31-Day Blogging Challenge Wrap-Up

April 30, 2014

I’m not sure what happened to April (or the second half of March for that matter).

With the 31-Day Blogging Challenge (#31dbc), I started out strong, with posts every day. Then, life happened, work got insanely busy, and it’s been a month since I last posted. I was a bit discouraged by this failure at first, but I learned a few things along the way.

For veteran bloggers, this information might be something you already do, but for us newbies, it was helpful advice:

  • Block out time in your schedule every week to blog. For me, just putting it on my to-do list isn’t enough. I need to plan time in my schedule where I don’t answer the phone or schedule meetings during that time.
  • On days that you have time, write multiple posts so that you have filler material when you are slammed with work. I was too literal about the directions in the challenge. I only wrote one post a day, even on the days when I was on a roll and could’ve written more. It took me awhile to realize that I could set the publishing date in WordPress.
  • Jot down your ideas when they occur to you. I carry around a small notebook where I can jot down ideas when they occur to me, even if I’m not near my computer. The trick is remembering to look at it later when I’m staring at a blank screen.
  • Set a publishing schedule. Publishing content on a regular schedule helps your readers know what to expect.
  • Publish a few posts before publicizing the blog. Several people recommended this to me when I started. They suggested getting some blog posts up and getting into the habit of posting regularly before you start marketing the blog. It’s good advice because it allows you to decide if you are serious about the blog or not. I will start publicizing the blog more widely once I have some more of my website pages filled in. I hope to launch both by the STC conference in Phoenix.

What recommendations do you have for maintaining your blog? Post your comments here.

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2 Comments

  • Reply Marj Davis April 27, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    I too am interested in starting a regular blog. My problem is related not only to discipline and commitment, but also to focus! Since I retired and started some serious consulting ventures, I need to figure out what balls to keep in the air, and which ones to just drop!
    I’m eager to see how your blogging goes, Kit!
    –Marj

  • Reply Kit April 27, 2015 at 4:20 pm

    Hi Marj–
    Great to see you here!

    I’m still figuring out what I need to do to get into a regular routine. I have about 100 blog post ideas that I haven’t done anything with yet. (Also why I haven’t really publicized the blog yet.) I joined the Probloggers community (http://www.problogger.net/), got some books, and have been talking to people who blog regularly. Michael Hyatt (http://michaelhyatt.com/) is starting a Platform University course that sounds interesting, but I don’t have time until after STC Summit. I took his 5 Days to the Best Year Ever class and am working on implementing the goals I came up with.

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