Pardon the interruption of the flow of the Problogger Challenge, but I was enjoying the last 4 days in Vegas with my girls. Now, I am trying to get caught up. Luckily, some of the posts weren’t really about writing a post but doing something to improve your blog outside of your blog.
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For example, day #12, Friday, was about developing an editorial calendar. Problogger suggests creating a spreadsheet that covers each day and start putting in topics, jotting down notes and making it easy to add to. I know he’s the ‘pro’ and all, but I actually liked the suggestion of one of his commenter’s better.
Jodi says: do this but not on the computer. There are some things I like to be able to touch, feel and scratch 
So I do this on a piece of blank paper. And I do a month at a time. I do not fill the whole month out at once, but this way if I run a contest, I can put the end date/announcement date down. Or I can see when i have too many guest bloggers or too many tutorials, etc. It allows me to see the big picture as I fill slots in.
I love this idea because I too love the feeling of real paper and a pen (I know, so antiquated!). Anyway, whatever way you do it, the idea of planning out your monthly calendar for blog posts is something we all should do. I spent some time today working on mine, but they won’t start until after this series with problogger. I would share them, but then you’d know what was coming!
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Then, onto day #13, Saturday, another task without a post. This one recommends you to go shopping (not that I am complaining!). Here are the 6 basic steps he asks you to follow:
1. Step away from the computer
2. Grab a notebook and pen
3. Head to your local shopping area
4. Once at the ‘mall’ take 30 minutes or so to go ‘wandering’ with no agenda except to ‘watch’ and ‘observe’ in some of the following ways:
5. As you watch, make some notes. Don’t attempt to find any ‘lessons’ or try to tie it back to your blog yet.
6. Once you’ve spent half an hour or so on ‘observation mode’ find a spot to sit down with a coffee and go over the things that you’ve noticed and see if there’s any lessons there that you might be able to apply to your blogging?
Well, being the always curious, I actually did this while walking the strip in Vegas. Although I didn’t take notes, I did make quite a few observations about the people, the city and the area. It actually spawned my weekly post for Catherine Favazza today!
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Sunday…day #14…finally back to doing something on the blog itself (sort of). Sunday’s task was about updating a key page on your site. Well, since I redesigned my entire site, I had added 3 new pages. So, this task was accomplished pre-request (maybe I’m psychic!). I now have a copywriting page, a design page, and a page about advertising on Wright Creativity (do it, you know you want to!). But, to be throurough, I did go back to the pages today and check links, grammar and make sure they were perfect.
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And now we are up to today, Monday, day #15. Almost halfway through and so far I am really happy that I decided to do the challenge. Comments are up, visitors are up and I am happier with my writing as I have been forcing myself to write more often!
Anyway, today’s post is about finding a blogging buddy. I read the whole post 3 times, plus the links that were in the post. Thought about it, read it all again and re-read some of the links. I still don’t know what I think about it. So, I am opening the floor to a discussion – do you want a blogging buddy? Why would you find it beneficial? Or do you think it would be detrimental? For someone like me who writes posts for others and gets paid for it, would I be cutting into my ability to make money by having a blogging buddy?
I’d love your thoughts on this one (or any of the ones above)! Feel free to share how you’re doing with the challenge or ask me any questions about the tasks I have completed recently.
Related posts:
- Deja Vu and Problogger. I am disappointed.
- Achhooo! My page had a sneeze…
- Review and pre-review sat in a boat…
Kirsten
Kirsten,
Great post! Perhaps you can think of the “blog buddy” benefits as a way to shape the way you work with some of your clients. I’ve described you before as my blog personal trainer, and perhaps the way you help others in the future might look more like a blog buddy. I think there are ways to build off of this for your business moving forward. Client or no, anyone would be lucky to be your blog buddy, haha.
Have a good one,
Catherine
Catherine Favazza’s last blog post..Las Vegas and the recession
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Hmm…while I appreciate the input of others on my own work, I don’t know if I’d have the patience to ‘share’ writing with anyone.
It’s awfully personal. Perhaps I just don’t have room for a buddy, what with my ginormous ego and all.
That said, the benefits to buddy blogging do show some merit.