31 DBBB Wrapup & 7 Link Problogger Challenge

It's hard to believe that 31 days went by so fast! I absolutely loved being a Community Lead during the challenge, and connecting with a bunch of new blogs I'm falling in love with. I learned a lot, and I feel like I actually have a sort of plan for my blog for the first time! I am feeling a renewed energy and inspiration to write, and ideas have been popping up in my head like weeds. I'm also very excited because SITS announced the locations for Bloggy Boot Camp in 2011, and they're coming to Seattle! Yay! I really can't wait even though it's almost a year away.

Here are some useful links from the challenge:

• You can see all the posts I posted during the challenge by clicking here.
• If you want to revisit the BlogFrog posts, check out this awesome list - it links to the official posts for each day of the challenge.
• If you participated in the challenge and you haven't picked up your button yet, go here to get the official "I survived" button for your blog!
• If you weren't able to keep up the first time, but want to complete the 31 Days challenge, go to this thread on BlogFrog to hook up with some ladies who are planning to start on September 1.

In honor of the end of the challenge, today I'm taking on another challenge from Darren at Problogger. Darren is the author of the workbook and the head honcho over at Problogger. He posted this 7 link challenge on his blog recently, and after seeing some other answers to it I thought it would be fun to do my own post!

Your first post

My first blog post was published in February 2005, called You Give Me Fever. This was posted on my original blog, which was later deleted when the hosting company it was on disappeared without a trace. My first post when I came back and started blogging regularly and as a serious pastime was in March of 2008, called My Secret Identity.

A post you enjoyed writing the most

One of my favorite Suddenly, You're Four. I am so often caught up in the day to day of living with a baby and a four year old, I don't always sit and have time to gaze into their being and the life I'm sharing with them. I wrote this post recently for Sam's fourth birthday, and I still can't read it without getting teary.

A post which had a great discussion

I have not had a ton of discussion in my comments, which is another thing I'd love to try and improve, since one of my favorite parts about blogging is the community that comes out of it. I think the most discussion I've had was on my post 10 Things That Are Just NOT Okay. It was a fun one!

A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written

Honestly, so many of these pop up in my reader on a daily basis! But two posts that really struck me recently were from Jenny at The Bloggess. The first was about The Traveling Red Dress, a beautiful dress she got just because she IS worth it. The second is a followup - Red Dress Revisited makes me cry every time I read it.

Your most helpful post

I have not written a ton of posts trying to help (yet!), but my recent post Your Blog, Your Work, Your Property: How to Protect Your Blog from Plagiarism seemed to get a really good response, and I think it helped people! I'm hoping to write more posts like this in the future.

A post with a title that you are proud of

I sometimes struggle with my post titles because the one I want to use is often abstract, or a clip from the post and they are certainly not the best for SEO. Your Light Should Burn Forever is a post I wrote a while back about a friend who has been very sick. She is still with us, and she is fighting, but there's no cure for what she has. I like the post title because her light really does shine so bright and add something so amazing to the world.

A post that you wish more people had read

I don't write about my volunteering a ton, because I have to be careful about it. I volunteer for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services as an advocate. I do mostly on-call, meaning I answer the phone after regular hours (9-5), and go to the hospital to be support if a sexual assault or domestic violence survivor comes in. I can't include anything that could identify anyone, and if I write about an experience at all, I have to publish it at a random time so it can't be associated with a particular date. I wrote this after my first experience doing a hospital call. It's called The First Time.

Did you complete the 31 day challenge? How do you feel now that it's over? Do you have posts in mind for any of the 7 categories listed above - if so I'd love to read them!

Inception: Why I Love Christopher Nolan

Justin and I finally got a chance to go and see Inception last weekend. I have been wanting to see it since it came out, and had thought about going on my own a couple of times, but a friend told me I should see it with someone so I'd be able to talk about it afterward.

Going into it, all I really knew was that it had something to do with dreams and somehow stealing something from people through their dreams. I knew it starred Leonardo DiCaprio, but was happy when I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Michael Caine and Cillian Murphy. It was directed by Christopher Nolan, who also made Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight.

Bottom line, I loved it. I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to spoil it, although I will warn that there may be spoilers in the comments section.

Here's the thing. At this point, so many movies have already been made. So, I'm pretty impressed when I see a movie like this that is so original and different. I watch a LOT of TV and movies, so it's not unusual for me and my husband to figure things out before they're revealed. When I see a movie in which I can't do that? It makes me happy. Memento and The Prestige were both new and original, and Nolan's proven that he has some great ideas. It makes me excited to see what he comes up with next.

