This is my Happy Birthday Song and it isn't very long

Just when you thought I had gone away ......

It's Mrs Banks 3rd Birthday!!

Ohhh .... so you know those people who never quite finish anything? The finish line is in sight and we just wind down? I bet you are seeing Zontians at Club and District level doing it right now ... only a month to go ....

Aussie comedians Roy and H.G. would describe it as running a race and just in the last 10 metres the lead runner would get out the esky, big umbrella, fold up chair and sit back and watch everyone else cross the finish line.

Well - maybe, just maybe a bit of that maybe happening here on Mrs Banks ..... just maybe.

Only 2 months to go and we'll be together again in Orlando. Oh I have the excitement of grumpy cat ...

3 years I've been pumping out the posts - time to go for the big final push in our last few posts together.

Firstly, let's fire up the Google Analytics and see who's been doing what

Spaceship Earth

Readership Geographical Location

Still the case that the USA is just pipping ahead of our Aussie readers - but ..... no-one else?? O Canada ... why aren't you reading me?

But my Aussie readers win again in that they stay for double the time on the site (because of our super slow broadband speeds here??), they read 1/3 more pages, and 91% of them hit the site, stay and read. YAY!!

Post of the Year

After a 2 year stella run, my anti-Disney Princess rant only came in at No.3

This year, you were all about something else - Mary Poppins! Yes - this post about P.L. Travers and the writing of Mary Poppins from back in July 2011 was the most hit post. My only explanation is that I was probably ahead of my time and picking up collateral damage from the Saving Mr Banks movie.

And where is Zonta in all this? Post No. 6 - Announcing the dates of International Convention. The only Zonta post in the top 10.  My consolation is that people coming to look at my Disney posts are surreptitiously exposed to Zonta!


Finding Mrs. Banks

1/3 by organic searching. Well - Thank you Google - but they are looking for Disney Princesses or Capital Theatre Seating Maps. Oh well.

The red bit is referrals from other sites - and because there are no other Zonta blogs out there, all those referrals are from other Disney fan sites like: Mouse on the Mind, This Happy Place, the DISboards and Aussie Blog Chicks. This would be a direct boost from the new Kill, Refurb, Marry post series.

The green chunk is direct hits and google searches - people looking deliberately for me. Much like the the light blue which is Facebook - so a 1/3 actually DO want to be here!

so after all these stats and graphs, I think we deserve some birthday cake

Is it not magnificent?! (source: cake central)

It is my privilege to serve my readership. Some 16% of all hits are regular returns, and it is humbling to reflect that people give up some of their precious time to come to Mrs. Banks - and make sure I am still alive .... or not batshit crazy .... or whatever.

It's been like having a VERY long engagement. For 3 years we have been planning our trip to Orlando. It is now only a matter of weeks before Mrs. Banks reaches her ultimate purpose.

So what say you? Will you come join us at International Convention?

now - I have to go find the Ken Man and get that cup of tea....

Thank you to Zonta International Newsletter!

Google Analytics tells me click rate has been going NUTS today!

My hit rate chart for the past 24 hours

So why the modicum of attention and the thank you title?

If you have read your Zonta International email newsletter, you would have seen me included as one of four excited Convention attendees planning for Orlando 2014!! I was asked by Zonta PR to answer a few simple questions (you can read my answers here) and was given a free promo for Mrs. Banks in return. How sweet is that?


I was tempted to provide this photo:

.... but it's not Christmas yet.

What's that??

Dragging down the tone of their professional, internationally distributed newsletter?

Ummmmm .... maybe......

So perhaps you are landing on this page as a result of reading that article, then I offer you a

Welcome to Mrs Banks' blog, and Welcome Home to Disney's Boardwalk Inn - where I will be staying before convention

Mrs. Banks aims to get you to Orlando - to give you enough info to answer your questions and make your travel a bit easier.

Now Zontians, I don't have all the answers. But that's only because I haven't been asked all the questions yet.

And to facilitate the question asking and extra event planning around ZI Convention, I proudly launch the:

Mrs. Banks goes to Convention Facebook Group!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/mrsbanksgoestoconvention/

Through this group I'll be better able to interact with others coming to convention, and organise special events for Mrs. Banks' Zonta friends. 

