I believe blogging is one of the best avenues to achieve success.
Whether your dream is to lead a great church, build a great company, bring lots of people to faith in Christ, fight an injustice, or anything else, blogging can help you accomplish that. In fact, you’re probably already reading the blog of someone you admire because they’re successful at something similar to your dream.
I want to become a better blogger, and I want to help you become a better blogger, whether you’ve got years of experience or are just thinking about starting your first blog.
Let me explain how we can do this together.
31 Days to Building a Better Blog
Darren Rowse is one of the most successful bloggers on the planet. He authors the ProBlogger blog which boasts 136,000 RSS subscribers and has helped thousands of people earn a living blogging.
Several years ago Darren did a 31 Days to Building a Better Blog project. Thousands of bloggers participated as each day for 31 days Darren posted a blogging lesson & gave a homework assignment.
I bought a copy of 31DBBB for $20. I skimmed it, and it’s fantastic. I could go through it and do it on my own, but what would be the fun in that?
I want to do 31DBBB with a group of people who are as passionate about blogging and self-improvement as I am. Experience is irrelevant. I hope the group includes some people who have been blogging for years as well as some who are just starting their first blog. Far more important that experience is passion and a willingness to commit to about an hour a day, every day, for 31 days.
Yes, that’s a big commitment. But I wouldn’t make that commitment myself if I didn’t believe it was worth it.
How do we make this exciting?
Becoming a better blogger is its own reward, but because this project requires a big commitment, I want to add some incentives and some excitement so that we’ll look forward to all 31 days. This is where I need your help.
What would help make this exciting for you?
Here are some ideas I’ve come up with…
- What if there were prizes for things like the blog that sees the biggest increase in traffic over the 31 days? Or the biggest jump in RSS subscribers?
- What if OCC offered free hosting for a year to any blogger who made it all 31 days?
- What if we found some WordPress theme developers who would offer big discounts or free themes to participants?
- What if we created some sort of forum so that participants could get honest feedback on their blog’s design, topics, writing style, etc from other participants?
- What if we could get a famous, celebrity blogger to participate?
- What if we created our own topic at postrank.com which would allow us to see which blogs are making the most progress. (Example)
I want to finalize the details this week so they can be announced on Monday and we can start the 31 days to a better blog on Saturday May 1. So, before you click away could you real quick answer these questions for me in a comment?
- Do you blog?
- How interested are you in doing the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog?
- Which of the ideas mentioned would you like to see as a part of this project?
- What other prizes, incentives, or other ideas do you have that would get you excited about the project?
Thanks!
68 Comments
1. Not currently, but have not learned how to get started.
2. Fairly high
3. Community feedback and the chance to learn.
4. The I-pad is not a bad idea, or a net book pc would be ok.
Hi,
I am also interested…just like Megan we post alot of family, homeschooling stuff. I do plan to start or I should say move our now virtually hidden blog for childrens ministry. Sounds great…
1. Yes
2. Interested, like daily blogging but not sure about weekends…like to take sundays off =)
3. i really like most ideas…esp the postrank, free hosting, help with wordpress themes….
4 prizes are fun, gaining knowledge more important…esp blog design help.
Lois, I never post on the weekends here on Christian Web Trends or on my personal blog, so 31 straight days would be be a big commitment and require some sacrifices for me as well.
1. Not blogging now.
2. Pretty interested.
3. Like free hosing, community feedback
4. Internet ads (google, facebook) would be great prize and incentive.
1. Yes.
2. Very interested. However, I will be traveling without easy access to the Internet for a few days in May.
3. Forum
4. Learning
very interested, what and where is the sign up? Or what information you need to enroll.
Writer, storyteller & Poet. Pete Sebert
Hi Pete, there's no sign-up yet. This post is just to gauge interest and get ideas from those who will participate as to what we can do to make this the best possible project.
I want to do another post today summarizing some new ideas & asking for feedback on a few questions. Then I'll do a post Monday or Tuesday with all the details finalized and sign-up instructions.
1. I recently closed two of my blogs. I wasn't updating them very regularly. Blogs to me seemed to be pure exercises in unadulterated self-intoxication. I can't imagine people wanting to hang on my every word…
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, make it 8.7?
3. A. Prizes? If something is really worth doing, why do you have to bribe us with prizes? Are we in nursery school?
B. I have my hosting setup.
C. Mildly Interesting.
D. This is worth doing!
E. Celebrities? Please, are we in high school?
F. Okay?
4. If the project is worth doing, you don't need to bribe me.
Hey Lisa,
>>Blogs to me seemed to be pure exercises in unadulterated self-intoxication. I can't imagine people wanting to hang on my every word…
I doubt even the best bloggers have many people hanging on their every word. In my opinion the key is whether you blog for selfish reasons or blog to help your readers in some way. If a person blogs to help others, or inspire people towards a cause, or provide insight into a particular field or interest that doesn't sound like "unadulterated self-intoxication" to me.
>>Prizes? If something is really worth doing, why do you have to bribe us with prizes? Are we in nursery school?
I like you're attitude! If some sort of prizes are awarded, I certainly hope people don't participate purely for the prizes. It's just intended to add a little fun. But ultimately, I hope people participate because they really want to become a better blogger, and because they really wan to help other bloggers.
HI
I want to better my bloggin for two reasons: to share my faith and to supplement my husbands income…. so..
1. Do you blog? Yes, on a friend's site, etc.
2. How interested are you in doing the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog? I am interested very much so.
3. Which of the ideas mentioned would you like to see as a part of this project? I would love to participate in this project to win the years free hosting for my church's website.
4. What other prizes, incentives, or other ideas do you have that would get you excited about the project? Maybe free blogging lessons, free web domains, etc.
Thanks!
Connie
Good idea Paul, count me in.
1. Yes
2.very interested
3. I like them all you know, is that being greedy?
4. The tuition is enough incentive Paul.
tuition?
Yes, I am interested.
I do blogged
I would like to improve in content and frequency
I don't think I need much more than encouragement and knowledge that someone is reading it.
1. I don't blog, but I want to learn. It would help to do it together.
2. Yes.
3. I like the opportunity to get feedback from other bloggers, especially high profile bloggers.
4. Competition is a great incentive. So is the opportunity to help people.