As one of the mini-challenges for the Spring 2018 Bloggiesta, Berls suggested organizing Tags, Categories and Labels on your blog. It’s a Mystery is my newest blog, so I thought it was somewhat tidy. After taking a look, however, it was obvious the categories need some work.
Before organization:
Blog security is something you probably wish you didn’t need to think about, but these days it is necessary because you may be vulnerable regardless of the size or activity level of your site.
For this Bloggiesta mini-challenge, develop a security plan for your blog and then share link to your post — or at least a few details — in the comments, if you like.
Because each blogging platform is different, your blog security plan will be unique. To get you started, however, let’s go over some basics.
No matter what platform you use, always be sure to install any software updates immediately. Many times the updates are issued to fix security vulnerabilities.
You may have noticed that a lot of commercial websites and blogs have changed the beginning part of the URL to “https.” What does that mean and should you do the same?
Http stands for “hypertext transfer protocol” and it is how linked text/data is transferred around the Internet. Nowadays hackers can intercept that information as it is moving from place to place and use it for their own purposes. For example, they might intercept a password and use it to gain access to your blog. To prevent unintended access, the information is encrypted or converted into a code. When the transfers are encrypted, it is called “https” or “http secure.”
If your blog is on a hosting service like WordPress.com or Blogger, it may already have been upgraded to https without your knowledge. Check the URL of your blog in your browser. The symbol of the lock (green) also means it is secure.
If you have a blogspot domain and it isn’t https yet, https for blogspot domains explains how to make the upgrade.
For WordPress self-hosted blogs, how to make your site https or secure will be more complicated and will depend on your hosting server. Typically you will need to obtain a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. Your host may let you use theirs or you may have to register you own with a service like Let’s Encrypt (or see this review of 5 services).
Whatever you do, always back up your blog prior to making these changes. After you make the conversion, all the URLs in your blog/website will change to https. Your browser will give you an error, however, when you load any internal http links that didn’t change automatically. All the internal links will have to be changed from http to https, including those for images.
To fix this problem, you need to do two things:
For WordPress sites, you can use search and replace plugin to change it all at once. Examples of these type of plugins are Search & Replace and Better Search Replace.
Sound complicated and a lot of work? You may wonder if you really need to do it. That is a good question, but a tough one to answer. It is likely https will be required at some point in the future (Remember when Google required all blogs and websites to be mobile-friendly?) At this point you should at least read up on it and have a plan in place in case it becomes required.
One important security precaution is to not use “admin” as your login/username. If you have been using admin, WordPress makes changing usernames difficult, but not impossible.
This video shows how to do it:
See more at this related blog post from wpbeginner.
Hopefully that gives you some ideas for developing your security plan. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or have any additional suggestions.
Let’s all have a safe blogging experience!
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Example of a Security Plan
Is your blog is disarray? Schedule lagging, to-dos building up, or feeling unorganized? Then join the Spring 2018 Bloggiesta from March 19-25 and tidy up your blog!
What is Bloggiesta?
Bloggiesta is an online party where you can find blog organization tips, take challenges to learn new things, and — best of all — meet some awesome bloggers!
If you are interested, post a to-do list like the one below and then link to the Spring Sign Up page. There is also more information to explore at the Bloggiesta blog.
Adding to my next Bloggiesta to-do list: (I’m posting these here to find when I create my next list)
If you’re interested, I will be pinning to my Bloggiesta Wisdom Pinterest Board throughout the week.
Time to get busy.
Hope you all have a fun and productive Bloggiesta.
Do you have a blog, particularly a book blog?
Time to spruce it up, catch up on those posts you’ve been meaning to write, and get re-energized about blogging by participating in the winter 2018 mini-Bloggiesta from February 3-4, 2018. Sign-ups are here.
What is Bloggiesta?
Bloggiesta is an online party where you find tips to get your blog organized, take challenges to learn new things, and — best of all — meet some awesome book bloggers!
