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52WoC #16: Bring-a-Friend Week

28 April 2008 – 10:33 pm

52 Weeks of Blog CommunityHi, everyone. Yes, it’s Week #16 of our 52 Weeks of Blog Community Project. This week is the second to the last task for our Month 4 Virtual Party. As some of you might know, all participants for Weeks #13 to #17 are eligible for our Virtual Party #4. Our raffle prizes for the month are (2 winners; 1 prize each): US$30 Winner’s Choice Award (via Paypal) and a new Gocco print.

Anyway, this week’s task was inspired by visiting everyone’s ‘Getting to Know Readers’ posts from last week’s task. You see, I realised two really cool things when I visited some of the 52WoCers’ posts:

1. Many participants of 52WoC gain new friends/blog readers through this project. 52WoCers are beginning to read (and comment on) each other’s blogs. And, I think that’s really, really wonderful. That is part of the reason why I started this project. To help people to network, to make friends, to support each other…

2. Many 52WoC participants have great friends and supporters. I read some of the comments and visited some of their blogs… and thought that it’ll be cool to get to know them too.

So, I thought, what if we all brought a new friend to join 52WoC this week? Ask even just 1 new person to join 52WoC? Introduce at least 1 new friend to some of our existing 52WoC friends? Wouldn’t it be great to grow our circle of blog buddies?

Now, how do we go about it doing this? I don’t know how easy this is going to be, but I thought I’d try anyway.

Basically, I encourage all of you to introduce a blogging friend/contact to 52WoC. Point them to 52WoC Central, if you need to. It’s up to you how you do it - write a blog post, Tweet about it, chat to someone, send an email… And, encourage them to leave a comment in this post. They don’t need to introduce anyone else - just say: “[Insert 52WoCer's Name] sent me here!”

Once you’ve introduced 52WoC to someone, leave a comment here - and tell us what you did and leave at least one URL of the friend that you introduced 52WoC to. Even if they don’t visit and they don’t leave a comment, you’ll still be entered as a participant for this week.

If your friend says hello here, then you get TWO entries for the raffle this week. And, your friend gets entered in to the raffle too.

Does that make sense? I hope so. In any case, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this week’s task.

I’m really looking forward to meeting your friends. And, I hope that they find more new friends here too!

Anyway, thanks so much again to all who joined last week’s task, 52WoC #15: Get to Know Your Readers. Do check out their posts and perhaps, participate in them too!

Unfortunately, I didn’t add those who didn’t leave any links (or background info) on their Getting To Know You stuff. If you left a comment and haven’t left your URL, just let me know. So I can add you in here too.

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (10)

52WoC #15: Get to Know Your Readers

21 April 2008 – 11:14 pm

52 Weeks of Blog CommunityHello and welcome to 52WoC. It’s Week #15 of our 52 Weeks of Blog Community Project

This week’s task is pretty much a continuation of last week’s task. This time, though, I encourage you to do something to get to know your readers better. If you already do this on a regular basis, share with us what you do. If you have a sample post on how you get to know your readers, share them in the comments section below.

If you do not have any ideas on what to do to get to know your readers better, here are some suggestions:

1. Start a Tell Me About You project. You don’t have to make it an ongoing project, if you feel it’s too much to cope with. A one-off session might do you for now.

2. Post some of the questions last week’s task (with a link to the originator of the questions, if possible). Encourage your readers to answer those questions.

3. Do your own “Getting to Know You” session in your blog. Ask a question, encourage commenter #2 to answer your question and post a new question, etc etc etc.

4. Hold a delurking day!

Whatever it is that you decide to do, please share your post’s links here, so we can visit them and send them some love. Maybe even take part in them!

In any case, I hope this task will help you to bring some readers closer to you…

Anyway, thanks again to all who shared a little more about themselves in last week’s task, Getting to Know You (52WoC #14):

I really enjoyed reading all the answers and questions. When there was a bit of confusion to begin with, I was really impressed when you all managed to get things back on track. Well done, all. Thank you!

