Here is my #ThankfulThursdays post and why I help on Hugh’s blog at times. Sure, if you look a the photo of him from days gone by we look almost like we could be brothers, but it’s the heart of this man that makes people thankful to know him.
This post explains why Hugh was absent for a time.
Did you read my 10 Tips to Make Blogging Enjoyable. Traps to Avoid? If not, it’s still there…waiting. Why do I mention it, other than hoping those of you that missed it go and read it? There is actually an 11th Tip. Unfortunately I didn’t think of it in the 11th hour, I thought of it after that. But that just means I get to write another Blogging Tip article.
We think we organize, but we don’t. We have some categories we click the little box next to for each post but we begin to write things and come up with random categories. Before we know it we have countless categories or we have posts in an existing handful that don’t make sense.
Organizing from the very beginning of blogging makes for a lot of great benefits.
This isn’t my first go around with an article about organization. My 3 Best Blogging Tips for a Successful Blog was one year ago discussing menu structures, how to do drop down menus and create real PAGES and fake ‘pages’ as headings for drop down menu sections. Yep, step-by-step.
Now, if you’re new, the Category is basically like a folder you place a post in and you can then actually make a page in your menu using that category. You can look at my menu around my header image to see what I am talking about.
Mine looks simple, right? In reality, mine is a mess. I have over 1300 articles now, posts, poems, tips, videos, and whatever other random things I’ve come up with. I tell you that so you know when I talk about a need to organize I know from experience.
The problem? The mess?
I realized too late my system for organizing was not adequate. Why? There was no system. For someone who spent years organizing and mapping out things for 
locations around the country, I can’t stand the condition things are in. But the process of correcting all the mess is overwhelming. I’ll do it, slowly, but slowly is the key word.
If you are a veteran blogger, take a handful of minutes a day and do a page of your content in the Dashboard each day. No more than that. If you do more, you get tired of it, disgusted, and it becomes work. Blogging should be an enjoyable part of our lives, even if we do it as a job.
Now, I have great articles, and I’m not tying to be all boastful. People have truly enjoyed some of my work, but people can’t find those articles. I can’t sometimes unless I go into my Dashboard. (Sorry, Dashboard is blog-speak for where all of our tools and useful things are.)
So organization leads to easy Reader Site Navigation.
To organize your content you need to:
There are countless tips out there about how to organize and boost traffic by managing your content. Not long ago I met Janice Wald of MostlyBlogging.com. The topic of blogging seems to be something she is passionate about and seeks out things to know. As I wrote the article I thought it would be great to ask her for some articles she thought might be of use about the subject of blog organization. Here are some related articles from her site you MUST READ:
The first thing you need to read is; How to Build the Perfect Blog Even if You Don’t Know How This will give you a basic checklist to go through to make sure you have prepared a post worth posting and being read. What you post is your reputation, image, brand. You want to get it right from the beginning. Some readers will never come back if you are bad from the beginning.
Perhaps you are wanting to know if you are doing things right. You think you are but how do you find out? Well, teacher Janice has a report card for you to go by. How to Grade Your Blog (By the way, I got an A.)
What is another form of organization? How do you know for sure you are doing a good job of it? The report card above won’t tell you if you are getting the results from your efforts. And really there are some less technical aspects that you need to look at. How to Get Loyal Visitors to Repeatedly Return to Your Blog Here you will find a real success story from a real success blogger.
Now, one final thing from Janice I like is, How to Increase Blog Traffic with Content Curation. It’s not about organizing but how to get more out of those old posts you wrote that no one sees these days. No amount of organization will get all of your work seen. But if you know how to spread that content around, you can get results, maybe even better ones at times.
But not all success of a blog has to do with organization or spreading the word. I for one can vouch for that on some level. Sometimes a blog achieves success not by organization but by personality. My friend Hugh Roberts of Hugh’s Views & News focuses more on the personality and feel of blogging, a blog, and the blog life to be successful. Yes he does the organization but he likes to provide tips on a personal level. One popular article to check out is, Is Your Blog As Friendly As You Think It Is? It is one of his most recent but high on his most popular post list.
