Mobile Technology in TAFE

Let’s be honest I need all the help I can get. My weight has crept up . And like all woman I don’t like to feel fat! Thankfully I’ve got great friends in Christy Tucker and Christine Martell that decided to help me with my weight problem.

Photo from Flickr photo uploaded on April 24, 2006 by Christina007 licensed under Creative Commons ShareAlike 2.0.

Cause of The Weight Problem

Apparently the weight issues happened during my blog cleaning when I changed my blog image header. (Sheesh and I thought cleaning helped you lose weight!).

Christy Tucker commented that:

Does it seem like the header image leads your image off the right side of the page though? Look at the line of the rocks and the direction the person is facing–it seems to all be pointing off to the right. I wonder if you flipped the image horizontally if it would work better. You’d have to move the text somewhere else, perhaps, but with the image flipped it would draw your eye right down to the content.

Just a thought–you might want to check with Christine Martell or someone else more visually inclined. It’s possible I’m simply imagining things!

Christine’s definitely the person to ask as she’s amazing with visuals. And I’m extremely grateful because she has done an incredible analysis of my new image header while explaining all visual aspects of what the image was saying, the messages it sends the readers and options to improve.

Make the time to read Chrisine’s Does my header make my blog look fat? post (and leave her a comment thanking her for helping me)! There is so much to appreciate when using visuals on blog sites and in posts; Christine’s excellent at making you consider the issues.

Impact of Images and Photos in Blog Posts

Images and photos enhance blog posts when used correctly but can have the opposite affect when used badly. These posts Christine wrote are must reads for understanding the issues better:

1. Are your visuals saying what you want? Part 1 Visual Element
2. Are your visuals saying what you want? Part 2 Color & Contrast
3. Are your visuals saying what you want? Part 3 Texture & Pattern

Also make sure you check out Gary Barber’s excellent post on the Psychology of Colour.  Fantastic post that explains the different emotions invoked by various colours.

My Solution To The Weight Problem

Well I decided to change my image header based on her re-design of my image however Bret Treasure has made excellent comments (read his comments as he makes really good points) on Christine’s post about the image I’ve chosen isn’t relevant to the blog content or engaging.  So it may be a case the issue continues to be debated as the weight issue may not be solved

Thanks everyone who has been trying to help me with my weight problem and my blog makeover.  I really appreciate your help.

And if you’re enjoying this blog, please consider Subscribing for free

As Graham Wegner highlighted in his comment on The Edublogger –”it wasn’t all that long ago (well over a year I think!) I had a Skype conversation with Alex Hayes and your good self where you declared that you didn’t really “get blogging.” So true, I didn’t get blogging and was into podcasting! Yep, took awhile to “get blogging” and thankfully the 31 Day Blogging Project made me a more effective blogger.

For me, the key to my gain from the 31 Day Blogging Project, was completing the daily tasks while collaboratively working together within a team of 14 participants. Knowledge gain was greater working in a team, because each individual gained a different perspective from the task - giving participants greater “food for thought!”

The team aspect of the project is sooo important – which is why I pleased that a new group of bloggers have just begun working together on the 31 Day Project! Congratulations Kate Olson, Sarah Stewart, Jess Mcculloch and Andy Roberts (please drop past their blogs to provide assistance and encouragement). Kate’s explanations for her involvement are inspirational

As just anyone in the world has the power to create a blog, I feel it’s my responsibility to go above and beyond to learn all that I can. My students (and colleagues learning from me in the professional development arena) deserve to have an educator who is dedicated to learning.

Here are some tips from my experience of the 31 Day Project that will help keep you sane going:

Check Out What Others Learnt

Before I started a task I would first check out what the others had learnt! Saved time and gave me ideas! Summary of what I learnt is located on this page of my wiki with links to daily tasks you need to complete (those relating to being a problogger have been remove). Click on the participants photo on the 31 Day Project page of my blog to view what each participant learnt when we did the project (please let me know if there is a problem with any links and I will fix).

Recording The Progress of Your 31 Day Project

Personally I recommend writing posts of what you learn on your blog so that your readers can also help you with your journey. My readers provided me with sooooo much guidance, help, assistance and mentoring; thanks everyone! However as I progressed I found it was better to post several tasks in the same post e.g. 31 Days To Build A Better Blog — Day 20-26 plus posts from my journey which would help my readers e.g. Why Does Technorati Mock Me?, Why Didn’t I install Google Analytics Sooner?, How keep track of new comments on other bloggers’ posts!

