I first started the Post a Day Challenge because I wanted to blog more frequently and transform blogging into a living and active part of my life.
When I started the challenge my blog was a zero visitors and maybe five posts, kind of blog. I had zero inspiration to blog and a terrible fear of failure.
During the course of this year my blog evolved into a living and breathing creature. I now have an impressive total of 304 posts, raging from design to daily life dilemmas, and over 4,000 views. I’m impressed! The blog is still missing a focus but it’s going somewhere and it became a wonderful place to meet people and grow.
All in all I did pretty well on the challenge, I posted for most of the days and I’m only 12 post short of my goal. Posting everyday is incredible hard and to often life gets in the way. Although next year I probably won’t post daily I still want to post regularly.
In therms of writing strategies I don’t now if I have one. I write in two different ways, I either find a topic of interest and free write about it or develop a set of points I want to talk about and develop them separately. Both strategies are effective but I prefer the later one, it gives me more structure and allows me to stay on topic.
If there is something I would change it would definitely be the focus of my blog! I feel that if I had a more concrete theme or objective I would have done allot better than I did. Regardless this was still a huge success and an experience I’m not likely to forget.
One of my favourite things with this challenge was discovering the amazing blogs other people are writing. My utimate favourite this year is Analyfe the incisive and direct writing and the honesty of the writer behind it are a refreshing change and Erin has become a company and an influence that I’m not likely to forget. In the art world Design Soufflé became a constant source of inspiration and the photography of The urban hippie inspires me every day to look at the beauty in the world around me.
About the post a day challenge? I’m surprised I finished it! I honestly believed that I would fail miserably, but I didn’t! Watching everyone else excel at this challenge gave me the push I needed to complete it. Community does make a difference!
If you want to blog regularly it really isn’t that hard. Just set a goal and stick to it! And if you ever get stuck and out of ideas, like I did many times throughout the year, just keep writing! Write about nothing if you have to!
For 2012 I’m cutting back on the posting a little bit, writing a blog post every day is a little bit excessive. So following on the steps of many of my fellow bloggers I’m posting 3 times a week for the following year. My other goal is to find a focus for my blog and give it a makeover.
What are your blogging goals for 2012?
