Blog Posts Across building a better BLOG

Life's Ultimate Test

Life isn’t always easy. Some say life is a struggle, a challenge. We often hear the saying “up a creek without a paddle.” Life can be a test, you’re either prepared or unprepared. Who we become as adults is greatly influenced by the way we are raised as children. The abilities and skills to survive and excel in this test of life are forever ingrained in us by our parents and educators. In this fast-paced ever evolving world, the prepared are able to rise to the challenges of life and fortune of… Continue

Posted by Doris Anne Beaulieu on July 17, 2008 at 5:50pm — No Comments

Test

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Posted by hjg on June 17, 2008 at 2:50pm — No Comments

A Villers

Des entrainements toute l'année pour tous: mardi 18 heures place de la mairie jeudi 18 heures à la maison pour tous samedi 10 heures place de la gare Association Courir à Villers 117 rue de Montdidier 80800 Villers Bretonneux premier blog http://couriravillers.over-blog.com/ Continue

Posted by MARTIN on May 15, 2008 at 6:00am — No Comments

Getting Started on Better Blogging

I started the On Living By Learning blog in June, 2007. Over the past nine months, I've made major strides in improving the blog based on advice from the blogging community. Recently, I've been working with the HEWG (Homeschool Educators Writing Group) to take on weekly tasks aimed at creating better blogs. Week 1 - Write a mission statement and list short-term & long-term goals. Week 2 - Enable reader subscriptions. Week 3 - Create an enticing A… Continue

Posted by LivingByLearning on March 8, 2008 at 2:25pm — No Comments

Launching a new blog!

A few hours ago I launched a new blog. It's called Blog, the magazine and is all about blogging. I've gone down a slightly different path this time, as it doesn't take the form of a traditional blog. Instead, it has issues, with each issues containing a number of posts. Just like a real magazine. I've written the theme from scratch (with help from Blueprint CSS) so that it behaves like a magazine. For example, there's a headline story that appears in… Continue

Posted by Simon Thomas on March 1, 2008 at 9:58pm — No Comments

Under permanent reconstruction

I've worked with blogs since 2001. Some of these were discontinued, for example used for one occasion, such as a course or part of a project, a few of these I have still kept and updated recently. I'm in learning mode and would like to take advantage of this opportunity to explore how others consider blog building, so that I can help others around me do something in the blogosphere, too. Since I joined Ning some weeks ago, I found out that for each Ning group that I join, there would be one more… Continue

Posted by Sus Nyrop on February 13, 2008 at 10:55am — No Comments

Days 15 16 and 17

Looking around the ning group here, the discussions for the actual 31daychallenge itself seem to have dropped off the front page completely so I'm trying out a blog post within the group. I've just updated the better blogging wiki with a suggestion for days 15-17 It seems best to me to… Continue

Posted by Andy Roberts on February 12, 2008 at 3:53am — 3 Comments

Problems with the sidebar at my Edublogs

I've been playing around with the options for my Sidebar at my Edublog. Now, if I go to
http://gladysbaya.edublogs.org using Mozilla Firefox, it looks the way I expect it. But using IE the Sidebar is
displayed at the very bottom of the page?!? And why is that Sidebar not displayed when I go to the blog posts???

Thanks in advance!

Gladys
http://www.pageflakes… Continue

Posted by Gladys Baya on January 27, 2008 at 9:08am — 2 Comments

How can i export my LiveJournal?

Apologies for not even starting by introducing myself, but I'm quite overwhelmed at the moment... I thought I'd start by sharing some specific doubts and thus finding who I can interact with, and what to expect from this community. Thanks for allowing me in!

My #1 problem today is....

I have an Edublog at http://gladysbaya.edublogs.org. It says I can import entries from my LiveJournal (among other blog providers. I… Continue

Posted by Gladys Baya on January 27, 2008 at 9:06am — No Comments

Web 2.0 as a Global Marketing Tool

Here is a very cool video that talks about where we are going and how the HTML code has changed so that anyone can create content without knowing how to write code to make it easy to look at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE Continue

Posted by Bob on January 26, 2008 at 6:35am — No Comments

3 minutes to understanding RSS

Want to learn about RSS feeds - check out this 3 minute Video from CommCraft

We use a simple format and real-world stories to make sense of complex ideas.

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0klgLsSxGsU&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0klgLsSxGsU&rel=1" type="app… Continue

Posted by Bob on January 24, 2008 at 7:03am — No Comments

Another New Years resolution broken!!!

