Another week of the 28-Day Blog Challenge hosted by Katy Widrick is wrapping up today. Compared to last week, I haven’t made a ton of improvements on my blog, but sometimes, it is the small things that count, right?! It’s not too late to join the challenge with just under half the month of Fenruary left.
This week-
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I’m still replying to every blog comment that is left. I don’t get very many it seems so this isn’t too hard right now. I plan to keep it up no matter how many comments I get.
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I added a comments section and Featured Post plug-in to the bottom of my blog.
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I fixed my Daily Mile Training Widget so it appears updated with my most recent run on my sidebar.
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I got caught up with a 1,000 + posts in Google Reader and commented on many blog posts.
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I followed a new blog, whose author shares my passion for rasing awareness about blood clots and blood-related diseases. Check her out at Living ~ Not Just Surviving. Her title is awesome and where I hope to be at some point in my life.
Looking ahead (leave your comments below!)-
What tips do you have for increasing comments on your blogs?
Yay or no on my footer addition? Does anyone know how to make the Featured Posts plug-in display a random post and not just the newest post?
Do you have any great fitness/health/running plug-ins you can’t live without?
My best tip for generating more comments on your blog is to leave the post unfinished. When I end my post sounding like I have the final word, I usually do!
I’m using the nRelate plugin to display other posts. They’re not random (related according to category) but at least not the last post.
Sounds like you’ve had a great month!
Thanks, Tamara! I also read your guest post on Katy’s blog the other day and found that very helpful. I will take a look at the nrelate plug-in and see if I can add something like that to the footer section. I have to work on leaving the post unfinished, but still making it sound good, I think. Good thing for me to work on for the rest of the challenge.
I don’t get many comments either. except some creative spam
I feel like I used to get more comments before I switched to WordPress, but maybe that is just in my head. Or, maybe people are more like me and just because they don’t comment doesn’t mean they aren’t reading. Love your recent post, Mark and hope all is well with you! 😉
Thanks so much for allowing me to post your story on my blog. I am just getting started on it after having a serious near fatal blot clotting episode on Christmas Day no less. I had clots of the bilateral lower extremities and also a saddle clot. This, along with my son’s central venous thrombosis/stroke nearly 18 months ago, brought to light that I should share our story. When researching for support after my son’s stroke, I was at my wit’s end trying to find young people his age that had experienced the same things as he had. I didn’t want him to feel alone, but unfortunately or fortunately, since joining Instagram, I’ve found more than I ever dreamed. Although I breaks my heart to see everyone confront and try to grasp the idea of such a harsh diagnosis while trying to take on adulthood, I totally understand it. As an ‘old dog’ in this battle, my goal is to bring inspiration, information and support.
Thanks again and am looking forward to seeing where your road takes you!
Thank you for sharing your story with me – and I am so glad you joined Instagram too! I feel the same way as you – it is so scary and sad to see so many people affected (some very young) with blood clots, but I am hoping through all of that, more awareness is brought to the topic. I hope you and your son are both recovering from the incidents and managing your illnesses as best they can be. I was reading about you on your blog and while I have been through a lot, I can’t imagine what you are going through. I am glad you started your blog to reach out to pepole like me and share your story. I have not heard of your particular diagnosis, but I plan to read more about it so I can be aware too. I find ever since this all happened, I seem to not be able to get enough information – and look for it constantly.
Let’s keep in touch and talk to you soon!
commenting on other’s posts and also making your posts end in a question help. Also writing about something that makes people want to comment, ask a quesiton, etc. Sometimes this means controversial topics. 🙂
Good thoughts, Heather and thank you! I do my best to comment when I can so I am hoping that helps. I will have to work more questions/conversatinal topics into my posts – thanks for the tips.
I found I started getting a lot more comments when I started asking questions at the end of my posts, or asking for some advice, such as you have done here, Sara.
I find that ‘information’ posts don’t generate a lot of comments, too.
Thanks, Elle! I will keep posting questions and see what happens. I have been on the fence with the footer (leaning towards I don’t need it) so thank you for your input on that as well – I’ll leave it up without it for awhile now and see how I feel about that. Hope you and The Captian have had a great weekend too!! 🙂
p.s. nope, don’t care for that footer… didn’t see it until after my comment was posted… it seem to redundant… to me at least!
🙂 and another p.s. I hope you are having a fun weekend with M and the girls!