onsdag den 21. januar 2009

Blog Improvement Project 2

Part 1: Brainstorming Ideas
24 things to do when stuck ... (problogger)
I read Kim´s three articles on the subject, decided that the following ideas from the first one might suit me, but rejected the rest (mainly because I feel fine with blogging about crime fiction exclusively).
3) answer a questions (answeer one of your own; ask your readers to submit questions, ask another blogger for a question, visit other blogs to search for questions from their readers, put yourself in the shoes of a beginner in your topic)
9) revisit a previous post (one day I shall revisit my reading challenge to my readers)
13) switch styles
19) involve someone else (to write a guest post, to be interviewed, swap blogs with another blogger)
22) ask your readers a question
In fact, I have done something like point 3 recently. I surfed various blogging communities and realized that British crime fiction fans were busily discussing Stieg Larsson´s trilogy. I joined in, posted some comments on his use of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, saw that people were interested, and wrote my own posts on the subject (Stieg Larsson & Bill Bergson plus Lisbeth Salander alias Pippi Longstocking).

Part 2: Blogging Your Ideas
Use your brainstormed ideas to come up with a new, regular feature for your blog.
1) my new weekly or so feature: DJ´s Bait in the Box (a variation of Teaser Tuesdays): when I begin reading a book for a review, I´ll put a short quotation e.g from the first chapter & invite people to guess or try to recognize it. The following week the review will appear.
Besides, I am going to add a photo of a box.

Other ideas:
2) instead of writing reviews only, I shall continue to characterize some of the main characters of crime series I like (planned post: Ruth Rendell´s Inspector Wexford - but this will take some time. I own 30 Rendell novels, mostly Wexford ones).

3) check which Scandinavian crime novels will soon be published in English, and which English books will soon be published in Danish (in other words, trying to post my reviews at the right time)


Projekt blog-forbedring 2
1. Brainstorming for at få nye ideer (links til tre artikler om emnet).
Jeg læste artiklerne, besluttede at følgende ideer fra den første måske kunne overføres til min blog, men kasserede resten (først og fremmest fordi jeg er godt tilfreds med kun at blogge om kriminalromaner).
3) besvar et spørgsmål (besvar et af dine egne, bed dine læsere indsende spørgsmål, stil en anden blogger et spørgsmål, besøg andre blogs for at finde spørgsmål fra deres læsere, sæt dig selv i en nybegynders sted osv)
4) vend tilbage til tidligere indlæg
13) skift mellem forskellige stilarter
19) brug gæste-forfattere (som skriver et indlæg, bliver interviewet, eller byt blog for en dag)
22) stil spørgsmål til dine læsere
Punkt tre har jeg sådan set brugt for nylig. Jeg surfede blandt britiske bloggere, og opdagede at Stieg Larssons trilogi blev diskuteret livligt. Jeg lagde et par kommentarer om Stieg Larssons brug af Astrid Lindgrens personer, opdagede at der var interesse for emnet, og skrev mine egne indlæg (Stieg Larsson & Kalle Blomkvist samt Lisbeth Salander alias Pippi Langstrømpe).

2. Anvend dine ideer
Brug de ideer, du har fået via din brainstorm til at opfinde et nyt, regelmæssing blogindslag.
1) mit nye ugentlige indslag: DJs Gæt-en-Bog: når jeg begynder at læse en bog med henblik på at anmelde den, vil jeg lægge en lille madding i form af et kort citat (f.eks. fra første kapitel), og invitere mine besøgende til at gætte eller prøve at genkende citatet. Selve anmeldelsen følger så ugen efter. [Jeg skal nok prøve at finde et bedre dansk navn - hører gerne geniale forslag]

Andre ideer:
2) I stedet for udelukkende at skrive anmeldelser, vil jeg blive ved med at skrive en lidt fyldigere personkarakteristik af nogle af hovedpersonerne fra de krimi-serier, jeg sætter pris på (første, planlagte person: Ruth Rendells Reg Wexford - men ikke lige med det samme; jeg ejer 30 bøger af Rendell, de fleste med Wexford)

3) Holde øje med markedet og skrive anmeldelser af skandinaviske krimier, kort før de bliver udgivet på engelsk, og engelske bøger, lige før de kommer på dansk (med andre ord: time nogle af mine anmeldelser, når jeg kan regne med, der er en vis efterspørgsel)

14 kommentarer:

Dawn @ sheIsTooFondOfBooks sagde ...

What a great idea your "Bait in the Box" is! I wasn't able to guess the quote in the one you've posted, and didn't realize (when I read it) that it will be a new regular feature.

Kim is doing a lot of leg work for us by finding these articles and making suggestions of "next steps"! I haven't written my next installment of the Blog Improvement Project, but I've started reading the articles and thinking about them.

Anonym sagde ...

This all sounds very constructive. For my part, I started out thinking it was about "traffic" (because I work for a publisher and that is what it is all about for professional publishers), but soon I realised that what is more important for me is "community". So although I don't get much traffic on my blog, I am part of a community of people which, although small, is nice for exchanging ideas. And as you can see, Dorte, it is very easy to join in if you are interested in the same things! The Internet is great.

I like your Bait in the Box, possibly because I think I can answer your first outing. Maybe I will be stuck on the second, though!

Anonym sagde ...

I too like your Bait in the Box idea. It'll be fun to read and follow even if I can't guess. And I also like the idea that you hope to let your readers known when Danish books are coming out in English (and English books in Danish). That's a great service!

I agree with Maxine, Being part of a worldwide community is amazing -- especially for those of us who grew up before the computer and Internet!

Dorte H sagde ...

Thank you for your encouragement.
Maxine: I can also see now that ´community´ is what matters to me and that ´you guys´ are very good at letting people in :)
Beth: I hope I have not promised to let you know about ALL Danish books - only the ones I have time to read & review :)

Alessandra sagde ...

I like the Bait in the Box idea!

I have The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on my nightstand; when I finish I'll go and read your post about Lisbeth Salander alias Pippi.

Dorte H sagde ...

Thanks Alessandra.
I really think this is a feature which has come to stay :)

Louise sagde ...

You have some great new features coming and I enjoy reading your blog. I LOVE the international community! Really. There are so many exciting people and blogs out there!

Dorte H sagde ...

Thank you Louise.
I do thrive like a fish in water - just imagine I only moved in here three weeks ago! English-speaking bloggers are really forthcoming.

Unknown sagde ...

Your part 2 ideas sound great, especially checking on the publication dates, which will be so helpful to others.

Dorte H sagde ...

Thank you, Elizabeth.
I hope my readers will enjoy these ´timely´ reviews, but obviously I also do it for my own sake :)

Anonym sagde ...

Those all sound like cool ideas! I think writing about characters and doing some more analysis of books rather than just reviews is a cool idea. Sorry it took me so long to get here!

Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness)

Dorte H sagde ...

Kim, you are entirely forgiven. I know how busy you are; it was just that I had to be sure I was ´in´.

Poly sagde ...

Fantastic ideas. How on earth do you get time to all the stuff you do. I loose my breath just to think about it. Unreal and Amazing!

Dorte H sagde ...

Poly: well, this is more than a year ago. Since I began writing fiction in earnest, I have not been able to spend that much time on my blog.