For example: my first offering is a Kayak tour with Central Florida Nature Adventures. I've already got a few people coming along, AND we are looking for more. I'll use the Facebook Group to co-ordinate such events.  Check out my earlier post and see what I'm rabbiting on about

I've invited a few people to join the group to start us off - we would love to have you come over and join in with us.

I promise it will be more exciting than kite flying ... not that there's anything wrong with that

It is time for you to get ready for Convention.

The latest version of The Zontian magazine is on its way to you right now. This mag will include a hard copy version of the Call to Convention and paper registration.  You can already register online, including your Marriott accommodation, meals and day trips

How much easier can we make this for you??!!

I am more grateful to my readers and supporters than any of you will realise. I write this stuff, sitting alone on my couch and have no idea where it will end up. My one reader in Poland is slowly developing into a growing band of regulars from across the globe. I recognise the privilege of taking your attention.

and thank you to ZI Convention Organisers, Jane Adams and Alick Chick and the ZI PR team.

Now back to your regular programming.

When Mrs. Banks met Lady Gaga

My Zonta friend Narelle sent me this yesterday.

Before you go "ha ha! someone made an olde worlde version of Lady Gaga", discover exactly what this parady is about by having a look at this ....

Mrs. Banks had more friends than just Mrs. Pankhurst! She also knew Alice Paul!

BTW: Check out the Alice Paul Institute and see all the qualifications the lady achieved. See how Alice spent her spare time when she wasn't in the slammer or the mental asylum on a hunger strike and being force fed. Alice is one gutsy dame who was part of changing the world!

Unlike Mrs. Pankhurst, Alice pursued peaceful and silent, but persistent, protest. You can check out her story if you track down this 2004 movie: Iron Jawed Angels

I have to admit, this poster is missing all the fabulous tailoring for which Mrs. Banks was also famous

How about you, gentle reader, are you upholding and honouring the path these ladies cleared for you?

OMG! It's a Jolly Birthday with Mrs. Banks!

Mrs. Banks is now 2 years old!

 

 After all these posts, I need some chocolately english goodness. (source: sugarsnapnyc.com)

I am as surprised as anyone that I have persisted with this for 2 years now. Who'd have thought I'd  unload that much drivel, AND maintain the delusion to last this long?

Were you around for this?

Mrs. Banks 1st Birthday Celebration

or even perhaps this?

Mrs. Banks launches on to teh interwebs!

Actually no-one was around that far back.

Annual Wrap-up Time

Since Mrs. Banks 1st birthday, the world "hits" map has changed.

Australia has closed the gap with the USA! Over the past 12 months, only 300 clicks divided the two countries.

Oh - my dear Polish reader - where have you gone?

AND when Aussies do come to the site, they read more pages and stay longer!  Way to go, my Aussie friends!

Let's look at the top post for the year.

After last year's stella run, the anti-Disney Princess post came out the winner again this year!

I like to think that people enjoy a unique piece of content, drawing on the obvious problematic feminist theme facing Disney lovers.

But I am not that delusional.

It is because the post makes so many links to a wide range of content from others, that are then led to my post AND the photo of the Disney princesses AND the word "princess" in the title. It's an uphill battle, my fellow Zontians.

Whilst traffic is still predominately driven by 'Disney' and 'Orlando' theme keywords, this year a Zonta themed post made it into the top ten. The post announcing the International Convention dates is at No. 6, and the fixed page giving details for Zonta International is No. 13 and the Amelia Earhart Fellowship post came in at No.14 after having a mini-viral moment on Facebook!

I like to think that more Zontians are visiting Mrs. Banks, and perhaps more people are searching for Zonta online. But what, exactly, do I know about how people are finding Mrs. Banks?

This graph is a blogger's dream!

That big blue 38% wedge is organic google searches, which means Mrs. Banks comes up in keyword searches.

No. 2 at green 19% is where people are going straight to Mrs. Banks - either from their favourites, an RSS feed or just typing it straight into their URL address box. Which must mean that some of you come here deliberately - on purpose!

