Spotlight: nRelate

A feature where I shine a figurative Spotlight on anything I can possibly talk about. Books, authors, shows, movies, you name it and I will offer my opinion on it.

Since my first major blog change back in the new year, improving my blog has become sort of an obsession for me. It started off with just trying to make my blog distinguishable and now, it has snowballed into frenetically searching for how-to posts on the web to constantly furnish my blog. 

The other week, I was messing around on the Internet searching for something I could do when I stumbled across this article, Why I Stopped Using LinkWithin (And Switched to nRelate). As far as I knew then, LinkWithin was the only internal linking site available (might I add free?) and being introduced to an alternative meant an upgrade. So after skimming the article and finding out all the many customizations available with nRelate (and why LinkWithin isn't recommended), I promptly made the switch to nRelate.

Can I say that I am super happy? I'm loving everything I'm getting with nRelate which includes:

- being able to change the size of the thumbnails

- being able to pick a default image

- being able to change the title for the related content box

- being able to choose the level of relevancy I want the results to be

and MUCH more.

The thing I love the most about nRelate is the results it brings back. Even with my low relevancy setting, I find the links it finds are much more accurate than LinkWithin's.

It's also super easy to install! All you need to do is sign up for an account and follow the super simple instructions nRelate gives you (which isn't much different from LinkWithin's) and presto, you will have a brand new internal linking system down (after two hours but what's that in the grand scheme of things?).

There are some things I'm still confused about and trying to find an answer for though:

1. Why nRelate does not always appear on my blog. Is it indexing my new posts? Is that why it is absent?

2. Why some of the pictures for my posts do not show up as thumbnails. Weird.

But despite these setbacks, my excitement has not waned. I love that I have so much room to personalize something that seems so small when you consider all the other things that go into a blog. And I think that's what really sets nRelate apart from LinkWithin. (Well, that and also the fact that it is not a 'parasitic widget'.)

Spotlight: Bloglovin'

A feature where I shine a figurative Spotlight on anything I can possibly talk about. Books, authors, shows, movies, you name it and I will offer my opinion on it.

Today, I'm talking about Bloglovin. I made a post earlier on the fact that Google Reader is disappearing forever, leading me to a search for my new substitute reader. It was too confusing to talk all about how great Bloglovin is on that post, so I made a new one to go along with it.

Bloglovin just so happened to be the reader I went with, and I'll tell you right now: I'm hooked. It even convinced me to let go of my email subscriptions to blogs, and you know how fiercely I hold onto those. Signing up for Bloglovin was easy peasy and right away, they asked me if I wanted to import my blogs from Reader. Yes, of course! If it doesn't pop up, simply go to your settings and at the bottom, there will be an option to do so. Anyway, in no less than five minutes, I had a new account ready to go!

Finding blogs on Bloglovin can be confusing. For some reason, the titles of the blog will not always provide a match when you search. You have to type in a phrase in the title to get the match. For example, when attempting to find Young Adult Anonymous, I had to type in "Young Adult" to get a result instead the blog name which provided me with no matches. Weird, huh? It gets a bit frustrating, but that's only one eensy con.

The second good thing about Bloglovin' is that when I click on a blog post, it sends me directly to the blog through Bloglovin'. So I can click this and that and surf the blog while still having the option to jump to the next post on my Unread list. Surprisingly, no lag problems! I can even comment on the blog I'm reading while still being on Bloglovin'. The only thing is that once I comment, I get redirected to the blog and then I have to make my way back to Bloglovin', which is annoying. 

On Bloglovin', you can actually claim your own blog and check out your Bloglovin' statistics. Putting your blog on Bloglovin' can actually increase your stats and readers as Bloglovin' provides the direct link to your blog. It's only one click away! 

Overall, I find myself really enjoying using this. So handy and fun! I would definitely recommend this! 

Spotlight: The 2013 Oscars

A feature where I shine a figurative Spotlight on anything I can possibly talk about. Books, authors, shows, movies, you name it and I will offer my opinion on it.

Last night was the Oscars and I'm sure all of you woke up this morning with tidbits from last night's show screaming at you. For those who don't really care for the Oscars, you can rejoice! Oscar predictions will no longer fill up all that space in the Entertainment section. And for the film fanatics, there's always next year! But what about those that watch but aren't "fanatics"? I find there's always a middle ground, a gray area and I'm sure many who watched last night would consider themselves as part of this category. Because, let's be honest, you're really only rooting for the movies you've watched and don't tell me now that you've watched all of them. 

Out of all of the movies nominated, I watched one. And no, it was not Les Miserables, or Silver Linings Playbook, or Skyfall. Or really anything that got more than one nomination. It was Paranorman, people! Paranorman! And I KNEW that that Oscar was going to go to Brave. Knew it. Having not seen any of the other movies, I can't say that I particularly cared for last night. "Oooh, Jennifer Lawrence tripped while getting her Oscar? Really? Eh." Ohmigod, this is totally abnormal! This is news that Annie would call Breaking News, and all it gets is an eh? I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy last night's show. Everything was pretty much predicted pre-Oscar-night so no surprise there. Everyone knew Seth MacFarlane would be bad, everyone knew Argo would win for Best Picture, and I totally knew that Brave would win! Totally! 

Perhaps I should just stick with playing the role of Joan Rivers from "Fashion Police", but I can't even do that! Last night's fashion was terribly dull. No stand-outs and no complete duds. However, Naomi Watts did look absolutely gorgeous in her metallic dress. Brava for making the E! Red Carpet so much more interesting to watch. So all in all, the Oscars last night wasn't particularly exciting...or good. The "All That Jazz" number was a refresher because I totally didn't expect it. Though I did feel a bit awkward watching Catherine Zeta-Jones doing a burlesque scene. The Les Miserables number was quite good too but I was yearning for more Anne! Anne because I totally missed out on the movie!

Most of the wins were quite obvious, and Seth MacFarlane was quite bad. Not TERRIBLE, but bad enough to result in me pitying him. Oh well. If you would like details on just HOW bad, here are some articles I found quite endearing. And helpful. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ryan/seth-macfarlane-oscars-review_b_2756950.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/seth-macfarlane-quotes-women-2013-oscars_n_2756480.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/24/seth-macfarlane-opening-oscars-_n_2756372.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Spotlight: What Should I Read Next?

A feature where I shine a figurative Spotlight on anything I can possibly talk about. Books, authors, shows, movies, you name it and I will offer my opinion on it.

Today, the spotlight will be on the totally frustrating What should I read next? I mean, don't you absolutely HATE it when you have no idea what to read next? You go back to your tiny bookshelf and try to reread a book but no, it doesn't cut it. Your fingers are itching to turn a page and your brain wanders around mindlessly to find a book to read. GAH!!! It's just not coming to you! 

Well, no worries, my friend! I introduce to you http://whatshouldireadnext.com/. Yes, a website to help you get over your reader's block. (Seriously, who ever came up with this is a genius. And the logo is so pretty!). With just one click , all your "no book to read" days will be over. Yay!!!

It really does work and I'm so happy that I discovered it!!! Really. This makes my life a whole lot easier! :)

Enjoy!

Annie