I love it when I see people linking up to my linky parties!
So you like the idea of my poetry party but think it is probably beyond your scope of ability to actually participate. The truth is, in fact, that it is remarkable easy to add a link, but extremely time consuming to put a linky party together and spread the word around, which is why I feel thankful for every single link brought to my punchbowl each month. I get an email telling me when a new link has been added and I feel a burst of excitement and an energetic surge of satisfaction knowing that I am helping them to find new, inspiring blogging friends, increased traffic and, I hope, it generates an excitement in them as well.
You see, I find there are a ton of people writing poetry on the Internet but no real spot where they can come together and meet, share and inspire one another. And that is the hole I have been trying to fill ever since. Please take a look at this wonderful infographic made my Rhondaa over at Oombawka Design. It shows you all there is too linking up: You add the link to your post, you supply your email address, and you choose your thumbnail. It’s that simple! Continue reading →
The world of blogging, at least for me, tends to roll over into real life. I guess that is what happens when a person decides to blog without a primary focus for material. When I began blogging nine months ago I chose the tagline, “Thoughts about life, death and the world around me.” I was, after all, blogging out of my need to recover from multiple personal losses in a period of three months. Needless to say, I was doing a LOT of thinking and not much sleeping.
Now I am feeling like myself again, for the most part. I mean, I feel like my old self (except for the occasional stream of tears running down my cheeks) but I am a happier, stronger, more confident self who manages to sleep well once I get around to turning out the lights. I have discovered a talent I never knew I had and now use the voice I had been suppressing from “the world.” And while I continue to blog about my thoughts on life, death and the world around me I have also come to use my tiny blog as a forum I can use to advocate for animals (because they cannot advocate for themselves) in my Seeking Love Saturdays posts. I am exploring the art of storytelling with Memee’s Supershort Stories! and host a monthly event entitled Memee’s Poetry Parties. My life as a blogger expanded and exploded though my readership continues to flag.
When I first decided to begin a blog it was because I knew from my teen and young adult years that journaling always helped me get out the toxic emotions and learn how I was really feeling about the situations occurring in my life. I knew that was an effective tool for me. I also knew that my mind flies when my fingers are on a keyboard and so blogging seemed the perfect fit And, it is! I was fortunate in that shortly after I began blogging I discovered that WordPress actually offered free classes on how to get started and so I registered, enrolled and began attending Blogging 101 just days after designing my blog. Wow, the universe was on my side, finally!
However, when Blogging 101 ended I watched and I waited eagerly for blogging 201 to begin. And it was like watching a teakettle… nothing happened. I found myself waiting in the blogging world for days, for weeks while, in the real world life marched forward so much so that when Blogging 201 did begin, my Freshman classmates moved forward and I had missed the registration deadline. Not once, but twice (at least). Which may be why I have under 250 followers while my Freshman classmates seem to shine with their thousands. Or, at least, that’s what I have been telling myself up til now.
And here is where I find life and blogging overlapping again. I have been talking about “going back to school for 3 years now, but life happened and school did not. And then, within the same week I found myself registering and now enrolled in school as well as registered and enrolled and as of today, attending Blogging 201! Wow, when the universe gives it gives big which I am especially grateful for considering 2014 was a year filled with the universe taking away BIG TIME.
So now here we are, Day-1 of the Blogging 201 course and our assignment is to set 3 goals for ourselves. Interestingly enough, in the real world class begins next week but we already have assignments to work on. One of which is setting short and long term goals for ourselves and sharing those goals with our classmates for support as well as accountability. Blogging World mimicking real life again and on the very same day! I won’t go into my real world goals here today, however, here are my 3 blogging goals:
1. Create a successful linky party for poets of all ages, languages and skill levels to share with and inspire one another.
2. Develop my fictional writing with the intention of expanding my imagination and ability to spark personal inspiration.
3. Build a larger audience so that I can educate more people about mental health, advocate for the lives of animals and entertain or inspire others while continuing to utilize blogging as a tool for better awareness and understanding of myself and my feelings, thoughts and actions.
