Fresh on the heels of the Blog To-Do List comes the list of things I added to the blog.

The first is the print this post link on every entry. Click on the link and it will strip the fancy formatting and make the article “printer friendly” for those who just want to read the text (but posted images are included).

The next thing is a view counter. This tells me (and you) how many times a particular post was viewed by people out on the net. I can only trust the accuracy of the counter as I can’t tell if anyone is actually reading this thing or not.

I also added a mobile version of this blog for those on Sidekicks, Blackberries, cell phones, or any really crappy internet service like slow Wi-Fi or AOL. Like the Print This Post plug-in, the formatting is stripped out for fast, easy loading/reading. But unlike the print function, the Mobile Edition shows the full text of the latest post – with the forms to comment on it – and displays the last 10 posts below as links in case you missed a few or want to reread some.

I added polls to the sidebar. I’ll create new polls every now and then and will ask you, my trusty readers, to answer them. Once I have a few polls under the belt, I’ll randomly rotate them to get a good statistical sampling.

Related to post views, I also added post ratings. This gives you guys the ability to rate my posts. I know, I know… they are all 5 stars but not everyone thinks in ways of genius like you and I. So… I’ve given them a way to rate what they just read. Hopefully, they will also comment on why it is they liked or disliked the post so I can get better. It will make me a better writer/poster and the blog more enjoyable to the masses.

I also added a Contact Me page so people can send me messages from the blog. It’s sent to a capture inbox that filters out spam and forwards all real messages to my real email address. Please be gentle and don’t flame/spam/flood me with unnecessary or hurtful messages.

Last (I think), but not least… I added a statistics page that lists some simple information about the blog.  It lists how many articles there are, the number of comments, the most viewed posts, and information about the rated posts.  Right now, no one has rated anything so it shows nothing for that section but once the readers start pouring in, I’m sure it will change.