waits for you to cheer me on*
ReplyDelete*cheers you with wild abandon*
DeleteI need to make a list of the things I didn't get done this week and figure out what to tackle first.
Backup is running :)
ReplyDeleteSidebar is up to date :)
Current reads are up to date :)
Goodreads (going to make sure it is up to date though I think it is) :)
(under crosspost don't forget to mention edelweiss too--you can even put some older reviews in there to get noticed by publishers)
Static: Still working on my freaking Seriously Series page. Though should be done soon and it is for a few years :)
Facebook page: done
(2nd blog still not up and running ---still working out some stuff on it)
Sweet Mother of Pearl, Felicia! You are ON FIRE!
Delete*makes note to add Edelweiss to crossposting list.