Amazing to hear from a chap today who intends to use my poem as part of a tattoo! How cool is that!
My poem ends with the words ‘make the leap, own the sky’ and he likes skydiving, so this was the poem he chose! Perfect!
So touched that my words spoke to someone else. What a fabulous world we live in!
Proud!
Just posted a new poem video on youtube. Please do check it out and let me know if you like it!
It has been 100 days since I started out on the journey to writing 100 blogs in 100 days, so this is it. The 100th blog. I did it! #100blogs done!
What have I learned from writing these 100 blogs?
Primarily, I have learned that I don’t ever want to be a full blogger. Creating 100 plus different bits of blog content in as many days was a bit of a millstone round my neck at times, but nevertheless, I am pleased to be able to say that I set out to do it, and I managed to conquer it.
I am quite a fan of instant gratification and there has been nothing instant about this process. At the beginning, 100 blogs seemed almost unthinkable, but here at the end, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long.
Finding things to write about wasn’t really the problem, though inspiration was a little elusive at times.
The blog posts that had the most ‘success’ were the longer blogs I created. So this at least shows me that going forward, it is not enough to microblog ‘pointless’ pieces; the things that get the most traction either have more effort put into them or are especially current, topic wise. Perhaps that should go without saying, but as this is just me downloading my thoughts about this process, I feel it is worthy of note.
Traffic growth was most evident in the first half of the challenge, but overall the 100 blogs challenge upped my monthly traffic by 100%. I think the growth can be explained by the increased promotion that went hand-in-hand with the blog creation.
Should You Write 100 Blogs In 100 days?
If you want to, I think it is an interesting experiment to carry out. As a writery sort, this was always going to be beneficial to me, because the more you write, the more you write – if that makes sense! I have found creative inspiration for quite a few different projects over the time I have been working on this blog and I am sure it is because I upped my productivity overall.
When you work in a digital space, you are only ever one click away from distraction and so being strict with oneself about having to produce and publish content every 24 hours sharpens the direction and stops the urge to ‘just check facebook/twitter/whatever’.
This ebbed off towards the end of the challenge and I found that I was interacting more again, but by that stage I was only producing very short blogs, poems or quotes. This didn’t take a great deal of effort and I was less inclined to promote them as wildly as I was in the early days of the 100 blogs challenge.
Promoting Your Blog Content
Writing the blogs and creating the content is not enough. There are small wins to be gained from a search perspective but the main boost will come from the promotion you do and the willingness of your audience to pass your content on.
I’m not a great fan of promoting my stuff, but I accept that it is a necessary evil – after all, if you’re not prepared to talk about what you do, why should anyone else be bothered? That said, it is a fine line. If you don’t talk about it, no-one will know you exist. If you talk about it too much, people either switch off or disconnect completely.
It is a fast-paced world we live in and you have to tailor your ‘promotion’ to each platform. Someone said that the half life of a tweet is about 18 mins, but I actually think it is probably a lot less than that in reality. When you realise how few people are exposed to your tweets and how only a very small percentage of those few are interested enough to read your tweet, let alone act and click through, it can feel like you need to be a relentless marketer to get anywhere BUT actually a handful of engaged people is better than a mass of unaffected folk. You only need one person (‘the right person’) to be paying attention to garner potentially surprising results!
Top 10 Tips For Conquering The 100 Blogs In 100 Days Challenge
1. Set aside a specific time every day to write your blogs.
2. Be religious about publishing and posting within a certain time-frame. I set out to post every 24 hours and only once during the whole 100 days did that not happen!
3. Be prepared to fight the urge to give up! It comes and goes.
4. Write about what interests you.
5. Get into a rhythm with your blog promotion. Better scheduling can greatly affect the figures. Know when your audience are around and get in front of their eyes!
6. Blog with a friend. It was great fun blogging alongside other people doing the #100blogs challenge and inspired me to keep going in the early days.
7. Don’t expect too much. A disheartened state is not conducive to feeling like you want to carry on – each day is a new chance to make a bigger impact! But if you want a certain outcome, don’t forget to build calls to action into your posts.
8. Make your blogs a good blend of text, image and video content for most appeal.
9. Consider your blog never done. You can always tweak graphics, colours, even blog posts after the event. Nothing is fixed in stone and can always be revised.
