Tuesday, January 06, 2009

A Daily Blogging Challenge for January

I'm in over thirty yahoogroups, most of which I have set on Daily Digest so I can skim the email subject lines and decide whether or not to read each individual email. All of the groups are related to aspects of my writing career. Some are mystery fan groups, some are adjuncts for the writing organizations that I belong to, some are advice-sharing groups for writers. An example of the last is "blogbooktours" which serves as an incubator for authors preparing for their first book blog tour. I hope to do my first online tour in May to launch the second in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET.

As part of the learning process, the moderator of blogbooktours has challenged those of us who were ready to blog every day on some topic during the month of January to establish a regular pattern of blogging. We're also supposed to check the others' blogs and make comments when we can. Yesterday, Monday, was the kickoff day for this challenge.

Boy, did I learn a lot! I found out about all these other great authors who signed up for the challenge. I learned how to post comments using different kinds of blogging software. I learned how to schedule a blog post for later (which I'll need to do the second half of the month, when I'll be vacationing in Mexico).

Lastly, Morgan Mandel blogged about how set up the "Followers" gadget on your blogger page. Wow, I had to try to do that! But, when I followed Morgan's directions, I discovered that first I had to update my ancient template, and one thing led to another... So, you'll see some slight changes in my blog format and some new gadgets along the side. I can't wait to see what I'll be learning today!

7 comments:

Keith Raffel said...

Beth, I'm trying not to advertise here, but you should check out grouply.com as a way to manage all those groups.

lucia said...

Wow, you've accomplished a lot in this blogsite. I'm also following as the yahoo bogging group, and it's all new to me. I had help setting up a "static" website for my novel that came out in November 08, but doing this is a fast learning experience. You have a great blog, and I can't wait to read more about the new book (and to hear a bit more about your life in Colorado). I just came in from walking the dogs and the coyotes were singing away. All best, Lucia

Bob Sanchez said...

Good work, Beth. I love your enthusiasm.

Bob
http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com

Sharon Reece said...

Looks like you're doing a great job, Beth. I'm not sure why, but I couldn't find a way to become a follower even though I could see that you had 2 followers. It's a mystery to me! I'll check back another day and try again.

Eliza Gayle said...

Now we just have to come up with something to talk about every single day. lol

Katie Hines said...

Hi, Beth. You've done a lot of things with your blog that I need to do with mine. Hope you're having lots of followers.

Jane Kennedy Sutton said...

I agree. I have already learned so much from this challenge and it's just starting! I too am making some adjustments to my site. This is fun (so far)!

Jane Kennedy Sutton
Author of The Ride
http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/