One of the great things about this thing that Nolan created is that since much of the movie takes place in dream worlds, it doesn't matter if things don't make sense at times because they don't HAVE to make sense. It also allows for a few pretty cool sequences including a no-gravity fight scene.

The funny thing is that when it ended I sort of thought "of course." But at the same time, I had not considered that ending at all while watching the entire movie. I have also come to really enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio's acting. I sort of went back and forth for a while, but the year that he did The Departed and Blood Diamond, I was definitely won over. He was very good in this. In one scene in particular, there was just a moment. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about, a moment where he was able to emote such raw emotion that in only a few words you could feel his pain and heartbreak.

I have a short list of actors, actresses and directors whose names on the Marquee will pretty much guarantee I'm watching it: Kate Winslet, James McAvoy, John Cusack, Alan Rickman Kevin Smith, and M. Night Shyamalan (yes I'm still sticking with him). With this third hit, Christopher Nolan has definitely earned his place on my list.

Did you see Inception? What did you think?

Ask a Question - Flower Identification

The task for Day 25 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is to ask a question of your readers. Lucky for me, this one came up at a great time when I actually have a question that I'm hoping you'll be able to help with!

One of my hobbies is photography. Right now, I only have a Cannon Powershot point and shoot, but I'm hoping that someday in the near future I'll be the owner of a digital SLR. One of my favorite subjects is flowers. I am actually amazed at the quality of some of the photos I've gotten out of my beat up little silver camera. Here are a couple of my favorites:









Recently I decided that I wanted to identify all of the flowers I've taken photos of. Oh my goodness, I didn't know what an undertaking it would be. I have tons of photos of Dahlias and Rhododendrons, but lots of other flowers that I'm not sure about.

In the past 2 weeks I've probably spent about 6 hours online trying to identify different flowers. There have been a few upsides. First, I've found some great resources for identifying flowers online. Second, I've actually managed to identify a few of my photos, including:

Cornflowers



Columbine



Thirdly, I have learned an important lesson - when photographing blossoms, always take a photo of the whole plant that includes the leaves. This would make identifying some of these flowers SO much easier. But, I am absolutely stuck on a few of them, and I'm hoping that SOMEONE out there will be able to help! Here are some of the ones that still have me stumped:

1


2


3


4


5


6


7


8


9


10


11


12


13


14


15


Any ideas?

Tell Me About the Place You Call Home

Today is Day 23 of the SITS BlogFrog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge!

Today's task is to create a call to action for readers. Many of us are very passive when we visit blogs, and sometimes even just asking people to comment can snap them out of that passive state and get them more involved. Other ways to call readers to action are to post polls, ask them to subscribe, point them to another website or to a product you'd like people to check out.

I admit that this is one of the harder tasks for me to come up with an idea for. Of course I love comments just like anyone, but it seems so simple to just ask you to leave a comment after reading this. But, as Darren points out in his article "Calls to Action - 12 Tips to SNAP Readers out of Passivity" on the Problogger blog, sometimes the simplest actions are the ones that get us somewhere we want to go.

So, I am curious. I always wonder where other people are from, and what speaks to them in that place. Today I am asking you to leave a comment telling me where you are from, and a little about one of your favorite places there. Where do you go in your town or city that really just embodies the spirit of the place for you? I'll start...

I live in Bellingham, WA. It's a city about 1.5 hours north of Seattle and only about 30 minutes from the Canadian border with a population of about 80,000. We have a college here, Western Washington University, so parts of Bellingham are quite college-towny. One of my favorite places in Bellingham is a particular block of Railroad Ave. downtown. On that block you will find The Bagelry, one of my favorite places to have breakfast or lunch. They make their own fresh bagels, the staff is mostly young artistic-seeming types, they have a huge wall of fliers and posters for upcoming local events, and always have art from a local artist on the walls. On the same block you'll find Mallards Ice Cream. They make flavors like Yrba Matte and Earl Grey and Hibiscus Mint Leaf Ice. Mmmm... Across the street you'll find Avalon, a CD store that sells music, posters, and... glass art would be a proper way of putting it if you're put off by pipes and bongs. Next door is Hohl Feed and Seed where we often go to peek at the rats, the biggest guinea pigs I've ever seen, bunnies and baby chicks. Also on this block, you'll find a taco store, a burger joint, a coffee shop, a candy shop, a couple of secondhand stores and a large gift shop where they sell things like jewelry, cards, and photo frames. It's eclectic, it's fun to look at, it's tasty, it's artsy and it's comfortable. Bellingham.