From me you can check my Most Popular list at the bottom of the blog, currently. There are two that seem to get attention the most over time, How to Survive the Blog Life. and Blogging Personality: The Key to Success.
BONUS TIP!
While I was writing the above and reading old articles of mine another tip came to mind.
We write a post and want it out NOW. Big problem with that is the ugly word TYPO. Nothing worse than doing a Writing Tip article and you have typos everywhere.
Let your article sit a few days, a week or more if you can. Then you come back and read it and you see the problems, and read it in the Preview window, like it would be on your blog, NOT in the Post Editor. Post Editor windows allow for easy skipping over words and even sentences. Our eyes are more accustomed to truly reading something on a Blog page as opposed to the Editor page.
(All images created by Ronovan unless otherwise noted.)
REBLOG, TWEET, FB it, or GOOGLE+ it. Share it however you like so all those linked get clicked.
Much Respect-Much Love
Ronovan
Ronovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015
In the last episode of The L.A.W. & Ronovan who met Ms. Marzapan and Hugh in a skytower or something like that, um, there was like this zombie dance troop and the L.A.W. and Ronovan, I mean me, I mean I discovered that Cyril Bussiere had created all these mind altering things to get rid of like all the Hugh’s of the world. I secretly think it’s because he is jealous of Hugh’s, well I won’t tell that now. Just wait. I just hope we catch him before that housekeeper that he left behind without a job does. Oh, and the Doctor showed up to give us a ride to London.
“Well that certainly was a bumpy landing,” the Doctor said.
“Indeed,” Elena said. She had taken on a British accent for some reason. Actually all of the L.A.W. had. I feared that if music started to play they would tell me what they want what they really, really want. But the door opened just in time.
We apparently had come to rest in some type of store.
“Ow!” Cat said.
I looked and she had an Oreo stuck to her head. “What the—,”
“Uh uh, Kate, none of that language,” Jenna said. “Hey, look!”
We all turned to follow her very excited finger. “Ruby slippers!” Kate said. She dove for them but they disappeared as her hands grasped nothing but empty air. Stinky empty air.
“What is that awful smell?” Amira asked.
“Smells like Troll feet,” I said.
“That’s because that is precisely what it was. Internet Troll feet,” the Doctor said.
“Oh, Doctor, I am so glad you came,” a woman said. We all turned.
“No way!” Jenna said.
“Yes way!” Amanda said.
“No, really no whey,” Jenna said looking at the case behind Amanda. “I love yogurt without whey in it. It’s a great substitute for sour cream and things like that. Lot less fat and calories. Yum!”
I looked at the Doctor. He looked at me. He went into the blue box thing. And then, gone. I couldn’t blame him.
“You know I so don’t blam—,”
I didn’t get the words out of my mouth before I found myself being tackled to the ground by several tough women. One that looked like a train. And one with a—Rudolph nose?
Screeching tires and the smell of burning rubber assaulted our senses. “Yeah, baby,” we heard. “I say, I didn’t see any rockin’ so I came a knockin’.”
We all stared at the man with the thick glasses, mop top hair and extremely tight pants. “It can’t be,” I said.
“Oh but it can, baby. Well, you’re not a baby, that’s just one of my catch phrases. Unless, wait you’re not a man!” Suddenly the insane1960s reject was trying to pull off my shirt and my hair.
“Austin Powers, get off of him,” Ms. Maple said.
Powers looked up and squinted at Ms. Maple. “Honey?” He asked. “Honey Maple, is that you?”
“Austin, I told you never to call me that in front of people,” Ms. Maple said. I had only seen her on Skype but I didn’t think the red flushed complexion was her natural look.
Powers got up and was at her side in a flash. “Groovy, baby. And I do mean baby,” he said. “At least I didn’t tell them why I call you Honey.”
Ms. Maple giggled like a school girl.
I looked at the others and saw various reactions from the rolling of eyes to dry heaving. There was even a reindeer being used as a gag to not laugh. I just hope it had not been tried on for a fitting.
“Should we ask him why he is here?” I asked.
“I say no,” Amira said.
“Agreed,” everyone else said in unison.