10. Just jolly well do it! 🙂
What Was The Best Thing About The #100blogs Challenge
For me, the best thing about this whole project was learning that if I set my mind to something I can be a starter-finisher! I was totally determined to complete this challenge from the very 1st day and so I am going to allow myself a little pride in the victory of not breaking the chain! The second best thing was diversification. Having to write so much stuff meant that I naturally outgrew my ‘usual’ topics and blogged about things that I wouldn’t have ordinarily thought about. I also changed up/unified the format of posts a little compared to how I blogged in the past. I will be able to use all the things I learned here and apply them when I am blogging for my bespoke poetry service. The 3rd best thing is that I have grown my website by 100 + posts, and now have a batch of poems and blogs that I can continue to promote and use going forward as most of it is ‘evergreen’ content.
What are you going to do now the 100 blogs challenge is over?
As I am writing this post, I do feel a little sad that the challenge is over. I liked having to put something up daily, despite the fact it was a bit of a pain. But I will be glad to have a break. I will still continue to blog but probably not daily. Maybe weekly. Maybe more. (See, gone wishy washy already without the 100 blogs focus) It feels like I have spent a lot of time on output mode and I am realising that I can choose to dedicate that time to things that really matter to me and actually get stuff done. I am currently working on some rather fabulous books and so I intend to use the time I used to blog daily, to help push those projects on a little further. The cumulative effect of doing something on a day to day basis cannot be ignored. It’s one of those lovely situations where more effort really does get bigger results!
So that’s it. 100 blogs – done! *waves pompoms
Thanks to all who have read, shared and interacted with any or all of my 100 blog posts! You can find a full list of my #100blogs posts here.
This is post 100 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
How do you get heard? It is getting harder and harder to be seen and heard amongst all the streams of stuff being blasted out across all the platforms that unite us. So you have to stand out. But when everyone is standing out, or at lest attempting to, then no-one is standing out. It’s all very tricky.
Now I am over 70% of the way through the 100 blogs in 100 days challenge, I can tell you that just creating the content or writing the blog is not the one stop shop for getting heard. It is a step in the right direction, but it truly is only the tip of the iceberg.
Unless you have a large devoted following who are waiting to hear and read anything you put out, then you won’t have huge numbers actively, or indeed anyone, searching out your content. We all have to start somewhere, but it can be quite disheartening if the only people reading are you and your immediate contacts. To start with, you need to physically put your content in front of people.
Once you’ve exhausted all your avenues for putting your stuff within clicking distance of hopefully eager new viewers via social sharing, we have to go a little deeper.
So, if we take a moment to look at the things that do get heard, they all have a common theme and it is not that the content creator shouted more loudly; it is that people want to share them.
What makes people want to share? How can we connect better with our audiences and cause them to care about what we’re saying? How can we provoke a reaction which in turn prompts them to take an action (engage or share)?
These are three things that I think help.
If only it were as simple as 1,2,3! So, how do you get heard?
This is post 73 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
The lovely Andrea of AndAllThingsNice nominated me for a liebster award – thanks Andrea!
About the Liebster Award
The Liebster Award is for bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers and uses the following guidelines:
To find out more about the award and rules: The Official Rules Of The Liebster Award.
So let’s get started. First up Andrea’s questions and my answers!
My answers to Andrea’s questions:
Now for eleven random facts about me.
11 Random Facts About Me
Now to nominate some more blogs and bloggers for the award!
I would like to nominate the following people for a Liebster Award:
Gareth Mailer http://garethmailer.com/blog/ @garethmailer
Georgina at Ruby Weddings http://www.ruby-weddings.co.uk/blog/ @rubyweddings
Miss Make It Happen http://mihdee.blogspot.co.uk/ @MIH_Dee
MrsPandP http://www.mrspandp.com @MrsPandP
Ellie Sanderson http://www.elliesanderson.co.uk/blog/ @EllieSanderson1
Shona Easton http://www.shonaeaston.com/ @ShonaEaston
Mike at OnSiteNow http://onsitenow.co.uk/journal/ @OnSiteNow
Lisa at Athena Business Solutions http://www.athena-business-solutions.co.uk/2014/ @Athera_Business
Shellibobbins Hugs For Noah http://hugsfornoah.co.uk/2012/08/ @Shellibobbins @HugsForNoah
Joyce Connor MUA http://joyceconnormakeup.co.uk/blog/ @JoyceConnorMUA
Author Elisabeth Hobbes http://elisabethhobbes.co.uk/ @ElisabethHobbes
Finally, my questions to the people I have nominated!
