Being a Better Blogger First Reflections

This is actually a double post for days 2 and 3 of the 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger, a month-long journey led by Steve Dembo.

Today, as part of Day 2's assignment, I got my free Google Analytics account to see who is reading my blog and other helpful information. I will put it up when the data has been gathered. I think from Steve's post it was interesting to note that his blog readership really had a pattern of traffic that he could tap into if he wanted to spread information quickly. He found that Tuesdays were the day his blog was read the most; therefore, he suggests that if he has an important idea, then Tuesday is when that blog post should appear. I am sort of afraid that Google Analytics will show that NO ONE is reading Fresh Fowlers, but maybe this 30 day exercise in becoming better will help me get readers. I do have a few faithful Plurk pals who read my posts.

Now on to Day 3's assignment--writing a thank you note to a blogger that influenced me to begin blogging. This was a hard choice because I am not a very prolific blogger, but I have been at it at least in spurts for a while. So, I looked at my Google Reader to see what blogs I read and tried to figure out which one really influenced me to get started as a blogger. Then, at the almost very bottom, I spotted Will Richardson's Weblogg-ed. I attended a workshop that Will presented at NECC 2007 in Atlanta where he talked about growing your personal and professional network through the use of blogs and wikis. For the first time, I understood the point of having an aggregator and signed up for a Google Reader account and I haven't looked back. Will recommended that we only subscribe to a few blogs at first to see how much time it took us to read them; being the overachiever that I am, I promptly signed up for way too many, but now I use my Google Reader as a primary way to learn new information from other educators. I have also read his book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom. So, THANK YOU, Will Richardson, for getting me started on this path of blogging. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge at that face-to-face workshop in Atlanta and all the blog posts I have read of yours since.