Here is a great blog article with eight tips from Misty Kearns about "Cleaning Out Your Blogging Closet" http://ceoofmeinc.com/how-to-refresh-your-blog-by-updating-and-recycling-older-content/. I love the tips for refreshing your blog by updating and recycling and plan to spruce up my blogs using some of these tips. The first tip I plan to follow is sharing and re-sharing my popular post. Below are the statistics as of today of the popular posts and pages for my Find Your Folks blog.
Popular Posts of Find Your Folks Blog as of July 21, 2014
Popular Pages of Find Your Folks Blog as of July 21, 2014
2010 Atlanta Family History Expo Bloggers of Honor Table
I am looking forward to attending the Atlanta Family History Expo next month. My first expo attendance was in 2010 also in Atlanta. One of my favorite parts of the expo was hanging out at the Blogger table. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I skipped a few sessions just so I could remain at the table and enjoy the presence of my fellow bloggers and the numerous visitors to our table.
I had met most of the bloggers online prior to the conference, but it was even more exciting to meet them face-to-face. The Official Bloggers (also known as Bloggers of Honor) of the Family History Expo receive full registration benefits and have the following responsibilities:
Pre-Conference: announce and promote the expo, sponsors, exhibitors, and activities, as well as share press releases.
During Conference: share daily happenings at expo, share blogging tips with attendees, and highlight websites, tools, and discoveries made.
After Conference: Summarize overall conference experience.
So as I prepare for the conference, I am also preparing for the blogging tasks by looking at new social media tools and new features in Twitter and Blogger. One of the new tools I’m looking at is called Storify which I found on the blog of fellow Blogger of Honor, Linda McCauley of Documenting the Details. Storify is a website that creates and preserves stories or timelines using social media, photos and videos and I like the way that Linda has used it to document the story of other genealogy conferences. Click here for a sample of how Linda used Storify at the 2012 Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference.
To others who have served as official bloggers at any genealogy conference, what other tools or tips do you have to share with the 2012 Atlanta Family History Expo Bloggers of Honor?
I am pleased that announce that I will be a Blogger of Honor at the 2012 Atlanta Family History Expos. I attended the 2010 conference and had a FANTASTIC time where I met numerous bloggers and genealogists whom I had gotten to know online prior to 2010.
I will also be conducting a workshop at this conference entitled “Thinking Out of the Box - Creating Things with Genealogy.”
(All Levels) Is genealogy only about who begat whom or would you consider thinking out of the box by creating a new way of researching and sharing your genealogical stories? In this workshop, participants will learn ways to be creative in sharing their genealogy research.
Besides conducting a presentation at 11:30 and attending one at 3:00, I spent the majority of my time on Friday hanging out at the Bloggers of Honor table at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expos. I had lots of fun talking to other bloggers and visitors to our table, as well as blogging and tweeting.
Today, I’d like to introduce you to the My Colored Roots blog by my blog reader, Darlene. I have noticed Darlene’s comments on my blog for a while and was fortunate to meet her at the International Black Genealogy Summit a few weeks ago. She also attended my “Power of Blogging” workshop at the conference.
Today, I would like to introduce you to the Life From The Roots blog by my online friend, Barbara Poole. Barbara has been a bit shy about introducing her blog, but it is an outstanding and attractive site. I especially like her posting entitled My Scrambled Eggs which talks about research of her SCHRAMBLING OR SCHREMBLING family.
Barbara and I have known each other online for about three years and we met face-to-face in 2007 when I attended a genealogy conference in her area. (For more on this meeting, read posting on The Excitement of Meeting Online Friends.
Congratulations to Barbara on the success of your blog and I look forward to reading more exciting postings.
Lisa Louise Cooke of The Genealogy Gems Podcast at Genealogy Gems TV interviews geneablogger Thomas MacEntee of the Geneabloggers blog about how to blog, his many blogs, and genealogy. The interview was filmed at the Southern California Genenealogy Jamboree.
I have a sitemeter added to my blogs which enables me to not only see the number of visitors to my blog, but also how they access the site, whether through a Google search, or by a direct link. I can also see what specific postings they are reading. One of the popular postings is the one on the Cooling Board which I posted on April 26, 2008.
