Friday, July 30, 2010

First Week Thoughts

Crunchy Beach Mama is officially one week old! Wahoo!

First I have to thank you to these great bloggers for putting up with my endless questions...And Baby Makes Three! who has become my true blogging friend and helped me set-up and more. Eco-Friendly and Frugal, who gave me tons of great starting tips. And My Crafty Mom who has been helping with design now and maybe a new look in the future! Check them out :)

Let me tell you what I've learned this past week...

- That there are TONS of blogs out there!! Wow! And TONS of giveaways! I've entered so many lately that I better win something!

- That I need a new computer! My dinosaur aged one can't handle every one's images, buttons, backgrounds, etc. It gets so overwhelmed!

- That I don't like the way Blog Hops seem to work. Yes I love it when someone visits my blog and follows me (Thank you soooo much!) but do you know how many blogs I visited, made sure I checked out their blog, read a post, commented, and how many I received back? The ratio is low. But putting that aside, they bother me because 1) most people are coming here to just Google Follow me and never return and vice versea. 2) my biggest peeve - leave me a comment on a post that only says 'I'm following you so follow me' without even reading what my blog or the post is about.

   There has to be a better way to do Hops. Maybe I should start one and the rules will be
     - only follow a blog that you have some interest in and know you will return one day     
     - please take the time to read a post and write a genuine comment.
     - after your genuine comment it's ok to say I'm a new follower but leave it at that and don't babble on because good people will check you out in return.

    I was irked more than once this week from the Hops . With that being said, I made some good friends and connections this way too :)

- That I don't understand Twitter at all! So when you reply or tag someone they don't really see that? Then what's the point of replying and tagging? What am I missing here?

- That Facebook fan pages should have more to them. I want to get emailed when someone "likes" me or leaves a comment on my Wall. I want to be able to "like" people through my fan page. I want to keep track of other blogs through FB without it mixing into my personal account. This frustrates me because I use and like FB a lot but it doesn't seem to be the first choice for bloggers.

-  What was the most important thing I learned? That blogging is ADDICTING and I love it! :)

Thank you to everyone who visited me this week. I am truly honored that you even clicked into here to check out what I was doing. Please keep continuing to spread the word ~ and I still have that great pair of Babylegs to give away. Keep 'em coming! :)


10 crunchy comments:

Eco-Friendly and Frugal said...

Thanks for the shout-out!

I agree about the blog hops. I did a bunch last Friday since I was bored and I doubt I'll ever do them again EXCEPT on my friend's blogs. And those usually tend to be smaller ones that are more focused on actually following and returning to these blogs. And speaking of that, I have one on my site specifically for Green blogs that is small and filled with some great blogs! :) Following not mandatory, I just ask that you check them out and if you like them- follow! :)

Twitter makes NO SENSE! Haha! I don't really get why it exists but it's one of those nessecities of blogging. People do use it, though. I started asking people how they found my blog as an extra giveaway entry and I'd say 5 or so for each giveaway found their way there from Twitter! So it does work... it's just confusing. But you should look into trying out a Twitter Party. I've done one and it was really fun and I keep meaning to do more. Maybe this week.

With Facebook what I did recently that I am SO happy I did was create a different Facebook profile for my Blog called Eco Frugal. It's not my blogs fan page (which is Eco-Friendly and Frugal) but a profile I use to follow my favorite blogs and comment on their pages and whatnot. It keeps it more organized since my regular profile is getting a bit crowded. You still can't get a message when your Fan Page has activity which is lame, but it does help network more!

Loving your blog still. Can't wait to see what you have in store!

NoDebtMomma said...

I agree about the blog hops. A lot of comments that I get are "Stopping by from blankity-blank. I'm your newest follower. I hope you follow back" I think it's the same for everyone. I've found that to get a real response, you need to constantly be coming up with new ideas - crafts for instance. I'm not a huge crafty, so cooking is my 'thing'. You just have to find yours!

Good Luck.

Sam
Mom Undecided

Anonymous said...

The twitter thing took me a while to figure out as well. When you hit the @ (your name beside it) on the right side column of twitter, it will pull up if someone replied or tagged you! Easy once you figure out how it works! LOL THanks so much for stopping by earlier in the week! I'm following you back :)

Kim

JaelCustomDesigns said...

Welcome to the blogoshpere! Well, I've been blogging for a year and I agree with you on a lot of your feedback. That's why it's so important to bond with certain people and form tribes. I have a regular set of people that comment on my blog regularly as I do them and I also use comment love so when I leave a comment a visitor on their blog can see my latest post and if it's interesting to them they just click on my link.

I'm a Twitterholic and I am on Twitter 24/7 actually talking to people. That's how I connect with most of my online friends unless we decide to do a Skype Conference or Google Chat or Yahoo IM! Lol! Most of my networking is done through Twitter. I do post on forums and different clubs but, I love Twitter. Some people don't know how to use it correctly. It's better if you have Tweet Chat or TweetDeck so that you can see evrything at once vs. switching in between screens. I can see my regular Twitter Stream, My mentions and my direct messages all in one screen shot. I'm able to respond to things immediately! My comment is turning into a post. Lol!

I got your message on my Facebook wall and I've "Liked you back! :-) I've also followed your blog. Feel free to visit me at http://www.jaelcustomdesigns.com I'm going to be sharing blogging tips and tutorials in the near future. Stay Tuned...

Julie Kieras said...

Thanks for the mention! :) I agree with EVERYTHING! I have done a few blog hops but it seems like a LOT of work to get more followerers who may not even be real readers. I have found the best way is simply to comment on blogs I REALLY like, and those are the ones that we keep going back and forth with emails/posts and it's great fun! :)
Twitter - is okay but everyone else seems to use it for like hourly updates - I don't know HOW they do that - I can barely keep up with my Facebook -but I try to make some comments now & then - it IS good for finding out what cool giveaways are going on and unfortunately companies do ask "how many Twitter followers do you have" :)
Keep up the good work !:)

Jenelle said...

Hey Mama! I dropped in on your blog from Diaperswappers. Keep up the great work- and check me out

Unknown said...

congrats on your new blog court! looks great. I wish i had more time to follow all the blogs people have. i use facebook to keep up with fam and friends...twitter only to find out where the gourmet grilled cheese truck is parked around L.A!

Mommy Hates Cooking said...

I agree with you on the pet peeve!!! Welcome to blog world!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I am your newest follower from Tuesday Train. I absolutely agree with you on the Blog Hops. I get tons of people that only add me to increase follows, but don't really add anything constructive to my comments. I don't mind the whole concept of wanting more followers, but please, actually read my blog, before you follow me.

Well anyway, I too am addicted to blogging, my blog is also very young, 'she' just turned two weeks today! :)

Marie The Things We Find Inside

Karli K. said...

I agree with so much of that! I really wish I had just opened a fb account with my blog name instead of a fanpage. sigh. oh well. I guess I thought it was "against the rules" and I'm a big rule freak. But I don't know if it is or not! and even if it was, it would be worth it.

haven't even tried twitter or youtube yet! I know I should, but how in the world would I find the TIME?!?!

I know - isn't blogging addictig?! yikes!

p.s. found you from DS!