I'm Somebody's Liebster Blog

The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have 200 followers or less. It helps people to get to know you as a blogger while introducing your blog to new viewers.

I was tagged/nominated for a Liebster Award by the fabulous Hira at over at Views and Reviews.  Thanks, darlin'!  (About the Liebster)

The strain Hira shared with me included 11 of everything, but in the interest of reader lack of interest and the (admittedly interprative) original spirit of the award, I'm going to compromise with five.

Here are the rules:

1. Each person chosen must provide 5 facts about themselves.
2. Answer the 5 questions that the blogger who tagged you has given, then think of 5 questions for the people you tag.
3. Choose 5 people to receive the award and link them in your post.
4. Be sure to tell these people that you've tagged them.
5. Don't tag the person who tagged you.

Five facts about me:

1. I have been married to my husband, Dallas, for 32 years. I have three sons, three DILs, two granddaughters and four grandsons.
2. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
3. I write too much . . . way too much. (As in, Robert Jordan too much.    War and Peace too much.)
4. The first website I built was back in 2001, before blogs were invented.  It shared my son's missionary letters and pictures.
5. I am a literary omnivore.

About the Liebster

In my continuous search for great books and super content to share on this  blog, I've run across this little award graphic several times:

Naturally, in my constant need for outside validation and due to my competitive spirit, I wanted one.  Absolutely no idea what it is, but someone else has it, so I want one too.

Now, the marvelous Hira over at Views and Reviews has nominated me, and, after the initial response of "Cool!" came the logical "what the heck does that mean?"  Short answer:  other bloggers like your blog and want to give you kudos.  Long:  nobody is quite certain of its true origins but believe it can be traced to a German blog, with several subsequent transmogrifications.  It seems to me that Sophhey of Sophhey Says has done the most extensive research and provides a link to said German blogger.  (There's not even an entry for it on the omniscent Wikipedia.)

As I said, the terms and requirements of the award have morphed from blogs with less than 3000 followers to less than 200 bloggers (in the strain which found me), and from nominating 5 bloggers to 11.  Also, the strain Hira shared with me has question and answer requirements attached.  One is tempted to be purest, nominate five, grab the award and run, but in the spirit of the thing, I'm going with Hira's request. 

Blogger Tools: Badge Grabs

Okay.  One more really quick post tonight.  Most bloggers don't take very long to find out that one of the best ways to increase traffic on your blog is for other like-minded bloggers to share links to your blog.  The best way to make your link visible is to make a badge.  Bloggers like to swap badges/buttons (two names, same thing).  You can find a few of my favorite sites here.

Badges can be simple or snazzy, a few minutes fiddling on Adobe Elements or  Techsmith SnagIt can produce something simple (which is what you want so other people can use it), the real trick is getting the code for your blog that makes the script that makes the badge code grabbable.  Like this:

<div align="center"><a href="http://amindwandering.blogspot.com" title="Perpetual Chaos of a Wandering Mind"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx1KDiiuSRZTQQEB3BJHsRnWaWZ-JD6nCg6m0y1jHn6BeJn7VDE44TPQah-PN1JIJKizN5gBD4mtZOG91R5xlhXejfGEuCQoS4nyEMLiCqvTTS2ofvE0wXmIIoPwetaWPTM_oUNmeGvsnE/s170/badge170.png" alt="Perpetual Chaos of a Wandering Mind" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Without that spiffy little window of code that bloggers can cut and paste, you've got nothin'.  I can produce the code in the window, but danged if I can figure out how to make the window, but, lucky me!  I found a site that does it for you for free.

iWriteNetwork

This morning while trolling around for something to write about, I wandered on over to iWriteNetwork and listened to Canda Mortensen interview Tamara Hart Heiner about her books Perilous and soon-to-be-released Altercation.  They used BlogTalkRadio, which is a spiffy setup and a great way to draw participants to your blog.

iWriteNetwork is an online community of writers, primarily women; its board members living along the Wasatch Front in Utah.  The membership is still relatively small (under 200), but seems to be growing quickly.

In addition to BlogTalkRadio, it has lots of features to add interest, such as user pages, forums, photos, videos, groups, and live chat.  Members control privacy by making and approving friend requests which limit access to their personal page.  The subjects of discussion groups range from romance/women's fiction to inspirational to personal memoirs.

Besides being a good place to network with other writers, I find the community helpful for bouncing ideas, asking questions, receiving guidance, and making friends.  The chat room provides real-time contact and interchange.   iWriteNetwork also provides lots of information on what is going on in the writing world, including activities, competitions, seminars, and writing conferences.

Membership is free, the atmosphere warm and supportive, but, like any specialized community, you have to learn some unique vernacular.  A Facebook group provides an additional platform for interaction.  For fledgling writers just getting their feet wet, it's a comfy little pond to strike out into. 

—A Chaotic Mind