“Jenna,” Amanda said. “What did you find out in El Waco?”
For some reason none of us corrected her. It was like we had entered a Twilight Zone and decided we would just go with the flow. “Cyril Bussiere is behind it all, or at least he’s a top gun. Oh, I sooo loved that movie. And the songs. Oh, Take My Breath Away was sooo good. And then You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. I just melt every time Ronovan si—,”
“Ahem,” I said.
“Oopsie,” Jenna said. Her smile flashed.
I shook my head. “You really need to explain to them someday that you have a friend named Ronovan or this could all get really weird.”
“For sure, right?” she said.
Face palm.
“Okay, as she was saying. French Texan blogger Cyril Bussiere, also author of The World Might available on Amazon at a reasonable price and can be followed on Twitter at @CyrilBussiere, came up with a special formula that looks and tastes just like—,”
“Yes?” Kate asked.
“You were there, Kate, you know,” Elena said. “You told us what it was.”
“Oh, right. Healthy Oreo cream,” Kate said.
“Not so healthy,” I said.
“Mind altering.”
Amira was right. “And, we found blueprints,” I said.
“For what, a death ray?” Amanda asked.
“No.”
“A sting ray?” Eloise asked.
“No.”
“A blu ray?” Cat asked.
“Cat!” the rest of the L.A.W said.
“I got caught up, alright?”
“Mind controlling helmets that look like bowl cut hairstyles,” I said.
Amanda’s eyes got bigger than ever. I swear I saw photos of Thailand. “The royal family.”
“Exactly,” I said. “And possibly Rhianna and Miley Cyrus. Just saying.”
“Oh dear,” Amanda said.
“We can only stop all of this one way,” I said.
“How?” Seven female voices asked in harmony.
I just so hoped they didn’t discover they all loved ABBA. Mama Mia. “We go back in time.”
“What? How?” Eloise asked.
Amanda smiled, tilted her head to the right and gave her trademark look. “I know,” she said and pointed.
We all turned to follow her obviously mommy finger. The psychedelic painted Mini Cooper.
“No way,” said Jenna.
“Oh yeah, baby,” Amanda said.
“All aboard,” Eloise said.
I just had time to turn before Amanda ripped the onesie off.
“Oh dear,” Eloise said. “Thank goodness for this Batman onesie I had on underneath.”
I hung my head and just hoped that this would all be over soon. I had no idea crossing the ocean meant crossing into insanity. And here I always thought British women were hot. Maybe it was Australian women I was thinking of. Where was Olivia Newton John from again?
“Everyone in,” Elena said. “Ronovan, you first, backseat. Pile on the Ronovan time.” Okay maybe this wasn’t so bad after all. Wait, where was Hugh?
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015
Below is What’s On Top of My Tree. It’s an angel created by the little Santa’s Helper in the larger photo farther down. It may not be fancy or shiny or be something that could be in a movie but he made it and that’s what’s been on the tree ever since. The tree isn’t coordinated. It’s a combination of everything from every year including handmade from school and church. It all goes on the tree. Including my hand blown glass candies I like so much.
And by posting this, I am helping Angela and Hugh raise up to £250 for charity. And all I am doing is making this post with the title being “Here’s what’s on Top of my Christmas Tree-what’s on Yours?”.
Now, why not show what is on top of your Christmas tree? Post on your blog and help Angela and Hugh at Hugh’s Views & News to contribute to charity. To find out what to do, go to Angela and Hugh’s post.
Don’t have a Tree but want to help Angela and Hugh with their charity?
For those that do not have a Christmas tree, just write a post about the best thing that happened to you in 2014 and include a photograph if you can. Link it back to Hugh’s post and you’ll be helping Angela and Hugh achieve that £250 target before twelfth night. To link back, you simply do what I did here and put the link to Hugh’s post in your post. Hugh has it all spelled out on his post if you need it. Or you can simply copy and past the parts of my post you need to into yours, they are are the BOLD typed sections. Also make sure to USE THE SAME TITLE of the post for your post. Here’s what’s on Top of my Christmas Tree-what’s on Yours?
Merry Christmas
Ronovan
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2014
ronovanwrites 