I want to thank you for responding to my last poll. Y’all blew me away with an astounding 98 responses. That’s up from ZERO on my first poll.
Your opinions about the schedule of topics on my blog are as follows:
| Topics | % of Responses |
| Preparing for retirement & living the life | 11% |
| Blogging advice and bloopers | 10% |
| Book reviews | 10% |
| Local adventures and photographic sprees | 10% |
| My travels with various folks | 9% |
| Photography advice – what I’m learning from my mistakes | 9% |
| My sordid past as a young girl in Indianapolis then Portland, OR | 8% |
| Manny’s adventures | 7% |
| My thoughts on education and how to… | 6% |
| Local history, Tulare County before I got here. | 5% |
| Spotlight on great bloggers | 5% |
| WP Challenges | 4% |
| Kalev and other pet’s adventures | 3% |
Many of you left thoughtful and inspiring comments, including encouraging bloggers participate in challenges like the A-Z and weekly WP Photo Challenge. So I have contrived a schedule for my blog, which I started as an experiment, that I THINK I can keep. I combined several categories that seemed to go together. I like to blog every day, and I think this schedule gives me the flexibility post daily.
| Mondays | Ask Marsha Lee: Advice on Retirement, Blogging, Photography and ? |
| Tuesdays | Reviews: Books, Movies, Restaurants, Hotels (Mostly Books) |
| Wednesdays | Challenge Me: Wordless Or Wordy, but Always a Picture |
| Thursdays | Marsha and Manny’s Adventures Near and Far |
| Fridays | Remembering the Sordid Past: Mine and Other Folks |
| Weekends | Everything Relaxing Including Visiting Blogging Friends |
I’ll be writing Monday’s posts on weekends, but I’ll need you to ask me questions. Some of the advice I give may be from my stash of experience, and I have a ton of it, and other things may take me a while to research and I’ll come back to those questions. You can ask questions in several ways.
- Email me: tchistorygal@gmail.com
- Facebook me: Click the button in the footer on the left.
- Leave a comment on any post using the key word, “Advice“. somewhere in your comment.
I will get back to you, if not in a post, at least in an email.
For my posts on Tuesdays, I’ll also need your opinions about what you’d like to have reviewed from what I’ve read, of course. You can also suggest great books, but I read about 700 words a minute, and that’s when I don’t fall asleep doing it! Alastair had a great way to review books on Tuesdays called Teaser Tuesdays, and I may try that once in a while, too. I may even review someone’s blog on Tuesday. I was surprised that few people liked that idea. 😦
When I am not traveling or working on CCSS matters, I blog about 4-6 hours a day at a minimum. I am be slower than some, dithering and adjusting pictures and words, but OH WELL, I’m retired! The rest of the time I spend reading and dribbling stories, remarks, and likes on your blogs, and reading the blogs you recommend to me.
Thanks again for joining in this blogging experiment in “Getting More Traffic on Your Blog.”
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
What a lovely story Marsha 😀
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Thanks MFR 🙂
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Wow!! What a schedule !! Please don’t overdo it MVBF Marsha. It seems a lot to take on on top of your real life activities Personally, I think you had it about right with a mixture of topics in a post. Posting something with meat everyday will be very difficult. I have unfollowed many bloggers who post one picture or reblog everyday. What’s the point !!
Sending Manny off around the world is a great idea, it could end up with Manny having his own blog 😀 Ralph xox 😀
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More work MFR! I think I have enough blogs! He can have part of a day. I pretty much do a blog a day anyway, MFR. I have posted 394 posts! Yikes! I need a life! 🙂
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Yes I think so 😀
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🙂 Enjoy the rest of your quiet! How’s the cold showering coming along? Sponge bath, anyone? 🙂
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No more cold showers. I’ve had enough !! Okay, I’m a wuss but a warmly washed wuss now. I’m all for a sponge bath 😀 xox
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You’ll probably have lots of takers for helping you with a sponge bath. I don’t think you’d get much help with the cold shower! My great- grandma didn’t have hot water in her bathroom when I was little. She would heat a big pot of water on the stove, and pour it into the cold water in the tub. For some reason I thought that was really wonderful. I also thought it was so much fun to go down to the basement with her while she shoveled coal into the furnace. Go figure. I was easily entertained! xoxo 🙂
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I was thrilled to be a featured blog here Marsha. It was my first real success as a blogger and you boosted my confidence immensely. And I found a lovely new friend – bonus!
