Blogging Sueblimely

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The meme from the last post has now changed beyond all recognition. No longer 8 random facts about me it has now become the “Blogging Better meme”.

The instructions are:

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The Blogging Better Meme by Sueblimely

The idea of this meme is to:

1. Help us stop and think about how we could become better bloggers and what we need to do to achieve this.
2. Share our blogging knowledge and experience.

Please answer these questions in relation to your blogging (in as little or as much detail as you wish):-

1. The most important thing I have learned over the last year.
2. What I would like to achieve within the next year.
3. What I wish to learn more about.
4. How could I be more productive?
5. One new thing I plan to try.
6. The blogging tip{s) I have found the most useful
7. The 4 (or more) people I am passing this on to. (please include someone quite new to blogging if you can - to help them along by introducing them to your own readers and giving them some backlinks).

Here are my answers. You can use this to give yourself ideas, approach the meme in a completely different way and add or change the questions to suit what you would like to know. You can even choose not to take part at all if you are not keen on memes.

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My own response is:

1. A blog is not a just personal journal written for all to see. It is a powerful means of communication dependent on others to help it develop and mature. A blogger is part of a community.
2. I hope to develop my blog so that it is more responsive to what my readers wish to learn about. I also want to promote it so that it has the same or higher standing than my old blogspot blog.
3. To learn about Wordpress, to the same extent as I know Blogger, so that I am able to answer all questions; helping others with their own blogs.
4. Being more Productive - this is one area that I really need to concentrate on. I need to get more organized and disciplined and post more. I tend to research too much, to the extent I have extensive notes and knowledge for posting but the posts do not get done.
5. I am going to add a forum plugin to try and get more feedback and find out what my readers want to learn.
6. Blogging tip - the one that has been the most important to me is to comment on other blogs to find blogging mates (as well as for the less pleasant necessity of gaining backlinks).
7. I already warned those who I am passing this on to, in my last post - The Mutating Meme. So I am tagging Pearl, Baby~Amore, Mig, Kim, Ev, Kate. If you wish to take part in this meme, please do not feel you have to complete it quickly - it is a busy time of year.

(Anyone else is very welcome to take part too)

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A butterfly must have flapped its wings for this meme - the butterfly in question being MaryAnn from Maryannasville and the meme being 8 random facts about me. A meme does prove the chaos theory, whatever its subject, if you come to think of it (or is it just my weird mind that would think of something like this?). One action, in this case whoever starts a meme, has an enormous effect on the the world blogosphere.

As my aim here is to talk to you about blogging and if there is something I want to know I am always compelled to look it up online (1) I had to find out more about the concept of a meme. The theory behind a meme is that they evolve by natural selection - a survival of the fittest. Some die out but others evolve, propogating, varying and mutating as they go along. As for blogging memes - some bloggers see them as viral, good for gaining backlinks and recognizing blogging mates, and some see them more as viruses that may make their blogs sick. The theory of memes has mutated too so that there is conjecture as to who started it off. The blogging meme itself is mutating into becoming called a ‘bleme’ although I think I would have preferred the word ‘mog’.

As I tend to not follow the herd (2) and because memes do mutate, I am going to pass this ‘mog’ on as 18 random things about my dog (only joking).

I used to follow the herd when younger (3) although that tended to be smaller herds - I was ultra shy and lacked confidence.
Now I allow my words to be read by the world (well, only 45 regularly- according to Feedburner) - less than half of my previous blog’s subscribers - it is only early days for this blog as yet so I should not get disheartened although I am a little (4). Only 3 have favorited me on Technorati though. I have been very tempted to ask those who favorited me on my old blog to do so on the new one instead. (5). Oh I just did - so I may as way go all the way and give you my technorati address
just in case. Was it a random slip that I said I said “I have been very tempted to ask…..” No butterfly flapped its wings this time, I did it on purpose. Sometimes I am too honest for my own good (6) although you will not know if I am being truthful in saying that or not.

I try to multi-task but tend not to be too good at it (7), getting sidetracked so that it can take me 3 hours to write a simple blogpost. By the way:

• Megan from Imaginif is running a Child Safety tips Christmas competition.
• Blog Engage allows you to submit your own written Blog articles that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted, based on popularity, to the main page. When a user submits a Blog article it will be placed in the “unpublished” area until it gains sufficient votes to be promoted to the main page.
• All for Women has started a forum for women bloggers to get together, socialize and help promote their blogs. Judging by those who have joined already this is certainly going to be a friendly place.

See what I mean about getting sidetracked. We have a visitor from UK staying with us for a week as from tomorrow (8). With that thought in mind I have to go and finish painting the hallway, do all my Christmas cards, catch up with work, attack the jungle that I usually call a garden …. Those were the plans this time last week. I was being a little ambitious thinking I could tear myself away from blogging to give me enough time to do all that.

