Thanks to everyone who supported this blog throughout the years. I thoroughly enjoyed recording all of my random thoughts to share with all of you. I hope that in some small way, you were able to take something from what I’ve written, just as I’ve learned so much from all of you.
Some day, I will probably be back here to write in a completely personal blog, but for now, Snailbites is still going strong in a more professional form. Be sure to bookmark both!
As many of you know, Cheryl used to work at Starbucks. Last year, she was a barista for a few months between jobs. And let me tell you, those were magical days. Full of discounted coffee roasts, $1 toffee almond bars, and a vast array of Starbucks coffee drinking vessels. She’d constantly try to teach me about the different kinds of coffee, and why certain coffees pair with certain deserts, but I would never listen.
It wasn’t until I read this book, How Starbucks Changed My Life, that I got all into it. That’s when I started using the phrase, “Did you know coffee and Chocolate are like kissing cousins?” And she’d look at me sourly because she’d been trying to teach me that all along. I know, I’m dumb.
Well Biters, this little story is to highlight a few things about blogging that you should all know. And hopefully you won’t have to read, “How Snailbites Changed My Life” to learn them.
“Did you know that Blogs and RSS are like kissing cousins?”
RSS stands for Really Simple Search Syndication. In laymen’s terms, it takes some kind of web content (video, headlines, pictures, etc…), and publishes it regularly on another page. It is more popularly known as a feed. For example, on a news site, you could have a front page with a whole bunch of feeds from different blogs (an opinion blog, a sports blog, etc…). Each blog author would write a new entry, and that new entry would magically pop up on the front page in chronological order. Scroll to the bottom of nytimes.com for an example.
So for all you Biters out there that can never keep up with all the crazy Xangas, Blogspots, jmotives, and Snail’s bites, I say to you: simplify! You don’t have to come to Snailbites every day, although we’d love to see you that much. You can get Snailbites and pretty much every blog on the web delivered right to your home (page). All you need to do get a free feed reader, plug in a few feeds, and you’ll be on your way. (Add on a few Apple products and some thick rimmed glasses, and you could can officially call yourself a Tech Geek).
Some cool feed readers are: Netvibes, Google Reader, and Bloglines. These are three that I like, but do a Google search and you’ll find a million more. All of them do the same thing, so it’s just a matter of which appeals to you. Sign up for one of those, and then come back here and click on the subscribe button on the right sidebar to “Get Your Daily Bite!”
Magical Search Terms
I added a few tools on the backend that let me see how people are coming to the Blog (whethere its by direct click, thru Google search, or link referral). And oddly enough, I noticed a large amount of traffic from Europe, because of the search term “spider pig”. I checked it out for myself, and found that if you google the term “spider pig”, Snailbites is regularly one of the top 5 hits.
I thought this was really strange and quite amusing. So to that end, I’ll post some of the random search terms that garner Snailbites some sort of web popularity.
Try them yourself! I think its hilarious what things get picked up and what things don’t.
Keep It Locked!
Lastly, make sure you check back often for some (really) good stuff coming up this month. Specifically, Snail’s Long Awaited Post-Engagement Reaction, The 2009 March for Life, and most exciting of all: Snailbest’s 2009.
Subscribe to get your daily bite, and keep it locked!
Hello Biters! Big news for you all. Read on…
First of all, thanks for all the comments and the love from the past entry. I was surprised to see so many comments so soon, and its great to know you’re all still out there.
I got a little carried away with all the updates and ended up spending a cold winter weekend almost entirely indoors, fixing up every little detail I could find. The end result is a more powerful and search-engine friendly piece of work. Things are looking up around here Biters! And along with all the new features, comes a promise from me to update often. In the next few months I’ll need this outlet, and I know you’ll want to hear all about the adventure ahead for me. So definitely stay tuned.
Rest assured that my post-engagement reaction post is coming very soon!! But first, the big news.
In celebration of the re-birth of Snailbites, I’m going to hold a little contest. As of this morning, I’ve accumulated a certain number of comments. *I originally was going to post how many I have, but now I see that that could lead to cheating* Basically, whoever leaves the 200th comment, will write a featured post right here on Snailbites (and enjoy future guest blogging considerations).
There’s no rules here. You can write about anything you want. But in keeping with the world of Snailbites, I would hope you would write something Catholic and inspiring. But of course, this is America, and so long as you have a strong opinion about something, that’s what I’d want to hear.
Here’s the logic behind this whole deal. Last night as I was surfing through blogs from fellow Biters and other people I know, I saw so many great blogs that go unviewed and uncommented. That kinda made me sad, because people out there are writing such great stories. I hope this little contest will turbo charge our blog world and get everyone writing and commenting on each other’s blogs. And if none of that happens, at least we’ll all get to enjoy someone else’s Bites on good ol’ Snailbites.
So that’s it! Shoutouts to my blogroll fam and to all the Biters in the Recent Comments. Happy Inauguration Day.
I’m gonna redesign now. If anyone has any ideas for a design lemme know. The whole paper thing I got going on here is cool, but I see it all over the place now. I guess it was the easiest ‘artsy’ concept people could pull off. No offense to you if yours is like this too. I have a couple of ideas, but its still up in the air. I just think this blog is hard to read. For future reference – black type on non-white background is not a good idea.
That’s all for now, I’ll keep you updated.
Wow its been month’s since my last post. I have all of these topics I always want to blog about, but for some reason I never do! Shame on me!
Looks like its time to start over with yet another redesign!