As you progress it is easy to lose track and feel worn out! Ticking off progress was important - writing the task number with progress status, smiley face and the famous tick/cross all helped (especially the image of the tick and smiley face).

FINAL THOUGHT

For those that have already completed the 31 Day Project — What are your tips/advice for the new participants?

If you have been thinking about doing the 31 Days to build a better blog, or wanted to improve your blogging, I strongly recommend you join the latest 31 Day Project Team and join the Better Blog Community (so the community can supply support)! Please let me know if you are joining so I can drop past your blog to provide encouragement.

What I like about this week’s challenge at Better Blog community set by Simon Thomas (Oak Innovations Blog) on Mobilize your archives is I have already done it for my Day 4 task of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. The task involves going back through your old posts and looking for opportunities to link to new posts mainly in the hope of driving readers deeper into your blog. As Darren says “One of the challenges that faces blogs that have been around for a while is that they end up with a wonderful collection of posts in their archives that are rarely read by readers.” The other 31 Day task aimed at driving readers deeper into our blog was Day 18 Create a Sneeze Page and propel readers deep into your blog.

Why do I like it? Well it has been:

• 2 months since I interlinked old posts with newer posts
• 20 days since I created my squeeze page
  

So is an excellent opportunity to stop and reflect, for my situation, how effective these tasks were for driving readers deeper into my blog.

Lets start with my squeeze page – what I have called my Want a Specific Article page. Readers are definitely using this page to locate posts they want to read and are using it more than my categories (the subjects in my sidebar that tells my readers what I write about).

Now Gary disagrees with Darren about squeeze pages - his comment on my post was “if people can’t find the information in a well formed index (navigational) list then how are they going to find it if it’s a click away on another page” and went on to recommend that I improve my use of subcategories. I agree Gary — especially for my blog where I am writing on a range of subject areas which must be soooo confusing for my readers — so I have set up subcategories under my main categories. I have also set to display number of posts, which makes my side menu look more cluttered but provides information readers probably want to know.

How successful is interlinking old posts with new posts?

Really hard to tell! What I can say is the posts I did choose interlink with aren’t ranking high in my top 100 content - when I did this task originally I was not using Google Analytics so based on current statistics it would appear that I chose the wrong posts for the task. As I have said previously why didn’t I install Google Analytics sooner! So may re-do the task– will think about it!

The best parts of originally doing Darren’s interlinking and creating a squeeze page was I worked through all my blog’s posts and this made me reflect on:

• how my site looks to visitors and so I made time for improvements
• posts I had written e.g. what I liked/didn’t like about the post and what improvements were needed for future posts
• posts I maybe should have written
• how easy to my blog was/wasn’t to navigate your blog

My Thoughts

Realistically it is hard to propel readers deeper into a blog. Readers are busy people.

Reflecting on my own blog reading habits when I find a new blog to subscribe to I don’t have time to go back through their old posts and will only skim read their first 10 posts that load into Google Reader unless a post grabs me. But I will go back to a person’s blog for an article on a specific topic if I know they provide great information on that topic — but are more likely to use the search their blog feature.

The 31 Days to Build a Better Blog were never for fame or fortune for me. My goals are to help others and blogging is one of the methods I share information with others so I decided it would help me be a more effective blogger.

Driving people deeper into your blog is only one way of being more effective — I strongly recommend, if you are a blogger, you make time to work through the 31 Day Project by:

1. Working through these tasks from the 31 Day Project customised for educational bloggers
2. Or doing the shorter 5 days tasks for people just starting to blog
3. Join us at Better Blog community

Let me know if you plan to do the 31 Day Project as I would love to join your journey as you improve your blog!

There are so many reasons why I believe all educators should blog but Darren Draper expresses them better - check out his Reason #1, Reason #2, Reason #3, Reason #4, Reason #5, Reason #6, Reason #7, Reason #8)

Blogging is so valuable for your own personal learning. If you plan to use blogs with students, for elearning, you should be blogging personally yourself! Why? Increases your understanding of blogging and provides more insight on how to use blogs effectively with your students.

But trust me, I can totally relate to how overwhelming the idea of blogging can be to someone who has never blogged before.

