Scraps Of Mind

Scraps of Mind - 2007, The Year That Was

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As we head off into the uncharted waters of 2008, I thought I’d take a moment to look at the journey that Scraps of Mind has come on over the past year. Some of you have been a part of this journey from the beginning and many of you have joined me along the way.

Although Scraps of Mind started in 2006 it pretty much meandered along for the first year of it’s life without much direction. I would post once or twice a week and the topics were many and varied. In mid 2007 that changed and I realised I had a vision around what I wanted Scraps of Mind to be. I wanted a great resource for all scrapbookers where they could find interesting and useful scrapbooking information, tips, techniques and a great community. I saw Scraps of Mind as a scrapbooking magazine type site, with lots to give and little to ask in return.

So as 2007 draws to a close I’ve sat down to take a look over the year and gathered together my Scraps of Mind highlights for some holiday reading for you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed rummaging in the Scraps of Mind attic to gather them for you.

Here my highlights from 2007:

Joining the Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind Program:

This was a major highlight for me because it helped me to focus my vision for Scraps of Mind and taught me what needed to be done to achieve it. And as a result I discovered that Google had given me a rank of 4/10 in it’s last review. That may not be the most important thing in the world (although it is pretty spiffy, coming from 0/10) but it was enormously encouraging for me. Yaro has closed the doors to new membership for his program at the moment but I recommend you download his free Blog Profits Blueprint if you are really interested in building up your blog.

Update: In news just to hand, Yaro is reopening his highly successful Blog Mastermind course for a third student intake. You can find out more about it here.

RSS Reader Subscriptions over 100:

I was very excited when my RSS Subscriptions first went past the 100 mark. Knowing that so many of you enjoy Scraps of Mind so much that you choose to have it delivered to you through your Feedreader or via your email was very encouraging.

Moving Scraps of Mind to it’s own domain:

Scraps of Mind was originally born on Blogger but quickly moved to Wordpress.com as I realised some of the limitations of Blogger and the security issues it was plagued with. However as I developed Scraps of Mind it became clear that I needed to move it to its own domain which I could own rather than keeping it on the free Wordpress domain. The move in July 2007 was traumatic! Mainly because I first moved it onto the server where my daughter Seona hosts her own site. I didn’t realise that this site supports the technology that she specialises in (ColdFusion) and as a result it did not play nicely with the Wordpress software. However we got through that and moved it to another server a couple of weeks later. And, now that it’s over, I can say it was worth it.

My Scrapblogging Journey:

The tale of my life (to date) and how I came to write Scraps of Mind in the first place. This was an interesting experience for me because, if truth be known, I actually don’t feel comfortable in writing about myself at a very personal level. But for those of you who are interested in the person behind the keyboard this four part saga should give you some insights.

Bringing Audio and Video Posts to Scraps of Mind:

I was so excited to master my first Audio Podcast. And then to record an International Audio Interview with Ro Paxman,CEO of Scrap Girls, fairly blew me away. And wrestling with the software to make my first Video Tutorial was a huge challenge for me. Fortunately, I’ve improved my technique since then.

My trip to Italy and Greece:

At first I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish this and still run Scraps of Mind at the same level I had built it up to. But with some help from my friends I not only managed to keep up daily articles to Scraps of Mind over the 4 weeks I was away, but I also posts three articles from overseas. I’m quite proud of the organisation and effort that went into that.

Launching the Scrapbooking Edge Series of Digital Scrapbooking Video Tutorials:

This is possibly the most buzzy thing for me. I’m very proud of these products and I believe they give enormous value. Not only does each one cover a detailed lesson in making a great layout including some terrific effects techniques, but they also come with all the elements for you to make the same layout included in the video pack. Thanks so much to Melo from Digital Arts Cafe for this collaboration.

The Scraps of Mind Weekly Word Art Newsletter:

I had been wanting start a Weekly Newsletter like this for a while and I wanted to be able to give you something free as well, as a thank you for being such a great bunch of readers. Coming up with something that could be used by traditional, digital and hybrid scrapbookers was a challenge and I’m so glad I hit on Word Art as that seems to have been very popular with you. The numbers of you subscribing to the Newsletter have been so much more than I expected and new subscribers keep signing up every day. So please keep them coming by spreading the word around your own scrapbooking communities.

Building a terrific library of Scrapbooking Tips and Techniques:

These have been some of the most popular articles on Scraps of Mind over the past year. I’ve tried to include tips from across the board so that you can find something useful whether you are a traditional, digital or hybrid scrapbooker. And of course, I’ll be continuing to build this library as we move into 2008.

And just as I was about to publish this article I discovered that the listing of Australia’s Top 100 Blogs has just been updated and Scraps of Mind has made it into the list at 33.

So yes, it’s certainly been a big year for Scraps of Mind. And hold on to your seats, because I’m planning and even bigger one for 2008. And I’m so glad to have you on the journey with me.

Other related Articles:

Well I think all the related articles you could possibly want are embedded in this post so I won’t add any extra links here. Happy Reading.

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