Now that I’ve decided to host the next 30-day Blog Challenge (June 1-30), I want to start gathering ideas of what goes into a great blog challenge.
Obviously Connie Ragen Green has set the bar pretty high, inspiring a LOT of people along the way. But can we take it even higher in June?
That’s where I need your help.
What have you loved about the blog challenge?
What would you like to see added to the blog challenge?
How far ahead of time should you know about it?
Do you want “educational” messages on how to maximize your blog for the blog challenge – or would you prefer just keeping it simple?
What do you DO after the blog challenge ends that keeps the energy in your blog?
What types of outcomes can others expect from participating in a blog challenge?
Remember, I’m new to all of this and am just getting in on the tail end of the 30 days, so I need all of the ideas you can share. Thanks for all of the encouragement!
Related posts:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeanette Cates. Jeanette Cates said: New from Jeanette:: What Makes A Great Blog Challenge? http://jeanettecates.com/what-makes-a-great-blog-challenge/ #mini7 [...]
Hi Jeanette!
First I think you will have to promote it as fun (not work), and really point out how it will help our business. Explain the specific benefits, not that we will just get a lot of posts on your blog. And then you will have to stick it out with us and post everyday too 
Thats what helps keep us going.
Thank you for hosting another challenge! This is a good thing you are doing
Now, yours is going to be during the summertime! That’s going to be a little tough. I think most of us have been posting every day. You might have to show the group some tips on how to stay focused on business, even when we rather be outside on the beach
I also think any tips you have for maximizing our blogs for success will be very helpful. And maybe weekly, shoot out some ideas for those of us who have fallen behind – what are some ways we can catch up, if we’re behind encourage us not to stop, reiterate the reasons we’re doing this.
One more thing – give us a “guide” on how you want us to approach the challenge. For example I think Connie told us to connect with 3 new people per week. I’m not sure if we did this, but I liked the idea of having a plan of approach. MAYBE even mid-way through the challenge we all get together to give feedback and to see how things are going.
Sorry to be so long-winded, but hope this helps
Gwen
I, too, am glad you’re going to host another one because it’s sort of a let down knowing that next week this will be over. So bravo to you, boss!
I have loved the hashtag place to go to see all the tweets from the participants and also being able to tweet to @ConnieGreen everyday with our tweets so she can retweet them if she has a chance.
I have really enjoyed meeting people and being able to see what they posted about today. Somedays I might not be able to get to a person’s blog to read it but then I see a tweet and it catches my interest and i hop right over.
The guidelines like a post has to be 150 words is good.
I would like to see you give a small video showing how to advance post (schedule your posts). If I hadn’t had that ability, I would not have been able to keep up. Maybe everyone knows how to do it but maybe it would help someone.
I would like to continue to do my featured blogger segment as well as my other blog posts because I found it really engaging and I “met so many people”
Is there a way to tweet comments?
Another really cool thing (and I got this idea from Piotr) would be to have a central blog and everyone could post their entries there if they chose as well as to their own blog (so they get traffic). But we could have categories being their names and they could add whatever other categories they felt would be necessary. This sounds complicated but I’m not sure it is. I would be glad to help with that.
At the very least it would be good to have a “roster” – a list of people’s names, their blog sites and what their blog is about. oh, and their link to networked blogs so that we can all follow each other.
I think we know about it now, jeanette so I’m not sure what you mean by the question about how far ahead of time should you know about it – to advertise would be maybe right at the end of this challenge or maybe mid june – but you really want to keep up on the momentum.
“Do you want “educational” messages on how to maximize your blog for the blog challenge – or would you prefer just keeping it simple?”
No I don’t but if others do that’s ok too
“What do you DO after the blog challenge ends that keeps the energy in your blog?”
Try to keep the momentum up. That’s why I joined the 100 article e-zine challenge so I could use some of those articles as posts eventually (unless that’s against the rules). I will also continue in my series on prosperity.
“What types of outcomes can others expect from participating in a blog challenge?”
