I’ve found there are a variety of reactions to the end of the Blog Challenge. Whether you participated in the Blog30 30-day challenge or the Mini7 7-day challenge, you are now faced with a dilemma.

Do you keep blogging daily? Or do you back off of your daily schedule?

For some people (Connie Ragen Green come to mind) blogging daily is such a part of her day, that they can’t imagine NOT blogging every day.

But for others, daily blogging is NOT the natural way. I fall into that category.

So if you’re like me and don’t plan to continue to blog daily, what can you do? Here are my suggestions:

1. Stick to a schedule. Try 2 or 3 times a week. You already know you CAN do 7 days a week. Just commit to 3 days instead. And stick with it!

2. Make a list of topics. You did this as you worked through the 30-day challenge. Just keep it up so that you always have a list of 10-15 topics you can write about at a moment’s notice.

3. Write in the flow. Just as you’ve done for the past month, when you are in a writing mood, keep writing. That will always ensure you have articles on hand to post.

4. Continue to market your blog. You do this when you tweet about it. You do it when you post your article to article directories, such as EzineArticles. You do this as you post comments on others’ blogs.

5. Keep using the tools. You’ve been using tools like tweetmeme plugin, twitter tools plugin, socialoomph to pre-schedule tweets, and wordpress to pre-schedule blog posts.

Essentially, just keep doing what you’ve been doing!

Okay, yesterday I asked you to share advice with participants in the next Blog Challenge. Now it’s time to advise the next person to run the Blog Challenge.

What would you do differently for the next Blog Challenge?

Would you communicate more frequently or less frequently?

Would you have everyone keep tweeting their articles to the organizer or do something else?

Would you use a central site as we did with Meet Our Members or would you centralize the activity on your own blog?

Would you provide a handbook to participants as they start or would you trickle out the information as we have done this time?

What other ideas do you have to involve more people?

How can we better help new bloggers in particular?

How can we support our more advanced bloggers? Is there a way to highlight many of them – and split the labor?

The next person to run the blog challenge will DEFINITELY appreciate all of the advice you can give!

If you’ve been blogging for the past 26 days, then you are an expert. You understand the challenges – and you have overcome them.

So what tips and advice would you give to someone considering the NEXT blog challenge? Because of course we all know there will be another one – it’s just a matter of time.

What worked for you? How did you get over that initial “oh my gosh, what have I done” thoughts – to still being with us 26 days later?

Did you already know how to do all of the steps or did you learn along the way? HOW did you learn what to do?

Did you get support from your fellow participants through tweets and comments? Or did you feel like you were still doing in all by yourself? How did you start connecting with others?

The advice you offer now may be the difference between someone joining the next blog challenge – or not. And it may make all the difference on whether or not they FINISH the blog challenge.

One of the observations I’ve made during the Blog Challenge is that many people were confused and confounded by the RSS feed.

First, let’s review WHY the RSS feed is important. It’s used by both individuals and search engines.

Individuals use the RSS feed to subscribe to the list of your blog articles. If they use an RSS reader (or their email program) it automatically updates each time you post an article. It’s an easy way for them to keep up with what you’re writing.

Search engines use the RSS feed to update their records as well. That’s how they are notified that you have a new blog post.

So if your RSS feed is not working properly, you are not getting the traffic you deserve! That’s why it’s so important that you have an RSS feed that works.

One of the aspects of your profile at Meet Our Members (if you were a Blog Challenge participant) was your RSS feed. More than half of the participants do not have an RSS feed that works. There are multiple reasons for this:

1. Some chose not to add the RSS feed to their profile.

2. Some made a typo when putting it in. As much as possible we changed these as we discovered them.

3. Others put in the wrong format. While a standard Wordpress blog uses blog.com/feed as the default, some people had a hard time getting that to work. Again, there were multiple reasons for this:

• Some people use feedburner for their feeds. That is fine – you just need to use the feedburner URL for the RSS feed. Again, we tried to correct as many of those as possible.
• A LOT of people have redirected to their blog, either purposely or accientally. The RSS feeds for redirected URLs are problematic.
• A LOT of people use blogspot or other non-wordpress blogs. While these are okay to start, I strongly urge you to move to Wordpress on your own hosted account as quickly as possible. RSS feeds from these other types of blogs do not function as well – and you’re losing traffic as a result.