Although there have been many visitors to this blog posting, I received two important comments. One is from a blog reader (Cookie) who has a cooling board as one of her family heirlooms. Imagine receiving such an heirloom! Another blogger (thelwaiting) heard about the cooling board through her family’s oral history.
Cookie said...
I was fortunate enough to inherit a "cooling board" that was used in Gulrock NC...my grandmother had been given it and when she died i received it (April 28, 2009)...ours is not as fancy...no legs, no wheels, no case..just a plank of Carolina pine that was placed between two ladder back chairs...the first time to allow the body to leak out the fluids upon death....then it was cleaned up and the person was dressed and placed back on the board for the showing before burial. I know for sure that it is from the 1900's or earlier and it has 9 marks on it...so we know at least nine member of the community used that board...one is dated 1919 as my grandmothers youngest sister Delores Mason who died in infancy, they say of lockjaw, was buried on it....my grandma and I were one of a kind we thought the history of the board was fascinating.... June 29, 2009 2:48 AM
the1waiting said...
What a magnificent piece! Even though I hate attending funerals, I felt it was important to see this film. I am a genealogist who hear my African American elders speak of many things such as the "cooling board". Seeing this film is a highlight in my life. Thank you for the experience. I love it. August 28, 2008 12:33 PM
Lisa Louise Cooke host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast explains the types of genealogy blogs and demonstrates in a two-part podcast how to create your own genealogy blog using Blogger.com.
If you want to learn how to use the Microsoft PowerPoint software, or enhance PowerPoint skills you already have attained, then join me on my "PowerPointer's Blog." This is a a weblog about using the Microsoft PowerPoint software to create effectively designed presentations.
PowerPointer's Blog is the first blog I created and I use it as a supplement for courses I teach in using the Microsoft PowerPoint software. I also use it as a resource for faculty at the university where I work.
In case you don't know, PowerPoint is a graphical software that is part of the Microsoft Office suite of packages used for slide show presentations. One common mistake that presenters around the world make on a daily basis is overloading their PowerPoint slide shows with too much text.
My blog will not only provides tips on the mechanics of creating presentations, but also how to effectively design them.
Lately, I have been exploring new blogging platforms in order to better understand the differences. The video tutorial below provided me with information on the features of WordPress. The video is 45 ½ minutes long, but is well worth watching for those who want to learn about the features of WordPress. When I first began blogging in 2008, I tried to set up a WordPress blog, however it was difficult, and I abandoned the set up. The video tutorial simplifies the set up process.
One of the features that I like in WordPress is having a choice in ways to place a link. I like my links to open in a new window and in Blogger, I have to insert the HTML code, which can be a tedious process. In WordPress, you are able to choose the new page as an option when inserting a link. I also like the calendar and search features in WordPress.
One thing I do not like in WordPress is having to make adjustments to the embedded code of a video such as YouTube. In Blogger, you simply copy the embed code in the HTML section of a blog posting. In WordPress, the embedded code has to be edited. I use a lot of YouTube videos, and if I switched to WordPress, I don’t want to have to edit the embed code every time I post a video.
WordPress.com - Step-by-Step Tutorial on How to Blog
Please join me in welcoming my genealogy friend, Angela Walton-Raji to the blog world. Angela is an author, lecturer, and genealogy researcher and has recently created the blog podcast African Roots Podcast. She and I met through annual conferences of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.
As an instructor of online courses, I began using voice in my courses for lectures and announcements. Prior to using voice, everything was text and reading. However, adding voice to the course has enhanced student learning and course interaction. Students are also able to record verbal responses to questions.
Now that I see the value of adding voice in an online environment for learning, I’d like to try podcasting or adding voice to my blog. I already have the needed computer microphone and I understand that software needed for podcasting is free. I hope that that my fellow bloggers will join me in learning how to use this tool. Here are some video tutorials which explain the podcasting process.
I began blogging in February 2008 and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Blogging has helped me to increase my amount of genealogy and technical writing. Through it, I also have learned to use new web technologies and have made many new online friends. It only takes a few minutes to set up a blog. Here is a video tutorial to teach you how to get started.
Enjoy!
======================================= Video - How to Create a Blog with Blogger
