V7N Blog Challenge With A Twist Daily Progress

[Cricket]

Posting in this thread is reserved for participants of the V7N Blog Challenge With A Twist who are posting their progress with the challenge, providing blog tips, encouragements, comments, and asking questions. The more we interact with each other, the better it is for everyone.

The official start date for this blogging challenge (with a twist) will begin Monday, March 7, 2011. However, participants may start early if they wish.

When posting your blog post for the day in this thread, please include the title of the thread, the URL of the post, and a short blurb about the post.

As an example:

I Had Forgotten
http://www.cricketwalker.com/i-had-forgotten/

"The darkness lingered nearby for so long that I wondered if maybe it had become a part of me, that perhaps I felt some comfort in holding onto it, keeping me safe from hope. Yeah, I was smack dab in the middle of a good old fashion pity party filled with the kind of hate and anger that can destroy who you are as a person, who you are inside."

Relax and just have fun with this challenge.

[Cricket]

Here is a blog post I found filled with thoughts!
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2...esponsibility/

In the meantime, what help does anyone need to get prepared for the challenge?

[RedScooter]

Most of us don’t blog every day, so this is a big challenge. It always helps me when I have a clear plan, so I’m not struggling day to day to figure out what I need to do. Here are some suggestions on ways to jumpstart the blog challenge:

Brainstorm blog topics. Finding something to blog about seems to be one of the biggest challenges, so sit down and make a list. You might want to write a couple of sentences to go along with each topic so you’ll remember later what you were talking about. If you’re really stuck, try Google Wonder Wheel or do a search for something related to the topic of your blog. Other people’s articles may give you a good idea.

Make outlines. Once you have a list of topics, sketch out an outline of what you want to cover in each article. I usually end up with 2 or 3 separate articles for each topic!

Start writing drafts. If you want to stick to posting once a day, you don’t have to actually write every day. Some might call this cheating… but I call it planning. You could either write rough drafts in Word, or if you use a blog that allows you to save drafts without publishing (like WordPress) you can use your blog itself. You don’t even have to finish the posts, just write some rough drafts. Or when you're on a roll, write 2 or 3 related articles and schedule them to be published one per day.

Do some keyword research. If you’re working on SEO or blogging for business, you can come up with topics by doing keyword research. Check your web analytics to see what keywords and keyphrases people are already using to get to your blog. Are you missing some that you expected to find? Write those down and write some articles to specifically target those keywords. Are you finding keywords that you didn’t realize you ranked for? Write some articles to target those, and then link to the new articles from the old ones that are already ranking for those terms. Outside of your own statistics, check Google Trends or use a good keyword research tool to find related terms. If you’re blogging for business, try to branch out to reach your target audience in unexpected ways. For example, if you are a web designer, you could write articles about web basics (what’s a domain name, why do you have to pay separate domain and hosting fees). This often works better than trying to use your blog to directly advertise your products or services.

Set clear goals and make a plan to reach them. You might just want to stick to blogging every day for 30 days (an admirable goal itself)! Or maybe you want to rank higher for some keywords, or increase the number of people who subscribe to your email list. Once you have your goals, figure out different ways to reach them. The more ideas you have to reach your goals, the more likely you are to stick to the plan just because you have so many options.

[Cricket]

Some tips to help you get started with blog topics....

50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics
http://www.copyblogger.com/brainstorm-blog-topics/

"Are you out of ideas for blog posts? Small wonder, if the only place you’re looking is inside your own head. We all need inspiration … and you’re not going to find it banging your head against the desk and hoping an idea falls out."

[kos]

yup! that's been bookmarked!

ty!

XO

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Darren Rowse of Problogger has talked a couple of times about planning your posts. The idea is instead of having to come up with ideas on the day of, you have a plan already in place to write posts for different categories of your blog. Here is an example post of his:

Today I want to show you three techniques that I use in my process of future planning for posts

Your First Week of Blogging – Plan Your Future Blog Posts

Ahh, here's the post I was looking for:

Yesterday your task in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge was to come up with a list of at least 10 post ideas for your blog. The idea was to spend time before you needed posts coming up with ideas. Doing this can release you later on to just write instead of having to brainstorm ideas every day.

Today’s task is to take the list you created yesterday and to plan your posting schedule (or editorial calendar) for next week.

This is something I attempt to do on a weekly basis for each of my blogs (I usually do it Sunday night or Monday morning).

Develop an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog [Day 12 - 31DBBB]

[HTMLBasicTutor]

StumbleUponed this:

The curse of daily or weekly deadlines can turn even the joyful luster of creative writing into just another job that eats your life away.

Don’t worry—creative juices never dry up; they just become harder to access from time to time. Your creativity truly is a bottomless supply of blogging and writing fodder, as long as you keep drilling new wells to tap into your pool of inspiration.