Well, I declared that I would start no new blogs for this year, 2008, and here I am on the second new one already. However, I do love blogging. One of my yahoo groups is a group of experienced bloggers. They have already taught me so much personally and I am starting to apply their inspiration to my posts. This group of people include writers, authors and digital artists. They have a great sense of connectivity, humour and tolerance but most of all, they love blogging too. At the moment, the…

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Posted by Anne Mirtschin on January 17, 2008 at 6:54pm — No Comments

It's a shame...

I've just realised that the new FireFox Beta 3 doesn't appear to be working correctly with ning. The bar that goes across the top of the screen doesn't work, which means you can't send, or read messages of friend requests. I wonder when it will get fixed? Continue

Posted by Simon Thomas on January 13, 2008 at 8:18pm — No Comments

Nonprofit blog update - Writers in the Schools

Thanks for all your help with the nonprofit blog. I am no longer the sole blogger--hoorah! Check this link to see the first two weeks of proliferation. And please let me know your suggestions. I like feedback. Robin
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Posted by Robin on December 12, 2007 at 8:15am — 1 Comment

Question about Nonprofit Blogging Project

Hi Better Bloggers,

I have a question for you. First, an update: I've now hired 3 bloggers for the nonprofit blog, A Poem a Day. All three of them are teachers in our program. I will meet with them as a group Thursday afternoon. I'm trying to think about what they need to know to get started. Beyond the technical--as in, how WordPress works-- what do I need to let them know, first off. Although none of them are bloggers per se, they are very capable wr… Continue

Posted by Robin on November 27, 2007 at 4:43pm — 3 Comments

Hello guys

I wanna say hi to all of you.

I am glad I came along this blog, and I looking forward to get to know you all.

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Posted by Wessam Ashkar on November 17, 2007 at 4:39am — 1 Comment

Loadshedding in Cape Town

We have been warned of power cuts happening in Cape Town because of problems in our electricity supplies and the lack of new power stations being developed. Today we experienced it for real. Being a computer teacher in the midst of report preparation and assessment was rather tricky with no phones, no computers and no easy contact with the outside world. After ticking off all the calls I could make on my personal cell phone, I actually r…

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Posted by Carolynn Bruton on November 14, 2007 at 2:00am — No Comments

CafeChat at Wordpress.com

When Alan Levine visited Australia recently, some friends and I decided that we'd take something away from his Brisbane Virtual Worlds presentation.

We wanted to continue our professional development in Second Life. So we agreed to meet regularly and plan Second Life activities with educational outcomes. We thought that an "EdHouse Coffeeshop" would be a good starting poin… Continue

Posted by Simon Brown on November 11, 2007 at 7:04am — No Comments

Building a Better Blog: This Week's Improvements

Improving My Blog Presentation: Sidebars

* Cleaning up sidebars to reflect only sites of direct relevance to my blog (and not my general interest)

* Adding items to my sidebar that may seem obvious to me, but are important for general knowledge (e.g. news links)

Improving User Friendliness

* Adding tags to each entry in addition to the sidebar categories

* Adding a links section at the bottom of each… Continue

Posted by Maya Norton on October 17, 2007 at 12:43pm — 10 Comments

An Update on Updates

Since joining the group, here are a few things that I've been doing, blog-wise:

I created a unique "ABOUT" page for each blog. I'm still developing the landing page concept. If you have ideas about how to choose the items on the landing page, let me know.
I finally managed to set up Google Analytics on my blogs. It would be embarrassing to say how long it took me to figure this out so I won't! Maybe I can use this new information to help choose what goes on the l

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Posted by Robin on October 16, 2007 at 2:29pm — 1 Comment

Update After One Week's Return From the Void; Thoughts on This Week's Topic

Christine and Michele, I just saw your comments now. It's so nice to be missed. Thanks for your nice words.

I can't wait to get back in the game of learning how to use this community better. As of now I'm still working against a backlog, but I'm happy to report my blog is quite healthy and I didn't lose any readers at all. In my absentia, the numbers stayed quite steady, which was surprising to me as I only started in it mid-August.