Like many bloggers, are you concerned with your stats? Do you frequently check your number of blog followers and page views hoping to see them rise?
During your visits to your stats, do you ever click the “shares” tab to see if people are sharing your writing with others?
If the goal is to grow your blog, you need more exposure to other readers. If your current readers share your writing on other forms of social media, their followers will be able to see your link, and you can potentially get more blog followers.
This post will explain how your current readers will be motivated to share your writing with their social media followers. Continue reading →
Beep beep boop, you used to give me such pleasure yet this week, nothing but headaches!
WordPress has been driving me CRAZY lately! Over the past week I have had a helluvatime getting the “new post” to do anything other than “Beep beep boop”. I mean, really, I’ve had at least five posts I’ve wanted to create and have not been able to get in to do it. I can read, comment, etc. everything but create new posts. I’ve been trying to get in all morning, and now it is the afternoon, and I am finally ON IT!
Not sure how long this problem will persist or even how long I have before WordPress Beep beep boop tries to resist my commands again. So I’ll do what I can. I just wanted you all to know that I am still very much here even if WordPress is fighting me on publishing.
Oh, Beep beep boop you used to bring me such delight and pleasure with your cute little winks at me but lately you’ve been giving me nothing but headaches and frustration. Why? Why, Beep beep boop, why?
When I was a teen, swimming class was a requirement for getting a high school diploma. So, sophomore year, 1st period, Monday through Friday, I attended swim class. I never could do the diving, even off the side of the pool. Each and every attempt I’d come up out of the water choking and gagging on chlorine-saturated pool water. I tried everything, holding my nose, blowing out, nose plugs, anything that I was told might help I tried. Nothing did. I was convinced the water must be flooding into my throat through my ears, closed eye sockets and even the very pores of my skin… those that weren’t clogged with blackheads, that is. As I said, I tried everything — well, everything that is except being one of those girls who refused to get their hair wet so they did nothing over the hour except hold on to the side of the pool kicking their feet like idiots. Now I think perhaps those girls were the smart ones, I mean, I’m pretty sure they were having more fun in swim class than I was… probably gossiping about the boys and their swim trunks while I had the nerve of pridefulness which meant I spent my weekday mornings drowning like a wet rat that cannot climb out of a toilet bowl.
But still, at the time, I handled swim class. I did, after all, have my cute little Speedo swimsuit which looked superfine on me… little did I know until the second-to-last day of class that OMG! it clung so snuggly it was practically see-through! Let me tell you that was much, much more horrifying than having to shower naked with 30 other girls of all shapes and sizes and personalities! We all know about mean girls, but in the showers and locker rooms, that’s where they could be the most vicious and you never knew who would catch the brunt of it from one day to the next. But aside from that very last day of class where I sat on the bench in full dress, claiming menses, I made it through that class and that entire year walking around with wet scraggly hair, faintly smelling of chlorine and I will, in time, as I did then, make it through this course as well. Continue reading →
Blogging 201, your pace is kickin’ my butt! Today I was supposed to dive into social networking and before I even got a chance to get to it you’ve posted that it’s now time to learn more about events! What the heck, I’m already behind so skipping ahead, here I am, hours later, creating my first event, it’s the: How do I Love Thee Poetry Party!Continue reading →
Hi everyone, so I like that ya’ll like my post. I really do. But do you understand that liking an event is not the same as participating in an event? I’m just thinking that there is some confusion about that, and if so I wanted to be able to clear it up.
If you want to get the rewards of participating in the event you need to click on the little blue box that says “add your links” at the bottom of my post. Then you will be able to join in the party, meet other revelers, comment, converse, make new friends and find future followers and people that you yourself may want to stalk… (there’s always at least one stalker at any given party, isn’t there?)
Okay, so I hope you’ll join us for the party, yes it lasts 9 more days approximately, but that time goes by super-quick in the blogging world and the more partying we do, the bigger the benefits for everyone!
