31 Days to a Better Blog - Days 8 - 14
20 August, 2007 — fmclean
Running out of Time - 1 weeks tasks - Done 
Unexpected work commitments has propelled my into a state of feeling like I am chasing my tail and defiantly running out of time to get my blog tasks completed.
A run down of the tasks for days 8 - 14 include a few things that I have already done.
Day 8 - Comment on a Blog You’ve Never Commented On Before just being part of this challenge has seen me visit lots of different blogs and leave comments. - Done 
Day 9 - Run an Advertising Audit On Your Blog Not relevant to this blog - Done 
Day 10 - Declutter Your Sidebar As I have worked through the different tasks in this challenge I have been constantly changing the look and functionality of my blog. I made a lot of changes after the First Time Reader Audit and have removed several widgets from my sidebar since then. I like the clean lines of this template, what do you think? should I add more sidebar functions? - Done and continuing. 
Day 11 - Dig into Your Blog’s Statistics This has been a fun thing to look at - my statistics. If it wasn’t for you coming to read my blog there wouldn’t be any statistics to look at. As the saying goes a picture paints a thousand words. Unlike Sue I added Google Analytics a few weeks ago and use this along with Sitemeter and Statcounter. They all seem to give a different view of visits and when I get more time will probably cut these down to just two. AS you can see from the image of my stats below, from being involved in the 31 Days to a better blog project I have gone from 0, 1 visits a day to a whopping 95 visits and 200+ page views. This was very exciting, especially with a blog that has only been going for 5 months. So thanks for visiting 
- Done 
Day 12 - Introduce Yourself to another Blogger Over the past 12 days I have introduced myself to many other blogger’s. Both through people involved in the 31 day challenge and also twitter and my del.icio.us links. - Done 
Day 13 - Search for an Affiliate Program that Fits Your Blog - Doesn’t fit with my blog type - Done 
Day 14 - Analyze Your Blog’s Competition - I looked at this task as a way of finding other blogs that cover a similar field to me. This is an on going process and one of my biggest “Competitors” would have to be Sue - friendly competitors. The wealth of information on Sue’s blog is testament to her dedication in seeking information and passing it onto others. I like using Digg Google Blog Search but most of the time I wander from one article to another on different blogs. I would be interested to hear how you find articles and blog that you are interested in? - Done 
Even though some of these task are not relevant to the way that I am using my blog I have added them to this article and provided a link to Darren’s original post in the hope that it may help some visitors and you never know maybe one day I will need this information also.
20 August, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Really like how you have used the ticks. I have not tried digg for reading blogs, can you share more about how you locate them with digg?
Also like the way you have linked to his original post - really cool - i have wanted to have colored heading so did not want to ruin headings with links.
WOW interesting looking at the statistics
Cool. Sorry about all the extra work - just trying to keep you busy so I can win the chocolate.
Sue
20 August, 2007 at 11:32 pm
lol - no wonder u were so quiet tonight! Have become obsessed with watching stats last 24 h …
21 August, 2007 at 12:28 am
Frances,
I really like the clean layout of your blog. The signature is a really nice personal touch, and gives a sense of a real person being behind it.
The checkboxes are great too, nice to feel that sense of accomplishment?
Work absolutely is interfering with my choc challenge work. Even being my own mean boss it’s hard to get it all in. I’m thinking this challenge will extend into the future and we’ll all have time eventually.
21 August, 2007 at 1:26 pm
[...] to be challenging. The crew is getting creative in finding ways to get the TASK COMPLETED, Done , Progress = [...]
21 August, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Thanks for all the comments.
Amazing what you can do in Paintshop Pro using webdings = tick.
I wanted to have something different from what everyone else was doing and yes Michele it does give me a sense of accomplishment.
Just have to get onto the next weeks tasks now
Cheers
Frances
6 September, 2007 at 7:20 am
Frances,
Thanks for the Google Analytics tip. I am on day 5 of the challenge and it was a good idea to get that in place ahead of time. I can rely on my host’s stats but validation is always a good thing.
Mike