So to help you out I have taken what I have gained from the 31 Day Project and created a stepped blogging program for you to either:

1. Get Started in Blogging - for people who have never blogged or are just starting out
2. Improving your Blogging effectiveness - for people who are already blogging

Realising that the key to blogging lies in effective reading of blogs I have also set up a section on how to subscribe to blogs.

While my blogging program was complied for educators, it is of benefit for anyone interested in blogging. Its aim is to progress people through from appreciating the value of blogging, through reading and commenting on blogs, to 5 Day Tasks for new blogger and eventually onto the 31 Day tasks for more experienced bloggers (based on Darren Prowse’s 31 Day Project).

Think About Personal Gain and Make the Time!

For bloggers who are feeling reluctant to undertake the 31 Day Project, due to commitments, remember you can extend it longer than 31 Days. Before you decide it is not for you read how much Michelle Martin gained from this Project!

MAKE the TIME to improve WHAT YOU DO! And join Betterblog.com so we can support you while you undertake the Project.

Well the Minilegends might think they are the Winners of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog! But they’re not! (Great Sue, you just made a class of 8 and 9 year olds cry because after a day of excitement they think they are not getting the chocolate! Stop crying kids, the chocolates yours!).

The true winners, other than chocolate winners that is, are the team from our 31 Days Blog Project. WE have decided to set up a community at Ning, Betterblog.ning.com, so that we can continue to work and help one another together!

If you’re interested in discussing blogging, and how to improve the quality of your blog, we want to invite you to join Building a Better Blog community. Check out the goals of our community! Who should join? Newbies, educational bloggers, organisational bloggers, students bloggers, any blogger, in fact you don’t even have to blog! 31 Days Over? Nope, its just beginning!

Special thanks to Michelle Martin (Bamboo Blog), for firstly, being the reason why we initially formed a community to undertake the 31 Day Project, and for being the driving force behind our Ning Community.

Before I go I just need to say a BIG WELCOME to two bloggers!

Michael Berta (Mike’s Doc Blog)

Michael Berta, from Mike’s Doc Blog has decided to join the 31 Day Project (and is doing the daily tasks in September). I may have cheekily hinted that he needed to change his template, which he then tested me with by asking at the end of a post what readers think of his new template.

Mike has also joined us at Ning, and managed somehow in true Mike-ness to caused total mayhem in my twitter group! Well done, Mike! Apparently I am NOT ADDICTED TO BLOGGING or the INTERNET! So sorry, all my loyal readers, I now have to shut down all my sites, and stop blogging because I am not competent! Thoughts READERS?

Geno (Facing Facts)

Geno and I have been interacting over at Twitter - actually this is a secret because my network does not realised about me and Geno. Will leave them guessing WHO HE IS in my twitter group!

I have been enjoying my interactions with Geno, I have even been on a ride on his Harley and visited a Biker’s bar, in the US. The bikers did not quite understand my Aussie accent - but that is okay. He makes sure the Twitterers behave during my nights, and I do the same in my days.

He has decided to set up a blog, and his post yesterday reminded me when I feel like giving up, when it feels that I am not making a difference, NOT TO GIVE UP! Take the time to read his first post on Ripples spread out over time & place… He is a new blogger, and we all remember what it is like, toes just touching the water, still trying to find our voices - take the time to post a COMMENT ON HIS BLOG.

I hope in time he will post some pictures on his blog showing my adventures around US with him.

It’s been 31 Days of hard work, slogging away, often feeling like there was no way that we could make it over the steep mountains, but we have! 31Days to Build a Better Blog are over!

WOW what a fantastic journey, we have learnt so much, our blogs are better and more importantly we have formed a community that has worked together that found knowledge gain from the 31 Day Project was greater than working as individuals, because each individual sees a different perspective of the task - giving participants greater “food for thought!”

For many of us, the famous sweet twist of Chocolate to the 31 Day Project - 1 kg to the blogger who gains the most and $25 voucher to the reader who is the best commenter on a participants blog - was incentive to participate. As Christine commented in an email “While chocolate was a really fun way to kick this off, it has become so much more, the chocolate seems immaterial.”

Our most valuable gain during the 31 Day Project was our community which supported each other support during this intense time. For this reason we have decided to form a blogging support community at Ning (Betterblog.ning.com). This group is open and we invite you to join. We’ll be discussing blogging best practices and going through periodic weekly challenges designed to help us continue to develop our blogs.

