Monday, February 16, 2009

2009 Blog Improvement Project: Back to Basics

I've decided to sign up for the 2009 Blog Improvement Project, hosted by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness.
Click here for more information about the BIP.

I just signed up for the BIP, so most people are in Week 4, whereas I'm in the first week. Kim, who's hosting the BIP, is pretty flexible about all of the activities. You can participate in any activity you want, but if you can't do it some weeks, that's fine too.

This week's topic for the BIP deals with blog basics. Again, Kim is pretty flexible, and allows bloggers to do whatever they feel they like on their blog. Here are her suggestions for improvement, along with my comments about each feature in bold maroon:
  • Write (or update) your About Me page: I gotta do this
  • Update your contact information: Just created a Gmail account for myself last week
  • Add some sort of picture of yourself (if you're comfortable with that): I've got a B. Kilban cat in there right now; it's the same picture I use for my header
  • Update your blogroll: Did that over the weekend; I separated my blogroll into three parts: book blogs, memes, and my other bloggy friends
  • Create a link to your archives on your front page: I updated that over the weekend, too. I took away the labels; they were making the page too cluttered, but I kept the monthly archives. They're found in the section called "The Wayback Machine."
  • Add a link so that readers can subscribe to your blog via RSS. I should do this for the people who come over here from Wordpress. They don't have the following feature that Blogger does.
  • Get to work on other basic blog maintenance you've been meaning to do: I'd love to have a custom header and/or button.

So I'm about to get to work on an "about me" page for the blog. If anyone has any contacts for where I can get a free header and/or button, please leave your comments below! Thanks!

6 comments:

drollgirl said...

dude. thanks for these tips. i have work to do, too!!!!

Unknown said...

Once you find where to get a free header and button let me know okay?

I am hoping to update my blogroll as well this week, and I will put you on it :)

Anonymous said...

Those are all good ideas!
I usually keep pretty on top of that stuff, like blogroll, etc.

Vickie said...

I was thinking about signing up for this a while ago. But I am such the blogoholic, I didn't think I would have time.

Lee, who did Yaya's blog, I believe does her work for free. There is a link over at Yaya's joint.

Jenners said...

I signed up for this and then never did anything about it. But reading this helped me to realize I did do a lot of this stuff...I'll keep up via your posts! HAHA! I'm so lazy!

Melanie Gillispie said...

Interesting! I'll have to check this out. Can only be good, right?