Bloggiesta!

There will be no Refer A Book Weekend this weekend because I participating in Maw Book's Bloggiesta Event.
Below is the info on the event.

Are you ready to party again?! So, we’ve had the 24 Hour Read-a-thon, 48 Hour Book Challenge and the Mystery Read-a-thon recently and if you’re like me then you still have piles of books laying around and blog posts to be written. My official count of unreviewed books is sitting at around 25. That’s not counting the 5+ author interviews and let’s not even mention that I haven’t done my weekly reader spotlight for almost two months now. What’s worse is that I’m writing my posts on a day to day basis when ideally I’d love to have a lot of posts finished as rainy day backups.

So, I intend to sit down and tackle all of my book reviews, interviews, emails and bloggy housekeeping but thought it would be a lot more fun if I had some company. When I put some feelers out via Twitter I got a great response and people were eager to start right away.

So, it’s with a little fear and trepidation that I announce the first edition of the Bloggiesta! The Bloggiesta will focus on blog content, improving/cleaning up your blog or working on your social network profiles. I’m pretty open on what you can do during the bloggiesta but reading actually won’t count! I know, I know. The point is to catch up instead of adding another book to the “to be reviewed” pile.

Actual blog content is what I’m really aiming for with some technical/housekeeping bloggy stuff mixed in for good measure.

What to do during the Bloggiesta?

• Write book, movie, TV, product reviews. Any reviews really.
• Write backup posts for a rainy day.
• Write that great post idea from three months back.
• Work on series posts.
• Write guest posts.
• Put out invitations for guest posts.
• Conduct and edit author interviews.
• Create template posts for your future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so you can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities
• Clean up your tags, archives, books reviewed list, etc.
• Improve your blog template, clean up sidebars, add a favicon, install those plugins that you’ve been meaning to do.
• Add or edit your about me page, review policy, create landing pages (for example - an about me for Twitter readers page) or any other pages you might have.
• Any bloggy type housekeeping that you’ve been neglecting.
• Clean up and update your challenge lists. Link up your posts with hosts.
• Make sure all of your social network profiles are up to date. Brand yourself through those profiles with color scheme, images, etc.
• Go get a gravatar.
• Visit the Blogging Tips group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve your blog.
• Work on any specialized projects that you may have going.

How to play:

1. The date is Friday, June 19th beginning at 8am, Saturday the 20th and ending Sunday the 21st at 8am (8am your time, wherever you are). That is a total of 48 hours, of which you should aim high for a total of 18-24 hours spent on the challenge. (I chose both a weekday and a weekend to hopefully accommodate different needs and not take up your entire weekend. And yes, that’s only a week away!) The hours spent on the challenge do NOT need to be in a row. Use the entire 48 hour time frame and see what you can do with it. I say aim for 24 hours but really if you can only do six, twelve or eighteen that’s fine too. I just like to have something to aim for.
2. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it. But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge. So stay up all night or sleep and take care of kids when you need to.
3. When you start the challenge, come back to the “starting line” post and link to your specific post about beginning the challenge which is posted on your blog. That way I’ll be able to track participants and know who’s really playing the game.
4. How many updates (if any) you want to do is up to you. Make it work for you. Personally, I plan on making a to do list and then crossing off items as I accomplish them.
5. If you are on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to join the chatter.
6. Your final summary post needs to be posted no later than noon on Sunday, June 21st. Come back to the finish line and link to your specific summary post. Your summary should include the number of hours spent on the challenge, what you accomplished and any other experiences you’d like to add.
7. Sign the Mr. Linky now if you intend to join the challenge. That way I’ll know if it will be me, myself, and I or if I’ll have company. If you blog about the challenge, point them to this post. I’ll have a starting line post on Friday to sign in when you begin the challenge. Don’t forget to subscribe, so you’ll be notified of future bloggiesta posts.