Because I like to be overly busy (ha!) I decided to sign up for Blogging 201: Branding and Growth over at Blogging University. I haven't gone through any of these courses before, but I plan to do them all just to see how they might help me. I realize that it is through Wordpress, which my blog is not on, but that actually doesn't matter. Anyone can take the course as long as you've registered and created an account.
Day Three's Task: Get Read All Over
Today’s assignment: make sure your site is mobile-friendly, and familiarize yourself with the features of responsive design.
I've checked my site on my mobile preview and on my phone before and it came up well enough. I would love to be able to customize the design more, but Blogger limits that. I checked again to make sure it was still good and it is. I then looked at my site using an iPad, which I haven't done in ages. It didn't function as well as it should and it didn't like my font. It actually made most of the font a script/cursive type, which is very different from what it is. I'm not sure how to fix that using blogger, so I'll have to mess with it somehow or do some research. If any of you have experience there, let me know. This is definitely one area that Wordpress exceeds and does much better than Blogger. Definitely a work-in-progress here.
Day Four's Task: Give 'Em What They Want
Today’s
assignment: do a basic stats analysis to help you create an editorial
calendar for the next 30 days.
I've talked previously about wanting to to look more at what my followers like and want more of. I do run statistics on my site using statcounter.com, but I would need to upgrade to get a better picture. Something to think about.
Here are the general statistics I pulled from statcounter and Blogger:
For one thing, I definitely need to update my pages since I do have a fair amount of people looking at them and I have been behind there in keeping them current.
As far as popular posts go, giveaways are obviously a big draw. The read-a-thon that I'm currently hosting is a big draw (another - obviously). Besides that, it seems that there isn't always consistency in what posts are most popular. Since I have a wide range of interests, that probably also carries over to my followers. So probably some of you like some genres and some of you don't and vice versa.
If I look at days, I thought certain ones would be the most busy. Sundays generally are, but I think a big part of that is because it's when I post my Weekly Update and link to The Sunday Post. Waiting on Wednesday can also be highly commented on. It seems like the days don't matter so much, but more if the post is popular, and mainstream YA seems to still pull the most. This actually is a good thing since that's what I like the most and what I focused on the most when I first started blogging. So, I need to ensure I'm getting good YA topics/reviews out there.
The next step was to do an editorial calendar. I actually already have one that I couldn't live without. My blog has become so busy that a calendar is a must. I really don't know how other bloggers don't forget posts without a calendar. Of course, I'm not one of those types to post whatever I feel like at the moment, most of the time. :) Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not generally me and my calendar and schedule reflects that. I need to look at my calendar and make more executive decisions. An example would be not signing up for more than three reviews a week even if I really want to read a book or be on a tour. I still have issues resisting. Why is it so hard to enforce my own rule??? My darn love of books! ;)
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