Okay... your turn. Don't feel like you have to be as long-winded as me... :-)

Day 22: Shout it Out! Readers I Love

I can't believe we're less than 10 days away from the end of the SITS BlogFrog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge! I feel so inspired, and have so many ideas now that I'm excited to carry out. The task for Day 22 is to pay special attention to a reader. Well, if you know me at all, you know that I love lists. So I've decided to make a list of 6 of my favorite readers. Why 6? Who knows. It's my son's favorite number, so I guess that's my little shout out to him.

I love all you readers out there, but today I'm going to highlight a few people who have been around here for quite a while. These are people that have given me inspiration and made me feel welcome in blog-land by commenting and giving me support. They are some of the first people I made friends with in the blogosphere, and I think you should go check them out!

Audrey of Barking Mad
Audrey's is one of the first blogs I started reading, and I quickly became addicted to her honest, open writing, her humor, her daughter's adorable face (seriously, she is just about the cutest little girl I've ever seen), and her beautiful photographs of the Maine coast. She lives in New York now, but I've watched her struggle and triumph over these past couple of years, and sort of fallen in love with her. She has been around here regularly since we met, and it makes me happy whenever she leaves a little tidbit here!

Kori of See Kori Rant
Kori is another one of my oldest bloggy friends. She lives close-ish, in a state that touches mine at least! She also has a son named Sam, and another son the same age as my Sam. Kori has been so supportive of me, and I think she is an amazing, strong woman. She writes about her life, ups and downs, and opens her heart to the world. Despite the fact that she doesn't always feel it, she is a great mother and a pretty awesome lady to boot.

Megan of Newly Wed, Newly Bred
I love Megan. She ALWAYS makes me laugh, and she has a totally adorable giant baby named C. Okay, maybe he is starting to turn into a toddler right now. Either way, the photos she posts of him on her blog always make me smile. Megan is really into cloth diapering and baby wearing, and she has lots of giveaways, so I always recommend her blog to other mommies.

Shannon of Welcome to the Nuthouse
Whose house DOESN'T feel like a nuthouse every once in a while? Shannon and I share a love of many things, including Daniel Craig, Sweet Moments Bite Sized Brownies, LOST and Suzanne Collins books. She is funny and smart, and a great person to have around.

Mimi of Mimi
Mimi is a voracious reader, and that made me like her right from the start. Her blog is a sunny place, and I love popping over for a look around.

Todd of Iced Tea and Sarcasm
I actually know Todd in real life, he used to be my boss. Unfortunately for me, he now lives fairly far away down in San Fransisco. Luckily though, he has his own blog where he posts about San Fran, Gay Issues and lots of random stuff that catches his eye. Todd is awesome, that's pretty much all.

So, what are you still doing here? Go forth and discover!

Birds? Meet Stone! Days 18 & 19

I'm loving participating in the SITS Blogfrog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge! BUT, being a community lead for the project and trying to spread the linky love AND trying to visit with the many out of town guests we had this week AND cleaning my house for the playdate I had here this morning AND keeping up with the laundry AND making sure my 2 kids are fed and played with and changed and happy? Whew, it's kind of a lot of work!

Today is Day 19 of the challenge, and the task is to write an opinion post for our blogs. I have written opinion posts in the past, and I always have a lot of fun with it. It's really awesome to have an outlet where I can share those things I just NEED to say. Most of my opinion posts have centered around women's issues and equal rights, because those are two things I'm very interested in. Opinion posts are a great way to get discussion started on your blog. They're also a great way to draw in readers if you've got an opinion on a current news or political topic, currently showing movie, popular book or hot new product.

Now, let me step back a day - here's where killing two birds with one stone comes in. The task for Day 18 of the challenge was to create a sneeze page. If you're not familiar with the concept, you can read this article at Problogger all about what a sneeze page is, and how to create one.

When I was thinking about a topic to write an opinion post on, I started going through my archives and came across a few opinion posts I am still quite fond of. So, today I'm going to sort of do both tasks at once. Here are links to my favorite opinion posts of the past couple of years. At the bottom is a link to my new sneeze page, "What I Think", which is now linked in my sidebar as well! Hope you enjoy!

How We See Birth: Changing Our Perceptions - March 2010 - My thoughts on the way we view and treat birth in our culture and why it's not quite right.

