You’ve heard me tell ya why you should give the Ultimate Blog Challenge a shot plenty of times now. So today I’m going to let Delia Rusu of EosGrafx share with you her experience in the Ultimate Blog Challenge AND some great tips about how you can participate even if you’re thinking, “Yeah it’s a good idea, but… I’m so busy! I’ve got things going on!”
Can you spot the three tricky strategies she shares below? Leave us a comment if you found them! But don’t give ’em away, okay? ;)
Blogging daily with a full time job or when you’re on vacation: Can you do it?
Guest Post by Delia Rusu
Have you heard about the Ultimate Blog Challenge (UBC)? It’s an absolutely free blogging challenge, held every quarter by Michelle Shaeffer and Michele Scism. The goal is to write and share a blog post every day, for an entire month. You can read more about it at: http://ultimateblogchallenge.com
Because many of my friends and colleague bloggers seemed reluctant to undertake such a big project, I thought I’d write this post about my 3 past experiences with UBC. If the idea of blogging daily sounds challenging to you, please read on, as I will be busting some myths around it.
Ready? Here we go!
Myth #1 I have a full time job, there is no way I can start blogging, let alone daily
Even if you have a full time job (which I have and had at the time I participated in the challenge for the first time), you can still do it. First time I took the challenge, the blog at EosGrafx was fairly young, about 5 months, and only had about 6 blog posts published. I know, right?
It was a real challenge and I was tempted to quit a few times, but in the end it was all worth it! I got to meet a nice bunch of bloggers, made a few friends, and got a few good clients out of that. And BTW, that’s when I gave up TV altogether! It’s amazing how much time you get back, I’m telling you!
Myth #2 I’ll be away part of the challenge, I won’t be able to blog
The second time I participated, we were going to be on vacation for about a week. But I said yes to the challenge anyway. I figured I will not publish posts over the weekends, but instead will write in advance and have a list of blog posts already aligned to go for the week that we were going to be away.
That’s when I actually learned that you can schedule posts in advance ;) Yep, everything went fine, though I wasn’t able to blog every single day, I still felt great to have participated.
Myth #3 I’ll be away for an entire month, so tip #2 is not going to work.
The third time I participated we were going to take an even longer vacation, as it was the July challenge. I signed up and completed the challenge, all 31 days this time, with a simple, yet great idea in mind.
What I did was to write and schedule all posts in advance. Indeed, I was not able to participate a lot in commenting on other people’s blogs, but I did my part in sharing and tweeting the great content the other bloggers put out there.
My point for saying all this to you is to convince you to sign up for the challenge if you have a blog and want to take it to the next level. You’ll make lots of friend bloggers, and you’ll get to read some wonderful blogs you did not know about.
If you are blogging for business, you may even connect with a few new clients or potential clients, who are looking for your services. Who knows, right?
And if you are not able to blog every single day, no problem! There is no UBC police, just do the best you can and you’ll be in better shape as a blogger than you were before you signed up.
Your turn!
So, what do you think? Are you up for the Ultimate Blogging Challenge? You have nothing to lose, and lots to gain!
If I convinced you, check out the next challenge, coming up April 1st. You can sign up at this link: http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/. I promise you’ll be glad you did. Want to know if I’m going to sign up this time? You bet. I cannot wait to read your great blog. See you there!
Delia Rusu helps women bloggers stay in their genius zone by showing them how to take their blog from dull to sparkle, so that readers can hear their blog’s message!
Visit her website, Blog Formatting and connect with Delia on Facebook and Twitter.
You can also find her sharing social media tips at EosGrafx (http://eosgrafx.com/blog).
Your turn!
Did you find the three strategies? Hit the comment box with a yes if you did.
What’s your favorite way to stay on top of blogging consistently when life is crazy? Share your best tip and I may feature YOU in a future blog post.
Image courtesy of scottchan/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I agree, I have 5 children, 2 dogs and I run and own 2 different businesses. You can do it, and we are here to help you. We are even given topics! I have participated before and it is fun and interesting to learn from many different angels. This time around I will be blogging about the personal topics on my personal blog and the business topics on my usiness blog. Since I am B2B I am sure I will get to meet many interesting usinesses. This will be fun.