Time to get busy.
Summary: I accomplished more than I thought I would, even though life got in my way yesterday. Three projects that seemed to be nearly completed took sideways turns on me and will now require significantly more work. Guess it was better to find the issues before they are submitted rather than afterwards, but it was still a bit disheartening.
Hope you all have had a fun and productive Bloggiesta.
Do you have a blog, particularly a book blog? Time to tune it up and get energized by participating in the Spring 2017 Bloggiesta running from March 20-26. Sign-ups are here.
What is Bloggiesta?
Bloggiesta is an online party where you can get your blog organized, take challenges to learn new things, and — best of all — meet some awesome book bloggers!
Time to get busy. Hope you all have a fun and productive Bloggiesta.
Do you have a blog, particularly a book blog? Time to tune it up and get energized by participating in the Winter 2017 Mini Bloggiesta running from January 13-15.
What is Bloggiesta?
Bloggiesta is a wonderful blog party where you can get your blog organized, take challenges to learn new things and, best of all, meet awesome new bloggers.
If you’d like to sign up to participate in this Bloggiesta event, make a to-do list/landing page like this one and then add the link to your post to the Bloggiesta sign-up page.
Be sure to look for the Twitter Chat tomorrow (Saturday Jan 14). I’m bummed because I’m going to be in a writing workshop and won’t be able to attend live.
Time to get busy. Hope you all have a fun and productive weekend.
Andrea at The Overstuffed Bookcase has a wonderful mini-challenge for using a bullet journal to keep your blog organized.
I’m afraid I had to rush through this one a bit, because I’m due at a birthday party shortly. I highly recommend heading over to Andrea’s blog and reading more about the potential of bullet journals.
Okay, I admit I’m totally weird, but I have a lot of blogs so I keep track of upcoming posts in vertical columns. How it works is each column is a blog, and each row is a day of the week. This way I can see all the posts scheduled for a given day and how they flow within a given blog. Sometimes posts on two blogs tie together.
Again, I was in a hurry, so it isn’t very neat and pretty. Hopefully you get the idea.
Jeanene at Got My Book blog has a Bloggiesta Mini-challenge to “Increase Readership & Engagement with a Wrap-up Post.” I’ve never done one before, so I decided to give it a try.
This week has been a busy one, although I didn’t review any books. Instead, I
I am currently reading some nonfiction books as research for my upcoming NaNo writing project. I’m also hosting the Writer’s Studio this week, so I have out some of my favorite books about the craft of writing, such as Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, and Stephen King’s On Writing. For fun, I have Sue Grafton’s T is for Trespass (Yes, I’m behind).
Mocha Girls Read has a great list of thrillers/suspense/mysteries to check out.
Oh, just found a list of new books coming out in all the different subgenres of suspense at View for My Books Blog.
Summary:
Wow, writing a wrap-up was actually fun. Jeanene suggests copying a template and starting the post at the beginning of the week, filling in links as you go. That sounds like a great idea!
She also suggests sharing your wrap-up post with a meme. Today I chose:
When it comes to Pinterest, don’t get caught napping! Spruce up your blog and join us for a Bloggiesta Mini Challenge for creating Pinterest-friendly blog posts.
As many of you probably already know, Pinterest is a popular social networking site that allows users to organize links, images, and videos by pinning them to virtual bulletin boards. Each link is represented by an image and a snippet of text.
Example Pinterest Pin
Pinning is a great way to keep track of and share information for projects, hobbies, and pastimes. It also helps you to attract followers for your blog and build your platform. Pins have a longer shelf life than other forms of social media. People may discover your links days, weeks, months or even years after you first pinned them.
Even if you don’t use Pinterest personally, many of your readers do and it pays to make it easy for them to share links to your work.
Here are some quick tips to get you started:
Most bloggers know to include images in posts because they break up the text and increase page views (see a discussion why images are important at HubSpot). Because Pinterest users rely on images to identify interesting links, it is critical to pay attention to proportions, quality, and naming of the images in your posts. The good news is that Pinterest-friendly images look good on other social networking sites, too.
