My Ultimate Blog Challenge certainly is living up to its word. Since I’ve written everyday for two years now, it isn’t posting that’s giving me a run for my money. First I had to figure out how to post to the challenge sight. That took all morning yesterday. This morning presented new challenges of its own.
Last night I had a great time reading and commenting on everyone else’s blog on the challenge site. That’s part of the challenge – visit blogs and comment on them. In return, people read my blog and commented. It was great fun as The Voice played in the background. The best thing about it was that I read a lot of posts on promoting your blog and your businesses. One thing that was suggested was if you have a fan page on Facebook for your blog, you should tell your Facebook friends to please go “like” it. So I did.
Well, that started its own little brouhaha. It wouldn’t come up in the search. I tried to fix that by posting right from the fan page. That just took people to the blog page. My next recourse was to learn more about the things my dashboard provides that I know are there, but I wouldn’t take the time to learn. I clicked on settings,then on something called SEO. Later I found out that stands for “search engine optimization”. I thought that would be a good place to start. That took me to something called Google Analytics and since I had to leave for yoga in an hour, i just knew that wasn’t a good place to start.
Next, I clicked on RSS, which I still don’t know what that is the acronym for, but I found out accidentally that I have a Feedburner account. (I do vaguely remember being there a year or two ago.) It was a pretty simple site. I was able to pick the things I wanted from their array of “chicklets and widgets”, hit Type Pad and voila! they appeared on my page. I moved them around, previewed them, clicked save and finally I had all these things on my blog that I see on everyone else’s.
So, my faithful readers, now if you just look in the upper left hand column you can find me in various ways. You can subscribe by email, you can read this in an e-reader, and you can like the Facebook page, all with a quick click. (Please like the Facebook page – that’s what started this whole thing. Thanks.)
I am just so pleased that this challenge is causing me to stretch, grow, and investigate stuff I’d been putting off for two years. Tonight my blog group meets. I can’t wait to finally show up with progress in the area I was supposed to be working on. The next challenge is to figure out why my blog quit posting on its own page sometime last March. Facebook.
How about you? Do you have to venture into something new? Is it niggling in the back of your mind? Do you keep saying “Someday I’m going to do that”? How about today? Take one small step and I guarantee you’ll get hooked and begin surprising yourself.
So what have you been “meaning” to do? Start a blog? Write a book? Take cooking lessons? Exercise? There is nothing more exhilarating than introducing yourself to something new. Go for it! Start today…not tomorrow. Put it in the search bar and just begin by reading about it and feel the excitement surge.
And so, as another day goes by, let’s review my October theme song….”This girl is on fire….”, come on, download it and play it as you search…., I’m going to play it as I hunt for more widgets and chicklets, and…I have written.
Way to go! I love it when people admit to stretching and getting out of their comfort zone. It inspires others! First time here from the UBC. It promises to be a good one, yes?
I love learning new things and I am so glad tat you are too.