I do need to pass this meme on though - sorry folks I know you were probably hoping I may forget: However somewhere along the way the meme did start transmuting into something completely different. As it has not completely formed I will post the meme separately - I will do it myself too to get the following people started. My meme will be passed on to:

Pearl - Interesting Observations as I like her freshperspectives on matters blogging.

Baby~Amore from My Little Drummer Boys - who I met via RSS Hugger

Mig - Pamil Visions Tutorials - who will be able to turn this into a tutorial

Kim - Laketrees - who passsed the meme on to Mary Ann who passed the meme on to me.

Ev - My Life is Murphy’s Law

Kate - A Byootaful Life

I won’t keep you in suspense for long.

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Memes, alexa

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This project provided a refreshing and relaxing break for me, as I allowed myself to browse freely rather than concentrate purely on the type of sites I would normally visit for research purposes. It was hard to restrict my list to five sites that interested me but here they are - not in any particular order;

• The Happiness Project - by Gretchen Rubin, who writes about her quest to be happier by a year of “test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study” she could find including those of Aristotle, St. Therese,Martin Seligman and Oprah.
• Tech Burrow by Hisham Hamdan; a young man from Lebanon who was recently introduced to blogging by a teacher. He writes about technology and shows much promise.
• Psych Matters: Reflections of a Psychology Tutor by Charmayne Paul. It was Charmayne’s ‘About Me’ description that prompted me to go on and read her blog. urban nomad, scholar, merry prankster.
• Life Clever shares tips that “make life a little easier” - design advice, productivity tips and hacks software reviews.
• Cognitive Daily reports on fascinating developments in cognition from the most respected scientists in the field.

The BlogDay website

On Technorati

Please let me know if you have taken part so that I can come and take a look at your recommendations.

Link-LoveSocial Networking sueblimely alexa

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I often find blogs of interest that I would really like to post about but doing so would take me totally off topic. I have also been told that spreading my link love too much, as I have a tendency to do, is likely to take too many readers from my own site.

As I do enjoy giving credit where credit is due I thought that taking part in BlogDay 2007 would; given me a wonderful excuse to get round both issues. BlogDay is aimed at bringing bloggers together with bloggers in other countries and other areas of interest.

To take part in the contest on 31st August you must:

1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting

1. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
2. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
3. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
4. Add the BlogDay tag using this link: http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007and a link to the BlogDay web site at http://www.blogday.org

What a great way of making contact with bloggers you would not normally come across and reading about subjects you don’t normally make the time for, as well as helping promote sites that are worthy of notice.

I am going to enjoy the time of browsing freely. Please let me know if you are taking part and I can then have a look at the sites you recommend too.

Social-Networking, Link-Love, sueblimely alexa

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Blog Catalog has set bloggers a new and very worthwhile challenge - to be part of the largest group of bloggers ever to blog on the same day about an important cause.

On September 27th you are asked to write a post about putting an end to abuse - there are unfortunately many forms of abuse in this world. The specific topic is left up to you to decide on so blog about an aspect of abuse that you feel the most passionately about or blog about abuse in general - please make an effort to take part.

You can read more about this on the Blogcatalog blog at:

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I have been tagged by Sharon writer of Ghosts in the Machine, a blog I enjoy. Her site explores “digital identity, privacy and knowledge management“. Please take a look at my prior post to see why I take up such a challenge.

What are my 5 goals? In chronological order (I am a bit liberal with the timing of these)

1. Age 3 - kicking rolled up sock down the stairs in between ‘clothes horse’ goal posts.

2. Age 5 - throwing ball from top of the back garden air-raid shelter into bucket. Those air raid shelters were so solid they were made use of for many years after their vital role in the war.
3. Age 6 - on the side lines of Hull KR rugby league field where I liked to mimic the players while accompanying dad on his St John Ambulance duty.
4. Primary School - Netball goal. Being female we were excluded from other sports and at recess boys had to play one end of the school and girls the other.
5. Grammar School - Hockey Goal - I shudder at the thought of the cold English winter days and hidden agendas of teenage girls wielding a hockey stick.

Sorry about being frivolous Sharon. I will be more serious now. Anyway as I became adult the goals posts were shifted!

1. Appreciate and enjoy every moment of life - a lesson that took half a lifetime of repeating before I got it right.
2. To support my three children in achieving the same.
3. Ensuring a happy secure life for my 17 year old son with Fragile X Syndrome.
4. Give up smoking
5. Help to leave this planet with as many resources for the generations that follow as I possibly can. Recyle Reuse, save water, save power.

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In case you don’t know what I mean by being tagged:

I am not referring to being microchipped like a pet dog or being bookmarked on del.icio.us. What I do mean is that I have been challenged to take part in a couple of ‘group writing projects’/ blog memes.

The wikipedia definition of a meme is a “unit of cultural information” which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes”. My definition in relation to blogging is: “something you inherit from a blogger you know and pass on to other bloggers.

What reasons are there to join in memes?

• They can be be just plain fun.
• They can be funny
• They can be inspiring.
• They can help bloggers get to know each other better.
• They can help your contacts, friend, family increase readership to their blogs.

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