I'm very interested in this week's contest… Continue

Posted by Maya Norton on October 15, 2007 at 7:55pm — No Comments

Started a new blog

I started a new blog about a week ago. It was a strange experience, starting off in a niche I've never really been involved in before. It's not a very tech savvy niche, so my experience has certainly differed from other blog launches I've done. A week on, I'll definitely take the following lessons on board for future projects

Free Wordpress templates are loads better than they used to be.
Less Tech savvy users = less links and lower alexa rankings.
Getting a l

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Posted by Simon Thomas on October 14, 2007 at 6:58pm — No Comments

Howdy...

So, I thought I'd join this network. A quick perusal showed some pretty interesting things going on here.

I'd love to say that I'm a proficient blogger, and if not proficient at least prolific. I enjoy it, I don't do it as often as I should, and like so many, it does tend to happen in "spurts." Regardless, it's a medium I've chose for an outlet, and I certainly want to be better at it.

Anyway, I look forward to getting to know
…

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Posted by Jayne on October 14, 2007 at 2:53pm — No Comments

Return After Technical Problems

Hello friends,

You may have noticed my sudden disappearance. My computer crashed irreparably and I was waiting until now for a new one. Thankfully, it has just arrived.

I look forward to reengaging with the group and keeping up with all of our good work.

Best,

Maya
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Posted by Maya Norton on October 7, 2007 at 7:43am — 2 Comments

Innovative responses to You Tube blocking

This is actually a link to my blog - I'm sure there's a better way to do this, but not sure..

http://technologytwitter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/09/ready-made-vide.html

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Posted by Harriet on October 3, 2007 at 12:19am — 2 Comments

2 Days To Go...

2 days till I get married, and I am not even sure how I feel. Mum is doing her best to make me relax etc. and that's tempting, but I feel like I want to help out and do something. Maybe because I haven't done much? I have made lots of decisions, but even then, people have felt like they can make decisions without me, and they have, and I haven't known about them until just now, so there's nothing I can do.
That's annoying.

But I'm looking forward to it none the less. I'm at a point… Continue

Posted by Talia Carbis on October 2, 2007 at 5:54pm — No Comments

Innovation in Learning (ILL07) session

I put a post up on my blog about the session I did at the Brandon Hall conference.

Also on how I use Google Reader (still with you Sue) on the ASTD-Cascadia blog.
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Posted by Christine Martell on October 2, 2007 at 1:45am — No Comments

Free Stuff, Sneak Previews, etc.

Do you get these emails from publishers offering to send you a book with the assumption that you will blog about it? Or they send a link to preview a story in a magazine? I got 10 of them in my email today. Often I don't even bother answering these emails. Should I adapt a more pro-active strategy? Thanks in advance, Robin
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Posted by Robin on October 2, 2007 at 12:06am — 1 Comment

Ruminating on blogging - no i am not a cow with 4 stomachs

Pardon the terrible pun at the top! (Well some of u may get my bad sense of humour).

Was sitting here thinking its been a week or so since I posted to my blog. Lots of ideas swirling around head of course, but I seem to have been hijacked by the unfortunate reality of life.

I start feeling horribly guilty about not blogging. For you bloggers out there, with episodes of being 'postless' do you too, suffer guilt and withdrawl or is it just me here?
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Posted by Sue Hickton on September 27, 2007 at 2:22am — 1 Comment

Yahoo!

After Ellen mentioned my blog and a book I'm in!
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Posted by Robin on September 25, 2007 at 11:43am — 4 Comments

Dead Link Hunt

Finally have gotten around to working on some of the challenges from a few weeks ago. Tonight I focused on Dead Link Hunt. I didn't find that many dead links, but I did delete a few blogs that I used to read but haven't been updated in about a month or longer.

What I find frustrating about managing my blog rolls is whether or not I should be linking back to to blogs I don't regularly read but that link to me. I know that this is a decision on which both sides can be strongly argued. My… Continue

Posted by Carter-Ann on September 24, 2007 at 4:48pm — 3 Comments

September goals---thwarted in week 2

Best intentions are cast aside once again. I managed to do my week one commitment of making a reader famous, although I think it is more accurately writing a post about a reader, the infamous Sue Waters. The ASTD chapter I write for was having a mobile learning program, so who better than to talk about having resources related to that topic.

The challenge of the week then became headlines. I think of it as how to make Christine feel totally inadequate week. I know I am terrible at head… Continue

Posted by Christine Martell on September 18, 2007 at 2:02am — 3 Comments

Assessing Headlines, Mine

Of my three blogs, the WITS blog probably has the most pedestrian headlines. Maybe as I proceed with is makeover, that will change and improve. Last week the best one, in my opinion was "Lions Born Out of Trees,"
and the worst one was "Contest for High Schoolers." As the focus of the blog shifts to a more highly voiced version, I'm hoping the headlines will follow.