Torture Porn: That's My Line and I'm Stickin' To It - February 2010 - Do you watch movies like Saw and Tourista? Here's why I won't.

Have a Little Faith - December 2009 - My opinion on the nasty backlash that happened online after the tragic drowning death of a 2 year old boy.

Birthing is Business? - May 2009 - Thoughts on birth and the medical system in America after watching Ricki Lake's documentary "The Business of Being Born."

Did Jenny McCarthy Cure Autism? - March 2009 - My take on her claims and the idea that autism is curable at all.

Octuplets? Not an Option! - February 2009 - Where do we draw the line? When does the search for a child become medically irresponsible?

Haiku Friday: Gay Marriage Makes Me Cry - July 2008 - My reaction to gay marriage being legalized in California.

Movie Monday: The Women (suck) - September 2008 - My review of the movie "The Women," one of the worst movies I have seen in the past 5 years. Here, I explain why.

Your Blog, Your Work, Your Property: How to Protect Your Blog from Plagiarism

I can't believe today is Day 16, and the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge is already half over! I am still having a great time, although I've fallen a little behind on the tasks in the past few days. One of the best things about this challenge, though, is that now I have the e-book as a resource. I can complete the tasks again as many times as I want to, and for any I didn't put a huge effort into, I can do them again when I have more time. It's great!

The challenge for today is to write a post that solves a problem for your readers. This can be a great way to draw new traffic, as well as solving your own problems and providing great information to reader. I can't wait to see what all of the other ladies in the challenge come up with, hopefully they'll solve some problems for me!

Maintaining a blog is effectively a means of self-publishing material online. The internet gives us a wonderful forum to share our words, and to many bloggers the things we write are a little piece of who we are, and mean a lot to us. One of the challenges that can face us, especially as our blogs grow, is how to protect our writing from plagiarism.

Protecting Your Material

If you were an author writing articles for a newspaper, or writing books, you would do everything you could to protect your materials. Any book you pick up, whether it's full of essays, poetry, recipes or a novel, has a copyright notice in the front of the book letting people know that the author own that material. Along with this copyright come protections that tell people how and when they are allowed to re-publish the materials.

eHow has a great article about how to copyright and protect your blog. This list mentions several places that it might be good to display your copyright notice.

At Blog Traffic Exchange, you can find a great article about how to physically add your own copyright to your blog. Adding a copyright will not prevent people from copying your work, but it will alert them that what they're doing is not allowed. This takes away the excuse of 'I didn't know' from anyone who wants to copy your work.

If you host your blog on Wordpress, you could use a plugin like Copyfeed. Just do a search for plugins, and you're likely to find one that you like and is easy to work with.

A more extreme option is to disable right-click on your website. This will prevent people from copying and pasting content directly from your page. You should keep in mind, however, that this prevents any right clicks, including opening a link in a new window or tab. Some web surfers may be turned off by this limitation on their viewing.

For more considerations, check out this timely article published today on the Problogger Blog. The Content Producers Copyright Checklist is a great resource for bloggers thinking about how to protect their work.

Creative Commons

One way to help make sure your material stays your own is to post a copyright notice on your blog. Creative Commons is a great resource for bloggers, photographers, and anyone who posts material online. From their website:

"Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.

We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof."

At creativecommons.org, you can read about how to license your work, and what it means when others license their work. The great thing about a Creative Commons license is that it allows you to copyright your work, but gives people permissions (under conditions you choose) to copy or distribute your work as long as it's credited back to you. To get more information before you license your work, you can visit Creative Commons article 'Before Licensing' about things to consider along the way.

Sharing Your Work

If you want people to know that sharing your work is okay as long as they follow certain guidelines, the more guidance you give them, the better.

Sandy from The Road To Fabulous had a great suggestion, which she shared on the message boards at BlogFrog. Sandy said:

Many of the articles I write in my ezine and on my blog contain this little paragraph at the end:

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE, BLOG OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sandy Grason is a Rock Star Author, Int’l Speaker & Hot Mogul. Get on the Guest List for Sandy’s next Virtual Cocktail Party®, gain access to private videos, articles, tips, tools and strategies. Get Fabulous Free Gifts including: 60-minute mp3 download “The Manifesting Mojo Class” where you’ll learn how to rock your manifesting mojo now at www.SandyGrason.com

Usually that helps-then if they want to use it, I get more traffic and subscribers. However, if someone is intent on stealing your stuff, they'll find a way to do it.

Breathe, keep focused on the awesome stuff that only YOU can create and know that karma is a bitch.