Encouraging is that Facebook referrals - which are predominately to other Zontians - is now No. 4 after not being countable last year.  Awww .... you guys!! You know, that just encourages me to keep producing this festival of the craptastic!

And guess what - there is still more than another year to go before we are all together in Orlando. Yes - another year of this random, braindumping, impulsive warblings to go before I even think about stopping!

Thanks to the international crowd whose "likes" spirit me to continue: Penny from Australia, Lily from Chile, Pam from Florida, Anna in Italy, Ana in Argentina, Rana from Pakistan. Along with everyone in the Facebook groups who are clicking along with me.

Big shout out to my own District 24 Board who have invited me to speak about my blogging experiences at the Area Meetings this year.

Mrs. Banks even scored a comment on the blog this year from ZI President Lynn McKenzie - that was a real highlight!

How did the Wellington sale go this year, Lynn?

My aim stays true:

• Integrate Zonta into the interwebs - have more people in more places find us; and
• Have you come join us in Orlando for the Zonta International Convention 2014 (bookmark the new website?)

To expand these aims, this year I have noticed more Zontians more involved in social media outlets, and I like to imagine that I have made a positive contribution.

Finally, without fail, The Ken Man deserves a huge thank you - the perfect cups of tea keep coming.

my 2013 brew - thank you man

 So - what about you?  Of what are you proud from the past 12 months?

IGNORE THIS POST: YOU CAN'T set up an RSS feed reader in Google

OK - short story long:

UPDATE 14 March '13: People are complaining all over the world - petitions have sprung up! sign this on on Change.org - in the first day more than 27,000 people have.
UPDATE 15 March '13: 93,000+ signed the petition. Google holding out and insisting they will not change


http://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running

I'M SHATTERED! Google have announced that Reader will be shut down on 1 July 2013.  Many years of happy reading have been thwarted by Reader's lack of advertising.

As soon as I work out my replacement, I'll let you know. You might as well ignore this post.

 

I was at my Zonta Area Workshop yesterday (big YAY! to Area Director Rae who broke tradition with an innovative agenda based on social media) - AND..

..  was saying how my target audience for Mrs. Banks is not really the internet-addicted, blog reading, kitten adoring, couch potato I have become.

and then the realisation hit.

I could make it easier for everyone!

..... by showing you how to set up an RSS feed reader

RSS = Rich Site Summary

You set up one "reader" website that lists all the blogs you want to follow - on that one page - and it has a viewing panel so that you read the blog posts in that one reader page.

RSS is wonderful because:

• You can see lots of different sites in one reader
• The reader is dynamic and tells you when there is new content
• All your favourite and frequently visited sites are displayed in one list - no need to remember URLs or go searching
• It is dead set easy to start.

I use Google Reader - so let's use that as our example. GOOGLE READER IS NO MORE!

This is what it looks like:

It tells me when there are new posts I am yet to read

I no longer have anything better to do, but read all these blog posts!

STEP 1

Create a Google account

If you have an existing Google account you don't have to do anything- SKIP THIS STEP - YAY!

STEP 2

Go to your favourite website - Mrs. Banks, right?  Look for the RSS feed subscribe button and CLICK IT!

Find this orange button - top right hand side on Mrs Banks - scroll back up!

You hopefully get something like this:

SELECT "GOOGLE"  DON'T select Google!

Select "add to Google Reader"

And your Reader will open with the link embedded ready to go!

It takes longer to read this post than it does to set up a RSS feed reader.

NOW THE IMPORTANT BIT

STEP 3

Bookmark the link to your new Reader in your browser favourites.  We all use different browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera - so it will be slightly different in each browser BUT ALL HAVE A FAVOURITES LIST

Create a one-click link to your new reader page in your Favourites for super-easy-fast access

And that's all you do.

When you want to add a new blog, just do the same thing: click on the orange RSS button on the chosen blog, and in less than 10 seconds the blog will be in your reader.  It is SOOO EASY!

One last hint: remember this is a READER - you can view the post but you can't interact with the post, say leaving a comment. Click on the post title and it will open the actual blog site, in a new window, and then you can leave a comment on the post and see the whole blog site.

Happy Internetting!!

 

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