Going Public Today

Tonight I will start publicizing this list, and work on getting it added to several blog networks. All 20 Charter Inductees have been contacted, and some have responded that they are glad to see such a collection.

Contacting the 20 Charter Inductees

Today I finished adding the links to other sites of mine that I would like to promote, and will begin contacting the 20 bloggers that I have selected to the the Charter Inductees! There won't be a limit to membership. It's more a case of how many appropriate blogs I can find.

I see that two of my choices have not posted for several months, but I'll leave them in the list. The sorting will just drop them to the bottom anyway.

The one thing I am really sorry about is that Birding the the Falkland Islands doesn't seem to have a feed, so it is sitting permanently at the bottom of the list. I'll see if the blogger can provide me with one.

Adding Features and Monitization

Not being independently wealthy, I have added monetization features to this blog today, created a 125 x 125 banner for Entrecard and added some ads of my own. Still looking for more good blogs to include! It must have 5 posts to be approved by Entrecard, so I'll be tracking my progress to make it "public ready" for the next few days.

Kicking Off This Idea

I have wanted to be able to do this for quite some time. There is really no where that blogs devoted to nature are collected well. Most hubs for outdoor blogs also include hunting and fishing, and many other outdoor activities. Although I enjoy many of these pursuits, I wanted to be able to isolate blogs that focus on the kinds of things that would have appealed to the 19th century "Naturalist." In other words... looking at the plants, animals, geology, sky, waterways, and all the natural features of the world, just for their own sake. I found a way to create a feed with selected blogs through NewsGator, which could then be read into a web site. Of course, before I got that site created, they discontinued this and advised people to use Google Reader. But I couldn't find a way to channel Google Reader to a different site. Then last night it hit me! Just use a blog format but make the Blog Roll the dominant feature. This is the initial launch, and I will see how well it is received.