I think maybe Big Window has the best head… Continue

Posted by Robin on September 15, 2007 at 8:33am — No Comments

Why I Blog & Why I Want to Blog Better

I wrote my first blog entry over a year ago, but didn't start posting in earnest until about February of 2007. I had started tuning in to the blogs of other e-Learning professionals, and realized there was something going on out there that I wanted to be a part of. I'm a social creature at heart, working in a small organization -- I can sometimes feel a bit isolated.

Blogging as part of a community has expanded my office walls immensely, allowing me to forge new connections (and even f… Continue

Posted by Cammy Bean on September 14, 2007 at 10:13am — 2 Comments

Contest

Hello, everyone!

I'm hosting a little contest over at my blog. I'm giving a way a box of my "favorite things." I'd love to have you participate.

Come and visit!

Bob
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Posted by Bob Clubbs on September 12, 2007 at 8:28pm — No Comments

Why not poeticize those headlines?

I may be in the minority here, but I dislike most of the problogger type headlines. I'm thinking of headlines such as:
*113 Must Read Blogging Tips
*Designing Banner Ads that Get Clicked!

These headlines seem to valorize: 1) authority 2) numbers 3) improvement.

Maybe it's just pure orneriness on my part, but these headlines bother me. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of making an assertion that I know things that others don't know. That seems to be the underlying… Continue

Posted by Robin on September 11, 2007 at 11:31am — 1 Comment

Nonprofit blogging or bust

Well, after fiddling with the fonts on my Better Blogger page for 4 or 5 days, I am ready to start. Kinda.

I'm trying to rethink the Writers in the Schools (WITS) blog, and here are some of the things I'm considering, with Michele's help. Thanks Michele!

Creating material for 3 specific audiences: parents of grade school students, teachers of creative writing, and kids interested in creative writing. My model for this is the National G… Continue

Posted by Robin on September 10, 2007 at 11:05pm — No Comments

Weekly Challenge: Get Organized - My 4 tasks

Since I never got around to finishin the 31 Days, I've selected the 4 taks to complete by the end of September:

Create a Sneeze Page and Propel Readers Deep Within Your Blog

Go on a Dead Link Hunt
…
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Posted by Carter-Ann on September 10, 2007 at 4:33pm — No Comments

The confession of an addicted blogger...

I have been blogging since 2004. However, I would do it in spurts, constantly skipping months in between posts. Then last year I made a promise to myself that I would blog more consistently. I had been doing quite well, too, until my webhost allowed my site to crash and burn, losing over 800 posts over the course of three years.

Needless to say, I was bummed. I didn't want to blog anymore. I then realized I was nothing without my blog because I am a writer. I may not write about importa… Continue

Posted by Karlana on September 10, 2007 at 3:26pm — 2 Comments

Power of the Personal: Mena Trott on Blogging

This is a cross-post from my blog Spinning a Learning Web.

…

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Posted by Kate Foy on September 9, 2007 at 8:16pm — No Comments

Why Are My Posts So Formal

First posted on my [new] blog: Freelearning

My posts on the topic of freelearning are very formal so far. When I speak with people I usually tell stories. I have a large vocabulary but I adapt to the language of people with whom I'm communicating. I infer that, in contrast to daily conversation, blogging has tapped into memories of school.

I

…

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Posted by Nancy Riffer on September 9, 2007 at 11:23am — No Comments

Hitting the Bull's Eye

The key message I learnt from a training course years ago, which I believe is helpful advice for bloggers, is the first step to organising content for a class is deciding what information is really important and what would be covered only if there is time to spare.

The idea is you l…

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Posted by Sue Waters on September 9, 2007 at 10:50am — No Comments

One Goal Down. . .

So one of my goals for the next month was to create another Sneeze Page. I kind of cheated with that one because I knew I'd already started it, but hey--this community-building stuff is hard work! This one summarizes the entire 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Learning Experiment.

