Aye Carumba, it’s been a fun-filled and busy couple of days here in Bloggiesta land hasn’t it? But we did it!  We made it through….so as we all cross that gorgeously illustrated finish line I say toss your sombrero in the air graduation style and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Speaking of pats on the back, let’s all give it up for the wonderful Natasha at Maw Books Blog for putting together such an amazing and successful event.  She is most deserving of wide-spread accolades, congratulatory virtual hugs and kudos of the highest degree.  Thank you Natasha it’s been a fabulous experience.

No on to the business at hand, my wrap-up — as predicted I didn’t get as much done as I’d outlined in my list but I do feel accomplished by what I did manage to complete.

Plug-ins, Who’s Got Plug-ins?

Seriously? No, really I mean seriously!

I spent entirely too much time in WordPress looking at different plug-ins then installing them.  In fact, I could make a day of it at least once a week I imagine.  In the end, though, I settled on a select few.  Besides the previously mentioned Google Analytics, I’ve added CommentLuv, All-in-One SEO, and Comment Quotes.  My goal was to also get FeedBurner up and running and despite a couple of attempts I fell short.  I’m not one to toil so I put that aside for now and will begin the search for a more WordPress centric/specific/friendly feed stat plug-in at a later date.

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenges

Feed Reader Organization – Part Dos
Once I completed the mini-challenge at Book Lady’s Blog I moseyed on over to Fizzy Thoughts and participated in Jill’s.  While one encouraged me to get rid of feeds the other encouraged me to add….so add I did.  This challenge gave me the opportunity to meet some new bloggers and to include their feeds in my reader.

I enjoyed the fact that we got to network a little on this one.  It gave participants a wonderful opportunity to expand our horizons and make new friends.

Buddy Up
Amy of My Friend Amy put together a great challenge where she encouraged us all to buddy up with other bloggers.  Having a good support structure in place is key so I was pleased that I was able to connect with a fabulous bunch of people to create a buddy group.

In addition to that I created a book blogging Twibe (a twitter group) to expand on that buddy concept so head on over and join in.  I’ll be exploring how to best use it to our advantage and writing up a post in the coming weeks.

Optimize Me
I was super excited to have Ruth of Bookish Ruth provide us with an extremely valuable resource in the Website Grader.  If you do no other challenge I strongly encourage you to do this one!

Website Grader generates a report about your site that focuses on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how effective your blog is at reaching out to new and existing users.  Since that is what some of us are in the business of doing I’d say spending some time setting things up to best do so is a wise decision.

My report graded me at 79/100, which pleased me a great deal.  Galleysmith.com has only been up and running for approximately two months so the fact that my grade was so high was a good indicator that I must be doing a few things right.  But the glory of the report is that it provides you feedback on where you should focus more attention to improve.  I didn’t get much chance to go through it all with a fine tooth comb this weekend but I’m sure going to soon.

I wasn’t able to complete all challenges by the Bloggiesta deadline for completion but my intention is to go through them all this week and reap the benefits of each.  There is amazing information out there to take advantage of and I don’t want to miss it.

Challenge Page

I’ve recently decided to participate in some challenges so I’ve created a page to describe them and post status updates.  Check out the Galleysmith challenge page here.

Brainstorming New Blog Posts

I didn’t get to spend as much time working on this as I’d like.  But I did walk away from this weekend with a couple of ideas for places to focus some attention.  The first will be to do more with the Bookblogging Twibe and how to make it more effective for our community.  I’ve also got a couple of other topics in mind but you’ll see more about them when I post.

Social Media Profiles

I updated two of my social media profiles:

•    Galleysmith at LibraryThing
•    Galleysmith at GoodReads

Add me to your roster if you’re there.  I’ll likely spend some time doing the same.

Other Blog Projects

The Couch Chronicles
This is a new endeavor with a group of fellow book bloggers.  It’s not book related but it will be super fun!  Not going to give much away other than to say it’s about television, which is my other great obsession.  It will be fun to see it develop over time.  As part of that process I contacted a friend with our chosen template so she’s able to construct our header graphic.