So what action should you take if your RSS feed is not showing in your profile at Meet Our Members?

1. Add your RSS feed to your profile, if it’s not already there.

2. If your RSS feed is not working, ask your webmaster for help in fixing or finding it. If you don’t have a webmaster, post a $5 job on vWorker.com to have someone figure it out for you.

Recognize that if your feed does not show in Meet Our Members, it is not being seen by other entities as well. We are using an industry-standard tool for showing the RSS feed, so if we can’t see it, no one else can either.

Blogging provides you with a unique tool to communicate. And while creating an online identity and blogging as that person or company image can be great fun, it can also be profitable. (And making money is certainly fun!)

Here are just a few ways you can monetize your blog:

Advertising Revenue. Whether you choose to sell ad space on your blog (and a blog with high traffic numbers will definitely be able to capitalize on this) you can also participate in AdSense or other PPC campaigns and make money from clicks.

Affiliate Revenue. Blog owners can publish affiliate banner ads, text ads and of course you can write great content with internal affiliate links to generate an additional revenue stream. In fact, many affiliate marketers use their blogs to do this exact thing.

You can also consider setting up niche-specific blogs for different content areas. For example, it’s difficult to promote a toddler-related affiliate product on the same blog where you’re discussing forex trading systems. So don’t be afraid to create multiple blogs for multiple purposes.

Product Promotion. Finally, though certainly not the least of all, you can promote your own products or services on your blog. Just remember to keep it balanced. About 80% of your blog content should be valuable information and about 20% of it can be promotional.

Stand alone blogs can generate tremendous profits; they don’t need to be part of a bigger business that is selling products or services. The most important part of building a profitable blog is to Get Started!

People sometimes question whether or not a blog is a business tool or a personal tool. While blogs originated as personal journals or logs, they have quickly transitioned to be business tools.

Here are three ways you can use blogs in your business.

To Connect with Your Audience – A blog gives you, the business owner, a tool to connect with your audience on a more personal level and perhaps a more consistent way. RSS technology enables readers to subscribe to content putting your message and information in their email inbox or on their RSS reader.

To Drive Traffic – Optimized content is what you get with every blog post. Search engines love blogs and you can add plug-ins and widgets that capitalize on SEO tactics and social networking strategies. The end result is a boost in traffic and ultimately profits.

To Increase Awareness – In addition to your current marketing strategy, which may include articles, advertising, direct mail, autoresponders, and social networking, a blog increases awareness of your company. This increases your opportunities both to grow your customer base and also your partnership and business opportunities.

Blogging is a great way to build a business whether it’s a standalone blog or as part of your business website.

In a related article, I talked about why you want to add Google Analytics to your blog. Now you need to know the HOW.

It’s a relatively easy process.

First you need an analytics account.

If you already have an Analytics account or you have an Adwords account, then you’re set to go. (In Adwords, pull down the Reports menu

If you need a new Analytics account, sign up for one.

Next you need to add your blog to your analytics account.

Just log into your account. If you’re using your Adwords account, click on Reporting and choose Google Analytics.

Now click to Add New Profile. Just type in the URL of your blog.

Finally you need to add the “code” that Google Analytics provides to your blog.

Some blog themes provide a space in their settings to add your tracking code. In that case you would copy and paste the code that Analytics provides into that space.

If your theme does not provide that capability, then download, install and active the Google Analytics plugin. Then paste your code into there.

To be sure your code is working, go back to your Analytics account and click to edit that profile. It will tell you whether or not the tracking is working. If it’s not, wait a few minutes, then try again. If it’s still not, then walk through the steps again. Or ask your webmaster for help.

Within 24 hours you’ll be able to see the first reports on your blog and the visitors who are coming. You’ll find Google analytics an invaluable tool in providing feedback on your blog – or any of your websites. Just add each site you want to track and enjoy all of the information flowing in for your analysis.