Gulp, I have done it. I have signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge – April 2011. I have just committed to producing 30 blogs in 30 days!
This year I have been focussing on learning more about blogging, getting the best out of Wordpress and driving traffic to my blog. About a month ago, I was chatting to Heather Bestel about Blog Challenges because I knew she had taken part in one last year and she convinced me that it was a great thing to do. She recommended the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Not only do you boost your blog, but you become part of a community of supportive participants.
My target for this year is to produce 3 blogs a week and so far I have only achieved it a handful of times so far, but I have noticed that just by being a bit more frequent about posting, my daily readership has more than doubled!
So I have signed on the dotted line, okay it was just a form I had to fill in. (I was even given a video to help me fill in the form.) I am doing it and feeling a little bit apprehensive and quite excited and I was wondering if you would support me by
- joining me on this challenge if you are blogging, it would nice to have familiar faces on the journey with me
- encouraging me along the way
- helping me by giving me ideas for articles that you would like to read
Watch this space! If you want to find out more about this FREE challenge, follow this link to the Ultimate Blog Challenge - April 2011 or watch the short video. Don’t forget to leave a few ideas for blog posts in the comments below!
Nicky Kriel
Nicky Kriel is a Social Media Coach & Trainer inspiring, educating and empowering Business Owners to use Social Media more strategically. She is also the author of How to Twitter for Business Success. For more information visit http://www.nickykriel.com or to find out about her courses that she runs in Guildford visit http://www.nickykriel.com/courses
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Nicky,
Best of luck and will support you all the way. I have been trying to post three times a week and know how difficult that is so this is a very demanding challenge. Enjoy the journey.
Thank you, Dave, your support means a lot to me x
Wow! Best of Luck, Nicky!
I can only manage three blogs a month, at the most.
Thank you, Daniela, for your support. Let me know if you have any topics that you would like me to write about.
Yay! So glad you’re committing to this Nicky – you will see an enormous difference by the end of the month. I will join you and sign up myself and we’ll have lots of fun. Here’s a tip – collect together your blog stats for last month so you can compare: visitors, comments, backlinks,networkedblogs followers etc
Not only will your blog be better known by the end of the challenge, but you will have made some wonderful new and highly supportive friends.
Yipeeeeeeee, bring it on!!!
Heather xx
Thank you, Heather, for motivating me to take part! x Glad you are joining me!
Hi Nicky
I did a 28 day blog challenge for February, and it was useful to get going by planning the first 7 days’ topics loosely in advance – not totally complete blogs, I finished them the night before.
I also planned a range of topics I wanted to cover during the month, and decided to include three “review blogs”, which helped me focus on what I’d learned to date and any future action points. My first blog of the challenge also mapped out why I was doing the challenge, etc. Check out http://squaretwocoaching.wordpress.com/ and click on “28 Day Blog Challenge” under Topics for more on this.
It was also useful to have a couple of blogs ‘up my sleeve’ for those days when the unexpected happened, and I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to write.
Good luck with it! Will be following your progress
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
I noticed you challenge and it is set me off thinking about whether the time was right for me to do it now. I have seen a few people doing a blog challenge and it always looked like fun! One thing that both you and Heather have recommended is a bit of forward planning. I am going to sit down tonight and write out as many topics I can think of as a list to come back to if I get stuck. I like the idea of review blogs! Maybe I should include an interview of people who have already done a challenge?
Thank you for your support x
Good luck with your challenge Nicky – i’ll be checking in to read your words of wisdom
Thank you, Caroline x What would you like to read?
Hi Nicky
A blog of interviews of previous blog challengers sounds like a great idea! Perhaps a good one to get started on??
Happy to be interviewed
Debbie
Hi Debbie
Will send you some questions soon! Thank you.
OK Nicky, I’ve been and gone and signed up. Let the fun begin !!!
Hi Anita-Clare
Looking forward to reading your blog articles. x
Hi Nicky,
As you know I did a post a day for a good few months. I stopped because I felt that quantity did not equal quality. I decided that it was better to wait until I felt I had something useful to say rather than write something for the sake of it.
The odd thing is that I could usually think of something to say every day but now struggle to write on an occasional basis. Of course, part of that is because I have broken the habit and can now always find something ‘more important’ to do.
When I was a one-a-day man I ruthlessly limited myself (and guest bloggers) to 200 words. Now I don’t. But guess what? The blogs I actually read are all very short. I subscribe to Seth Godin’s blog. I read his posts when they are two or three lines. I ‘don’t have time’ when they go beyond a paragraph. Food for thought!
Good luck – I await the outcome with interest.
Hi David
I have to write at least 100 words a day for it to count, but I think I will be erring on short, snappy ones!
Good luck with the challenge Nicky.
Suggest you start with a brain dump of headings, aiming for the 30.
You will be amazed just how easy it is to produce the content from the ideas.
Duncan
Thank you Duncan, for the encouragement. I think it might be become more challenging as the month goes on. Your support means a lot to me.