Monday, August 17, 2009

b2d readers request: blog features update - your experience/thoughts?

Dear b2d readers,

Hello and thanks as always for reading.

I've recently added a few new features to Begin to Dig and would like to
  1. let you know about them
  2. get your thoughts about them (if you care to share).
Search by Google. First is that google (who own blogger, the software for this blog) now make search in the blog available. It's close to the top on the right. What's really cool (i think) about this new search feature is that if you put in keywords, you get the list of matching articles right at the top of the blog. Cool. And there are category tabs too for even more refined results.

Have you tried this yet? would you? or you don't tend to poke around a blog to look for previous posts?

Related Reading List. Inspired by Chris over at conditioningresearch.blogspot.com, i've added a reading list that features some of the articles i've found that are cool and relate to b2d.

Do you check out any of the articles in the list? Do you come to the site ever to see what's on it?

Twitter Feed. I suppose this is the one i'm most dubious about. but i'm pretty new to the experience so keen to take advice.


(Not so new) Promoted free stuff and cool stuff. This isn't a new thing, but i'd like to hear your experiences here.

Not sure if folks who drop by check out the stuff that i review and put in the review area or put in the "freebies" area . I try not to put anything up that doesn't have a review associated with it, and nothing goes up that's not stuff i use, too. But not sure if really readers have the time to whiz through any of these - if you find them helpful.

(Not so new) Articles Listing. Related to the above, i keep articles on the right from stuff in b2d that may be useful for reference. Is this useful? Do you ever go to the article listing to re-find something you've seen? or to find something new, of interest?

Thanks for your time.
That's about it, i think. Keen to hear your thoughts, and very much appreciate you taking time from your day to let me know. Again, really value your spending some of your time at b2d. Thanks for digging, grokking, subscribing or just dropping by.

one announcement: for folks in the UK area, i'm doing a first UK public workshop blending z-health practice and theory with kettlebells. It's Sunday Oct 18, 9:30-4. There's a pretty good description of the workshop at the host's, LKB. Perhaps meet some of you there?

Thanks again,

mc

8 comments:

Chris said...

Reading List - a great idea. It lets you know what is informing my thinking at the moment. Lots of readers on my blog click on these stories.

Twitter - I don't play twitter

Google blog search is good - even for he blog owner - sometimes I need it to find something I wrote.

Adverts are fine.

Articles list is useful

dr. m.c. said...

thanks for the feedback Chris. much obliged. mc

Scott Salzman said...

I like the Google search with the faceted tabs. Is that the standard Blogger search, or did you build that with a Google CSE?

Re: Twitter, you might consider also going in the opposite direction by auto-populating Twitter via something like Twitterfeed. That would give you similar cross-pollination to embedding your Tweets on your blog. Your article titles seem like they'd work well on Twitter, and might bring folks who discover you on that channel over to your blog.

I learn a lot from your writing and appreciate the time you put into sharing your knowledge.

Scott

Scott Salzman said...

Oops, I do see that you're (obviously) tweeting about some of your blog articles. Didn't recognize them precisely because you didn't just shoot them over automatically. But hey, you got me to look at your Twitter account...

Scott

dr. m.c. said...

Thanks for the feedback Scott. Appreciate you taking the time to drop by. -mc

dr. m.c. said...

scott - sorry the tabs in search is all part of the google widget.

Unknown said...

Hi mc, I enjoy your blog and want to give you the feedback you requested:
1. Google Search - don't use.
2. Related reading list - a valuable resource for me on topics I am interested in. Your articles on zhealth were largely responsible for me trying it. And it works!
3. Twitter - don't use it.
4. Promoted stuff - used infrequently.
5. Articles list - See 2 above.
Overall, your blog has useful, insightful information about kettlebells and zheatlh, both topics I enjoy reading about. To be honest, I'm not too interested in nutrition. I'm a lucky guy who is skinny and I eat what I want which includes generous amounts of chocolate and ice cream. I know, you are going into cardiac arrest thinking about the fats and other bad stuff I'm putting inside myself, but I sure enjoy it.
Keep up the good work!
George

dbt1959 said...

I do like your blog a great deal. Found after Orangekettlebellclub (John Wild's blog) posted a link to your discussion of the Diluglio/Gray Cook TGU kerfuffle.

1. Search, yes I have used on your blog for references; have not always found what I was looking for but have always found something interesting;

2. Reading list. Keep it.

3. Twitter, no, just don't get it.

4. Adverts/Reviews yes, enjoyed the Vibram Five Fingers review; sold them a pair you did.

ShareThis

Related Posts with Thumbnails