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Cue the Twilight Zone theme…

On my walk tonight – Sunshine! Fresh air! Vitamin D! – I tossed around an idea for a new photo feature for my blog.  Now I see that creating a new feature for our blogs is the last assignment of Blogging 101.

Well, I’ll be darned.

My new venture, which I’m calling The Sidewalk Nomad, will be a weekly compilation of interesting, beautiful, quirky or unusual things that I see or encounter when I’m out stretching my legs, running errands or just taking in the sights and scenery of the world around me.

I’ve already added a few photos – some old, some new – all of which were taken from a street or sidewalk while on vacation or during one of my walks.  This new feature is located above on my main menu bar.  I hope you’ll check it out!  Let me know what you think.  Your feedback and comments are always welcome!

Assignment: Blogging 101: Create a New Posting Feature

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Our task today was to extend our brand – that which defines us in The Land of Blog – by creating a Facebook fan page, getting inventive with image widgets or deploying a blavatar: a custom avatar which is exemplified by the yellow letter ‘a’ used by Amazon or the red letter ‘N’ for Netflix.

I’ve cropped one of my photos (shown above) for my personal blavatar. This will, once fully deployed, appear in Readers’ browser address bars when they visit my blog.

That was easy enough!

Assignment: Blogging 101: Extend Your Brand

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I haven’t reblogged anything for quite some time but this is just so danged powerful…

In Others' Words's avatarIn Others' Words...

Our intention was to dance on his grave.

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My beautiful cousin, who I’d not seen in 35 years, and I set out to dance on our grandfather’s grave. Our first dilemma was, of course, song choice. You have to have the right song. We bandied a few song titles about, Alanis Morrisette was a front runner.

Obviously.

We drove to the town where he lived, and where he is buried. We drove to the town where we were abused. Driving down the picturesque New England roads, I felt a little faint. Mary felt a little barfy. We pulled into a store parking lot, and Mary spent some quality time behind a dumpster, hurling. It happens.

We weren’t entirely sure where the cemetery was, so we pulled into a police station to ask for directions. I said, jokingly, We should go in and file a police report. Mary said, What would…

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Oh, but I have enjoyed a variety of blog events courtesy of WordPress and so many wonderfully talented bloggers out there in The Land of Blog!

Participating in a variety of photo challenges and joining the conversation on a number of Daily Post threads has resulted in new friends, new discoveries and the happy consequence of increased traffic and exposure of my blog to a broader audience.

A favorite group of photo challenges that I’ve had a lot of fun with are hosted by Cee Neuner.  You can check out her blog and challenges here. Stop by and join in the fun!

While photography is great fun and offers more ‘instant’ gratification here on WordPress, I think I’ll check out some of the writing prompts and challenges. Hmmm. Three Things Thursday sounds interesting! Any other recommendations?

Assignment: Blogging 101: Try (Another) Blog Event

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For today’s assignment, we’ve been instructed in the how and why of creating pages for our blogs. Pages are different than posts and are both an art and a science unto themselves. I’ve chosen to create a new Poll menu item that I’ve named The Poll Troll. I hope to provide a new poll each week. Please check it out and select the answer that best applies to you!

The Poll Troll heading is listed on the main menu.  Click the drop-down to select this week’s poll.  That is,  my first and only one so far!

As always, thanks for your patronage, feedback, encouragement and support. I welcome your input — and any ideas you may have for future fun and interesting polling efforts!

Assignment: Blogging 101: Add a New Page

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We’re asked today to publicize our posts to Facebook or any other social media that we interact with. I’ve been doing ‘pushing’ my posts to Facebook since almost Day One and have found it a great way to increase traffic, attract new Followers and share my blogging activities. Occasionally, I ‘turn off’ this setting for various reasons but it’s my default setting so most everything I post makes its way to my Facebook page and RSS feeder.

I find it curious that most of my Facebook friends choose to comment or ‘Like’ what I’ve published via my Facebook posts instead of doing so within my blog itself. Perhaps they don’t know how to leave their comments here or – shrug – maybe they just prefer to wend their way back to Facebook. Either way, I’m always grateful for the feedback!

Assignment: Blogging 101: Plug in to Social Networks