Since Jami posted the last 3 questions, I promised to answer them here. So, here you go…

Click to continue reading “52WoC #15: Get to Know Your Readers”

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers, Personal Stories | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (15)

52WoC #9: More Social Networking Fun

10 March 2008 – 11:38 pm

52 Weeks of Blog CommunityWelcome to week #9 of our 52 Weeks of Blog Community project. And yep - we’re in Month 3 now. Yay.

So, what’s our community goal this time?

Well, you know that I’m doing an informal mini-social networking study right now. So, in line with that theme, this week’s task is all about social networks too.

What do you need to do to participate?

Just leave a comment here with a link to one (or more) of your social networking profiles. Then, try to visit a fellow participant’s social network page. If you’re only visiting one, please visit the page of the commenter *before* you (Commenter #1 can get a ‘free’ ride - or visit mine :-); Commenter #2 visits Commenter #1’s URL, Commenter #3 visits Commenter #2, etc etc). But, if you’re visiting more than one, you’re welcome to visit any that you’re interested in (plus the one before you! ;-)).

When you visit that participant’s page, please let him/her know that you were there by doing ONE (or more) of the suggestions below. You can either:
1) Participate in their page (if they have a column, survey, etc);
2) Send a message or leave a guestbook comment;
3) Give them a virtual gift (if possible);
4) Send them a Twit (if it’s Twitter);
5) Add him/her as a contact/friend (if you know them; or if you want to introduce yourself to them).

Hope this isn’t too tricky to do! In any case, you’re always welcome to contact me if you have any questions or clarifications.

Anyway, if anyone’s interested, I’m working on my social networking page right here.

Seeing as this is this is the first task in Month 3, all participants this week will be the first batch of folks to be eligible for the next raffle.

And, what’re Month 3’s Raffle Prizes?

Yep. You read that right. There are at least 2 prizes to be handed out this time around. One is a custom-made art journal*. And, another one’s a b5media gear (not sure yet what I can manage to find - shirt, pen, etc - but will definitely get one for the winner ;-)).

In any case, here’s a round-up of our participants from last week’s Blog Carnival Lovin’ task:

Thanks again to all our participants! Please remember that we’re having our Month 2 Virtual Party soon (14th March 08). I’ll be doing Weeks #5 to #8 round-up - and a raffle draw of US$30 Winner’s Choice Award.

* See a sample custom-made art journal. You’ll get a new one made by me. Anyway, more on this in another post perhaps.

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments (10)

52WoC #8: Blog Carnival Lovin’

3 March 2008 – 9:40 pm

52 Weeks of Blog CommunityHello and welcome to the 8th week of our 52 Weeks of Blog Community project. This is our last task before we hold our virtual party next week (mark the date: 14th March 2008). And yes, we’re holding another raffle to all those who participated between Weeks #5 to #8.

This week’s task, as you can see from the title, is all about Blog Carnivals. I love them, but I haven’t participated in enough of them. That’s why I told myself that I’ll try to do more of them in 2008. My most recent blog carnival participation is via Lasang Pinoy (see my Blue Crabs and Vegetables in Coconut Sauce Recipe).

What about you? Do you participate in Blog Carnivals? Do you have any particular favourites?

Anyway, to participate in 52WoC #8, please do either ONE (or more) of these things:

1) Leave a comment here, sharing a link to your favourite blog carnival. If you have more than one favourite, you’re welcome to share more links.

2) Leave a comment here, with a link to a blog carnival entry that you have (dated between today 3rd Mar to 9th March 2008).

3) Leave a comment here, with a link to a blog carnival entry that you like that’s written by another blogger (any date will do).

4) Leave a comment here, with a link to a blog entry that you have that may be all about blog carnivals in general (or featuring a blog carnival or more that you like; your entry must be dated between 3rd to 9th Mar 08).

Again, please note that you don’t need to do everything. You can do JUST ONE of the suggested tasks above. If you wish to do more, that’s up to you. :-)

Hope that’s simple enough! If you have questions or clarifications, please feel free to contact me. I’m looking forward to your participation!