Backlist Blog
I’m going to keep my backlist reviews in Galleysmith.  I’ve created a new category to tag the reviews with and will likely try and do a showcase type of scenario to draw more attention to older/previous works.

I got quite a bit accomplished but didn’t get the opportunity to write any reviews.  I think I navigated my list this way because I know I can pop out a few reviews when needed as I’ve already got a routine in place to do so.  Also, I wanted to take advantage of the wide-spread knowledge and expertise that established bloggers have of other aspects (ie: technical, marketing, etc).

Congratulations Bloggiesta’ers you did a phenomenal job!

Good evening my bloggish peeps

Pedro and I are dropping in to give y’all a status report on our Bloggiesta progress.  Overall we’ve done pretty good, especially given the fact that I had to work for my real job today on top of any bloggy tasks I did.

Go me!

Here’s the low down on what got done today:

Installed Google Analytics
Well, technically I’d already installed it onto my self-hosted server but had not yet signed up for service through Google and got the settings arranged so I went ahead and did that this evening.  Now it’s a game of hurry up and wait to see if it worked.  I’ll check the stats tomorrow to see if any data is recorded as far as activity is concerned.

Custom Blog Designer Update
I’ve contracted to have my blog template, brand (logo, business cards), and Twitter template custom designed.  I’ve been working with my girl for over a month now and reached out to her again today to see about moving forward with the latest mock-up.  She let me know that it’s not ready yet and she’ll be in touch with more soon.

Feed Reader Clean Up
I read through the postings in my feed reader today.  Took time to comment and participate as much as I could amongst the hundreds of new threads available to me.  I also did a bit of house keeping — added YA and Romance folders and shifted some feeds into them as they are niche blogs as compared to general review blogs.

I also implemented a great suggestion outlined in the mini-challenge posted by Rebecca at Book Lady’s Blog.  Where possible I added a blog owners name as part of the feed title in my reader.  That should be extremely helpful in allowing me to personalize responses until I get to know people better.  I’m quite pleased to have that ability I admit.

Bloggiesta Mini-Challenges
As mentioned above I’ve done the two bird one stone thing with my to-do list and the feed reader mini-challenge.  I also participated in Trish of Hey Lady Whatcha Readin’s challenge and got myself set up with a gravatar.  I’m super excited for this because I’d been wondering for weeks how to go about doing so.  I’d seen others with theirs displayed in blog comments yet didn’t see a way through posting information to include one.  This challenge was very timely and useful for me.

Now you can see it’s me when I post!  YAY

All in all I got about 6 hours worth of blog related work done today and I’m quite proud and feeling a sense of accomplishement.  Tomorrow is when the heavy hitting will come about.  I’ll hopefully be more refreshed and able to concentrate on getting a lot done over the course of the day.

So, dear audience, this concludes our show for the day.  Please tune back in tomorrow for regularly scheduled programming.

The sun is finally shining, I’ve got my piñata hung, and my friend Pedro here is by my side. That must mean one thing….I’m ready to dive head first into a vat of guacamole for the Bloggiesta.

In case you’ve been totally ignoring my posts of late then you may not know what the Bloggiesta is. I’m not going to give a drawn out explanation here because you can find the whole kit and caboodle at Maw Books Blog so check her and this event out because both are super cool and fun!

As part of the festivities I’m creating this kick-off post to give you all an idea of what I’m going to attempt to do to fancy this place up (among other things) over the next three days. I have a long list of tasks and fully expect I won’t get it all done but if I finish even 1/3 I’ll be thrilled. So here is what I have in mind:

Galleysmith.com

• Create a page dedicated to challenge participation and progress [completed]
• Install WordPress widgets for Feedburner and Google Analytics [ GA & others - completed]
• Get update from designer on my custom template [completed]
• Update review schedule
• Brainstorm new blog posts (not reviews) [completed - in partial]
• Write reviews:
  • Souvenir – Fowler [completed post bloggiesta]
  • Girls in Trucks – Crouch [completed post bloggiesta]
  • Truth Lies in the Dark – Callander [completed post bloggiesta]
  • Do Over – Hemley
  • 20 Boy Summer – Ockler
  • If I Stay – Forman
  • One Reckless Summer – Blake
  • Something Borrowed – Giffin
  • Something Blue – Giffin
  • Dead Until Dark – Harris
  • Living Dead in Dallas – Harris
  • The Art of French Kissing – Harmel
  • How to Sleep with a Movie Star – Harmel
  • The Blonde Theory – Harmel

Social Media

• Sift through MrTweet to provide recommendations and find Tweeters
• Good Reads – create profile/update info, add reviews [completed]
• Library Thing – create profile/update info, add reviews [completed]

Other Blogs

• Couch Chronicles – get with friend re: blog header [completed]
• BBAW – read through Google group discussions and respond
• Backlist Blog– purchase domain name, get server space, choose theme, start design and postings [completed]

General

• Feed reader – go through postings and comment [completed]
• Participate in Bloggiesta mini-challenges [Gravatar, Feed reader, comments, SEO, buddying up completed]
• Cheerlead for other Bloggiesta participants on their blogs

Whew! Lots and lots going on here isn’t it? Like I said if I get through 1/3 of this I’ll be truly excited and feeling quite accomplished.

So off I go on my way to Bloggiesta bliss! I imagine that I’ll need more than a few margaritas after all is said and done

What’s on your to-do list for the event? Link me up in the comments and I’ll come check you out.

So I was thinking last night and this morning about the Sookie Reading Challenge because, you know, I’m irrationally excited for it and all, but I digress.

Anywhooooo, I was pondering ways I could possibly take the greatness that Beth Fish Reads has created and make it even more interesting and fun for myself and a few ideas started to pop to mind. So here is what I’m thinking I’m going to do to motivate and cheer myself and other participants on:

• Cajun Playlist – with my reviews and status updates I’ll be providing you all a little taste of the South. Well a taste for your ears anyway.
• Episode Recaps of Seasons 1 & 2 - I’ll likely compare/contrast events to the books as much as possible.

But the best of all! Wait for it…..wait for it…..

Drum roll please **tappity tap tap tap**

• · Season One DVD Giveaway!

Yup, you heard it right….I’m going to give one lucky challenger a True Blood Season One DVD.

**jumps up and down excitedly** I love giving gifts!!

Now, like most things in life, there are rules (boooo, hisss) to make it all fair and stuff:

1. Read ‘em and weep challengers – you must complete the challenge by reading all 9

2. Reviews, baby, reviews – you must post, at a bare minimum, a mini-review of each book

3. Mr. Linky loves you – provide me and your fellow challengers a link to the post where you are recording progress

See that wasn’t so bad as far as rules go right? I mean, could be worse. I could ask you to, I don’t know, date a vampire or something.

How excited am I?

Totally and completely that’s how!

As some of you may know I’m a HUGE fan of the television show True Blood. So much so that once I read the synopsis about it from HBO before it began airing last year I ran out and bought all the Sookie books to read prior to the start of the show. Well….as you can imagine I got through a couple and then the show started and I got sidetracked.

Side tracking be gone! There’s a new motivator in town!

And her name is Beth Fish Reads….

The Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge is all about reading all of the books in the Southern Vampire series. Between July 1^st and June 30^th I’ll be joining other challengers in getting through all of them! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Now some of you may know that I’ve already read books one and two but that isn’t a problem because I’m not breaking the rules according to BethF. Nope you can start anywhere you want in the series, oh and you can ingest them anyway you like….audio, paperback, hardback, eback….you get the point. I’ll even throw up some reviews for you all too.

So here is where I’m at:

Dead Until Dark [completed]
Living Dead in Dallas [completed]
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and Gone

Oh, and if you’re all really, really nice to me I might even do season two episode recaps for you all now that we’ve gotten going there too! See look at the pretty….

**jumps up and down clapping**

Yay! A challenge!!