Bloggiesta is Coming!

This year, I have decided to participate in Bloggiesta. Now what, you ask, is that?! Here's all of the details from Natasha at Maw Books, the esteemed host of this annual event:


It’s already time for the fourth edition of Bloggiesta! Are you a blogger? (With apologies to those who are not). If so, this event is just for you! Bloggiesta is scheduled for January 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. The beginning of the year is a great time to evaluate your blog, see how you’re doing, and get re-energized for the rest of the year!

Some of you may be asking what is Bloggiesta? In short, it’s a blogging marathon. A opportunity to cross those nagging items off of your to-do list and improve your blog while in the good company of other awesome bloggers doing the same thing. Our awesome mascot Pedro (Plan. Edit. Develop. Review. Organize) is ready to break out the nachos, enchiladas, drinks, mariachi music and whack a pinata or two! It’s nothing short of an awesome fiesta!
What to do during the Bloggiesta?

* Write reviews.
* Write backup posts for a rainy day.
* Write that great post idea from three months back.
* Work on series posts.
* Write guest posts.
* Put out invitations for guest posts.
* Conduct and edit author interviews.
* Create template posts for your future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so you can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities
* Clean up your tags, archives, books reviewed list, etc.
* Create a text file (or Google Doc) of cheat sheets (html codes, post url’s, etc)
* Improve your blog template, clean up sidebars, add a favicon, install those plugins that you’ve been meaning to do.
* Add or edit your about me page, review policy, disclosure policy, privacy policy, create landing pages (for example – an about me for Twitter readers page) or any other pages you might have.
* Any bloggy type housekeeping that you’ve been neglecting.
* Clean up and update your challenge lists. Link up your posts with hosts.
* Make sure all of your social network profiles are up to date. Be consistent in those profiles with color scheme, images, etc.
* Go get a gravatar.
* Visit the Blogging Tips group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve your blog.
* Work on any specialized projects that you may have going.
* Clean out and organize your feed reader and blog subscriptions.
* Create an elevator pitch.
* Make business cards.
* Find a blogging buddy.
* Analyze and re-evaulate your blog.
* Back up your blog.
* Learn more about blogging, read great articles, get inspired.
* Make sure you have properly copyrighted your blog and know what to do when somebody reposts your material.
* Brainstorm blogging topics.
* Manage your feedreader.
* Help other bloggers, answer questions, share your expertise (let’s face it – this is the best part of Bloggiesta!)
* The sky’s the limit!

How to play:

1. The date is Friday, January 21st, Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd. You can really start whenever you want within that time but official hours are 8am to 8am (wherever you are). That is a total of 76 hours, the hours spent on the challenge do NOT need to be in a row. Use the entire 76 hour time frame and see what you can do with it.
2. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it. But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge. So stay up all night or sleep and take care of kids when you need to.
3. When you start the challenge, come to this blog and to the “starting line” post and link to your specific post about beginning the challenge which is posted on your blog. That way I’ll be able to track participants and know who’s really at the party.
4. How many updates (if any) you want to do is up to you. Make it work for you. Personally, I like making a to do list and then crossing off items as I accomplish them. There will be bloggers hosting mini-challenges as well. These are great to learn new information. To get an idea of the mini-challenges last time, check out the list.
5. If you are on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to join the chatter.
6. Your final summary post needs to be posted no later than end of the day Monday, January 24th. Come back to the finish line and link to your specific summary post (again- can be that same post you’ve been updating). Your summary should include the number of hours spent on the challenge, what you accomplished, links to mini-challenge hosts if you completed them and any other experiences you’d like to add.




I'll be making up a to-do list for my starting line post, but I already know some of the things that I wish to accomplish will include:

--archiving reviews that I have posted between December and the present
--possibly relocating some of content in my sidebars
--creating a page for the blog/book tours that I take part in
--figuring out how I want to display the information for the challenges that I am attempting
--figuring out a good way to better organize my review archive (ie, should I separate e-books & print books? Advance reviews & already available books? Review requests & purchased books?)
--making a template for my reviews to include publisher, date release, series, author/book links, and if you liked recommendations
--creating a privacy policy


Anybody else participating? I'll see you at the starting line!