WOW, Marilyn, you win, LOL! I agree with you, it’s a wonderful experience and the “worst” that could happen is we won’t complete all 30 posts. Not the end of the world, right? ;)
See you in the challenge!
Ok Delia. I’ll do it! Will be on a 7 day cruise starting 4-6. Wont’t have internet access but can do some before I leave. If I miss a few days, it’s far better than what I’ve been doing. I need a kick in the pants to blog on a consistent basis. Hope this works. Thanks.
You two are busy ladies. :)
It is fun, isn’t it? I love the connections I make every time I participate, too.
And I’m with you, Delia. Worst that can happen? I’ll end up with more content on my blog and more blogging friends than I had before I started, even if I don’t hit 30. :)
Hello Delia,
Congratulations on your guest post on Michelle’s blog, and your success with your online marketing. We connected on the January 2012 Blog challenge. I love your tips. I completed the one and only challenge I did and was very proud of myself. I know you and the other participants are going to have an amazing experience. Michelle Schism and Michelle Shaeffer have provided the perfect platform, tips, tools and strategies, for a successful Ultimate Blog Challenge.
I have other priorities at this time, but I’m sending positive vibes for everyone’s success. :-D
Thanks, Adalia, long time no see! I know I’m as busier as ever with 2 blogs now, but I love it! We’ll go our best, right? ;)
I think the points you make here Delia are very valid – however, I do have a question about the Challenge. Is it better to create a post every day (quantity) or post every week, or on a schedule you know you can maintain (quality)? How sustainable is daily posting after the Challenge ends?
Yay, Carolione, great to see you here! It’s not a strategy sustainable on the long run, at least for me :)
But it’s extremely worthwhile to meet new bloggers, read new blogs, and see what else is out there. I’ve become for sure more organized and can write posts in a more structured way, as a result of the challenges I’ve participated in.
I found three very helpful strategies! Great post, I’m excited to be taking part in this challenge for the first time ever. In the last week or two I’ve already made some great connections and really seen some growth for my blog. Thanks for sharing!
There you go, Regina! Welcome to the challenge, we keep seeing each other lately, LOL! Good luck and cannot wait to read your posts :)
Delia,
Good tips!
I agree…where there is a will there is a way. I have not gotten to the point where I schedule my posts ahead of time. It may be the new thing I learn this time through the challenge!
I love that feature, Jean. I don’t think I’d survive a challenge without it. ;)
Jean, I agree with Michelle 100%, that feature is fantastic. Even if I schedule one post ahead of time and I know it’s there ready to go, I feel much more relaxed and ready to attack the next one. Give it a try with 2-3 over the weekend see how it goes. Good luck!
Much appreciated Michelle. I’m just getting started myself really, so this is just the sort of information I’ve been looking out for. Thanks.
You’re more than welcome, Shaun! Good luck with your blog, make it a great one!
Great tips – I’m going to try scheduling blog posts for the first time this week to combine the challenge and a hen weekend away. I wonder if there’s a way to schedule the promotion of the posts too, or do you just have to wait until they are live?
Hi Ana, I don’t know if this will do what you want and it’s a possibility I’m currently exploring: http://www.nextscripts.com/
Hi Ana,
If your posts are being shared to social networks automatically, then they will share when the post is actually published, and not written and scheduled. But if you’re sharing manually, you’ll need to share the post once it hits the front page.
And BTW, these are great tips. I always forget about scheduling posts, even though I’ve done it before.
Yay, loving when we are all helping each other, ladies!
Ana, I mainly share manually because I like to put a different spin on my posts. There are diff plugins for Twitter or Facebook that you can research and install. An other idea to share automatically to Twitter and Facebook is to use Networked Blogs.