If Plagiarism Happens

Despite your best efforts, it is possible someone will decide to be dishonest and copy your work. What should you do if you think or know your work has been stolen?

If you suspect that your work has been copied, one resource is Copyscape. At their website, you can enter your web address or the web address of a specific post, and they will search for infringement. The provide a free plagiarism detector as well as premium services including batch searches and case tracking.

The first step if you find your content has been copied is to contact the author of the post that has stolen your material. Sometimes, they may not realize they've done something wrong, especially if they're new to the blogging world. Let them know that you would appreciate that they either take down your work, or link and give credit where it's due. In some cases, this may solve the problem.

Unfortunately, there may be cases where the response is less than positive. Another option is to contact the host site. If the material has been published in a forum or on a site like Facebook, contact the administrators and let them know of the infringement. If it's hosted on Blogger, Wordpress, or another service, you may be able to notify them and they may be able to remove the material or contact the person who published it.

PS In reading this blog, you may have noticed something missing - I don't have a copyright notice anywhere! I had one at one point, but when I changed templates it must have disappeared. So, there's another tip - make sure if you change designs or templates, all the little things get transferred over. I'll be sure to have a notice up very soon!

Book It!

I can't believe it's already Day 8 of the SITS/BlogFrog 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge! I have been having an amazing time participating in this challenge so far, it's been so inspiring. I am falling in love with my blog all over again, and have found a few new blogs that I love. The task for Day 8 has to do with interlinking posts on your own blog, and the task for Day 7 was to write a link post. I'm combining the two a bit with today's post, which is all about books!

If you've hung around my blog for any length of time, you know that I LOVE to read! I've always been a reader, since I was a little kid. My Mom still has "Santa Mouse" memorized because I made her read it so many times. When I was younger I was the kid with my nose in a book, and I'd read in the car and on the school bus. These days, I don't always have as much time to read as I'd like. Lately I've found a little more time because I can read while I'm holding Danny. All it takes is a few minutes to remember why I absolutely love getting caught up in a good book.

I have a few different areas on my blog where I talk about reading. In 2008, I started keeping a list of books I read every year, and settled on a yearly goal of 52 books. It averages out to about a book a week, but there are some weeks I don't read much, and other weeks I can manage more than one! If you want to know what I've been reading lately, check out my list of books read in 2010.

I also belong to 2 book clubs, and keep a reading lists of books we've read. One of my favorite parts of book club is reading books I never would have picked up on my own. On all of my lists of books, I show my recommendations in bold. I'd love any comments or questions about the books I've read, what you thought, or if you need a recommendation for a good book!

My newest book related page at SNOTW is my Big List of Books to Read. I've been keeping a list in a notebook for the past 8 years, but I decided it was about time to share it with the world and make it digital. Some of the books on the list are ones I've wanted to read for a while, some are ones I've discovered in magazines or at bookstores. When I go to the bookstore, I often take photos of the covers of books I spot, then go through and note the titles when I get home. I haven't added all the books from my list, but about 1/2 of them are here online, and I'll probably get the other half added sometime this week.

Every so often, I run across a blog about books to read, or with book reviews. I have enjoyed Pam's blog, Screaming Mimi, and she has her very own book blog called Read, Review, Repeat. I've picked up many book suggestions over there, and would definitely recommend it! She recently added a friend who will also be reviewing books, so it's going to be twice as fun!

Another site I discovered through my twitter 31DBBB list is is Paper Dolls. This one is a blog written for kids, by kids. How cool is that? The authors are sisters who are 8 and 12 and review tween and teen books. I'm a big fan of Young Adult fiction, and I just think their blog is the cutest.

Yet another 31DBBB discovery is An Unconventional Librarian. She looks at kids books from a multicultural perspective, and her blog is a lot of fun!

One great aspect of the internet is being able to connect with your favorite authors. Two of my favorite author spaces online are Richelle Mead's blog Even Redheads Get the Blues and Orson Scott Card's online community Hatrack River. How cool is it to be able to connect and comment with the authors whose words you love?! Richelle is a local author, so it's nice to be able to see what she's up to.

So many great resources for readers are also available online. I almost died when I discovered Paperbackswap.com. It's an awesome website where you can trade books with other readers. You just post the books you want to get rid of, and pay only for postage (media mail rate) to send them to other readers who want them. Every time you send one, you get a credit to request a book from someone else. It's an amazing way to expand your reading sphere. I also recently discovered Books Are Great Gifts, which is just a fun website with a bunch of resources for people who love to read and gift books.

