Whew! It’s been an amazing first week of the 31 Days to a Brand New Blog Challenge! It’s been great to see so many people improving their own blogs as well as helping each other along the way. I wanted to highlight what we’ve been doing together all week, especially for the new bloggers who’ve just joined us! Over the weekend, I reopened the sign-up page to accommodate additional bloggers who had expressed interest. The result is that we’re now up to 80+ participating bloggers!
Here are some highlights from our first week together. I’ve posted all the assignments from last week, so check out the comments (there are a lot of helpful tips in the threads) and some of the thoughtful posts from your fellow bloggers!
Day 1: Analyze Your Blog’s Traffic (42 comments)
- “Topless Black Girls” & other keywords that lead to my blog (black girl blogging)
Day 2: Write a Purpose Statement for Your Blog (49 comments)
- Rooting Nonprofits: A Purpose Statement (Rooting Nonprofits)
- What is the Purpose of the Fabulous Giver? (The Fabulous Giver)
- Why Blog? (Work in Progress)
- So what is this blog all about? (Interpreting Slave Life)
Day 3: Tweak the About Page for Your Blog (57 comments)
Day 4: Write a List Post (43 comments)
Also see: 18 List Posts from the 31 Days to a Brand New Blog Challenge
- 12 tips on social media use for nonprofits, from YNPNdc’s Social Media Summit (Social Grace)
- my 5 favorite art museums (for now) (Cabinet of Curiosities)
- 3 Reasons Evaluations Should Be Used in Nonprofits (Nonprofit Gold)
- 5 ways to Explore a Creative Outlet (Live Creative)
Day 5: Comment on Three Blogs You’ve Never Commented On Before (26 comments)
- DAY 5 Blog Challenge Mr. Hudson’s Speech (RIISE)
- Lola Gets Life: My Thoughts on Your Post (Lola Gets…)
- Day 5 (Commenting…) #31BnB Challenge (My Hair is Me)
Day 6: Link to a Blogger in Your Niche (16 comments)
- Topics for Non-Profit Blogs Addendum (More Donors Blog)
- Going to Middle School This Year? (RIISE)
- Community Design Online (Katherine’s Toolbox)
- Small Strokes (Naked Lady in a White Silk Dress)
Day 7: Self-Host Your Blog (With Video Tutorial) (28 comments)
What has our community of bloggers learned so far?
a_singledrop
…I’m really really grateful to be able to be a part of this community. First of all, it’s forcing me to be an active blogger (or do my best to be one) even when everything in life would conspire against me letting my blog go dormant two highly-successful posts in. Secondly, I really appreciate the community that’s built up around this course and the mutual encouragement that comes from it.
Even though I haven’t had the time to blog as much as I would like, something remarkable has happened over the past few days. In one of my past posts (that I made before this challenge began) I praised the work of a physician doing great work in making social media work for her healthcare practice. She found my blog post through a google search for her own name, liked my post and retweeted it to her followers. This immediately increased by blog traffic by over 50%! Even more so, I’ve gained a bunch of new twitter friends, joined a blog discussion on healthcare and social media, and, of course, got the attention of a doctor that I greatly admire (who I mentioned in the initial post!).
So, I guess what I want to say with all this is – all of these assignments that we’ve gotten the past few days about commenting on other bloggers’ work and linking to other bloggers (and even those that do not have their own blog) that we admire, really really works. We may not see the results within these first 30 days, but some truly awesome things may still be further down the road…
artdeal
This challenge has given me what I needed to keep going with my blog. I am thinking now more about where I want my blog to be and what I want to get from blogging. I guess I was still stuck in the “personal journal” mode of blogging.
Charron Andrus
Biggest lesson thus far is that connecting with other bloggers (in the same niche and just involved in things that interest me) is huge. They give you a thoughtful opinion on ideas you may have for your blog. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting new people via this challenge and reading blogs that I may have never thought to browse.
lola_gets
Doing this challenge, and the work I did before the challenge began, I have learned that if I want my blog to be successful, I have to actually think, analyze and plan. Think about subjects, about what I want to get out of my blog. Plan topics, posts, and research them if I need more information about the subjects.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for another week! Oh and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a post!
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