Thanks for the automation ideas for promotion. I forgot about the plugins that do that. I’m going to switch things around a little bit like Delia though to suit the different platforms so I think I’ll wait and do it manually when I get back. I still need to get my social media accounts going properly. So much to do, so little time…
Yes, you are right, Ana, take things easily and add one thing at a time. It works best this way, once you do a task a few times it gets better and you’d not be spending so much time on it as you did at the beginning.
This has been my experience :)
Hi Delia,
Your post is a perfect example of where there is a will, there is a way. No excuses.
I just discovered the challenge this evening and almost talked myself out of it because, not only am I travelling this month, but I just created a new blog with a different direction than my prior blog. I have lots of development work before me and I needed this challenge to force me to give the new blog attention every day.
You can do it, Rachel! :)
Yay, Rachel, must have heard your call when I had the idea to write this post and talked Michelle into posting it, LOL!
Yes, things are a bit crazy already for me too, but I won’t give up! We can do this :)
So – one tip that always works for me – is to carry a notepad and pencil everywhere you go. It’s funny how you can always find 10 minutes to scribble down a few thoughts. Tomorrow for instance, I will be taking the kids to the orthodontist for some treatment. Guess what – I will be scribbling away while in the waiting room. Squeezing time out if everywhere can even be fun… (Topic for a blog post there…)
Now I want to know what ideas you came up with at the orthodontist’s office… that had to be interesting! :)
I love how you added “(Topic for a blog post there…)” right at the end. A trailing afterthought…
Or, if you are like me, it’s more of a what-can-I-blog-about-next always-in-the-forefront moment.
I often find that I come up with blog topics while skimming blog posts. It’s usually heightened when I read the comments — and when I add my own comment, like I’m doing now.
I’ll add here that thought I didn’t complete 30 days, I signed up for the challenge for the first time in January of this year. I loved the daily emails that provided not one but usually 3-5 (or more) blog topic ideas. The majority of them can be tweaked to fit any niche, no matter who your audience might be.
I love Michelle’s blogging ideas, Rob! She should be getting them altogether into a book, it would be great for those days when you have no idea what to blog about, just open randomly at some page an write your post :)
Here’s my excuse…
I can’t join in the challenge, because my blog is scheduled out by 30-45 days. I don’t want to double up on posts, so I always pass. But as I type this, I realize that I can still write and just schedule the posts for later; I’m still participating, but in a way that fits my blog schedule. It’ll be a bummer not to get the feedback, but it’s still fun to have some inspiration for articles :)
Kimberly
Nice strategy, Kimberly. :) There’s definitely value in being aware of when to modify something to work better for you. Smart!
Fantastic post Delia, very much useful information. I found your blog a few days ago from Google and have been reading it over the past few days. I am going to subscribe your blog.
I feel I I run into myself some days, so busy.
blogging is a catharsis. I will do the be
Malika, so funny, ’twas like you almost were so busy that you could not finish the comment. I had such a good laugh!
Yep, life is super busy but I find that some days you feel really behind on everything and then some everything just falls into place and you get back on track. Good luck if you decided to join the challenge!
Any person may begin his or her own successful blog through the Internet. This is now very easy to realize as tools associated to blog are now simplified for ease of use even for those who lack experience and knowledge or who are inexperienced. This is even improved with the blogging strategies you just presented here.
Thanks for your comment, Megan! Are you in the Ultimate Blog Challenge? It’s really great to meet awesome bloggers and read some fantastic blogs :)
No matter how busy we may be, if we love what we do, then nothing is impossible. I love blogging and no matter how busy I am, I can still find time for it.
That’s the spirit, Connor! Now quickly back to completing and publishing my blog post, as I’m behind with the Ultimate Blog challenge post for today, LOL!
Thanks for your comment!
Great thoughts, as always! I am participating in UBC for the first time – I’ve learned so much and made new connections! It’s GREAT! Such support!
I’m happy it worked so good for you, Carrie! It was also the reason why we met online, which is awesome!
You are so right, a pool of ideas to dip into at any given time, plus an editorial calendar to keep yourself on track are crucial.
I also find it helpful to have a set time a day when I write, no matter what. Definitely keeps me writing!