Yes, the chocolate has become immaterial but Frances and I still have to honor our commitment to award the chocolate (a promise is a promise and we owe it to the sponsors of the Chocolate Challenge - The Chocolate Box and James Farmer from Edublogs). Thanks to our sponsors for donating these prizes! Both the winner of “best blogger” and “best commenter” was decided by the challenge participants.

Winners Are

And the winners of both the “best blogger” and “best commenter” are ……..Al Upton and The MiniLegends. Let me first clarify that it was never intended to award both prizes to the same individual/group however when I explain our reasons for choosing the MiniLegends I hope you will understand!

Here are the reasons why the MiniLegends were chosen as the Winners:

Blogger who gained the most

• The miniLegends are 8-9 years old - the same age as my youngest son. These kids are just starting their journey in life (reading and writing is a CHALLENGE still).
• For most of us the chocolate is immaterial but for the MiniLegends chocolate is not immaterial. The prize will encourage kids in this class to keep doing what they are doing and inspire other classes in their school to get involved. And WOW if this encourages more kids and teachers from schools all around the World to engaging their students in blogging how wonderful would that be!

The reader who is the best commenter on a participants blog

• It is hard it is for this age to write at 8-9 years old and yet the MiniLegends visited our blogs, read some of our posts (LOL even adults struggle reading my posts) and actually commented on our post
• Further more some of the miniLegends wrote incredible comments

All the blogging participants are about “Helping others and making a difference!” . Our greatest opportunity to make a difference is to award the prizes to the MiniLegends!

Thank You to My Readers

I also want to thank all of the readers who took the time in the past month to email me or comment on my posts. There are days when wonder why I keep doing what I do, and the comments and nice emails letting me know I’ve made a difference keeps me going. So thank you, my readers.

If I had to choose a reader that supported me the most on the tasks during this challenge (if you remove the blogging participants) it would be Gary Barber (Man With No Blog). Gary has been fantastic, for willingly and without being asked, mentoring, guiding and commenting on blogs on participants based in Western Australia. So have decided that I will personally organise something to thank him for his amazing support.

The End of the 31 Day Project?

The 31 Day Project may have ended, but this is NOT THE END for us!

The group that formed to meet this challenge has become very tight, and we are in the process of setting up a network for our community. WATCH this space - more about that later!

Final Thanks

As Michelle says “I do want to thank all of the 31 Day project participants. They’ve been a wonderful group of people to go with on this journey and I know that I couldn’t have even remotely completed this process without their support and ongoing motivation.”

So thanks to: Alex Miller, Al Upton and the MiniLegends, Cammy Bean, Christine Martell, Eklavya, Frances McLean, Kate Foy, Kate Quinn, Laura Whitehead, Michelle Martin , Paul Webster, Sue Hickton, Tim Davies - I could not have done it without YOU ALL!

While some might feel a sense of relief because the tough slog of the blogging challenge is completed with the final ride down that last steep hill across the finish line, I feel immensely sadness because working together as community for this 31 Day Blogging challenge has been extraordinary.

So this is my last update of daily tasks for the challenge.

Day 27 - Find a Sponsor for Your Blog

YEAH - don’t need to do this task as I am not interested in making money from my blog.

Progress = Completed

Day 28 - What is Your Blog’s Mission Statement

Cool, YEAH, I have also done this in my post Been Wondering What My Blog is All About? Read On. This is what I said “I am about practical application of technologies in education, and most importantly HELPING OTHERS”.

Progress = Completed

Day 29 - Email a Blogger that Linked to You to Say Thanks

Unbelievable! I am definitely am not rigging these tasks, but whenever possible I send emails to people that link to my different sites. So for me the task is completed.

But more important, I must say it was nice to receive such a lovely email from Eklavya (The Indian Blogger) today who thanked me for all the support during this challenge. A pleasure Eklavya I have enjoyed reading your posts and look forward to your future posts.

Progress = Completed

Day 30 - Explore a Social Media Site

Social networking sites are very important to me. WHY, because if you truly want to exchange KNOWLEDGE, INFORMATION and CONNECT WITH OTHERS that share common interests than you need to make time to participate in these communities.