My questions to the nominated bloggers
Nominees, I look forward to reading your blog posts! Don’t forget to leave me a comment and tweet me so that I can see it!
This is post 46 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
Day 43 in the Big Blogger house, and blogging fatigue has set it.
I’ll give it to you straight. Daily blogging is hard work. You have to be constantly thinking about it. Topics, images, promotion, interaction and on and on and on.
Sometimes blogging can be disappointing. You can spend ages crafting a blog post. You sit back and admire your handiwork and proudly declare it your best post ever. And what happens when you press publish? Nothing. No reads, no shares, no interaction.
Then you can spend 5 mins just downloading your thoughts in a haphazard fashion, have the inspiration to be able to create your own images in a further five minutes and it gets read and shared more than you’ve ever previously seen.
It feels pretty inconsistent. But that’s because there are so many variables.
You’ve got to think beyond the blog content. Though of course that is the crux of the matter. Does the title inspire people to click? Are people in the mood to read your blog post? Have you published it at the right time? Have you shared it with your networks at their most receptive times? Have they seen your post? Are you posting too much, or not enough? Has it been picked up by someone influential? Are people reading and sharing? Is it easy for them to share? Is there anything else going on in the world that means no matter what you write, your topic is just irrelevant right now?
It is little wonder that only the best of the best blogs make it to dizzying heights. It is so much more complex than it looks from the outside.
That said, there are some great benefits to be had from blogging. We are lucky enough to be able to have this public voice that we can use to connect and interact with other people in whatever way we choose, talking about any topic we want to.
So whilst I am suffering from blogging fatigue, I will keep at it. Not too far away from the half way mark of the 100 blogs in 100 days challenge.
I am currently blogging daily and posting daily. What I might do is have a go at lining up some posts in advance so I can perhaps have a day or two off the writing, just to recharge. The blogs would still be posted once a day though.
I don’t know if I really want to break the chain however, as the habit of blogging is proving to be useful to me in terms of productivity and output.
I’m sure even the best bloggers would admit this can be problem, and they get through it. How would you get over blogging fatigue?
This is post 43 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
30 days ago, on a whim, I agreed to try and write 100 blogs in 100 days. When I first heard about the challenge, I really had no idea if I would be able to either commit to the amount of time or to produce the amount of content required to fulfill the full #100blogs.
But, day by day, I have managed to produce a blog post, and published it. And now we’re on day 30, almost a third of the way through!
So what are the benefits of accepting the #100blogs challenge & writing blog posts every day for 100 days?
I have written poems and quotes, made ‘blog pretty’, found new readers, increased blog traffic and grown connections across all the platforms I participate in. I have had some banter with some of the challenge participants and had a peek at the insights into their various industries. I have found new topics and inspiration and all in all, I am really glad I started this.
I’m building up a fabulous library of blog assets as I go along, which I can re-purpose elsewhere and as we all know, content is king!
Focusing a bit deeper on the possible benefits of regular blogging, I will be looking to extend my 100 blogs efforts across to my bespoke poetry blog, although the schedule there will not be daily.
I am starting to think about what will happen when the 100 days comes to an end. I am not sure yet whether I will continue daily blogging after that point, as it is a lot of pressure. But saying that, it is a positive pressure. I am enjoying the feeling of accountability, without the actual accountability, if that makes sense. It also feels great to part of something bigger, and gives a daily conversation starter that many people who work from home might not have; stepping out of the isolation zone!
The main lesson I have picked up from this, is to say yes to things that might seem out of your comfort zone. Who knows where it might take you!
The author of Business Networking for Dummies, Stefan Thomas @noredbraces puts it in a slightly different way: Enter your adventure zone!
