Blogging 101

A smile is the universal welcome – Max Eastman

Welcome to itsPH blog. This is Prakash Hegade. That’s how the blog gets its name. I am blogging since last six months as of Jan 5^th 2015. It’s been a lovely journey. Here I am starting the Blogging course to make the journey more meaningful. A more official introduction can be found in ABOUT page!

The idea is to link all the course related assignments to this page. The first one still remains here! Assignment #01: write and publish a “who I am and why I’m here” post.

The asked being almost covered, I would put my one line mission statement as:

“  Shout it out, Write it out, Live it out  ”

The best thing about blogging is:

• Meeting the various cultures and friends from world wide
• Exchanging the ideas
• Reading expressions and thoughts of fellow bloggers
• Expanding the horizon of thinking and thoughts

I have started writing two novels in past six months. One is completed. It’s a love story called: Today Calls Tomorrow and second one started on Jan 01 called: That’s How I Tell My Story.

There I complete my first scribble. Welcome people !

Assignment 01: Introduce yourself 

Well, this is the post i did for assignment one. It was fun! Here is the link: Assignment 01 and its recursive!

 

Assignment 02: Name and title your blog

I opt to the existing title: “its PH” and tagline: “The daily reads and writes”

 

Assignment 03: Say hello to your neighbors

Done and Check.

 

Assignment 04: Publish a post to your dream reader

Completed the assignment with a simple small poem. As my blog tagline says, its “the daily reads and writes”, its open for everyone.  The poem can be found here: The Crazy Dream Reader.

 

Assignment 05: Try new themes, at-least two to three

Here  are the themes i played with, which could suit my blog:

• Superhero
• Eventbrite
• Splendio
• Motif
• Monster
• Quintus
• Panel

Out of all i evaluated, “Motif” adds more comforters and i hence stick to it! (Keeping apart the future changes)

 

Assignment: Weekend Warriors 01

The task was to write something of our own interest. I decided to go for writing a short story. At the same time saw a challenge in IndiBlogger and decided to do a two-in-one task. It turned out to be this one: House Becomes Home!  and one of my favorite writes!

 

Assignment 06: Improving the About page

Added a few widgets and improvised my About page. Well, it’s a never ending process and will keep improving it.

 

Assignment 07: Keep Improvising

Added a few widgets as well customized one for my novel. Changed the background color and the target is to have a good header image. It will definitely take time to get one with theme, but definitely on to it.

 

Assignment 08: Be a good neighbor

Though i frequently visit new blogs, doing this as an assignment was more fun. I was more alert this time. I was in search of something. something new. Here is the list:

1. Mama Cormier – It’s a blog with every kind of writing. Its an example of versatility. I found awesome photography, stories, inspirations, poems, art, culture almost everything. Liked a few articles and left few comments. Something which i picked up was the concept of “small stones!”. If you are reading this, you should also definitely check out this blog!

2. Don’t Get Wasted – Mission Accomplished! I don’t know from where he gets all the creative ideas of writing. They are more than worth a read! Enjoyed reading a few articles. I would be back soon to read more.

3. Being in 2000 Something – The blog is started since Jan 1, 2015. There are already some great posts! Enjoyed reading them. They connect to the reader quick.

4. the TJ Blog – Fun to read and sharpness in writing. I read a few articles and thoroughly enjoyed them. With large pictures and text, it keeps the interest of the reader on go.

 

Assignment 09: Be Inspired by the neighbors

The task is to write a post that builds on one of the comments left in previous assignment. I would go for a “small stone!”.

Here is the assignment i did: Small Stones – A Pebble of Glow

 

Assignment 10: Widgets

Add and customize the text and image widgets – done and check!

 

Assignment: Weekend Warriors 02

Second weekend i opted to rest and check out some other blogs. Well, i did.

 

Assignment 11: Personalized take on Daily Prompt. 

I just looked at the prompt on Jan 20, 2015. It said about “A Moment in Time“. I took one of my favorite snaps and made a small post on it. Loved writing it and cherished the old memories.  Here is the Post!

 

Assignment 12: Better Blog Roll

I do have a blogs i follow  widget added!

 

Assignment 13: Commenting

The task was to read different bloggers take on same prompt and comment, to increase the commenting confidence. I generally regularly do it. 🙂

 

Assignment 14: New Posting Style

Idea is explore all the templates available. I have posted my posts around my blog with every possible format available. Today i am confident on picking right template for the pages and posts i publish.

 

Assignment 15: Content Loves Design

Opened the customizer and tried various fonts and colors available with the theme.

 

Assignment: Weekend Warriors 03

This weekend i decided to write something. My last lecture at college was about learning through uncertainty. So, i had decided to write something about uncertainty. I piked up all the synonyms and made a poem out of it.

Here is the link to the Poem: Uncertainty

 

Assignment 16: Plug in to Social Networks

My blog is publicized with twitter and linked-in. I also have a Facebook page for my novel.

 

Assignment 17: Organizing the Pages

Added a new CONTACT page! Funny that though i have created many pages earlier, had missed a contact page.

 

Assignment 18: Try a New Blog Event

This was interesting. I wanted to try something new and hence redirected myself to ongoing challenges. I picked up Post a Signpost Challenge. My submission and details of the assignment can be found in the post HERE.

 

Assignment 19: Extend Your Brand

I created a small image logo called “it’s PH” using a free online logo editor and added it as a image widget to main side bar.

 

Assignment 20: Develop a Regular Feature for Your Blog

For now i want to keep it as regular posts at my free time, which is a easy permit from my current work schedule!

 

Yayy! There completes the course. My Takeaways:

• Followed many other awesome blogs
• Made a few new blogger friends
• Got to read some great posts
• Witnessed the beauty in diversity
• Most importantly, Am happy!

Thank you to BLOGGING101 team for this awesome course.