UPDATE:
For those who need to know, a blog carnival is a blogging event/project, hosted by particular folks. People set themes/topics and other bloggers submit posts, then the host does a round-up post promoting all those who participated. If you want to read up some more, Wikipedia has more info on Blog Carnivals.

Just a reminder: This is the last task for Month 2. All participants of 52WoC Weeks #5 to #8 will be part of our 52WoC Virtual Party: Part 2. And, there’s a $30 Winner’s Choice Award (via Paypal) to be given away! So, if you don’t have your name in the list yet (or you want more chances to win), remember to take part in this week’s task. ;-)

Anyway, thanks to all who participated in last week’s 52WoC on Reader Spotlight:

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (9)

Poll: What’s Your Favourite Tool to Promote Your Blog?

28 January 2008 – 10:15 pm

Apple + Droplet - 22 Jan 08One of the things that I really miss about not being on WP was the ability to create built-in polls. So, as a way to celebrate my move back to WordPress, I thought I’d do a little poll… Just for fun.

What's Your Favourite Tool to Promote Your Blog?
  • Add an Answer
View Results

And, if you’re curious, I use the Democracy plug-in for polls in WordPress. It’s great because you can even integrate it with a sidebar widget. And, with the use of a small code, you can embed the polls within your blog posts.

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers, Feedback | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (8)

And You…

18 January 2008 – 4:58 pm

Project 365 - Day 17 - 17th Jan 08 : THROUGH THE STAINED GLASS DOOR

  • Are 82% Female and 18% Male
  • Someone I haven’t met yet, but you’d like to meet one day (53%). And then some others (29%) are folks I’ve met once or twice in person. A few (6%) I’ve met several times already. And, 12% said that they believe we’ll never meet.
  • Are 44% users of feed readers. 38% direct visitors. 13% random visitor. And, 6% would like to be updated via email newsletters.

This information is based on this poll. Thanks so much to those who graciously participated. I really appreciate getting to know you better. It really helps me to understand you more. And hopefully, in the process, be able to blog better for you.

In this particular poll, I particularly found the gender knowledge useful. Now that I know we’re mostly women here, well, I can keep you more in mind when I prepare and write my posts. Without scaring the men we have in our company too much, that is. ;-)

Hmmmm….

Anyway, hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

By Shai Coggins | Posted in Blogging & Bloggers | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

New Poll: Gender + Meeting Up + Following Blogs and Sites

7 January 2008 – 4:15 pm

Growing on The VinesAs a follow-up to my 2007 stats analysis and my previous poll, here’s another poll (er, polls?) for you wonderful readers and visitors. You see, I’m always keen to learn more about you!

pollcode.com free polls
Your Gender

Male
Female
  
Have we met in person?
Yes, several times.
Yes, once or twice.
No - but I’d like to meet up one day.
No. I don’t think we’ll ever meet.

  
pollcode.com free polls
What is your preferred mode of following blogs or sites?
Via a Feedreader
By direct visits
By email like newsletters or digests
Just randomly

  
pollcode.com free polls

I’ll run this for a couple of weeks or so, then I’ll share the results.

By the way, you’re welcome to give additional feedback via comments.

NOTE: You will be taken to a third party site when you click on ‘view’ or ‘vote’. And, I’d like you to know that I am *not* affiliated with the said site. And, I do not endorse any of the ads that gets shown there. If you encounter any issues, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And yes, I wish I have a better way of conducting polls! This is one reason why I am no longer a fan of Expression Engine. I’ve got other reasons, but let’s not go there now..:-p

By Shai Coggins | Posted in General Mish Mash | Also tagged , , | Comments (3)

Best of ShaiCoggins.com 2007

28 December 2007 – 5:27 am

Sunset Photos @ Grange Series

Looking back in order to move forward can be a “good thing” to do at times. And, the end of each year is always a good time to do such recaps and reviews. So, I thought I’d share with you some of the most popular posts from this blog, based on the number of visits from May to Dec 07* (and some thoughts I have on them) -