This is post 30 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
When you are blogging, there are numbers for everything: Numbers of blog visitors, numbers of page views, time spent on pages, percentage of click throughs, numbers from this country, numbers from that referral source, numbers of comments, numbers of likes & shares, and so it goes on.
I don’t know if you are anything like me, but I don’t know hundreds of people in real life. I can’t visualise thousands of pairs of eyes all looking at the same thing. So when the numbers say XXXX people saw this post, my eyes glaze over.
The numbers don’t matter.
When I write a blog post, I am sitting alone, one on one with my computer. I can picture one person reading it (*even if it is only me) and so with that perspective, any number greater than one is irrelevant.
It is not a number reading the blog, it is a person.
Numbers don’t matter, but people do.
This is blog post 21 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
I can’t do it.
This little sentence briefly flickered through my mind as I sat down to write this post. It actually made me raise my eyebrows. Not a good thing to think when you are only 8 blog posts into a 100 blogs in 100 days challenge!
But as quickly as the thought crossed my mind, I pushed it out again.
We all have times where we think we can’t do things. Even silly little things. And generally, it doesn’t really mean that we can’t physically DO THE THING, but rather we are afraid of the amount of effort it will take.
So really, I was telling myself I didn’t want to do it, rather than I couldn’t do it. Neither are great in terms of getting me through the challenge, but by identifying what I really meant left me free to give my head a shake. I do want to do it really. I just need to remind myself that I can.
I’m not even 10% of the way through the 100 blogs challenge so giving up at this stage would be lethal.
I mean, I wrote my intention down on the internet and everything! That means I can’t quit. Or rather I could quit, but I am not giving myself the permission to do so.
I am actually really enjoying the challenge at the moment because it is encouraging me to think about different topics. Do you ever go online and think “There is nothing to look at. I have run out of internet!” Well, I was feeling a bit that way. I was stuck in my routine of looking at the same old websites, doing the same old things over and over. It’s nice to have a different purpose or perspective from time to time.
Three Reasons I Want To Complete The 100 Blogs In 100 Days Challenge
So, having looked at the evidence, I would still have to say I can’t do it. But by it, I mean give up.
Quitters don’t win and winners don’t quit. This poem I wrote reminds me not to quit.
I cannot give up. I just can’t do it! 🙂 What helps you get through when you feel you can’t do something?
100 blogs. ONE. HUNDRED. BLOGS. #100blogs! – My list of the 100 blogs I have written over 100 days is at the end of this post.
It’s a challenge alright. The idea for this comes from Gareth Mailer (SEO Wizard and internet marketing specialist) who decided he was going to write 100 blog posts in 100 days.
So, I am jumping on the bandwagon and will also be writing 100 blogs in 100 days. I didn’t know whether I would commit to such a mighty feat as I am no regular blogger, but I have managed the first two days, so I figure that equals commitment. Just to solidify that even further, I am writing this post as the 3rd of my 100 blog posts. Only 97 more days to go! *whimpers slightly.
If anyone else wants to hop on the blogging bandwagon and fancies committing to 100 blog posts over the next 100 days, I think it is a case of the more the merrier. You can find other people who are joining in on this quest by searching #100blogs on twitter.
I will keep a list of my 100 blogs here!
1/100blogs People Who Leave Your Life
2/100blogs How Youtube Killed Soap operas
3/100blogs *This Post*
4/100blogs How Do Birthdays Make You Feel?
5/100blogs The Power Of Positive Thinking
6/100blogs 100 Poem Prompts #100poems
7/100blogs Create! Someone Will Like It
8/100Blogs I Can’t Do It
9/100blogs Things You Need To Stop Saying
10/100blogs How Do You Use The Twitter Favourite Button
11/100blogs Motivational Quotes
12/100blogs Life In Colour | A Poem
13/100blogs How To Keep A Diary
14/100blogs No-one Has All The Answers
15/100blogs What Is Your Why?