Here is a list of a few that I belong to:

• Twitter - mine
• Facebook
• EduBloggerWorld - mine
• Linked In - mine
• classroom20.ning.com - mine

Social network sites are about interacting with each other, getting to know the individual’s on a more personal level and making connections. Here is where the personalities of individuals truly comes to the surface. When people are able to connect with you on a personal level there is more chance they will interact with you. They also provide another avenue for people, who share similar interests, to connect with you.

Our networks are really personal to us; and individuals will have preferences for different social network sites. My favourite at the moment is Twitter. I know there are a lot of people that, are not into twitter, all I have to say is where else can you post a question to a global audience and get almost instant feedback. Note it is fun to have the occasional rant in twitter as well!

Progress = Completed

Day 31 - Run a SWOT Analysis on Your Blog

BUGGER! #@! Honestly Darren I was on the home run, and with one hr to go to achieve the tasks in 31 days and you add this one on the last day, a steep bloody uphill before the finish line!!!!!

Well here goes - will I get it done before midnight?

1. Define Your Mission and Goals see above

2. List Your Blog’s Strengths

What attributes does your blog have that will help you to achieve your blog’s goals? - numerous posts on technology use in education, helpful advice and good Step-by-Step pictures on how to use applications.

What does your blog have going for it? A person who is committed to help others and always looking for self improvement!

What are you good at as a blogger? Motivating others to want to participate in the online world and inspiring them to use technologies with their students

What resources and assets do you have at your disposal? Great friends

What do you do better than anyone else? Being me!

3. List Your Blog’s Weaknesses

What attributes does your blog have that are holding you back from achieving it’s goals?

What skills do you not have as a blogger? Language is not my strength, which is why I am better known as a podcaster. Find it hard to write concisely!

What is ‘broken’ on your blog or in your workflow? This question? Not sure what it is really saying.

What could or should you improve about your blog? Add Subscribe to my RSS feed at the bottom of each post. Create a to-do-list based on what I have learnt from the 31 Day Project that I can refer back to for continuous improvement. From all my reading of posts this month, need to make the first sentence of every paragraph count!

What should you probably avoid in your blogging? Long posts
What is distracting you from your goals? Sleep! Work full time, with 2 kids and several websites.

4. List Your Blog’s Opportunities

What external things could/are helping you achieve your blog’s goals? Connections that I have made through interacting in social networks. Podcasting opens doors, and gives me access to people that previously I might not have been able to interview.

What trends are there in your blog’s niche that you could explore on your blog? WOW what isn’t there, mlearning, mobile technologies and web 2.0 are exploding. So much to talk about and so little time.

What tools and technologies could you use to improve your blog? MMMmm not sure. Thoughts welcome.

5. List Your Blog’s Threats

What external things could or are hindering you achieving your blog’s goals? Sleep

What are other blogs in your niche doing that could be hindrance to your own blog’s growth? Nothing because in our area it is about helping one another.

So my action plan will be constructed by reviewing the daily tasks from the 31 Day Project, to create a checklist of actions that need to be implemented.

Progress = Completed

31 Day Challenge Progress = Completed

[image by WallyG]

Thanks challenge participants - it has been a fantastic 31 Days!

Energy has been an issue during our Chocolate Challenge of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, but with just over one week to go, I am thinking the challenge participants definitely deserve a party next Saturday to celebrate their achievements - although different time zones may cause an interesting debate for us to decide which day to hold the party Check out Darren’s 31 Day project page for the detailed information on the daily tasks we have to complete.

Day 15 - Make Your Most Popular Posts Sticky

The best part of doing these updates is going back to my previous update and actually making sure I have completed a task. At this point the word BUGGER springs to mind. I had planned to add similar RSS reminder to the bottom of my posts like Michelle has done (see image below), and I forgot! My mind was debating whether it was a good idea to have an RSS icon with no RSS feed attached like she has done - since readers used to RSS would just click on the icon - that I totally forgot to do anything!

Might need to write a to-do-list of reminders when writing posts!

Progress = OOPs

Day 18 - Create a Sneeze Page and Propel Readers Deep Within Your Blog

This task did make me quite emotional. Thought I had finally caught up and THIS. She shall not be overcome sprung to mind!!!