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Bonus???? That was the BEST FEATURE! I loved featuring you. In fact, we ought to do it again! You can do one of my adventure posts. Another thought I am bouncing around is to ship Manny different places. Right now he wants to go to England to see Ute and her bears. He’s bugging me to death. Vince says I need to ship him over there. I’m a little nervous about him traveling so far by himself, but what a fun bunch of pictures that would be for both of our blogs. Maybe we could think about something like that as well. Justin B in CA or Manny in Australia. Could be fun! 🙂 Lots of love to you, SIS 🙂
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You are far more organized than I am. I’m thinking “If you write it, they will come…”
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That’s a great thought, and I do have more readers than I ever dreamed I would have, but I want to be like Leanne Cole when I grow up – no matter that she is younger than I. But I think 300-500 likes a day would be nice, and maybe 100 comments a day. Of course that doesn’t include the comments I make on other people’s sites! OK, maybe that’s more than I can do, and still live, but it sure sounds fun! What about you? Have them come? Are you pleased with how much traffic you have?
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I don’t think I’m doing enough to drive viewers to my site. With that said, I realize that I have too many other projects in the fire to devote more time to it than I do now.
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Real life does get in the way of blogging! hahaha! Enjoy your life! I’ll still follow you. 🙂
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Is that last flower a crocus, it’s so beautiful! Here’s my first question – I made a separate page for my awards & now I can’t get it to show up on the top of my page. Do you have any ideas?
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Sometimes you have to add it to the menu in a separate column. Do you have support from WP with your site. You have to pay extra to get that, but it sure is handy. I wish I had done that right from the start because I had so many problems. I’ll write it up a better answer on my post Monday using screen shots, and send it to you early. I can’t do that very well here. If I find an article on it in the meantime, I’ll send it your way so you can fix it, soon. I know how frustrating it is to want to do something and just not be able to make it work! 🙂 Marsha.
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You got yourself a schedule!
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I did. Do you like it??
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You’re so incredibly organised, Marsha 😀 I’m really looking forward to your posts 😉
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Dianne, I’m fighting my disorganized self constantly! I look forward to writing them, and having people enjoy them. Mostly I look forward to the interactions and the relationships that form because of them! 🙂 I had a long video chat with Leanne Cole last night over some of my photographs. That was a hoot, and I will blog about that ion Monday – Ask Marsha. Really people will get a little of Ask Leanne as well! 🙂 Lots of love to you, my friend! 🙂
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Really good-looking schedule, Marsha. I like that you combined a few of your topics rather than to leave them out.
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I sort of had to do that, Maddie, to keep sane. There is no way I can come up with that many book reviews! It takes time to read and then the 4 hours to create the post. Even when the books are as fun as yours. Then there is the issue that sometimes you just like to read for the fun of it, which is what I did with the rest of your books. Since they were a series, it hardly makes sense to review each one. Once you know the characters, it’s a different setting and crime, but you , the reviewer, don’t want to give that away. 🙂
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Great post. I look forward to reading more. I always have trouble keeping up with a blogging schedule.
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I try to post every day anyway, so this might make it easier, and it might not, but it does give readers a head’s up. 🙂
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Just don’t turn it into a chore that becomes un-fun…
My first poll got 3 hits. Lately I get a few dozen Other answers.
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Thanks Guap,
That was why I expanded the categories some. There is no way I could write a book review a week – and read that many books. I might read a book and not want to do a review, or read a long book with little short books in between. Thanks for the encouragement. Your polls are always a lot of fun! 🙂
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All sounds good, Marsha! We’ll look forward to seeing your schedule in action! 🙂
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THAT will tell the tale! Me on a schedule! Yikes! But like Leanne pointed out, I can write ahead, and know what I’m going to post.
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I think that people may not have mentioned reviewing other people’s blogs because people thought that saying something detrimental about a blog wouldn’t be received well.
Thanks for the shout out 🙂
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That’s a good point. I don’t review the ones I don’t like! In fact I haven’t review very many at all. Featured Blog is what I called it rather than reviewed. 🙂 You are welcome for the shout. I have a feeling I’ll be doing that from time to time! 🙂
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🙂
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