This is Day 1 of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, a group project 50+ other bloggers are doing together in an effort to help each other become better bloggers. You can read more about it and still sign-up to participate here.
Welcome fellow 31 Days to Build a Better Blog bloggers!
And if you’re not officially signed up & participating in this group blog project, welcome to you too. Even though you won’t benefit as much as you would if you had signed up, bought the 31DBBB e-book, and fully committed to this project, everyone who reads & discusses any of the 31 posts in this series should be able to glean some insight to help them become a better blogger.
Day 1’s lesson and assignment is all about writing an “elevator pitch” for your blog. It’s a great place to start this series because it forces each of us to give our blog an identity.
What is an Elevator Pitch?
“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100–150 words).” —Wikipedia
Find Your Focus
One of the most common reasons blogs fail is due to lack of focus.
General speaking, people read blogs for one of 3 reasons: to learn, to be inspired, or to be entertained.
This may sound harsh, but if you blog “about life” or “whatever’s on your mind,” unless you’re a celebrity nobody outside your family and close friends is going to read it. The focus of your blog should not be on you, but on how you can help your readers.
Writing your elevator pitch forces you to answer some essential questions:
- Why are you blogging?
- Who are you blogging for?
- What are you blogging about?
My Elevator Pitches
I am not only facilitating this project, but I’m actually going to do all 31 days both for this blog, Christian Web Trends and for my personal blog, LiveIntentionally.org. So, here are my elevator pitches…
Christian Web Trends discusses news & trends in technology to help Christians communicate more effectively.
At LiveIntentionally.org we encourage, challenge, and discuss how to create the life we want for ourselves rather than allowing circumstances and other people to dictate who we are, how we feel, and what we do. We do this by discussing books, inspirational stories, and life lessons.
What do you think?
Discussion
Since this is the first post in this series, go ahead and take a moment to introduce yourself in a comment. Tell us
- your name
- the name of your blog
- the URL of your blog
- the elevator pitch for your blog
- any thoughts or questions about elevator pitches
The Extra Mile
A few other things you can do to take your blog, other bloggers, and this project even further.
- Reply & give other bloggers feedback on their elevator pitches
- Tweet, share, & bookmark this post. (You could win a $25 gift card!)
- Write about your elevator pitch and/or about elevator pitches on your blog.
- Ask & answer questions about blogging but unrelated to elevator pitches in the forums.
288 Comments
Hey Cindy sounds great. The second pitch doesn't seem to ramble at all, and it's a great follow up to the one liner you have.
Out of curiosity what's the url for your blog?
That works like a charm!
I need more time today!!!! I have my blog posted, but I need more time in my day to look at everyone else's. I may be burning the midnight oil to view them. Great stuff!
I am late to this concept and hope to officially sign up soon!
My name is Kim Quon and my blog is called Preparation4Eternity, which can be found athttp://preparation4eternity.blogspot.com/
My blog is directed towards Christian husbands. Wives are welcome too! I am a Believer married for 32 years. I almost didn't make it past 24 years. This blog is about my own experiences and how I'm making it. I have particularly been helped in my marriage by a para-church ministry called Life Partners. Their goal has become mine, which is to motivate myself and other husbands to become more Christlike and thereby help us to become more effectual spiritual leaders to our wives and children and others around us. I write to confess my own shortcomings, ask for forgiveness and share successes and what I'm learning in the pursuit of Christlikeness. One thing I have learned is that ALL of life in preparation for eternity! Hence the name of the blog.
My name is Matt Brier and my blog is 'A Cracked Pot Among Jars of Clay.'
http://matman42.blogspot.com
My elevator pitch: A Cracked Pot Among Jars of Clay focuses on writing experiments, reviews, and occasional observations on life. Between wrestling with questions and everyday struggles of my Christian walk I bring reviews of music, books, and movies.
Hi Matt, I liked your original version and your revised. I liked your original because your writing style of it is a lot like mine – covering your main focus and then letting your readers know that there will be more on your blog than just your main focus. For me, hearing that you are going to bring reviews of what you like makes you more personable to me. I am a wordy person, so I probably would have put the section "Between wrestling with questions and everyday struggles…" as well because questions are not always struggles, they can be from just being aware of your surroundings on your walks and that alone can bring about positive questions/thoughts.
And I really like your revised version. It's a much cleaner and easier to understand version. You'll be happy to have it for when you only get a few seconds of someone's ear.
To sum up my wordy thoughts, I think that both have their place and you'll be happy to have both. Great job!
Hi Matt, I liked your original version and your revised. I liked your original because your writing style of it is a lot like mine – covering your main focus and then letting your readers know that there will be more on your blog than just your main focus. For me, hearing that you are going to bring reviews of what you like makes you more personable to me. I am a wordy person, so I probably would have put the section "Between wrestling with questions and everyday struggles…" as well because questions are not always struggles, they can be from just being aware of your surroundings on your walks and that alone can bring about positive questions/thoughts.
And I really like your revised version. It's a much cleaner and easier to understand version. You'll be happy to have it for when you only get a few seconds of someone's ear.
To sum up my wordy thoughts, I think that both have their place and you'll be happy to have both. Great job!
Pingback: the elevator pitch: bibledude[dot]net : BibleDude.net
This sounds awesome. Will definitely be following your blog with some interest.
Hi! Fellow 31DBBB'ers!!
My name is ray.
I have a blog called another ragamuffin…another blog over athttp://ragamuffinray.blogspot.com
"At ragamuffinray.blogspot.com I would like to encourage others, write about 'life lessons' most all of which I had to learn the hard way. To be an authentic and transparent blogger writing about (and finding) ways to live this vapor called life. I focus on blogging about music, books, movies, and pop culture as a whole and who it relates to fellow believers."
I look forward to reading everyones blog and please feel free to follow me on twitter and send me a link to you and I will linkback as well!
Peace and Love!
Which would you say is your more primary focus, writing about personal life lessons, or blogging about music, books, movies, and pop culture?
Well, I haven't had that come up yet. A friend help me set up the blog and the coffee cup is just supposed to be an easy way for people to find where to get the devotionals by email. I have never thought about anyone clicking on that. Thanks for pointing that out.
Now I just have to figure out how to leave the cup and take the linking off of it.
I appreciate the insight!
Hi all,
I am William Dicks, blogger athttp://williamdicks.blogspot.com. My blog's name is Theo-Enthumology.
My EP is:
"Theo-Enthumology is dedicated to reflecting on God and His truth as revealed in the Bible, while also looking at the modern church and how it at times deviates from God's truth."
How short should an EP be , or perhaps, how long may it be? In my opinion, it probably is best to keep it to one sentence. If it becomes too long you might as well write a blog post on it.
How short? I guess as short as it needs to be to get the idea across.
I've read your ep several times now and each time I see that it tells me all I need to know but equally it doesn't make me (very individual thing I know) want to click on through to read any more.
I guess for me, I'm saying that the ep comes over as a little dry.