Patricia Stoltey

Author

A Good Lesson from the Blogbooktour Class

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Here it is, only day five of the Blog a Day Challenge for the blogbooktour class. Since I’m in Brookline, Mass. using my tiny laptop instead of home in Colorado with my desktop and roomy work space, these first few days have been more of a challenge than I anticipated. I write my blog in the morning and do as much e-mail and blog hopping as I can. Then off to spend lunch, the afternoon, and dinner with that new grandbaby (that includes cooking and grocery shopping). Then back to our hotel to read posts, comment, visit Twitter and Facebook, and more e-mail.

I’m still a little behind on class requirements, so will flunk my first blog critique. I know my blog title doesn’t match my url, for instance. I’m thinking I’ll change the blog title now that I’m getting a better idea what I want to blog about. I haven’t installed sitemeter yet, or the addme button, but hope to do that today or tomorrow. I think I finally got word verification turned off comments, and collapsed my archives. These are things I knew nothing about a few days ago.

There is one unexpected advantage to experiencing this first week of class with limited available time. I can’t afford to procrastinate as I do at home where I lollygag over coffee for two hours every morning. Getting down to business may be the biggest thing I take away from this first week of class. And that, blogbooktour friends, will make everything else worth the time and trouble, because I’m a first class champion procrastinator.

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Comments

  2. You’re doing a wonderful job, Patricia! I really appreciate you taking time to stop over at my blog and make excellent comments.

    I use Word Press so I’m behind as well figuring some things out. It’s difficult to follow the class, but it’s so worth it, esp. getting to know everyone.
    Jina
    http://tinyurl.com/BerlinSexDiary

  3. I’m with you — lots of requirements for the first week! But it makes our blogs so much better. Yours looks better every day! And I’m impressed you’re Twittering… Are we following each other yet? I’m @alexisgrant. Cheers!

  4. You are doing a good job learning and posting your blog while away from home (congratulations on the new grandbaby!). I did my blog tour while away from home and spending time with grandkids for part of it, and I know what a challenge that is!

  5. It’s true that it’s very easy to lollygag while on the internet in the morning. I suppose if I didn’t have such a busy schedule I would do more of it. My excuse is always that I’m not awake yet, so it makes sense to email, etc. but somehow it always turns into idleness.

    Kate
    http://katewombat.blogspot.com

  6. If it weren’t for the Last Minute, nothing would ever get done- old and true saying. Just think about what you’ve learned so far. First you don’t know, then you know you don’t know, then you know. Keep smiling!

  8. Hi Pat,
    I can’t believe you’re keeping up as much as you are while you are on vacation. I’m dreading June because I’ll be gone on a writing retreat for two weeks and don’t really want to keep up with this other stuff.
    I have no idea what collapsing archives means. I tried to figure it out. The closest I came was going into settings and asking it to archive weekly. I think I managed to get the statistics thingie on, but it doesn’t show up on my blog site, it’s hidden.
    Good luck with all of it.
    Karen Walker
    http://www.karenfollowingthewhispers.blogspot.com

  9. Collapse archives? What does that mean? Why do they tell you to remove the word verification? I’ve heard a lot of bloggers complain about spam…

    Since you’re a writer, I thought I’d mention there’s a writers’ support group you might be interested in. It’s called Writers_on_Writing. If you want to know more, check out my blog. I posted some info about it yesterday. Maybe you know other writers who might want to join? The group’s a SUPPORT group, not a critique group for writers 18 years or older.

    Lynnette Labelle
    http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com

  10. The Sitemeter is a blessing and a curse. I use StatCounter (hidden). It’s nice to see the number of hits and know, at least geographically, who has been reading my sites. It’s distressing, however, to see a site go hitless for days, and it’s hard to get work done when I keep checking my stats.

    So when you get it installed, you’ll have one more way to procrastinate! LOL

    Gayle
    http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com

  11. I had to smile at your list of blog tour sins. I, too, am guilty of many of the same. However, just this morning, I added the Sitemeter thingy to my blog. It was actually pretty painless to do, so, when you do get around to that chore, it shouldn’t take look.
    Best Regards, Galen
    http://www.GalenKindley.com