I think they will be amazed at the sense of connectivity and the lack of competition but the presence of cooperation once we’re away from all the great gurus (other than you and Connie of course) and able to communicate in the real world and see what ideas we each have. It’s been the best thing I’ve done. It’s well worth “stepping out” there to participate and put the extra effort out. People will be surprised at what they come up with when they know they have to write.
Again, thanks for having the next one
Terrie
(website in process)
If I did a blog challenge I would make it more productive.
Ask others how to make this effort more productive:
Ex: create an ebook; select a topic and every 5 posts make up a chapter – +6.
Select 3 or 4 topics for the 30 day and repurpose for white papers.
or 15 minute sound byte on blog talk radio
2 topics and give 2 teleseminars.
Reguirements
Retweet at least 5 other posts a week- my number is arbitrary
If the idea to do this challenge is as a marketing tool, well then let’s market!
Jeanette ~
So glad you asked!
I’m definitely with Terrie on the “Create a ROSTER” idea. It sure would be a tremendous TIME SAVER. I love the concept of a central location. Although going to Tweetchat is great, I’m missing the majority of what’s posted there because of my offline work schedule and it looks like Tweetchat only displays the most recent updates, so it’s only been partially beneficial to me – plus it got “sick” one day which didn’t help matters.
Here’s one idea I hope you’ll consider:
How about an “Every Other Day” approach?
Publish a blog post one day. Then …
Read, comment on, and Re-Tweet other people’s posts the next day. (maybe we could designate a particular number)
Keep alternating.
What do you think?
It’s been a heck of a lot of work to keep up with everyone’s wonderful posts and taking time to write thoughtful comments, as well. There’s a lot of people in this thing!!
I feel a great many fabulous folks are getting at least somewhat overlooked because of the sheer numbers of participants in the challenge. Just a thought.
Melanie
Wow! I am blown away with the great ideas y’all have shared. Thank you soooo much.
I think I *do* have a solution to the “central location” – I’ll definitely add that to the list.
And all sorts of other tips. Thanks for taking the time to share – and please feel free to keep adding ideas as they occur to you.
Jeanette
Jeanette, Anything you put together will be wonderful. I like the idea of a “central location” so we can try to keep up with new folks in a simpler way. Just for fun, you might want to check out my blog post: http://bit.ly/8ZSPxj – you have a very honorable mention!(last paragraph)
Hi Jeanette,
You can definitely count me in on your challenge. Most likely many others that are participating in this current one will be in yours as well.
I love the #blog30 hashtag on twitter. I saved the search in Twitter and all I have to do is click on it and everyone using it appears in the stream. Easy!
There’s only one thing I would change and that would be to allow for one day off each week. Many of us are working full time jobs or operating full time businesses with little extra time. I try to take Sundays off, though it doesn’t always happen. (I’ve had one day off in the last three weeks.) I realize we can write more than one post a day, but if you get behind, it can be difficult to catch up.
Other than that, Connie’s challenge has been absolutely perfect in my book!
As for holding on to the momentum, I’m not sure yet as this is my first challenge. I imagine getting into another one would be the best way.
Jeanette,
Thanks so much for hosting our next challenge. I like the idea of starting on June 1, giving us a breather from the hard work during this past month.
Great ideas from everyone here. I would add that it would be fun to have a webinar about halfway through, where we could look at some of the blogs and hear your thoughts on how they could be improved.
I’m also glad we are keeping the same hashtag (#blog30). This will make it easier to keep our group together.
Connie
Jeanette,
This sounds pretty interesting. I joined Connies challenge, not this time but the last time. When it was over i have had remarkable results. Lot’s of traffic to my blg etc.
Personally I would love to get some inspiration to what to do after the challenge to kind of keep up the momentum… What is the best way to continue after ended challenge..
Also, I prefer to know about the challenge some time ahead so that there is time to prepare..
Warm greetings from Denmark,
Claus
Jeanette,
What I liked was that it made me more blog productive, and caused me to investigate my niche even more.