Step 1. Locate quality images appropriate for your topic.
If you like photography, you may want to take your own photographs for blog posts.
Sometimes, however, you don’t have the luxury of taking your own photographs. If so, there are many places to find high quality images on the internet. Always make sure the image is either public domain or that you attribute the photographer properly if you use an image you download in a blog post.
A few places to find high quality images:
Step 2. Choose an image-editing program.
Adobe Photoshop has been the reigning champ of photograph editing for so long that it is regularly used as a verb (She was photoshopped). Not everyone can afford it, though. Learning to use it can take time, too.
Looking for an alternative?
Step 3. Crop images to correct proportions
Vertical images (those taller than they are wide) work best for Pinterest. The current recommendation is 735 pixels wide by 1102 pixels tall or a ratio of 2:3. I created the top image in Canva using their Pinterest template at 735 by 1102 pixels and then reduced it to 300 by 450 pixels to place in the post.
Step 4. Add graphics and text.
Remember to include your blog name and perhaps your URL, if the image isn’t too busy. I chose not to add it to the top image because it would have covered the adorable sleeping dog.
Name your image using keywords.
Step 5. Add the image to your post.
Encourage readers to pin your post right away by including the image at or near the top.
Once you have good, pinnable images in all your posts, go ahead and make sure the rest of your blog is optimized.
Make your posts easy to share by setting up a Pinterest board for your blog and pinning posts to it regularly.
Example of a Pinterest Board
I’ve seen conflicting advice whether to give the Pinterest board the exact name of your blog. Common sense would suggest that if your blog title is self-evident and has a least a few keywords, the title should be fine. If you got creative with your blog title, however, you might want to add a keyword or two. For example, the blog title can be the board title if it is “Science Books for Kids,” but “Wrapped in Foil blog” might be better as “Wrapped in Foil’s Children’s Book Reviews.”
Remember to add a board description using keywords and also categorize it. Most book blogs will go in the “Film, music and books” category.
You probably already have social sharing icons, but it won’t hurt to double-check them.
Some tips for attracting and keeping followers on Pinterest.
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For this mini challenge:
For easy sharing, I will pin your posts to a Pinterest Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge Board. Can’t wait to see how they look.
[pin_board url=”https://www.pinterest.com/sandverbena/pinterest-bloggiesta-mini-challenge-board/”]
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’m learning how to do this, too.
Now, back to Bloggiesta.
Do you have a blog, particularly a book blog? Time to tune it up and get energized by participating in the Fall 2016 Bloggiesta, running from September 15-18.
What is Bloggiesta?
Bloggiesta is a wonderful blog party where you can get your blog organized, take challenges to learn new things and, best of all, meet awesome new bloggers.
If you’d like to sign up to participate in this Bloggiesta event, make a to-do list/landing page like this one and then add the link to your post to the Bloggiesta sign-up page.
This year I’m excited to announce I will be hosting a mini challenge: Tips for making your blog Pinterest-friendly – Now live!
✅ 1. Fix the links in the early posts that broke when I moved to this domain.
✅ 2. Write two reviews and schedule them. Include Pinterest-ready images.
3. Prepare a video Whodunit Challenge (#5).
4. Post older reviews to Goodreads.
5. Do three two Bloggiesta mini challenges
6. Figure out how to improve the link to RSS in the sidebar (so it doesn’t list a post?).
✅ 7. Add a contact page.
(I’m not sure I like the look, though.)
✅ 8. Memes are a great way to keep motivated and meet new people. I plan to go to the Master List of Book Blogging Memes and find one or two to join.
Tried out The Sunday Post meme here.
✅ 9. Visit and comment on other Bloggiesta participants’ blogs.
10. Check out the mini challenges from previous years for even more ideas.
Are you participating in Bloggiesta this year? What is on your to do list?
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