At the beginning of December I held the very first Blog Week. Blog Week is an intensive taste of Blog Club; a chance to try it out, and reap the benefits of Blog Club for a week, for free.
When you run something like that for the first time, you don’t really know how it’s going to turn out. I had a vision of how I thought the online community could work, and what I thought the benefits of that community would be for all of the Blog Week Bloggers. So you can imagine my relief when that vision came true, when people got stuck in: posting their intentions, chatting about blogging in the Blogging Parties, and sharing their blog posts. Everyone was very supportive and encouraging of each other, and people used the energy of others’ blogging to spur them on to blog. They all benefitted from having a community that answered their questions and gave them the help they asked for. They got to see people’s different approaches to blogging, and learn from them, and they had a supportive group of people to read their blog posts. And most important of all, they blogged their socks off!
There were many realisations and revelations, individual and collective, throughout the week, and the three that stand out for me are:
Blog Posts Don’t Have To Be About Something Brand New
You don’t have to look for a brand new idea for every post that you write. In fact, you help people to choose you by writing about the same things, just in different ways. It’s rare that someone who comes across your blog will go back and read every single one of your blog posts, so it pays to cover the same ground across several of your posts. Just remember to look for a different perspective each time and don’t just copy and paste!
There’s No Such Thing As Cheating At Blogging
Ideas that come easily, blog posts that are written quickly, short blog posts, blog posts that start as something you posted on Social Media: these are all proper, legitimate blog posts. Blogging doesn’t have to be difficult, and it doesn’t have to take forever in order to work. Blogging can be easy and fun! Honest!
It’s Possible To Write A Decent Blog Post In 30 Minutes
In the very middle of Blog Week we set ourselves a challenge: to write and publish a blog post within 30 minutes. There was some doubt about whether it was do-able, but everyone who tried it, surprised themselves by doing it! People who weren’t going to blog that day, blogged. People who’d already blogged that day, blogged twice. And people who didn’t think they’d have time later in the week to blog, used the 30 minute challenge to make sure that they did. Everyone who took the challenge discovered that blogging can be fun, quick, and easy. Try it! You might surprise yourself!