Are you a reader? What are your very favorite books? What kinds of online resources and refuges have you found that contribute to your love of reading?

10 things that are just NOT okay

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Going up? The Elevator Pitch

Today is the day we kick off the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge with 400 wonderful ladies at the SITS Forum on BlogFrog! I'm so excited to challenge myself this month with really thinking about my blog and how to reconnect with my writing.

The task for the first day of the challenge is to create an elevator pitch for your blog. An elevator pitch is a short, consise description that can be used for many purposes including your tagline, about page, social networking profiles, business cards and conversation.

When I sat down to start working on my elevator pitch, I knew some work was ahead of me. Writing a description for my blog means I have to actually KNOW what my blog is about first! My focus here is definitely something I've struggled with, but I think I'm finding it again.

I'm trying to focus on what I want my blog to be rather than what I think my blog SHOULD be. the bottom line is that I created this place for myself. I love writing, and it's something that's been a part of me for as long as I can remember. When I build community and make connections and friends here, I want it to be based on a piece of myself that I've shared with people here. I want it to be true, authentic, and full of heart. This place is a part of who I am, and a really important one at that. Being a mother and wife is wonderful, but being here? It helps me remember myself in all of it. Through my blog, I am exposed to women who are similar to me, and women who are very different. I remember to count my blessings and remain grounded when I read other blogs. I experience joy and heartache, and can channel my energy into remembering to lift other people up. Just by participating, I feel lifted myself.

So, here is MY elevator pitch for Scientific Nature of the Whammy:

Scientific Nature of the Whammy is a sanctuary where I nurture my spirit by letting out the words that fill me every day. It's a place that allows me to remember who I am and share it with the world through all life's ups and downs. As a mother, I nurture my children every day. As a wife, I nurture my husband. I write to explore my moments of happiness, heartache and hope. I blog to share those moments with others, then gain the privilege of experiencing the same moments from other people whose blogs I love. This is where I nurture myself and build connections and community that lift me up and make living life a joy.

In addition, I've changed my tagline to more accurately reflect what I do here. My old tagline was "Seeking the silver linings behind life's whammies." One reason for that tagline was that I felt I needed to tie in the title of my blog to the tagline. I realized while completing this task that they don't HAVE to be so closely tied together. My title is certainly quirky, but I shouldn't let those words limit my description of what my blog is about.

If you're interested in writing an elevator pitch for your blog, my suggestion is to sit down and just start writing! When I sat down, I felt nervous because I had no idea what my pitch would be. I found that by just starting to write about what my blog means to me, I was able to come up with a new tagline for my blog, and an elevator pitch, within 10 minutes!

A Better Blog? Coming Right Up!

There are many reasons I decided to participate in the SITS Problogger 31 Days to a Better Blog Challenge.

Because my feedreader isn't full enough already, and I wanted to add some more people. Because I don't have enough to do with a newborn and a needy toddler. Because I don't already get hundreds of twitter updates a day on my phone.

Okay, those aren't really the reasons. I decided to do it because I've been a little out of the blogging community. I haven't been roll calling at SITS like I used to, and haven't been too involved in forums and discussions. And I miss it.

I decided to do it because I know I am a good writer, but sometimes it doesn't come across. I want my blog to be a little less all-over-the-place, a little more together. I want people to READ what I'm writing because it's who I am, and it connects me with people sharing who they are.

I decided to do it because I love to write, I absolutely love it. It's something I want to share with as many people as I can.

I decided to do it because with the coupon code, how could I justify NOT buying the workbook?! It's something I'd see online and pass by because it costs money. Instead, this time, I decided that I'm worth it!

I decided to do it because I felt inspired and excited at the idea of it, and that is almost enough right there!

So, what am I hoping for? More readers = more connections = more online community. Honing my writing skills. Writing some really good stuff. Learning how to make my blog better! I love blogging, and I can't wait to share the next month with the 200+ other ladies (and gents) taking the challenge! I am excited to see how we all interpret it and celebrate our triumphs together!

It's not too late to join us! I'm sure that there are dozens of reasons people are doing it! Nirvana Mama lists 10 right here, my favorite of which is definitely this one: "Because if someone asks you what you did this summer, instead of saying, “I organized my closets,” wouldn’t you rather say, “I followed my blogging bliss,”? (If this isn’t TRUE, we can never be friends.)" Just click the image above, and visit the forum at Blog Frog. You can sign up there and get all the information you need!