Worked hard and made massive changes to my blog by:

• Adding a Browse Blog Page - not the greatest of names, any suggestions? Here is where I put quick links to posts on mlearning, elearning, Web 2.0, most popular posts, most commented posts and my archives
• Adding a 31 Day Blog Project page and pictures of the blogging participants to enhance the community aspect (Full credit to Leigh Blackall for inviting me to Konrad Glogowski’s online session on Classrooms as Third Places and thanks to Konrad for highlighting the value of using pictures to enhance network connections)
• Removing separate tabs on main page for My Podcast and My Wiki site - and combining them into on tab titled Other Sites (thanks Evil Sue for recommending I do this)

Progress = Completed (unless you think there is more I could have done?)

Day 20 - Run a Reader Survey

We have all agreed that we are holding off on this task as we’ve been asking a lot of readers in the past few weeks, and we don’t want to put anyone on overload. So we will schedule it for later in the year (hopefully Alex will send us all a group reminder )

Progress = Complete later in year :)

Day 21 - Make a Reader Famous

First I think that Michelle words of wisdom on this task are so important that I want to share them (hope that is okay Michelle?):

• One of the beauties of blogging, as opposed to just running a website, is the sense of community that develops from interacting with your readers. The best blogs have active reader communities and it only makes sense that you’d recognize your readers from time to time.
• Let me say, though, that I think “making readers famous” is probably a really essential key to blogging, particularly if you’re an organization. People like to read about themselves and feel recognized. When you put them front and center, they’re more likely to come back again.
• I think this task should definitely go high on the list of “most useful” pieces of work to do on our blog or website.

I agree Michelle, we should be recognizing and acknowledging the value our readers provide to our blog community.

So the question is am I doing this?

• Promote a comment to a Post Definitely - comments make me see issues from other people’s view points which then inspires me to investigate and report back. Classic examples this week has been: 1. Christine encouraged me to research how we can inform our readers to best read our blogs on mobile phones; 2. Dianne inspired me to post on policies stifling use of technologies in education which has encouraged others to join the conversation on the topic.
• Write a Post about their Blog Visit the blogs of those leaving comments on your blog. Write an ‘unpaid review’ of the blog - highlighting the best posts and what you like about it. Well - I am not sure that I do - certainly I acknowledge and praise blogs that I like. Definitely putting this on the to-do-list
• Send Your Readers to Comment on Someone Else’s Blog Was a bit worried for a few seconds. But yes, thankfully I do this - for example, have been encouraging people to visit the participants in the blogging challenge.
• Give Readers an Opportunity to Promote Themselves - Will report back on this one
• Reader of the Week Would be interested in my readers thoughts on Reader of the week? Here is an example that Darren highlights. Yes or No? Should I do it or Not?

Thanks to Frances for showcasing the effective use of the tick in posts.
Progress = mmmm

Day 22 - Catch New Readers Up on the Basics of your Blog

Darren says he does this type of post every few months (3-6 months) and here is an example of how he has done it on one of his blogs. I am off tomorrow to Melbourne for 2 days, I will schedule this post to appear while I am away.

Progress = Completed

Day 23 - Go on a Dead Link Hunt

Well Paul suggested that we use Dead-Links.com and Xenu to locate broken links within posts that I tested. I tried Dead-Links but most the links it indicated were broken weren’t which was a bit frustrating. I had not read his follow up post that also suggested Xenu, instead did road testing of different free online broken link checker.

In my opinion the W3C link checker (see image below) worked the best of the free online link checkers. Note that still had the same issues that so links that it suggested might be broken weren’t. So am going out on a limb to say based on my knowledge, at the moment all links are working.

Progress = Completed

Day 24 - Do a Search Engine Optimization Audit

Well Technorati has been known to mock me, so I have already been working hard on this. I am also subscribing to tag feeds for mlearning, elearning and mobile learning from both Technorati and Google Blog Search - WHY because many of my favourite bloggers prefer to read posts by subscribing to technorati tags than to blogs.

My advice is it is definitely worth seeing what your post looks when it comes through to a feed reader as a Tag feed from both Technorati and Google Blog Search - you might be surprised/shocked! Also worth noting that these two search engines will often feed you different articles.

My advice for Search Engine Optimisation is:

• Technorati and Google Blog Search looks for the tag terms within the text of your posts - so if you want these search enginges to easy find your post use the keywords within the text of your post e.g. this is why you will see me use the words mlearning (mobile learning) and mobile technology within the body of a post
• Technorati does not recognise terms like m-learning as a tag, so make sure you use all variations of the tag (e.g. mlearning and mobile learning)
• People also locate blogs using advanced blog searches at Technorati, your blog will not be displayed if you have not joined and claimed your blog. Read more about this here!