1) Chicken Sopas Recipe - For some reason, this recipe that I created based on a popular Filipino soup has become the most visited page on ShaiCoggins.com. Strangely enough, it’s not even part of the main blog. It’s actually located at Dash Food, my ’side food blog’ that I rarely update. Makes me wonder if I should be a dedicated foodie instead. Heh. Either that, or just incorporate my food-related posts in my main blog. Hmmm…

2) Cavoodle Cuddle - Didn’t quite expect another “off topic post” to become so popular. But yeah, it looks like our family dog Blue has become quite the poster boy for cavoodles. Before I created the Squidoo page on cavoodles, I used to get at least 1-2 emails every few months about this topic. Things have quieted down now, but that page is still well visited.

3) Notes to Self: On the Wisdom of Simply Being - A simple list to remind me of what really matters. A cathartic post that seemed to have touched more folks than I expected. A real lesson to me about ‘being real’ on this blog.

4) Funky Art Gallery - It’s my most popular page from my online art gallery. This ability to create galleries is the main reason I ditched WordPress 2 - 3 years ago on this blog. But, a lot of things have happened since.

5) 20 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger - One of the few blogging-related posts that I wrote that made it to the Top 10 from this blog. Again, it was a personal exercise/reminder that found a soft spot with people.

6) Baby Countdown - Another ’semi off-topic’ post that became popular with the search engines.

7) Twittering My Working Holiday in Asia - This is a mystery to me. I can sort of understand how all the other pages made it to the top list. This one, I have no clue. Shows you that any blog post can be popular, whether you intend them to be such or not.

8) What Makes a Good Leader? - Here’s a post that showed me that the topic of leadership is really very popular. I still get folks emailing me about this, and asking me all sorts of questions and quoting what I wrote.

9) To Do: Create 100 Things List - It looks like there are a few people thinking of 100 things! Reminds me that I still need to do *my* list. Ergh.

10) Ever Heard of AntiClown Media? - Did a quick ‘question post’ 2.5 years ago while I was in my “investigative mode” about some blogs from AntiClown Media. And, that post is still getting decent traffic.

11) 5 Ways to Boost Your Confidence and Get Some Zing - We can all use a little nudge when it comes to getting some zing in to our life.

12) Coloured Nudes Gallery 1 - My second popular gallery. With the Ruby Nude being the most popular painting from the bunch.

13) Batik Gallery - The third most popular art series I created. With Batik Butterfly 3 as the most popular piece.

14) Yahoo Mail vs Gmail - Posted when Gmail was just starting out. 3.5 years on and it’s still getting traffic.

15) Nonverbal Communication Between The Genders - Written while I was obsessed with the differences between male and female communication styles. Communication is one of my favourite topics so I’m happy about this post.

Other things that I’ve learned from this year’s stats:

On Traffic - More than 50% of my traffic comes from search engines (primarily Google, Yahoo and MSN). About 37% of my traffic comes from various referring sites (primarily, StumbleUpon and some from Technorati; the blog that sends the most traffic here is Problogger, next is b5media.com; quick thanks to Karen Cheng and Toni Tiu for sending some folks my way as well). And, about 12% of visitors and readers come from direct traffic (folks visiting this blog by typing in the URL, checking their bookmarks, etc).

On Keywords - A good amount of folks find their way to this blog with the following keywords (or variations of such): funky art, chicken sopas, cavoodles, ruby nude, and baby countdown, among others. Lots of people also seem to search for me - as in, shai coggins (or even my maiden name!). I guess that’s why one of my most visited pages is still my Index page.

On Visitors/Readers - People spend an average of 1 minute and 17 seconds on my site. And, it looks like most of my visitors still use Internet Explorer (48.5%) and Firefox users come second (44%). Also, 54% are on relatively fast internet connections (Cable or DSL). In terms of location, most of my visitors and readers still come from the United States. Australia comes second. Then, Canada, Philippines, and United Kingdom. All countries are closely related to me in one way or the other. Now if only I know the gender demographics! That’ll help me more. Maybe I’ll do another survey some time. ;-)

More Thoughts:

By Shai Coggins | Posted in General Mish Mash | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (4)