Sunday, Bloggy Sunday

Did you read "My First Blog Post... Evah" that I wrote last week?  I would hope that you did, even though I have, yet, to receive any comments, followers or likes.  I know my husband read it.  At least I got one person's attention. Two words for you:  Domestic influence (grin).

After writing my second post, "A Beginners Guide For Joining Pinterest", I thought I'd go out seeking followers and readers to try and establish myself in the Blogospere.  What I found was astounding and should have been enough to cause me to close my blog and block any and all sites that lead me to a blog just because it was so very disheartening.  Of course it didn't, it only led me back to my blog today to write about my findings.

According to a 2008 Technorati blog, there was an estimated 184 Million blogs.  Two more words for you:  What?  and Wow!!!  And that was 2008... four years ago. And it only included those blogs being tracked.  The 2011 Technorati "State of the Blogosphere" report doesn't even give a number of blogs being tracked, only statistics, which in and of itself is pretty daunting.

Being that I consider my blog a typical "mom-blog", a self-explanatory title, I decided to focus mainly on my competition sister bloggers and see what's trending.  One word for you:  Giveaway. It seems a large majority of mom-blogs involve product reviews and giveaways.  Here, the mom contacts a merchant or manufacturer, agrees to write a review on a product if the merchant / manufacturer provides two or more of the product; one for the review and one or more to give away.  The idea being to promote the blog and the product at the same time.  

A win-win situation right?  For the blogger and merchant / manufacturer, yes. For the reader and/or giveaway contestant, not so much.  Chances are you have to enter using a popular multiple entry program like Rafflecopter,  a giveaway application that helps bloggers create, run and organize giveaways on their sites.  

After doing some research on Rafflecopter, I've discovered it's a fantastic way for people who enter blog giveaways to cheat the system.  If a entrant clears their cache each day, they can go back and re-enter each giveaway.  Rafflecopter has recently updated their software to catch cheaters who create multiple illegal entries, but they left it up to the blogger to delete multiple entrants. Do they all do this?  Two words for you:  Highly unlikely.

Another tidbit that I discovered is how mom-blogs have joined together to force you to follow other blogs on Facebook in order to enter these giveaways.  For instance, this past week I entered a few different blog giveaways that used Rafflecopter for entering.  I was forced to Like so many different blogs on Facebook that in one week I went from liking three blogs to over 415! One more word:  Ridiculous. 

If I wanted to Follow or Like 415 blogs, I would prefer to do it myself.  I guess I won't be winning any blog giveaways in the near future.  Mainly because I refuse to enter and follow thousands of useless blogs whose obvious only desire is to get the most followers and likes. Another word for you: Overkill.

All I want you to do is Read My Blog.  Like me on Facebook if you want.  Follow me on Twitter if you want.  You can even comment below.  I won't force you.  I may do a giveaway someday but I won't use Rafflecopter. I don't want to force thousands of people to Like or Follow me because I do a giveaway.  I want people (I want YOU) to come to my blog because you like what I write.  But I will give you one more word as an incentive... Please!!!

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A Beginners Guide To Joining Pinterest

If you surf the web at all, then no doubt you have, by now, heard of Pinterest, an invite only virtual pinboard that lets you organize and share things you find on the Internet that interest you and lets you create a "Pin" or "Pinboard" to keep and share. It's basically your very own public web library that catalogs everything you love on the web and lets you share it with everyone who has the same interests and those that follow you.  People use Pinterest to get ideas on decorating their homes, organizing their favorite recipes, and finding simple (and not so simple) DIY (Do-It-Yourself) crafts that will turn any butterfinger, like me, into a Martha Stewart wanna-be in just minutes...and a whole lot more.  If you haven't joined Pinterest yet, then let me introduce you to this truly delightful site with this simple step-by-step procedure for setting up your account.  

Clink on: Pinterest to create your own account.  Type your e-mail address into the "Request Invite" box and hit enter, you will receive your invite in two to threes days, be sure to check your spam box if you haven't receive it.  The easiest way, however, is to give a friend your e-mail address and have them send you an invite. You will receive your Pinterest invite immediately. 

To join Pinterest you will need either a Facebook account or a Twitter account. Pinterest requires you to have a Facebook or Twitter account to make it easier to find people you know and to reduce spam. How easy is that?  No massive e-mail requests!  Gotta love that idea. You can unlink your account(s) anytime after your Pinterest account set-up is complete. Click on "Sign Up With Facebok" or "Sign Up With Twitter". Either link will send you to your respective account and will ask you to allow permission for that application to publish to your wall.

The next page allows you to set up your username, Email and password.  I love it when a website has a username detector that tells your immediately whether your selected username is already in use.  No hitting that back button a dozen times because someone already took that brilliant username that you muddled over for... minutes.  Can't blame them, though, great minds think alike!

Now you'll be prompted to choose some categories that interest you.  Some examples are Food & Drink, DIY & Crafts, Holidays, Kids, etc.  Keep in mind here that you cannot go back and change this page (I hope Pinterest fixes that) so click EVERYTHING that interests you. 

You need someone to share all those great finds you'll be posting so Pinterest makes it easy to find people who share the same interests that you selected in the previous screen.  On this page you are automatically set up to follow everyone that you are friends with on Facebook or follow on Twitter that has a Pinterest account.  You can unfollow any of these right now or do it later after your account is complete. 

