Blogging 101 and Photo 101 start Monday

Friday Fun Foto – takes a twist today. The Daily Post is offering Photography101 course beginning Monday 3/2/15. Are you in? I am. Come join the Happiness Engineers for a fun time.

The Daily Post

The next session of Blogging U. begins Monday, with Blogging 101 and Photography 101. Learn more about each course, see how Blogging U. works, and register!

Blogging 101: Zero to Hero
March 2 – 20

Blogging 101 is three weeks of bite-size blogging tasks to kickstart a new or dormant blog. You’ll walk away with a stronger focus, several published posts, a handful of drafts, a theme that reflects your personality, a small (but growing!) audience, a grasp of blogging etiquette — and a bunch of new friends. Build blogging habits and connections to keep you going over the long haul!

Photography 101: A Photo a Day
March 2 – 27

Photography 101 helps you hone your photographer’s eye. This four-week, intro-level course is open to all, from new bloggers to hobbyist photographers to pro-shooters. Each weekday, we’ll give you a new photography theme and tip — we might share advice on composition, working with different light sources, or image editing — and the community…

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More Blog Changes

OK Blog Peeps – I need your help. Seriously. I want everyone to respond to this poll.

My blog buddy Elle, from Finding Myself Through Writing,  and I have been discussing a small change to the appearance of the blog by changing the header image. The other day I posted a response to a photo challenge on the word symmetry. You may remember that post.

Reflective Symmetry

So, here is the deal. Take a look at the following images and let me know which one you like best. The images are in no particular order. Keep in mind that I can change the background color of the blog page to sync with the color of the selected image. Click on the image to enlarge it.

PHOTO A

PHOTO B

PHOTO C

PHOTO D

Now it is time to vote. The poll will remain open through Thursday February 26th. And comments are appreciated.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate your support and comments. And thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

Reflective Symmetry

A little photo play on Saturday. “Symmetry” is the theme for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge.

Image was taken at Mark Twain Landing RV in Monroe City, MO on 9/21/13. Weather was very cooperative.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

The End Is Only The Beginning

Blogging 201: Branding and Growth is coming to a close. It was a fast two weeks and it was as thrilling as ridding the Verruckt water slide at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas.

Verruckt – Worlds tallest water slide.

Well, may not that thrilling, but the course was well done and a great learning experience. The course moderator Michelle Weber and the team of Happiness Engineers Lisa and Alex were right on and very helpful and supportive.

Today’s assignment: create a poll and/or a survey to collect feedback from your readers on your site and its content.

Designing and implementing this survey will be my weekend plan. I just need a little time to think about what questions to ask. In the meanwhile, I thought I would give you an indication how Blogging101: From Zero to Hero and this Blogging201 course have impacted Tales From The WagginMaster and me.

In addition to an increase in readers, page views, and followers, this blog has gone through a large visual and content transformation.  It would be great to sustain this level of activity and hopefully I can adjust the content to make this happen.

Another area that has had a big impact on this transformation is you the reader. Without you, well, you get the idea. You, the readers, are what makes this blog a success. In Blogging101, we were given an assignment to ‘publish a post for your dream reader‘. Of course I had to know who that was. At that time, my dream readers included family, friends and RVers. Tales From The WagginMaster has not picked up new RV readers but that is OK. Perhaps the content has not be suitable for that audience mix.

At the beginning of Blogging201, we had to publish goals. My blog goals were:

1. In 90 days (May 1, 2015), implement three branding techniques that will double my blog’s reach and readership.
2. In two weeks (Feb 16, 2015), write a post that summarizes my blog stat page.
3. In four weeks (Mar 1, 2015), write a post introducing two blogger accountability partners.

As of today, readership has tripled and my brand is now consistent across several platforms. I wrote a post discussing a part of my blog stats on Feb 5 (Analytics). And I am in the process of engaging two accountability partners.

I’ve published 37 posts in 6 weeks, compared to 50 post published in all of 2013 and 2014 combined. This year’s content has shifted from RVing to general information. I was not sure if that was the direction I wanted to go. Having received positive feedback is an indication that the content change was justified.

I have become more confident in writing blog posts that are interesting and informative. I’ve learned new techniques that will build content variety. I still need to get better at proofreading each post BEFORE hitting Publish. I’ve built relationships with some cool bloggers out there and am learning from them. I feel like I have a new group of life long friends who share a common joy in blogging.

As Blogging201 comes to a close, I am excited to see what the next beginning will bring.

Thanks for stopping by. Y’all come back now.

 

But Am I Really That Sociable

Monday means back to work for working folks. For retired folks, it is just another Saturday. For me and my classmates, it means back to the classroom with Blogging 201.

Today’s Assignment: pick one social network you’ll use to help grow your blog and connect it to your site. Then, outline a 30-day plan for how you’ll use it.

Googling  “drive your business with social media” generates more links than imaginable. What if I don’t have a business? What if I just have “social” connections through my website/blog or FaceBook or Twitter or Google+ or LinkedIn or Instagram or RVillage or other social media accounts?

I’ve already written a couple of post about Social Media. Take a look at Social Network Overload and Plugging Into Social Networks.  Today marks the third post on Social Media.