Zero to Hero Rundown

Like I said yesterday, I’ve been participating in the “Zero to Hero: 30 Days to a Better Blog” thing that WordPress is doing, and (mostly to keep myself honest) I thought I’d give a semi-regular rundown of what I’ve been doing, since not every task requires a blog post.

Day 1:

Today’s assignment: write and publish a “who I am and why I’m here” post.

I updated my “About” page for this assignment. For the last ever, it has said “TBD,” partially because I thought it was kind of smartass and partially because I was too lazy to do anything to it. I do feel that my blog tagline accurately represents me – or at least this blog – and I didn’t feel the need to elaborate more than that regarding the essence of me and this blog. But, since WordPress says the About page is one of the things people actively look for when deciding whether or not to read a blog, I thought I’d update it. And then I gave it a spot in my menu. Actually, I enabled a whole new menu – I’m pretty pleased with myself. Feel free to check out my “About” page.

Day 2:

Today’s assignment: edit your title and tagline, and flesh them out more in a widget.

Okay, so I pretty much ignored this one, because, as I indicated, I’m quite pleased with my tagline, feel no need to edit my blog’s title, and didn’t want either of them in a widget. But I did give it some thought, so I’m counting that activity as completing the assignment.

Day 3:

Today’s assignment: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

This one I totally skipped because I have no idea what post was on my mind when I decided to start a blog. Probably “I would like to make millions with this blog without leaving my pajamas, please”.

Please don’t revoke my “Zero to Hero” badge, WordPress.

Day 4:

Today’s assignment: follow five new topics in the Reader, and begin finding blogs (and bloggers) you love.

This was yesterday, and I followed and added to my WordPress Reader:

• ArtOfTea: “blooming*expanding*connecting” [it’s a tea blog, if you couldn’t tell]
• Just Homemade: “a pure vegetarian way of life”
• VeggieZest: “vegan and vegetarian recipes from around the world”
• The Fashion Medley: “’Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.’ Coco Chanel”
• TChing: “Discover tea”

Although I might have done it wrong, because I couldn’t figure out how to find blogs by topic. I could see how to search tags, and I found blogs that way and by looking through the “Recommended Blogs.” I think maybe I was supposed to add some tag topics to my tag list, and follow those tags, and pick blogs from those tags. Oops.

So, maybe I’m not so much a “Zero to Hero” as “Zero to Maybe Possibly Contender.” I can live with that.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,600 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

If you’re a TL;DR-type person (or if that rather uninspiring comparison to Mt. Everest didn’t prompt you to click the link): people liked my post on my dearly-departed MoMo; for some reason, people find my blog by searching shishi odoshi and legos; and most of my readers come from the U.S., but oddly enough, I apparently have readers in the Philippines.

Hope to see more of all of you in 2013!

NaBloPoMo Reflections

So, like last year, I guess, I didn’t write my end-of-NaBloPoMo post on November 30 because the date fell on a day when I have regularly-scheduled posting themes, and apparently I’m too OCD about my blog-post themes to re-arrange them. Also like last year, I realized: (1) I probably should spend more time on my posts, and (2) if I really want to build a following, I have to comment more on others’ blogs.

I think I had more fun this year, though. Maybe because I didn’t pay too much attention to the prompts, and mostly did my own thing? I usually do better with writing when I don’t have to come up with an idea, but this time, even after setting up Twitter lists of blog-post-prompts, I really didn’t follow anybody else’s suggestions that much. Perhaps the addition of my Tuesday Tea themed-posts helped some? Also, I decided to give myself I break if I just wanted to post a picture, even if it wasn’t Wordless Wednesday.

I also have become convinced that I should improve my “About” page. I never bothered, because I figured people could read my blog and figure out what I was about. But, it is true that the “About” page is one of the first places I go when looking at a new blog, so … Perhaps I should crowd-source it? Let me know if you have a brilliant idea of what I should include in my “About” page that perfectly captures the essence of “me.”

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam

The spam comments my blog gets (which WordPress helpfully “protects” me from – 189 of them as of today!) are hilarious and bewildering. I can’t figure out why the spammers would think anyone with half a brain would ever click on the links (although there aren’t always links, which confuses me even more – I guess they want me to click on their username?). There is absolutely no connection, as far as I can see, between the spam comment and the post to which the comment is, well, commenting.