Early Bloggiesta finish line post

Sadly I have to cut my Bloggiesta experience a day shorter then I intended since I am quite ill (everybody go awww now). That is why I am writing my finishing line post now, but I might tweak this post later if I find some extra energy to do stuff anyway. For the people that don't know about Bloggiesta, I post the description once more.

“Some of you may be asking what is Bloggiesta? In short, it’s a blogging marathon.  A opportunity to cross those nagging items off of your to-do list and improve your blog while in the good company of other awesome bloggers doing the same thing. Our awesome mascot Pedro (Plan. Edit. Develop. Review. Organize) is ready to break out the nachos, enchiladas, drinks, mariachi music and whack a pinata or two!  It’s nothing short of an awesome fiesta!”

At first my list actually grew during bloggiesta because of all the new information I got by reading mini challenges. But I managed to do a LOT from my list and if I wouldn't have been sick today, I would have made it!

Anyway here is my list of things accomplished in no particular order (and some things I didn't manage to do):

- Changed layout on She likes Bento (not intended)
- Updated the plugins on She likes bento & Uniflame Creates (added twitter & facebook plugins & removed some)
- Read how to use common creative’s on flickr and share my own pictures

- Learn more about feeds and possibly add them
- Learn how to back up my blogs and do it.
- Learn more about copyright of blogs
- Update my profile
- Clean up my tags
- Think about that I want to do with Uniflame Creates this year and what kind of posts I want to include
- Think of ways to get my blogs more known (I did some SEO, but this is never ending, really)
- Find out if I can add my own custom banners and possibly make them (which size too)
- Write book reviews on creative books for Uniflame Creates and/or bento/cookbooks for She likes Bento
- Brainstorm on blogging topics
- Read interesting blogs from others for inspiration (A never ending task as well)
- Add Favicon’s to both blogs
- Gravatar
- Link to other people in the same scene (bento blogs) & creative persons (only did this for She Likes Bento and only Bento blogs from the Netherlands, so this needs more work)
- Learn how to create different pages on my blog(s) and how to post on them (it turned out that you only can make static pages on Blogger which I think sucks)
- Look into how to do a giveaway
- Write an about piece for Uniflame Creates
- Ask around how to make linkwithin work if you have 2 blogs
- Make small banners for others to post (and learn about how to add the code for them)
- Change layout on Uniflame Creates
- Add recent comments widget
- Find out how people can subscribe to my blog though email (It turned out thee wasn't a working plugin for Blogger at this moment)
- Learn more about cheat sheets (I found out that only a template might be good for me to make)
- Look for info on blogbuddies & invite someone
- Look to Light of Inspiration blog and maybe delete it
- Post blog updates to twitter automatically (and facebook too)
- Add a page about your creative education to Uniflame Creates
- Make review templates (Books, Snacks)
- Analyse blogs
- Add meta tags to both blogs
- Make a signature image

Some people might notice that I did a lot more then what was on my original list. Other then that I also participated in a lot of mini challenges which partly have overlap with the above list. I would have listed all the mini challenges here with links to the hosts of these great challenges, if it weren't for the fact that I feel so utterly crap and that it took me about three times to even spell the word challenges. So I am just going to give a BIG thanks in general to all these wonderful people for hosting the challenges and Maw books for hosting Bloggiesta! I have learned so much this weekend and I simply couldn't have done it without all the other participants who shared information, helped me and cheered me on.

That being said, I hope that I find the time soon to make these lasts improvements happen. I hope I can stay in touch with some great people I met this weekend and that we can continue to help each other with improving our blogs! And lastly: hanging out with mostly book bloggers is contagious. I have now two reading challenges that I want to participate in. So this blog will get a bit of books mixed in as well, though the main focus will still be my creative path. But more on that in the near future.

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