Monday, May 17, 2010

Blog Cleaning

Many people do their once a year spring clean.

It's time for me to do my annual 'blog clean'.  This involves the following:
  • Removing blogs from my blogroll which have been deleted by the author or I suspect have been abandoned.
  • Add blogs I have started reading recently.
  • Make sure my Bloglines list is current also.
If you read my blog regularly, could you please do me the honour of adding me to your blogroll?  If you don't have a blogroll, then can I encourage you to create one?  If you're a fellow blogger who has been lurking here for a bit, then it would be great if you could introduce yourself so I can add you too.  Blogrolls are a great way of sourcing new blogs to read which brings me to my next point....

I would love it if you could recommend some blogs for me to read that do not currently feature on my blogroll.  It's a bit sad when blogs I've been enjoying for a fair while are suddenly spasmodic or no more, so please recommend a handful of blogs you enjoy.

I have also been doing some cleaning of a different kind.  Unfortunately one of the downsides of being a blogger is spam.  Since last year I have been regularly trawling my archives and removing silly comments from 'blog taggers'.  I've seen them on other Blogspot blogs too...the ones with the links to Asian girl websites or dating sites.  Grrr!  I have set up the word identification thing for when people make comments, but that still doesn't stop them!  I don't want to change the comment settings to Blogger IDs only because I would like anonymous people to contribute if they wish.  Does anyone have any tips on winning the battle against spam?

So....are your blog links up to date?  Have you left your recommendation of a good blog for me to read?  Cleaning your blog is a bit like clearing out your inbox....a jolly good job done. :)
at

6 comments:

  1. Meredith18 May 2010 at 12:18

    Some good blogs to explore...

    This one is THE best on the block...

    http://jeaninallhonesty.blogspot.com/

    and then you might like...

    http://mannainomers.blogspot.com/

    and...

    http://noreadingatthebreakfasttable.blogspot.com/

    and...

    http://bestbookco-op.blogspot.com/

    and...

    http://www.rebecca-writes.com/

    An interesting selection that should keep you going for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Iris Flavia18 May 2010 at 12:39

    That´s a good idea, actually, to spring-clean the blogroll (aren´t you supposed to autumn-clean? ;-)..)

    Now, don´t laugh, but I like these "new additions to my blogroll"

    It´s a wonderful life

    Unexpected surprises

    ... it´s all about kids!

    And, yeps... have those comments, too... why do they bother to do that???

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rodney Olsen18 May 2010 at 13:05

    I've recently been doing the same. It's sad to find that some of your favourite blogs have just stopped being updated.

    Here are some blogs you might like to check out.

    http://flowerdust.net/

    http://ignoranthistorian.com/

    http://briancromer.com/

    http://www.challies.com/

    http://rickstilwell.wordpress.com/

    How do you beat spam? Move ot a self hosted WordPress blog. I use a few simple plugins that stop any spam from reaching my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah18 May 2010 at 21:56

    Thanks peoples. I shall look forward to checking out those blogs although a couple I have looked at briefly already.

    The thought of moving blog hosts scares me silly after I completely stuffed up my blog in 2007. I've found wordpress quite difficult to use actually and Blogger seems simpler. I'm also a bit worried if I moved blogs I would lose the handful of readers I have.

    Personally I think my blog template is VERY boring but I have no idea how to get a better one. Does anyone know how to put a picture in the header so that it looks good? Every time I've tried it never fits properly and just looks ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rodney Olsen19 May 2010 at 12:37

    Moving to WordPress shouldn't be too difficult but I understand that some people find it easier to stick with Blogger. I used Blogger for years and became quite used to hacking the templates to get what I wanted. I think they changed the way they do things and that made it harder to personalise templates.

    As for losing readers, I still have a redirect operating from my old blogger address. (rodneyolsen.blogspot.com) If people go to that address they'll see a message to say the blog has moved, then within a minute the browser will redirect to the new site. There are always ways to achieve what you need.

    There are probably still ways to add a photo to your header or change your Blogger template to something you prefer. If you google 'free blogger templates' you'll find a few sites that should give you what you require.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Meredith19 May 2010 at 15:53

    When I put the photo of the fresias on my header, I just took the original photo, cropped it to a rectangle and then put it in...and miraculously it seemed to fit! So try a bit of cropping, save the cropped photo to your pictures department and see how you go!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are much appreciated...but please be nice. :)