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
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
Sounds good!
1. Some – I've written daily meditations for my website
2. Quite interested if it really was just 1 hr a day
3. All the ideas seem good to me
4. I know so little about this whole thing that I have no other ideas but am sure I can learn a ton of stuff and that is good
Sounds good!
1. Some – I've written daily meditations for my website
2. Quite interested if it really was just 1 hr a day
3. All the ideas seem good to me
4. I know so little about this whole thing that I have no other ideas but am sure I can learn a ton of stuff and that is good
Hey everyone, thanks for all the responses. I’m excited that so many people are interested participating in this opportunity to become better bloggers. I am going to do an official announcement tomorrow, but before I do that, I thought I’d post my latest thinking here and give you all one more opportunity to provide feedback before the details are finalized.
•Do it only on weekdays – A lot of people expressed interest but said they might not be able to do it 31 straight days. Personally, I don’t blog on the weekends because of family, church, and a desire to rest. I know I will enjoy this a lot more if I’m not killing myself to do this & I hope you will too, even though it means we won’t finish until June 14. This also gives you a chance to catch up on the weekends if you miss a day or 2 during the week.
•Guest posting – There is going to be a post on Christian Web Trends for each of the 31 days. I’m going to invite participants to guest post. Guest posts will include a short bio plus a link to the bloggers blog, so it’s another way to help build your reader base.
•Comments/Links – As an incentive for participants to comment & to post to their own blog, participants will be invited to include at the bottom of their comments a link to the post they posted to their blog that day. If a person hasn’t posted a new blog post that day, no link.
•Forums – In addition to discussing the topic/lesson of the day, participants will be able to ask & discuss other blogging related questions in OurChurch.Com’s forums.
•Reviews/Feedback – Everyone seems to want to have other participants review & give feedback on their blog. My concern is that if we have 50 participants, we’ll get 50 posts to the forums on the first day asking everyone to check out their blog & give feedback, and then everyone will be disappointed at the lack of feedback. So, here’s how I’m thinking we will do it. Starting Day 11, I will pick one blog each day for everyone to review & provide feedback on that day. I will start with the blog of the person who is most active commenting on the blog posts, responding to questions in the forums, and go from there, so the more you contribute to the project the more likely you are to receive the benefit of a review from the other participants.
•Rewards – Of course the biggest reward from this project is that you’ll become a better blogger, which will help you achieve your goals. But in addition to that, OurChurch.Com is going to give away from free hosting and search engine marketing services to participants. I'll announce the specifics tomorrow. Sorry, no iPods, iPads, or trips to Hawaii.
What do you think?
I dig. I'm (truthfully) relieved about the plan to focus on weekdays. The only thing I felt reservations about was the possibility that I'd be doing this on weekends as well.
This is a great idea, even without the iPad 😉 Thank you!
Sounds good. Just let us know what we are supposed to do. I'm ok with 7 days per week seeing as in reality you can write ahead and schedule the blog to post on Sats and Suns..
I am totally on-board, Paul. I'd love to do the 31 days, in particular because I want the accountability. I look forward to the announcement.
Trece
1. Do you blog? Yes.
2. How interested are you in doing the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog? VERY interested.
3. Which of the ideas mentioned would you like to see as a part of this project? You have a lot of great ideas. I'd be excited about any of them you chose to incorporate as part of the project!
4. What other prizes, incentives, or other ideas do you have that would get you excited about the project? It sounds good to me as is. I'm pretty new to blogging regularly and am excited about all of it at this point!
Jennifer
Pingback: Join Us and Become a Better Blogger in 31 Days « Christian Web Trends Blog
OK peeps, the official announcement is up. Very exciting!
https://blog.ourchurch.com/2010/04/27/join-us-and-…
OK peeps, the official announcement is up. Very exciting!
https://blog.ourchurch.com/2010/04/27/join-us-and-…
I've had a blog "Inspirational Christian Stories, Poems, Gifts" since 2006. I get about 1,000 hits per month but few comments and followers. I would love to be a much bigger hit. I want to inspire people with my true stories and original poems. I want visitors to submit their inspirational stories and poems. I also promote the gifts I sell on my "Inspirational Gift Gallery" web site. I would also like to find a way to promote another Christian business I recently joined up with without it being repetitious posting.
I would love to participate in the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog!
I think prizes for things like the blog that sees the biggest increase in traffic over the 31 days and the biggest jump in RSS subscribers would make it a lot of fun. It sounds like a challenge to me and I love a new challenge!
I think a forum is an awesome idea! Who couldn't use feedback from a variety of different people as inspiration to improve their blog’s design, topics, writing style, etc?
1. Do you blog?
Yes, for over a year now and I am averaging about 1800 views per month praise God but I want to reach more to help people find Christ and encouage them as they serve God.
2. How interested are you in doing the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog? Very interested.
4. Which of the ideas mentioned would you like to see as a part of this project? Any are fine but I would do it for free.
5. What other prizes, incentives, or other ideas do you have that would get you excited about the project? Cannot think of any.