Friday, March 7, 2008

I'm bad!

Wow....I really need to figure out how to get more disciplined about my blog. Anyone got any suggestions?

I do have a few things to share. First, I started a Facebook group called I Love Beads.
I've been reading some online reports about linking and online presence and Facebook was listed as one of the sites that helps increase search engine rankings.


So, if you're about connecting online, won't you come join us on this new Facebook group?
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8848683585

The Auctions for this years Beading For A Cure projects started last Sunday, March 2nd and they will run through May 4th. Please be sure to check them out! It's a wonderful cause and great way for you to own a piece of amazing beadwork!

This years kits have already been spoken for. I'll ask Shawn to take a picture for me this weekend so you can see!

The colors are very inspirational to me, very Autumn in tone. I'm thinking I might encrust a handmade basket with some freeform beading. At least that what keeps yelling the loudest to me. I thought of an Afgani carpet when I first saw the colors, but all the shapes don't lend themselves well to a bead carpet. ;o)

Gotta run, I'm in several swaps at the moment and one of them was suppose to be mailed out days ago! I've got to get it packaged and shipped today!! Yikes!

9 comments:

Laura K. Curtis said...

Blogging discipline? Get guest bloggers! I used to have a beading blog (it's now gone) and I had a few people write articles and stuff for me. It was loads of fun and took the pressure off me. I could leave things "in the pipeline" til I needed them.

Dulcey said...

You're so busy! I don't have any grand suggestions. Maybe when you can find time, sit down and write a few posts or partial posts and keep them as drafts (or set the pub date in the future, if Blogger supports that). I keep a blog for work, and doing both of these help me there.

Beki said...

Guest bloggers? Splain more, Lucy?
Isn't the point of a blog for the blog owner to blog? (no, I wasn't just trying to see how many times I could say blog in one sentence!) =o)

Beki said...

That's not a bad idea, Dulcey...then I would just have to remember where I saved them...hehehe!
What's your blog for work?

Laura K. Curtis said...

The blog owner certainly should blog, but there's nothing wrong with group blogging, either. For example, I am part of a group blog at http://www.womenofmystery.net. There are a bunch of us, none of whom have time to blog as much as we would like, but between us we manage to get a post up every week day. (WoM is a Blogger blog, so if you need help figuring out how anything works, holler and I'll let you know how to do it. Just at the moment, Blogger isn't letting me change the layout, which is super annoying.)

"Guest" bloggers may post only once or twice, or just very irregularly. For example, when I had my beady blog, I had a guest blogger (I want to say it was AJ, but I am just not sure) write a post about types of clasps. People wrote tutorials, etc. I know some people do interviews on their blogs, which is kind of like having guest bloggers.

Guest bloggers are often people who don't have their own blogs. You can put links to their shops or whatever in the sidebar, so their posts function as a bit of advertisement.

On storing posts for a later dates: in Blogger, there are two things you need to do. First, just don't hit the orange "Publish" button. Using the blue "save now" will save the post without putting it up on the blog. You can stockpile as many posts as you want this way. Then, when you want to "publish" one of your saved nuggets, click "Edit Posts" (it's under the posting tab) and you'll see a list of posts you've made.

BE CAREFUL TO CHANGE THE DATE! When you find the post you want to publish in the list, click the "edit" link next to it, then, at the bottom of the post itself, next to the place where it says "labels for this post," you'll see "Post Options." Clicking that will allow you to set the correct date. (Otherwise, it will post with the date you wrote it, not the date you're publishing it, which won't do you any good at all!)

I hope that's clear...

One more thing. Don't be afraid of short posts. Sometimes just "here's a pretty bead I saw today" is enough to keep people coming back. Content is important, but it doesn't all have to be important content!

abeadlady said...

I am blogging more now that ever, but used to go months without posting anything. For me, a lot of it was lack of confidence, but that has changed a lot over the past year.Now I can't seem to stop writing things.

I love reading other beader's blogs. You can pick up so many good tips and inspirations from them. As busy as you are, no one expects you to blog everyday. Just give up little bits of wisdom when you can.

Arline

Beki said...

Wow! Thanks for all that great information, Laura!

I'll see if I can't get ahead of the game a little bit and have some posts saved.

And, I'd really dig doing some interviews...hmmmmmmm

Beki said...

Thank you, Arline for your sweet words dear.

And I am so very glad you have gained some personal confidence. It's important in so many ways.

Dulcey said...

I've got 2 work blogs, actually. One is sort of cheating because I just have a form I put comments in:
http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/Blog/index.cfm?Topic=Technology
The other is a short-term project I'm almost done with:
http://dulcey.wordpress.com/

As far as saving, it would be saved in your platform (for me, it's save vs publish); I can see mine when I login to wordpress.com They're not on your computer.