The return of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers!

After an extended break, I’m happy to announce that the League of Extraordinary Bloggers will make its triumphant return next Monday. We’ve all had some time off to rejuvenate those blogging juices, and it’s time to get back to the fun!

After much thought and discussion, I’ve decided to keep things pretty much the same. There was quite a bit of support for extending the assignments to two weeks, rather than one, but I think the weekly format really is the best approach. This way, everyone knows exactly when a new assignment will be given and when the “due date” will be. If we switched to two a month, or every two weeks, things would get complicated. BUT, here’s a new twist — just because a topic is “done” doesn’t mean you can’t submit a response at a later date. So, if you need a few more days, or weeks, to finalize your thoughts, you can take as long as you want.

There will be a couple of minor revisions, mainly to make things easier on me!

1. I will not be creating any more of those graphical header images. I know, big loss right, but those things took a lot of time to create!

2. There will no longer be a weekly recap listing all the blogs who contributed. The comments section of the weekly blog topic page will serve as the place to see who has contributed. This will also serve to keep topics open for longer if you need more time or want to revisit older topics.

3. There is now a topic list to choose from. Each week, I will select a League member to choose a topic from that list, or he or she can come up with one of their own. The topic page will be fluid, and as topics are covered, I’ll link to those pages here on the site. Anyone can submit topics to add to the list at any time. We’ve been doing this a long time, and we can certainly revisit some old topics every now and then.

4. Please, please include the League logo and link in every post you write. The whole idea is to get more and more people involved, and this is an easy way to do it. If you’d like to have a page on your site that explains the League and link to that instead, go for it! Just keep in mind that we want to keep welcoming fresh faces because, unfortunately, blogs do have a way of coming and going. If you don’t have a logo file on hand, here’s a nice small one for you — just download it and link it to: https://www.coolandcollected.com/the-league-of-extraordinary-bloggers/

5. As always, you should include links to your fellow League members, but I’d really like to see more interaction with one another somehow. Maybe write a post debating what someone else submitted that week? Or, agree with them and elaborate even further. Remember, the reason the League has been so much fun is because it has helped us all to interact, so every so often, try to use your post as a conversation starter with others. This will help drive your site’s readers to other sites they might know about. Blogging karma is a good thing.

6. I still want to pursue sponsored topics or at least prizes of some sort whenever possible. If you have something to offer — it doesn’t need to big or substantial — let me know and we’ll figure out a way to work it in. If you do offer something up, maybe we’ll require the participating blogs that week to mention your site, with a link, in order to be entered into the drawing. If anyone has a friend at a publisher or toy company, let them know about this idea — between the lot of us, we have a good bit of pull in the pop culture/collecting arena. I’m happy to field requests, or you can run the whole thing, just let me know how I can help.

I think that covers everything, and I hope you are all as excited as I am to see the return of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers. See you on Monday!