In the quiet summer days of blogland, I’ve been doing a bit of tidying up around the site.
That includes:
A new plugin to organise the archives (the last one seemed to collapse under the strain of the 751 posts [gulp!] : wp-archives
Experimenting with a bar (from Wibiya) at the bottom, providing a window into the Facebook fan page
Experimenting with google adwords in the RSS feed. I hope it doesn’t look too bad. I’m guessing most folk just ignore that kind of advertising (I know I do) – which does beg the question of what the point is or who if anyone generates any income this way…
I’ve got a another idea about financial support for the blog – will share that with you soon.
An explanation of my approach to comments (thank you all for understanding)
Thanks everyone for your contributions to the writing and health group writing project – round up coming soon, hopefully next week.
Lots of interesting ideas emerging from the summer writing space, as well as some bits of my own writing I’d like to share here at some point. I’ve already a long list of items I want to blog about.
[I try to jot down the main ideas and any key expressions at the time they spring to mind, so I can easily create the post from that outline when I come back to it later. It's a simple way to make sure I've always got material to draw on, and helps me keep to a reasonable publishing schedule, including not putting out too much brilliant stuff when everyone's on holiday 
]
So much for a holiday, there’s always something to be doing with a blog isn’t there?
How’s your blogging summer going?
~~~
Photo Credit: Banksy Street Cleaner, captured by Dan Brady on Flickr
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jackie Walker and Joanna Paterson, Todd Rutherford. Todd Rutherford said: RT @joannayoung Summer Blog Housekeeping http://bit.ly/cVhhuP [...]
I just passed 2,010 posts over at my knitting/personal blog … I still can’t believe how those posts piled up! I mean, it’s been five and a half years of posting, but still… (www.chappysmom.com)
Joanna, I like the toolbar at the bottom and thanks for the tip on the archive plug-in. I still have a long list of tidying to do which must come after the writing. I feel like languishing about and enjoying the waning days of summer, so may build in a few play days. It’s going all too fast and soon we will rush head long into the rush of the Fall season!
I’ve struggled with the idea of having Adsense ads on my blog, because the ads don’t really earn anything, and I feel like the space on my blog could be better used in other ways. I am exploring other advertising methods and platforms.
Confident writing is a blog that constantly inspires me and instructs me, and for which I am grateful. Thanks to you, and a couple of other excellent writing blogs, my own little corner of the blogosphere is starting to be noticed.
I was finally tempted to comment when I saw your mention of the number of posts you’ve completed. Very good work, indeed.
Best,
-r
I had all these plans to do a bloggy makeover. It never happened. Now summer’s almost over. I guess I’m just stuck with what I have. I’d like to make changes, but on my list of priorities in life, it’s pretty low on the list!
I feel like I’m always doing housekeeping on my blog!
In regarding to RSS and Google Adwords and income streams, I’m a fan of certain affiliate programs. One in particular is Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build A Better Blog. I have a banner to it on my site and it pushes through to my RSS Feed. I’ve made some affiliate sales on this without doing much to promote it other than placement on the site and through RSS. Though I can’t tell if the point of sale was on-site or via RSS. Anyway, just some thoughts/insight into how that’s worked for me.
–Deb 2,010 posts… wow, that’s a lot! It is kind of addictive this blogging malarkey isn’t it?
Karen we probably have an advantage over here in that there hasn’t been a summer to speak of, just lot of grey damp days, perfect for tidying up tasks! I’m not going to argue with you putting the writing first anyway…
Troy what you say makes sense to me, I’m not at all convinced either, but thought I’d give it a try
Richard hello, and thanks so much for taking the prompt to share a bit of feedback. Much appreciated.
Debbie well I don’t have a growing family to run around after… time is different when you’re not actively parenting
Ricardo good to see you – thanks for the tip about affiliate links going in the RSS too. I’m trying to do more with a few affiliate programmes – I can see that is definitely the way to go.