What I would like added to the challenge would be instruction on how to interact with all of the participants. How to follow their blogs.
The more lead time that is given, the better.
I will take all the training, education and help I can get!!!
Today, I completed my first challenge and I feel that with this experience, I will be willing and able to write more often.
Outcomes to expect would be more traffic to your site, more business acquaintances, better networking, more niche knowledge and greater passion to proceed.
I will now concentrate on targeted traffic techniques and drive even more traffic to my blog. Let us know what the requirements will be for your challenge and when to start.
Wow, so cool. I love all the ideas and interactions. Continuing the momentum is sooo important. I love the breather, then another challenge. I would LOVE to learn the techniques to preschedule both posts and tweets. I’ve tried the pre-dated, pre-timed posts, and I must have some click missing in there, because it has never actually published based on the schedule I requested. So, your posts (as leader) that offer specific tips for being more effective and automated would be great. I actually figured out on my own (w/o MyWebGal’s help
) about creating a #blog30 search and saving it to be able to scroll back deeper into the twitter stream history. Thanks again for stepping up to continue our community.
Warmly,
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru
To expand on Ruthan’s comment above, how about a goal or objective for the 30 blog posts – especially for people who have already completed a 30 day challenge.
I started doing this in the second half of the challenge we are finishing. I’m working on an upcoming course anyhow, so I started writing blog posts that “fill in the gaps” for that course. So, many of my blog posts helped me meet my goal of completing the 30 day challenge AND finish my course content.
A similar approach can be used for other products: ebook (as Ruthan mentioned), a webinar, special report, podcast, etc.
Looking forward to the next challenge!
Thank you Jeanette for taking the blog challenge baton. With Connie’s last blog challenge I was actually gone for 8 days, which made the connection part difficult. Playing get ahead and catch up (on blog, online and offline life) was another 4 days absence from online connection.
June 1st starts summer vacations for many. It would be nice to have a Sunday or Monday off. Or perhaps a routine of Posts on Monday and Thursday, connect on Tuesday and Friday, and repurpose on Wednesday and Saturday. This leaves Sunday as a day off or catch up day… It’s just an idea
Thank you again
MJ Schrader
Twitter.com/LoveRockstar
Hi Jeanette,
I just heard about the 30 day blog challenge a few days ago from two people were in the one that just finished. I could see that it was a real motivator and helped both of them. I’m really pleased that I have the chance to take part in the next one. Please count me in!
In answer to your questions:
What have you loved about the blog challenge?
I can’t say because I wasn’t in it. It seemed to me one of the benefits for my friends was that it gave them a real good reason to keep posting; from that they expanded the types of things they wrote about, offering even more to their readers; they also increased their readership and network.
What would you like to see added to the blog challenge?
I have to try it once before I can add to the ideas!
How far ahead of time should you know about it?
A week or two would be great, but even a few days ahead is okay.
Do you want “educational” messages on how to maximize your blog for the blog challenge – or would you prefer just keeping it simple?
I would definitely appreciate that. I’m new to all this.
What do you DO after the blog challenge ends that keeps the energy in your blog?
I’m hoping the momentum of the challenge will mean I’ve incorporated regular postings into my daily routine, and I’m having so much fun that it creates its own energy.
What types of outcomes can others expect from participating in a blog challenge?
I hope to increase the frequency of my posts; better understand the people in my niche; increase my connection with them; spark increased interest in my website (which is right now getting a major update), leading to a more sign-ups for my list.
I hope to join you all in June. I must have missed info on how to interact with other bloggers. I joined Twitter late and did not know how to take full advantage of this tool.
I like the idea of one day off a week, reading and responding to certain number of other bog posts a week. It would be a great sharing experience for me.
Thank you for scheduling another challenge, Jeanette, and I’ll definitely seize the opportunity to participate as challenges keep me focused.