16/100blogs Mat Lloyd, Rhys James and Mark Grist
17/100blogs Deep In Conversation | A Poem
18/100blogs #SnowProject | Say Something Nice Online
19/100blogs Eurovision 2014
20/100blogs International Mother’s Day
21/100blogs Why The Numbers Don’t Matter
22/100blogs Do What You Love
23/100blogs If You Know Where You’re Going, Use A Map
24/100blogs 66 6 word story starters
25/100blogs How To Be Happier – Ditch The Happiness Zappers
26/100blogs Nothing To say
27/100blogs What Do You Do When You Are Having A Bad Day
28/100blogs The Ballad Of Fat Brenda
29/100blogs Palindrome Poem
30/100blogs 100 blogs in 100 days day 30
31/100blogs Learning Is Life
32/100blogs Forever – fun wedding poem
33/100blogs Today’s Troubles
34/100blogs Inspired By Morph
35/100blogs Music Monday
36/100blogs Vows | A Wedding Poem
37/100blogs Poem in memory of Maya Angelou
38/100blogs 50 reasons to smile
39/100blogs Advice and quotes for #myfuturepast
40/100blogs Don’t Judge Me In My Grief – A Poem
41/100blogs That Little Voice – A short poem about life.
42/100blogs Don’t Judge Me In My Grief Poem Video
43/100blogs Blogging Fatigue
44/100blogs Motivational Poem Video
45/100blogs The cutest poem ever.
46/100blogs Liebster Award
47/100blogs Be Wholeheartedly Unashamedly Passionately You | Quote
48/100blogs I Am Yours For All Of Time | Wedding Poem
49/100blogs And Then What?
50/100blogs It’s All Been Done Before
51/100blogs Accept What you Can’t Change
52/100blogs The Spark | A Poem
53/100blogs Proper Dads Poem For Fathers Day
54/100blogs Life Changing Moments
55/100blogs Father’s Day
56/100blogs Give Yourself Permission To Follow Your Dreams
57/100blogs New Wedding Poem Video – I Am Yours For All Of Time
58/100blogs What’s Your Cup Of Tea? Including Ode to Twinings English Breakfast Tea!
59/100blogs What’s The Mark Of A True Friend? Friendship quotes
60/100blogs Fun Blue Plaques Giveaway
61/100blogs Take responsibility
62/100blogs Attitude is everything
63/100blogs On the subject of problems.
64/100blogs How To Make Someone Love You?
65/100blogs I don’t want to live in a Googleverse.
66/100blogs Time – quote
67/100blogs Spread your wings – poem quote
68/100blogs Before You Break Your Spirit With Worry, Ask Yourself This
69/100blogs Change Is Inevitable
70/100blogs That Thing You Want To Achieve; Keep Trying
71/100blogs A Poem Every Day In July #DailyPoemProject
71.5/100blogs The First Time We Met | A poem | #DailyPoemProject
72/100blogs A poem about me | poetry | #DailyPoemProject
73/100blogs How Do You Get Heard?
73.5/100blogs A sonnet about food poverty | Dinner or Dust | #DailyPoemProject
74/100blogs The One | A Wedding Poem
74.5/100blogs A Poem About Being Alone | #DailyPoemProject
75/100blogs Blue | A Poem | #DailyPoemProject
76/100blogs One Step At A Time | Poem | #DailyPoemProject
77/100blogs Mastermind | A Poem | #DailyPoemProject
78/100blogs An Overnight Success?
78.5/100blogs Life Poem | Daily Poem Project
79/100blogs Miss Independent |Modern Fairytale Story Poem | #DailyPoemProject
80/100blogs I’ve Written Some Children’s Books
80.5/100blogs A Poem About Summer | #DailyPoemProject
81/100blogs A poem about night
81.5/100blogs I decide who I am quote
82/100blogs A poem about change
83/100blogs Wish I Could…. poem
84/100blogs A poem about trust
85/100blogs A poem about love
86/100blogs A poem about confidence
87/100blogs A poem about friends
88/100blogs A poem about music
89/100blogs A poem about family
90/100blogs A poem about nature
91/100blogs A poem about inspiration
91.5/100blogs Music Monday
92/100blogs First Flush Blush
93/100blogs A Poem About Beauty
94/100blogs A poem about strength
95/100blogs A poem about feelings
96/100blogs Ask Not What’s In It For Me
96.5/100blogs Wannabe Dream Chaser
97/100blogs A poem about childhood
98/100blogs A poem about jobs
98.5/100blogs Music Monday
99/100blogs
This is post 3 of 100 blogs in 100 days.
