The other day I told you about Alt Design Summit, and how you can earn free online classes. Yesterday I attended my first class, The Organized Blogger: Tips and Trick for Blogging Success! I was super excited about this particular class since I am the ultimate, unorganized blogger. Let's face it, these days I am just an unorganized gal all around. I don't have the personality that can just roll with the punches of an unorganized life style. It drives me crazy, it makes me a bit edgy (the amount might be a little more than "a bit" depending on who you ask) and I just forget things. ADD starts kicking in when I begin to do things. I'd like to think that it is "multi-tasking", because well, thinking that makes me feel better! But I've been known to be doing the dishes, remember that I need to get something from downstairs, start doing the laundry, forget that the water is still running, and completely forget why I went to the basement to begin with! Hmmm, multi-tasking?? Arguable. There was lot's of forgetting in that sentence. It seems lately that I have been doing that a lot! It is {unnecessarily} time consuming! My online life is no exception. So I welcomed the tips that came from this class.
The class gave tips on how to keep your online life organized (duh!) beginning with cleaning up your email. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets 100's of emails per day, and sometime overlooks {important} emails. Do you ever start to read an email, get side tracked, and think that you'll come back to it in a little while? That is definitely something that I do. A BIG NO NO for me!! When I do find the time, I sit down to read that email, and forgot which one I was supposed to read. I use AOL, which I have used since the beginning of time. A few months ago, I thought that it would be a good idea to designate an email just to blog stuff. What I didn't think about was how much I would have to transfer. I became overwhelmed, missed even more, and it just didn't turn out the way I was hoping. I DO think that it is a great idea to use a separate email for your blog, but there has to be an easier way! I have a gmail account, but only because I need it for all things google. I really had no idea how useful gmail was!! Last night I decided to set up my gmail and link my other email accounts to it. There I can see them in one place, label emails and tag them, so that as they come in they automatically go into different groups. I can set it up to show emails that I need to read, but can't at the moment, to show first. Now when I come back to read it, it is right there! No need to search for it anymore. I can set it up with each of my sponsors emails grouped together, so that I never miss those! It was a success! I'm also not very good at deleting my emails, so I end up with thousands. If you are a freecycle.org user, you know that you can a ridiculous amount of email a day! I was able to have those put in one group, click check all and hit delete! I brought my email amount from I think 4 or 5000 to 100. That alone was worth taking the class! Today's challenge was to organize my reader. I wasn't feeling well today, so I'm doing it tomorrow! Can't wait!! I'll fill you in on the tips I learned tomorrow!!
I also would like to ask you for your opinion on something.....
Part of my cleaning up this month, is my layout. As you can see, I have redone my header {which I think looks much cleaner}! I also put my social media buttons into the header in hopes to de-clutter my sidebars. I started talking to Shaina, who blogs at Shady Lane (and whom I met through Better Blogger Network) and asked for her advise and critiques. She was unbelievably sweet and helpful, and after a few emails back and forth, she said something about image mapping. Well, I can do that! I use image mapping all the time! NOT!! I didn't even know what that was! But I can sure learn!! So that is what I did, and I was amazed that it worked!
Now that I have these buttons in my header, my question to you is, "Are they noticeable??" Do you know that you can click on them and that it will take you to all of my links? I have to admit, that it made me a bit nervous to remove all of the trusted "follow" me buttons. So you tell me, is it the right move?? As you can see, I also have a GFC button included up there, because I am thinking about removing that gadget that we all love to see with the amount of followers that we have. I'm just not sure yet, which is why I have both. So I'll wait to see what the feedback says!!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! And if you have liked this post, I would love for you to take a peek at my header and follow along with one of the new buttons!!
The class gave tips on how to keep your online life organized (duh!) beginning with cleaning up your email. I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets 100's of emails per day, and sometime overlooks {important} emails. Do you ever start to read an email, get side tracked, and think that you'll come back to it in a little while? That is definitely something that I do. A BIG NO NO for me!! When I do find the time, I sit down to read that email, and forgot which one I was supposed to read. I use AOL, which I have used since the beginning of time. A few months ago, I thought that it would be a good idea to designate an email just to blog stuff. What I didn't think about was how much I would have to transfer. I became overwhelmed, missed even more, and it just didn't turn out the way I was hoping. I DO think that it is a great idea to use a separate email for your blog, but there has to be an easier way! I have a gmail account, but only because I need it for all things google. I really had no idea how useful gmail was!! Last night I decided to set up my gmail and link my other email accounts to it. There I can see them in one place, label emails and tag them, so that as they come in they automatically go into different groups. I can set it up to show emails that I need to read, but can't at the moment, to show first. Now when I come back to read it, it is right there! No need to search for it anymore. I can set it up with each of my sponsors emails grouped together, so that I never miss those! It was a success! I'm also not very good at deleting my emails, so I end up with thousands. If you are a freecycle.org user, you know that you can a ridiculous amount of email a day! I was able to have those put in one group, click check all and hit delete! I brought my email amount from I think 4 or 5000 to 100. That alone was worth taking the class! Today's challenge was to organize my reader. I wasn't feeling well today, so I'm doing it tomorrow! Can't wait!! I'll fill you in on the tips I learned tomorrow!!
I also would like to ask you for your opinion on something.....
Part of my cleaning up this month, is my layout. As you can see, I have redone my header {which I think looks much cleaner}! I also put my social media buttons into the header in hopes to de-clutter my sidebars. I started talking to Shaina, who blogs at Shady Lane (and whom I met through Better Blogger Network) and asked for her advise and critiques. She was unbelievably sweet and helpful, and after a few emails back and forth, she said something about image mapping. Well, I can do that! I use image mapping all the time! NOT!! I didn't even know what that was! But I can sure learn!! So that is what I did, and I was amazed that it worked!
Now that I have these buttons in my header, my question to you is, "Are they noticeable??" Do you know that you can click on them and that it will take you to all of my links? I have to admit, that it made me a bit nervous to remove all of the trusted "follow" me buttons. So you tell me, is it the right move?? As you can see, I also have a GFC button included up there, because I am thinking about removing that gadget that we all love to see with the amount of followers that we have. I'm just not sure yet, which is why I have both. So I'll wait to see what the feedback says!!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! And if you have liked this post, I would love for you to take a peek at my header and follow along with one of the new buttons!!
I like all the buttons up on the header, I would make them a darker color as they are slightly difficult to read in the light pink. I would probably keep the standard GFC for now as well since I think that is what people generally look for when visiting a new blog. One change I would make is have your header clickable to link back to your home page. Have a great day!
ReplyDelete~Kendra
bkdarr.blogspot.com
I LOVE the buttons on your header......HOW DID YOU DO THIS?
ReplyDelete