By Maranda
The Canadian Weblog Award winners were announced today, and I was super excited to find out that my Twitter account placed third for best microblog!
I love the CWAs because they are a juried award, not an ‘contest’ award for most clickthroughs. The panel of 46 jurors had their work cut out for them this year, as there were 461 nominees across their 37 categories. There are so many wonderful blogs of all different genres in this years’ winners; check out the full list of winners on the Canadian Weblog Awards website.
Thanks Schmutzie and the team for bringing us the CWAs again this year. There are so many talented Canadians out there, and I look forward to checking out the full list of winners and discovering some new blogs to read!
By Maranda
Search engine optimization (SEO) is something that mystifies a lot of bloggers, especially beginners. Many articles can be lengthy and overly technical, but optimizing your content for search engines needn’t be difficult or time consuming.
Today I’m sharing a few easy tips to improve the SEO for your blog without having to sift through a ton of technical articles or remember anything complicated. And the good news is, your blogging software and plugins can do a lot of the work for you!
But first a quick definition of what SEO is and how it works: Search engine optimization is the process of refining your content to raise your position in search engine results. The better your optimize your content, the higher ranking you’ll have with Google and other search engines. You don’t need a lot of statistics to know that most people click results on the first page, so the higher you rank the better! The good news is there are many little things you can do to increase your ranking in Google search results without having to understand all the technology behind it. (more…)
By Maranda
Gravatar is a service that gives you a universal avatar across blogs and other community sites. When you see blog comments with photos beside the commenter’s name – like on this blog – chances are it’s powered by Gravatar.
It’s a free service and easy to set up. No crazy account creation screens, just enter your email addy and pick a password. After that simply upload an avatar and you’re done! You can upload an image from your computer, from the internet or take a new one with your webcam. (more…)
By Maranda
Like many people, I’ve been keeping a low online profile for the last week, spending time with family and enjoying the holidays. I’ve also been thinking about my personal goals for the upcoming year, and look forward comparing with you and supporting each other in 2011. I can’t wait to set new goals and start some new projects! I’ll be back to ‘normal’ blogging next week (whatever the heck that is);until then you can keep up with me sporadically on Twitter and Facebook.
All the best this NYE to you and yours, and have a great night however you ring it in. Personally, I’ll be welcoming 2011 on horseback in Red Dead Redemption with Jeff, my Dad, StepMom and Uncle on Xbox Live. Virtual party FTW!
Maranda and Penelope
Christmas morning with Super Scribblenauts and new comics
Christmas morning waffles
Penelope Christmas Day
By Maranda
Happy Friday! Our tree is decorated, our stockings are hung, Christmas music is playing and I’m working on a few little holiday gifts for some of my favourite little people. Christmas spirit has officially hit our house!
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you’re feeling a touch of the magic going around at this time of year. I love all the lights and decorations, and the time off to spend with family and friends. Our house is filled with smiles and positive energy, I love it!
In other news, I’ve taken the leap and created a Facebook page for my blog. Time to stop spamming my family and friends with my blog feed, make it easier for more people to read my posts and hopefully start some conversations with you. It was time to do it, but it’s kind of like throwing your first big party — OMG what if no one comes?? That brand new page with only one ‘Like” (um, that’d be me) looks pretty scary. So, to encourage all of you to join my little community I’m having a giveaway. Next Friday, December 17th I’ll be holding a random draw for this adorable boutique Newsboy Hat with removable Crochet Flower clip from Poppy’s Boutique. Simply Like Momicon on Facebook to enter. One winner will be chosen at random from all community members. Makes a sweet addition to holiday outfits or a great gift for the little girl on your shopping list!
Newsboy Beanie With Crochet Flower Clip - Value $15.99 CAD
Wishing all of you a wonderful week-end. Don’t spend it all shopping and doing errands; take a bit of time to enjoy the magic and joy that’s spreading this season!
By Maranda
As you might have noticed, I finally put my blog on the domain I secured some time ago and while I was at it I took the opportunity to redesign the site as well. I’m happy to finally have access to all the WP plugin goodies available to self hosted blogs, and was able to make the site feel a little more “me”. I’ll probably continue to fine tune it for a little while, but it is for all intents and purposes done.
So from now on you can access my blog at www.momicon.com (although the old address will redirect for some time); feeds have been updated, so you shouldn’t need to resubscribe.
Feels good to have my own home!