Now you need to create your own Boards.  Boards (or Pinboards) are your personal card catalogue for organizing your Pins, or those items that interest you most.  You can name your Pinboards anything you wish or you can use the names that Pinterest has already provided.  You can have as many boards as you'd like, but keep in mind that this site is set up to help you catalog your favorite things.  The easiest way is to keep it simple.  I have about 40 boards right now.  That may not sound simple, but I organize my recipes and holidays by board but I follow an event planner that organizes by color and type of event.  The board are designed to help you easily find what you pinned when you need it most.

Pinterest recognizes what browser you are using. If you're using Firefox like I am, then you'll be prompted to add the "Pin It" button to your bookmarks toolbar.  If you're using Google Chrome you'll be prompted to add a Pinterest extension that allows you to pin by right clicking and using that drop down menu.  If your browser supports extensions or add-ons, you'll find one, probably several, that will make pinning easy.

That's it.  You're done signing up.  Now just go verify your Email and you're ready to start pinning!!

This is where the PINaddiction begins (that's my word for losing yourself completely in browsing Pinterest). Browsing pins is a fun way to discover new places, people and things and get inspiration from pins created by others you follow and those who share your same interests.

Now you're well on your way to becoming to an expert pinner!   Be aware that it is incredibly addicting.  My favorite status update on Facebook is to tell everyone that I'm going to Pinterest; if I'm not back in three days, send out a search party.

Here's a few tips and tricks to make your Pinterest experience a pleasant one (If you have any helpful hints not listed here, post them in the comment section and I'll update them here):

• Go through the list of people you follow; Unfollow that person and then browse their board page and only follow the boards that share your interest.  This way you won't see EVERYTHING that person is pinning. i.e.:  You're not interested in how to "expertly apply eye makeup" so you unfollow that particular board. But you'd love to learn "how to paint veneered furniture" so you follow that "DIY" board.
• To organize your boards:  Go to your main page, click on the icon next to Edit Profile.  Move your boards in the order you want them to be when you open your page.  Click on the icon again.
• To find a list of people you follow or to see people Pinterest recommends :  Go to the Pinterest main page.  In the box on the left side, you can follow everyone listed there.  You can also click "see all" to see everyone you're following.  In that same box you'll also see everyone that has liked or repinned your pin(s).
• At the top of the Pinterest main page, you can browse pins by category, popularity, or Everything!  The main page or either of these directories will always show you the most recent pins.
• The "Add" button at the top allows you to directly add a new pin, create a new board or upload a pin.  The upload button is most useful if you want to pin something that does not have a thumbnail (picture) (which is required by Pinterest).  By using this feature you can upload a picture that best describes your pin.
• To remove instant Facebook and/or Twitter posts when you pin or like something:  On your Facebook home page, locate your "Likes" box, then your "Likes" on Pinterest.  Hover your mouse to the left and you can hide all your Pinterest likes or remove Pinterest completely.  On your Twitter settings page, click on Apps and revoke access to Pinterest.  If you choose these options, then when you next sign into Pinterest you'll be prompted to use the corresponding Email address you used to open your Pinterest account.
• Feel free to add follow my personal Pinterest account here.  I have categorized recipes and holidays and lots of other goodies.

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My First Blog Post.... Evah !!

Hey !! That's Ok, though.  Since I'm sitting at home and I don't think you'll be knocking at the door for a cup of Earl Grey or Folger's finest.  I'm not really in my jammies but isn't it just awesome that I could be?  This is something I've been meaning to do forever!  It's been on my "round-to-it" list for ages.  But I finally made it. Yay!

So welcome to my first blog post... ever... at The Hall Closet.  And allow me to tell you a little about myself and just what you might find why rummaging through all the stuff on my blog.  Right now, you won't find much.  I already have a few posts ready to go but I felt I should write an introductory post first.  Just to put us both at ease.  Isn't this nice?

Now, about me:  My name is Margaret Skinner Hall but all my friends (that's you!) call me Maggie.   I'm married, 21 years to date, to a wonderful man who is retired Air Force and works for the Corps of Engineers.  I have two daughters ages 16 and 11 who are my greatest joy and my greatest gifts from God next to my salvation.  And I'm owned by three delightful and purr-fect fur-babies.  I've traveled and lived in some wonderful places and met many awe-inspiring people.  My life experience is what has prompted me to come here.  I haven't seen it all or done it all, but I'll bet my sugar cookies that eventually I will write about something that I've experienced or that excites me that will interest you. Things of this nature will include but are not limited by my interests in my faith in God, my family, cooking, product reviews, DIY projects and crafts, sewing and quilting, sweepstakes and giveaways, and awesome Internet sites that make our lives, either within the web or without, easier.  My, my.. but that last sentence sounded awfully like a bunch a legal jargon, didn't it?

Ya know, I've really wanted for some time to have a place I could share all these wonderful items and ideas of mine and wish to pass on to you, dear reader. Now, I can write about it!   I can post more than one picture about it!  And, I can tell you why you absolutely, positively need to check out whatever it is that I'm so excited about! 

So, please, subscribe to my closet, "Like" my page here on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.  And let's see what happens when we open wide The Closet Door!

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