A question for those of you who view this site on a mobile device:
How’s the view?
Everything clean, neat, and organized?
Or, could it use some work?
Blogging 201: Auditing
Today I’m supposed to audit my brand.
Do I even have a brand?
Is Running In My Head a brand?
Do you have certain associations with the name?
I don’t like auditing; I don’t like criticism.
Who does?
That said, I think I’ve been auditing “my brand” for some time.
Tweaking the background and widgets
Promoting my other social media.
What do you think?
Is there anything you think I could do differently or better?
Are you following me on Facebook or Twitter?
If not, why not?
Is it because you didn’t know I had those?
Is is because you find those sites uninteresting?
Is it because you don’t like me?
You know what they say about another pair of eyes . . .
Setting Goals for Blogging U.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be participating in WordPress’ Blogging 201.
In addition to my normal posts, you’ll most likely see a few “extra” posts related to course assignments.
This is the first of those posts.
They say sharing your goals with others helps you achieve them.
By the end of the course I hope to
1. Grow a more connected audience. By that I mean I don’t just want more followers or likes – although to be honest, those are nice. I want to have more people commentating and contributing to a conversation.
2. Grow my social media following. Although I have a Facebook page for my site and encourage others to follow me on Instagram / Twitter, not many do.
3. Finish developing features for each day of the week. Having such a schedule will allow me to work ahead on my posts, make my blog appealing to a wider audience, and may help others develop their own blog.
In my wildest dreams, I would have between twenty and fifty consistent readers who comment on my work and share it with others via their own blogs or other social media.
Thanks for the understanding.
Have a suggestion for a poem, photograph, or future post?
Drop a note in the prompt box!
Don’t forget to follow me on:
Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.
Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?
Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.
I’d Like to Use a Lifeline
It should come as no surprise: I enjoy trivia shows.
As Calvin once said,
I have a command of thoroughly useless information.
As of today – June 15, 2015 – my favorite trivia shows include
Jeopardy!
Every year I take the online test.
Every year I’m disappointed.
They always ask about pop culture and sports.
Two categories I care/know little to nothing about.
500 Questions
Like Jeopardy!, I do really well on this at home.
However, I believe I’m smarter than most of their contestants.
Then again, that’s what most people probably think.
It’s always different when you play for real.
Celebrity Name Game
Craig Ferguson is hilarious.
K watches it without getting mad at me.
It helps me with those pesky pop culture Jeopardy! questions.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
When Regis Philbin hosted, Millionaire challenged Jeopardy! for my top spot.
Namely, I liked the idea of being tested on my own knowledge.
Those Jeopardy! buzzers can be brutal.
Well, they were in Scholastic Bowl.
I assume it’s the same on national TV.
One hallmark of the original Millionaire was the lifeline.
Contestants were given three:
Phone a Friend – call someone who may or may not know the answer.
Ask the Audience – ask the audience what they think (so long as you don’t live in Russia).
50/50 – remove two incorrect answers.
I always hated when contestants used a lifeline. I viewed it as weakness. However, they were actually on the show. I haven’t. Maybe they know something I don’t. Since we’re talking about trivia shows, it obvious they do.
Now, I’d like to use a lifeline of my own.
Actually, two of them:
Phone a Friend & Ask the Audience.
Phone a Friend
I’m calling you, my readers, because the blog is struggling. At least, I think it’s struggling.
Don’t let the total number of followers fool you. I was cursed with being Freshly Pressed two months after my first blog post. I didn’t know what I was doing, and I lost followers.
I also received an extraordinarily large numbers of spam followers. I’ve spent the last year and a half trying to build it back up by taking the Blogging U courses, and I’ve gained a few regular readers.
Sunday Snaphots is my most-viewed weekly feature.
If I’m interpreting my statistics correctly, each new blog post gets around 50 views in its first month. That’s not too bad. What worries me is that Running In My Head isn’t growing.
I might get one new follower a month.
Likes, shares, and comments are way, way down.
Sometimes they border on nonexistent.
I want to turn that around.
I want to engage my audience.
How do I engage with no comments?
I want to promote other blogs.
What if I have no new followers to promote?
I want to converse.
My conversation starters (apparently) fall flat.
What do you do to drive your blog?
Please let me know in the comments!
Ask the Audience
Like actors on the stage, sometimes I need a bit of prompting.
Feed me your favorite word, a vivid scene, an unlikely pairing. A piece of dialog, an object, a potent verb. I’ll write them on slips of paper and put them in my tea tin of ideas.*
[*Thanks to Andrea of Butterfly Mind for her idea and words.]
Then, I’ll turn your ideas into something solid:
A Photograph
A Poem
A Piece of Flash Fiction
A Passionate Post
You can let me know in the comments,
or use this handy dandy form!
I’ve also linked this form to the home screen menus.
Feel free to drop in any thing at any time!
Don’t forget to follow me on:
Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.
Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?
Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.
Choose Your Own [Instagram] Adventure!
I delight in finding quotes and sharing them with others.
You already know this if you follow me on Instagram, where I routinely use the hashtags
Terry Pratchett Tuesday
and
Philosophy Friday
click to embiggen
However, that’s not enough.
There are five other days of the week.
I dabbled with Theology Thursday and Philosophy Thursday;
rolled them both into Philosophy Friday.
Here’s where you come in:
I need help filling up the week.
Give me your suggestions in the comments!
Don’t forget to follow me on:
Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.
Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?
Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.
Summer Break 2015: Week One
I thought the summer break would give me more time to write.
I was wrong.
And yet, I was right.
I’ve written – or, more accurately, typed – quite a bit over the last ten days:
Four class supply lists
Three class outlines
Eleven class projects
Lesson plans for half of American History 1
Today I’m working on re-writing World History so the class is approximately 60% book/lecture and 40% project.
Sometime next week, the new Chemistry curriculum will arrive, meaning I’ll have to go through and check my current lesson plans against any changes in the new edition. Joy. I might just start over from scratch on that one.
I’ve also been cleaning the house.
Spring Cleaning didn’t happen this year; so now’s the perfect time to do it. Well, maybe not perfect, but there certainly won’t be a better time.
But writing for the blog? Not so much.
The only things I’ve published were mostly finished posts waiting in the drafts folder.
Yesterday, I even missed Sunday Snapshots.
However, that’s due mainly to the fact I didn’t take many photos this last week; I’ve been in my office working on the list you just read.
And The Book? Even less.
We’ll see how this week goes.
Running In My Head 