Bloggiesta 2012...TO DO LIST..OLE!

Bloggiesta is in full-effect.  This is my first year, so I'm a little overwhelmed. Mostly just clicking and reading right now.  Making a list of things to get done this weekend for my blog and deciding which mini-challenges to participate in. I'm already seeing a LOT of really great, informative information. For more information about Bloggiesta and how to participate go visit There's A Book.

I'm loving the mini-challenges: (I've included the link for the blogger hosting) Go HERE to see a list of all the links for the mini-review challenges, there are some GREAT ones.
I may do a separate final post for some of these when completed or will update this post.

1. Mini-challenge review catch-up, my participation level is Let's Split Up (50% of outstanding reviews). With reviews, I've noticed the best time for me to type up my review is right after I read a book, when it's freshest in my mind and the thoughts are aflowing. The longer I put it off, the more reviews get stacked up and the more I feel under pressure. I've already been keeping a book journal for the past year and half, every book I read has an entry and I make notes, my favorite quotes, and a final rating.  (UPDATE: DONE but I'm going to try and exceed my goal and review one or 2 more)
I have 7 outstanding book reviews, so my goal is to get half of them typed up this weekend:
     1. Wanderlove
     2. Daughter of the Centaurs
     3. Under the Never Sky
     4. The Summer I Turned Pretty
     5. It's Not Summer Without You
     6. We'll Always Have Summer
     7. Uglies

2. Mini-Challenge 20+ Discussion Post Ideas For Your Book Blog  So right now, my blog posts have consisted of mainly 2 things: Book reviews and my favorite memes. I love the idea of discussion posts, and want to start doing more of these. Mostly because they involve making lists, and, well, me and lists are like THIS.   The one that caught my eye was: 5 Chilling Dystopian Government Systems in Books. So you can expect this post sometime next month. UPDATE: DONE, will post 9/30/12.

3. Mini Challenge: Organization and Scheduling Posts-I'm just going to do the first part of this challenge, create a blog schedule.  This, for me, is a must. When I'm unorganized then I get behind on my posting and feel pressured. Which is no fun. And I started blogging for the fun. For a couple weeks there, I was scheduling my posts in advance, including reviews and memes. It was great, I would have my posts all set up for the week and could start on the next week. This gave me plenty of leeway and if I was exhausted from work one day I didn't have to worry about making a post because I already had one planned. So my goal is to schedule one month out at a time and have a set schedule. Ideally, I'd like to have 2-3 review posts per week, my 2-3 memes, and then at least one random post. I don't feel compelled to post every single day, but ideally 5 times a week would be good.

       Sunday- In My Mailbox/Review
       Monday-Review
       Tuesday-Top Ten Tuesday
       Wednesday- Waiting on Wednesday
       Thursday- Review
       Friday-Discussion/random post
       Saturday-Discussion/random post/review

Update: I consider this goal DONE, I'm actually been doing a lot of brainstorming about ideas for posts and have one in mind that I'm actually pretty excited about!

4. Calendar and The Blog Journal Mini-Challenge- I love this idea, having a calendar in front of me will help me organize my posts/ideas. I'm more of a marker girl myself. And any excuse that involves using markers I'm down for. I also like the idea of having a blog journal. I have like 10 notebooks always at my disposal, with various lists in each one. But I like the idea of having one specific notebook to keep all my ideas together in one. Update: DONE

5. Grade your blog mini-challenge- I'm not so much interested in my grade (which obviously is going to be a fail because I'm still learning and really getting into the blogging), but this site gives you some great ideas about where and how to improve your blog. (UPDATE: DONE)

6. Mini-Challenge: Let's Get Personal. This is probably the most important challenge for me. I don't want my blog to become this cold, boring, predictable thing. The blogs I enjoy the most are the ones where the blogger gives a glimpse of themselves in their posts. Blogging for me is a personal thing, and I don't want my blog to be like everyone elses. I just need to find my own voice..working on it.  I am human, hear me ROAR! UPDATE-DONE

7. Mini-Challenge: Building a blog audience-  So for this challenge I will visit 10 new blogs and leave genuine comments on each.  I'm going to make a longer-term goal to comment 5 people a day, whether it's someone whose left me a comment on my blog, or on a post I see that catches my eye. It is true, you have to put yourself out there. People aren't going to just randomly appear and know about your blog. UPDATE-DONE
  SATURDAY- DONE I've commented on more than 10 blogs today that I've never visited or it had been a while. I found a couple new ones to follow:
Books, Biscuits, and Tea
Midnight Book Girl
The Book Vixen

SUNDAY-DONE I've commented on 10 more new blogs, and I have a few more awesome ones to follow:
Recovering Potter Addict
The Paper Reader
Beyond the Bookshelf

ALLLRight. That's it for the mini-challenges that I'm going to participate in. I'm stoked about all of them.

So now for my personal individual goals for Bloggiesta:

1. Add some gadgets- I've been wanting to do this for a while now. The ones I'm thinking about are:
-Currently reading
-Quote of the day
-Favorite book series/books (update-I've decided against this one for now)
-TBR (update-I may do some sort of separate page instead of a gadget)
UPDATE: I consider this goal DONE.

2. Update my READ IN 2012 list, with the links for reviews  DONE

3. Add a Master review list page DONE

That's going to be it for now. I have a lot to do and want it to be realistic. One of the really big things I want to do is get a new blog design that fits the title of my blog. I haven't looked into finding a blog design person yet. That's not something I'll be able to do this year, but it's a definite goal for 2013.  I love blogs with awesome designs. Right now mine is generically boring.

Anyways, I'm so excited to get started!! Bloggiesta ohhhh yeaaah. Leave me comments and I'll comment you back for SHO.  Can't wait to read the challenges other people are participating in.