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Posted by Michele Martin on September 7, 2007 at 8:07am — No Comments

Blogging Resources

Lots of good educational blogging resources here;
http://ltt.nciwiki.com.au/Blog+Session

Also;

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Posted by alex miller on September 6, 2007 at 11:06pm — No Comments

Profitable Loopholes

I'm a great fan of getting things for free, especially when said things are risk free. There are lots of loopholes you can exploit across the internet to get "free" things, and I've just come across another one. This isn't going to be as profitable as some other loopholes, for example a keyword pricing imbalance (where you could buy adverts for less than the money you make from similar adverts being clicked) that recently came up across the internet advertising networks recently bagged thousands… Continue

Posted by Simon Thomas on September 6, 2007 at 9:33pm — No Comments

31 Lessons Learned in 31 Days of Building a Better Blog

Today, 31 things I learned in 31 days of building a better blog. I may need to do a companion list on 31 Things I Learned in 31 Days of Building an Online Community!
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Posted by Michele Martin on September 6, 2007 at 5:45am — No Comments

Step One: Updating My "About Me" Page

I've taken my first directed step toward building a better blog through this community.

Here is the entry in question: http://thenewjew.wordpress.com/about/.

To make my about page-- which gets the second most hits of any entry and the most ongoing hits-- more user friendly, informative, and to drive readers deeper into the blog, I've done the following:

Reword the text to better reflect my blogging goals and the aims of my journal
Pointed re

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Posted by Maya Norton on September 5, 2007 at 2:20pm — 1 Comment

Results of 31 Days to Building a Better Blog--Growth in Community

Wrote today on The Bamboo Project about the growth in community that came from the 31 Days project. What was most striking to me in all of this was the extent to which I began to feel more connected to other people as a community. As I said in the blog post, I used to feel when I came online like I was looking for a place to sit in the cafeteria. Now I feel like I have a group that calls me over to j… Continue

Posted by Michele Martin on September 5, 2007 at 8:02am — 1 Comment

I didn't realize when I joined that I would, in fact, be creating another blog, but learning at the …

I didn't realize when I joined that I would, in fact, be creating another blog, but learning at the same time. A good idea. I have been blogging for about 2 years. I started on Yahoo 360 and I keep that up but I find no one wants to comment. I use it as a mirror for the posts I have on Cariboo Ponderer, on Blogger, so it is backing up my posts.

I am currently wondering if I am wasting my time blogging, am I reaching anyone and for what purpose. Building a better blog, I hope, will help… Continue

Posted by Vic Grace on September 5, 2007 at 1:06am — 5 Comments

September 2007 goals

Just making the list of what I had done was helpful, as I had completed more than I realized. There are still 8 tasks left to do, and the four most important for me are:

make a reader famous,
new reader catch up,
mission statement,
SWOT analysis.

There will be others I will revisit and deepen application, and I do need to report on some of the other tasks. Continue

Posted by Christine Martell on September 4, 2007 at 11:27pm — No Comments

Weekly Challenge 1--My Goals for Getting Reorganized

Although I managed to make it through most of the 31 Days of activities, I know I still have a few I wanted to go back through. So the goals I've set for myself this month are to:

Finish my mission
Re-do my SWOT in light of my mission
Analyze my "competition" (easier once I have a mission)
Do at least one more Sneeze page, although I still need to decide on what.

I've also decided that I'm going to keep track of most of my efforts related t… Continue

Posted by Michele Martin on September 4, 2007 at 6:54am — No Comments

The Results of My 31 Days to Building a Better Blog Project: What the Stats Say

The results of my 31 Days to Building a Better Blog project:

Google Analytics
From July 31 to August 31.

Visits--Up 59.76%
Pageviews--Up 93.6%
Pages per Visit--Up 21.18%
Bounce Rate--Down 7.59% (remember, bounce rate measures how many visitors leave your site without visiting another page, so a lower bounce rate is good).
Average Time on Site--

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Posted by Michele Martin on September 3, 2007 at 11:13pm — No Comments

I need a Patch!

Give me a patch!!

Since the beginning of the blog challenge, my addiction to blogging was 81%. Now it's 88%!!!! I am Shocked! I thought, I'd be over it, ready to take a break. Not so!
…
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Posted by alex miller on September 3, 2007 at 7:23pm — 1 Comment

31 Days to a better blog posts

Here are the links to my posts from the original 31 days to a better blog challenge. They are spread over two blogs, VisualsSpeak and BlogCascadia

From VisualsSpeak: Inspiring Communication through Visuals

…

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Posted by Christine Martell on September 1, 2007 at 5:16pm — No Comments

Blog Posts Across building a better BLOG

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