L is for Liebster Award

What the heck is the Liebster Award?

I ask because this noble (well, I think it is noble) award has just been bestowed on my baby blog.  Special thanks to JudytheMorgan for this honor. Judythe surveys all on her blog: Voices and views from the front porch and down the road.

Lucky for me, Liebster starts with the letter L, which just so happens to be today’s letter in the A to Z Blog Challenge! So here it is, a ready-made topic for my L day post.

Liebster sounds German, doesn’t it? And several Lucky Liebster Lads and Ladies (sorry about that) suggest that the German word ‘liebster’ means “loving” or “beloved.” So a person who bestows the Liebster award on someone else’s blog is showing love to another person. Kinda nice.

In 1724, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a cantata in Leipzig named ‘Liebster Gott,’ translated “Dearest God,” as in “Liebster Gott, What did I do to deserve this prestigious award?”

I checked my sources: 1HeckOfAGuy.Com reports that “If each winner required a month  to re-reward the Liebster, after one year more than 89762301673555230720 blogs would be flashing the Liebster prize.”

That’s pretty impressive! You think?

At any rate, the real purpose of the award is to spread the news about budding and blooming blogs with less than 200 followers. In the process of winnowing down the number of deserving blogs, we visit other blogs, meet new friends, and steal pick up new ideas. A nice community of bloggers who support each other develops. In other words, it’s a heck of a good way to make new friends. Hmmmm. Good idea.

Rules for this award of dubious importance follow:

• Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
• Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
• Copy & paste the blog award on your blog.
• Reveal your 5 blog picks.
• Let them know you chose them by posting on their blog.

And now, I have a ready-made post for my A to Z Blog Challenge for the letter M scheduled for tomorrow around midnight: Midnight Mentions and Mash-Ups in which I announce my five nominations for the Liebster award. Oh Heck, it might take me all day and all evening to sift through 89762301673555230720 blogs, but I’ll do my best. Don’t worry, I won’t nominate 1HeckOfAGuy. He’s already won it!

By the way, at first glance, I thought that 1HeckOfAGuy might be related to me (you know, OneHeckOfAGal), but turns out he is not a real Heck. His true name is Leonard Cohen. No matter. He is still a new friend. And he is also the designer of the theater marquee at the beginning of this blog. I borrowed it. Okay, Leonard?

Fluffy Cat vs Hard-shelled Turtle. Who will win?

The learning curve for how to blog on WordPress can look like an undulating wave rather than a nice smooth upward line.

For me, it’s been more like an almost straight-up vertical incline. But I have secret help: WANA friends (We Are Not Alone). Thanks to Kristen Lamb (http://warriorwriters.com), we can seek out our WANA friends for help with the technical details of blogging. So when I saw this cat and turtle encounter, I thought I might try my hand at embedding a video in my blog. Wana friend Laird recently published a post on how to do just this. (http://www.lairdsapir.com/2012/02/gettin-friendly-with-wordpress/) Good timing for me!

So here’s the video. Cross your fingers that I followed the directions carefully enough.

Thanks again, Laird. I think I see the top of this vertical incline now.  I have printed off your directions for the next time. Now I need to learn more about shortlinks!

YOUR TURN

Where are you on the learning WordPress learning curve?

The Naming of Blogs Is A Difficult Matter

Poet T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), author of Old Possum’s Book of Practical CATS, thought the naming of cats to be a difficult matter, but I dare say the naming of blogs is harder.

Even though I dearly love cats and would love to have a cat’s name in my blog title, I can’t use such clever names as Jennyanydots (the Gumbie cat), Growltiger (the one-eyed, one-eared cat), or magical Mr. Mistoffelees (the original conjuring cat). No, with Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical production of CATS (www.catsthemusical.com), these feisty felines have become too famous to be ordinary blog cats. And anyway, they would not fit my blog on serious topics (education, books, writing, grammar, spunky seniors) or occasional frivolous topics (a cat-a-log of cat-antics and maybe a cute puppy or two).

No, I have to be more practical.

My Twitter and blogging friends have already taken names I fancy: Cat’sEyeWriter, Kitty_writer (and all of its various permutations), bloggingcat, catgossip, ittybittykitty, SassyCat, catblogosphere (Blogging Cats Unite!), littlecatdiaries, and even ThePsychoKittySpeaksOut. Who could top this last one? “Blogging isn’t just for humans anymore.” (Squidoo.com).

My serious writer friends have taken DailyWritingTips, writingwarriors, TheWritePractice, TerriblyWrite, ThePassiveVoice, copyblogger, GhostWritingonWriting, WriterGranny’sWorld, judythewriter, TheFridayBookReport, TheQuivering Pen, and MessyThingswithWords, and so many more.

My eagle-eyed grammar-loving friends sign on as GrammarGirl, Grammarsnark, GrammarMonkeys, Dr.Grammar, or Grammarly. A few of these even sound a bit…ummm…scary: GrammarPolice, GrammarRevolution, Confessions of a Grammar Nazi, The GrammarVandal, the Blood-RedPencil, and the MightyRedPen. (Say this last one with your deep announcer voice!)

In fact, hundreds of blogs by poets and writers can be found listed at http://NewPages.com. And WordPress claims that 415,524 bloggers have posted today just on WP alone (on thousands of topics). Astounding. But now it’s MY TURN! I just need a blog name.

Fortunately Internet advice for naming blogs proliferates faster than a Google spider hatching babies.  How about using the Blog Name Generator or the Amazing Meganame Generator?

Jane Friedman, now e-media professor (http://janefriedman.com) advises a blog name that has a very specific angle, topic, or audience focus that tells people why they should read your blog. Sounds reasonable.

Dan Blank (http://WeGrowMedia) emphasizes the need to focus on your target audience and what they need and want. Yes, of course.

But Kristin Lamb, (http://warriorwriters) the social media guru from the great state of Texas, tells her #WANA friends (that includes me!): “Use your own name as your blog title in order to ‘brand’ your blog.” Sounds good to me. (Type in #WANA112 or #mywana on Twitter and see what comes up!)

Who knows, if I use my own name as my blog title, I could be discovered in the blogosphere and end up with a book and movie deal! Julie Powell did it (Julie on Julia, http://juliepowell.blogspot.com). Why shouldn’t it happen to me? Why not Janice Heck and The Grammar Connection? That’s compelling and maybe even a bit intriguing, you know, almost like The French Connection! No? Hummph.

So what should I call my blog? Which blog title will entice Google spiders to crawl all over it and give it high exposure on search lists?

After numerous messy lists (on my own lo-tech paper blog name generator) and many false starts, here’s what remains:

1. Janice Heck, On Education and Writing (Too broad!)

2. Grannie Jan’s Grammar Goodies (There’s a story behind this one!)

3. Janice Heck, Grammar Connection (Too narrow?)

4. Cat-A-Log of Cat-Antics (Too frivolous?)

5. Grammar-You-Can-See (What?)

6. GED Writer (Tried that-didn’t work! Way too narrow!)

7. Janice Heck

Oh heck, I think I’ll stick with Kristen Lamb’s advice and just use my name and forget the clever cat names, alliterative names, and other snarky titles.

Oh. Wait? What?

Kristen says I need a log line? Oh. (*hums* Whatever Kristen wants, Kristen gets!)

Well, ummm, what would T. S. Eliot say? This? “A blog’s a blog; a CAT’S A CAT. And that’s enough of that!”

YOUR TURN: How did you decide to name your blog?

Tags: Janice Heck, teaching, education writing, grammar, grammar-you-can-see, GED, cat blogs,