Try these tips to keep yourself writing 1,000, 2,000, or even 3,000 words everyday.

7 Tips for Writing 1,000 Words Each Day

[JGoode]

A cool tool I've used for a couple years is Scribe Fire. It's a Firefox add-on which allows you to write blog posts from an easy to access interface within Firefox instead of logging into your blog account directly. You can add as many different blog accounts as you'd like. It shows up in the lower right of your browser window as a tiny orange note page making it available no matter what you're browsing at the moment.

Sometimes I've been working and see something or read something that would make a great addition or start to a blog but I don't want to interupt what I'm doing to go write the post. Scribe Fire makes it super convenient for me to pop in a note to write about the topic later - it's also had when referencing from other websites as sources for quotes, etc. without having to take the time to log in or open separate browser tabs and windows. You choose to save the info as a note or publish right from the tool.

It's been a great time saver and really helped me see blogging with less obstacles! (I have no affiliation with this tool, I just really like it) http://www.scribefire.com/

[RedScooter]

Blogging early for some friends who wanted to try out SEOmoz: http://www.thegirlintheredsweater.co...oz-setup-guide

[moneyonlinesorg]

I just added a new blog area and mentioned the challenge. Truth be told, wanted to do this earlier and forgot. I really need to jump these quicker to help promote them, sorry Cricket. My last minute timing isn't helping that

http://www.howtomakemoneyonlines.org...-with-a-twist/

[cbsmth]

Very well, the hour has struck and thus it's now the 7th over here, meaning it's time to publish the first post in the challenge!

The Towers of Hanoi
http://cbsmth.se/algorithms/towers-of-hanoi/

The Towers of Hanoi is one of the more famous mathematical puzzles out there, and there is a good chance that you've come across it before - although perhaps unknowingly. Allegedly, the puzzle stems from a legend in which monks move 64 discs between three poles, counting down toward the end of times.

The reason behind this blog post, apart from finding the legend interesting, is that I found the recursive solution to optimally move the discs both ingenious and beautiful. Read on for a full explanation of the puzzle as well as the recursive solution and its explanation!

[Kaiberie]

I love brainstorming posts - the problem I have is remembering to use the brainstorms. Most of my issues have now been solved by installing a WordPress app on my iPhone, so instead of sticking my ideas in Evernote, I write them direct as local drafts and upload them when I'm on a five minute break or whatever - it's amazing how much you can write waiting in the line in a post office, or waiting for the kids to get out of school, or while waiting for code to upload.
Now, I just need to transfer the notes I've got in Evernote to my grammar blog and I'll be all good

Kai

[sweetbabycakesnmore]

Vote for Sweet Baby Cakes N More in the “Leading Moms in Business” Contest

My blog entry was about having my friends, family, and customers aware of my entry in the "Leading Women in Businss" Competition and to please vote!

[inkelf]

Disney World Florida

http://inkelvestravel.wordpress.com/...world-florida/

"The smallest of the four parks is that of the Hollywood Studios. This is where all Hollywood dreams can come true. All of the rides and attractions within Hollywood Studios are movie themed. This is a must visit park for any movie lovers visiting Disney World. Animal Kingdom may seem a little bit of a disappointment at first glance and they are not open after dark. What it lacks in attractions though it definitely makes up for in theming and its focus on animals. This is not quite a zoo or a theme park but somewhere in the middle."

[RedScooter]

Day 1: Eco-friendly party supplies on my personal blog

http://www.thegirlintheredsweater.co...arty-supplies/

"It is not an easy task to find eco-friendly party supplies, especially for children’s birthday parties. All their favorite characters are printed on paper plates, those horrible paper napkins that don’t even clean anything, and paper cups. But since they’re coated in that plasticy stuff, you can’t recycle them."

[JGoode]

Here's my first post:
Exploring with discovery jars

A hands-on preschool activity to explore site, sound and weight.

[Kaiberie]

OK - two posts for today
My blog post - So The New World Order
And my tip for today (via my cat) - The Office Cat's guide to blogging
I'm still working on getting Kai-0-9-tales set up, along with the themes and work on the other blogs, but it's a start, right

Looking forward to surfing everyone else's posts tonight!

Kai

[tshirtlady]

First post of the new challenge - no tips really, I just love to write about my cats
http://www.sandists.com/WordPress/20...onths-already/

[moneyonlinesorg]

Welcome aboard to all thus far, look forward to seeing, and reading some of your blogs. I'll be jumping around as the friendly blog commenter as time allows. So if you've got a new blog that looks sparse, I'll try to open things up so people aren't worried about being the first to comment.

[sassystyle]

My first post for the challenge, and yes, I was reaching for this one. I need to do some planning on those days my brain is fried! Thanks, Kai, for letting me know about this challenge.

Camera Fun