Progress = completed

Day 25 - Go Shopping and Improve Your blog

I think I will wait and see what the other blogging participants suggest about this activity. Do it or leave it?

Progress = ? (Waiting for feed back).

Day 26 - Link Up to a Competitor

As Darren has said previously ““he uses the word ‘competition’ hesitantly because the thing about blogging is that those blogging on the same topics as you are potentially your biggest allies. Connect and work with your competition and everyone improves.”

Happy to say that I willingly, and regularly link to posts by others who blog on the same topics. My aim has always been to network and help others, no such word as competitor to me (other than those I am competing against in the chocolate challenge).

Progress = Complete

Day 19 into our Chocolate Challenge of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. Energy levels feeling low, Berroccas (a vitamin supplement) maybe needed. But like the 2 girls getting through 24 hours on Berroccas we are going well and gaining from this challenge. Check out Darren’s 31 Day project page for the detailed information on the daily tasks we have to complete.

Day 7 - Plan Your Next Week’s Posting Schedule

Last week I did take Darren’s advice about planning a week’s worth of posts. It was hard work - because most days I was posting on the blogging challenge and write a new post on my niche area.

The hard work was extremely worthwhile because it forced me to actually post on my niche area which resulted in new readers. The original purpose of my sites was to document use of mobile technology in mlearning (mobile learning) however over time I made the decision to broaden to include both elearning and Web2.0. By posting on mobile technology it increased people’s awareness that I am actually into mobile technology and mlearning = new readers visiting my site - my post on UMPCs was very popular probably because not many people have posted on the use of UMPCs in mlearning (mobile learning).

Progress = Completed

Day 11 - Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics

Statistics are important for tracking what is happening on your site. I still can’t believe I didn’t add Google Analytics sooner.

Progress = ongoing

Day 14 - Analyse your Blog Competition

Still working on this task from my last update. Why - because when doing this task I have discovered there were issues with how blog search engines handle my posts. I have spent considerable time researching this topic because:

• many of my favourite bloggers prefer to read posts by subscribing to technorati tags than to blogs
• people use blog search engines to locate blogs worth reading

Check out the changes I needed to make for Technorati. Many bloggers are now preferring to use Google Blog Search which works differently from Technorati however when searching post on topics both blog search engines rely heavily on the search term being in the post.

To optimise post visibility in blog search engines:

• Insert technorati tags (but if there are variations on tag terms people use then you will need to use all e.g. m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning)
• Use the terms within your actual post, but somehow you will need to use all variations e.g. m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning

Make sure you do an audit of your blog using both Technorati and Google Blog Search; with Technorati search tag terms and blog directory (read my post on technorati to see how). Also subscribe to tag feeds from both Technorati and Google Blog Search to make sure your post looks good when viewed in their feeds.

Progress = Ongoing

Day 15 - Make Your Most Popular Posts Sticky

Michelle’s did this by adding at the bottom of a few key posts an RSS icon and then added the words“If you liked this article, you may want to sign up to be automatically updated the next time I post new content. Learn more Here (the Learn more Here links to her page on RSS).

So I finally got around to creating my page on RSS - tried to think of a term that new Readers could relate to so have gone with New Posts Notification (if you can think of a better phrase let me know). I also checked out some ideas from Michelle’s RSS page to get ideas on how to write - thanks Michelle.

Looks like I will need to manually add If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! because this plugin is not available for Edublogs but if you are using Wordpress check out the plugin recommended by the Indian Blogger!

Progress = Ongoing

Day 16 - Create a Heatmap of Where Readers Click on Your Blog

Unfortunately I am unable to create a Heatmap because Edublogs does not support the Java Script required. Check out Laura’s post to see how a Heatmap works.

Progress = task completed!

Day 17 - Run a StumbleUpon Campaign for Your Blog

Michelle said the following about StumbleUpon:

“My observation with StumbleUpon is that a lot of those people are looking to be entertained, not educated–at least not on the types of things I write about. If I had funny videos or awesome photography, then I’d do it, but my topic area isn’t really designed for StumbleUpon users.”

Michelle and her husband are self confessed StumbleUpon addicts, so she would know the value of her site to StumbleUpon users. If her topic area isn’t really designed for StumbleUpon users than there is no way my topic area is = no point me doing this task!

Progress = task completed!

Day 18 - Create a Sneeze Page and Propel Readers Deep Within Your Blog

Oh boy - just when I thought I had finally caught up - here is a new task that is going to take time. All good (where are those Berroccas) it has been on “my to-do-list” to create an easier, faster method for my readers to locate the information they want on my site.

Progress = ongoing

Day 19 - Respond to Reader Comments

I feel like Michelle says “Finally! A task that I already do exactly as Darren suggests. I live for reader comments, so I always try to respond, usually in the comments thread as well as via email.”

Well - lets be honest - I really sucked at this before starting this blogging challenge, but this challenge has made me more efficient, and made it second nature now to do this and Cammy gave me the mechanism by telling me about co-mment to manage effectively how I comment and engage in conversation on other people’s blogs.

But I have not being doing this important tip of Darren’s

“Click the links of those who leave comments on your blog. When you do this you’ll find that some of those who leave comments on your blog who check their own blog’s referral statistics will notice your visit and come back to see if their comments have been responded to.” Good point Darren not everyone knows how to track comments on other peoples blogs - I didn’t so you need to let them know you have commented back!

PARTICIPANT UPDATE

We now have another new participant, Evil Sue, if you get a chance please go past and welcome her to the team! She is definitely one who will need the Berrocas because no doubt she will attempt to do from day 1-19 in 24 hours.

It is day 14 into our Chocolate Challenge of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. With my hubby beating me to bed I decided I might as well do something productive like an update on the Challenge as he is snoring loudly! Check out Darren’s 31 Day project page for the detailed information on the daily tasks we have to complete.

Day 11 - Dig into your blog’s statistics

Great idea Darren - unfortunately I have been using Sitemeter and because Javascript is not supported the only statistics I get is how many hits per day. Was on my to-do-list to rectify so thanks to Darren it now jumped to the top of my list.

So I have now installed Google Analytics - will accumulate a week worth of statistics and report back on this topic!

Day 12 - Introduce Yourself to a Blogger

Well actually I already do this a lot!

While I had been very lapsed on statistics on my blog, I do watch them closely on my wiki and podcast site - so I know how people are being referred to my sites, what is popular on the site, to see how the information is being used and can find some really helpful sites this way!). If a person/site is referring traffic to my sites I like to go past and thank them - normally as an email.

But I need to remember this tip from Darren:

My only other tip is to keep your email brief and to the point. Many bloggers are inundated with email and to be confronted with a long rambling email of introduction might not create the impression that you’re after.

No doubt my emails are probably too long - judging on my posts

Day 13 - Search for an Affiliate Program that Fits Your Blog

Yeah - not interested in blogging commercially!! So task completed

Day 14 - Analyze Your Blog’s Competition

Well - this is an interesting task and as Darren points out using the word “competition” is probably not best term to use. The concept is to subscribe and read 10 blogs in your niche for a week then do a thorough analysis on them.

I already subscribe to lots of blogs in my niches…which I have mostly stumbled across, often through others “Blogs I like to Read”. So I decided that I should locate the top blogs in each of my areas of interests: m-learning, e-learning and Web2.0.

Of I went to Technorati - which I admit I have not spent enough time using - after awhile of stumbling around I discovered I could locate popular blogs by clicking on advanced search then going to bottom of page and doing Blog Directory Search. Enter your search term, in my case was m-learning. Search will list blogs and you can change the results of the search (seeright side of page you can sort by relevance, authority (number of blogs linking to this blog) or freshness).

This is where I then got side tracked - my blog was not even making the list!!!! Great so if any one did a search of Technorati on blogs on m-learning - they may not find my blog!!! Oops — so I have now set up an account with Technorati, have claimed my blog, entered my tags and it is starting to appear on the lists.

I am tired so keep working on this and locating top blogs over the next few days.

Task Status - slow progress

Final Update

Husband still snoring REALLY LOUDLY but I am really tired so need to go to bed!!!

But before I do I need to do a real big WELCOME TO:

Al Upton and the minilegends (a school class blog) for joining our Chocolate Challenge. Read Frances’s welcoming post to the minilegends and find out how these minilegends have already taught her new stuff!!