I’ve read and agreed with many of the points in other comments. My goal as I started to do midway in Connie’s challenge is to pursue one or two lines of thought that at the conclusion of the challenge I can re-purpose into an e-book on each topic or create special reports. Now that I have some time to plan, I’ll prepare an outline or mini-mindmap as I would for an ebook and write articles which can be consolidated later. Or perhaps even use on Teleseminars as Connie recommended.
I believe this will save some time and a little of the stress in trying to think of what to write in quick succession for 30 posts. Also allows for creativity.
Not to be overlooked is the opportunity to interact with other bloggers! I found that to be one of the best parts of participating in Connie’s 30 day challenge.
I would like to try making screencast videos for my blog….I have been thinking about it but have not done one yet…talking about a huge learning curve for me!
I believe it would be of benefit to my blog visitors interested in ways to eat healthy for real people. Would short videos count for this challenge? Boy, it would be hard to do 30 videos in 30 days! But I will give it a try if it’s allowed.
Videos count! A blog post is a blog post, whether it’s in written, audio or video form. If you ARE going to use multimedia in your blog posts, I strongly recommend you lean to use the tools BEFORE the challenge starts. My other tip would be to record a week’s worth at one sitting. It’s much faster that way.
Thanks to all of you who are posting great ideas here. I’m taking notes and already have a bunch of ideas for the June blog challenge! In fact, I think I’m going to take a tip from Ruthan, Steve and Yvonne and create a series of posts centered on better blogging. That way I’ll be sharing ideas on how you can improve your blogs – which will help you. Plus I’ll repurpose that series into either an autoresponder sequence or an addon to my existing FirstBlogSite course or a small lead-generation ebook – or maybe all of them!
So just wanted to acknowledge all of you and let you know I AM listening – and truly appreciate all of your feedback.
Jeanette
Hi Jeanette, count me in! I enjoyed Connie’s 30 in 30 challenge – the first time I’ve ever done one, and I look forward to participating in yours starting June 1st. I like the ideas others are posting!
And I’d also love it if someone gave some tips on what to write at the bottom of your “new post” page to fill in all the info requested for title, description, keywords, etc — to maximize SEO.
It also would be helpful to have a list of all the participants with name, URL, area of expertise — it would make it easier to visit each other’s blogs and share comments. I tried to keep up with the #blog30 posts but I’m sure I missed a lot of good blogs during the 30 day event just from the sheer number of tweets we had!
Your happiness guru,
Evelyn
Count me in Jeanette. This was my second blog challenge with Connie. The daily writing has really forced me to become clearer with my niche. I like reading other people’s posts however the time required to do that some days was hard.
I like the idea of having a session in the middle where we can ask questions and see how we can best support each others marketing efforts.
The challenge was really good for me in a number of ways, and I’m interested in doing another one. The connection with other bloggers is valuable. But I’m hesitant about the suggestions that would make it mandatory in that my time is somewhat limited. I liked Connie’s suggestion that we have a teleseminar in the middle of it with a peek at different blogs.
Jeanette,
I’m ready for the next 30 day challenge. I must admit I was challenged to get a post out everyday and I had to double up in the end. It seems there were a few days when I couldn’t come up with a thought to write about. Now, I have a better idea of how to prepare. I like all of the ideas that have been submitted and would really like to see a webinar as Connie suggested. Perhaps it could be two or three webinars where we could cover more things in depth.
Interesting comments here, and I find I agree with a lot of folks. one thing I’d like to get more information on is how to monetize without being salesy. I read on Seth’s blog that he maeks around $400 per month from Amazon, but he also has around 400,000 uniques visitors per month, so obviously amazon links aren’t the best money makers for small audiences. I do some product links, and try to capture names for my list, and then I’m not positive the best approach to messages to that list (even though the list is the long term goal and has most return)
sounds like I’m all about the money, but I think the combination of content and return is win win.
so all that equals, I’d like some education and also interaction/support
thanks
Looking forward to making this challenge!
Somehow my blog entry goes straight to a Tweet,following changes I made on WP after our ORB call, but that then disallows me from adding #blog30 to the Tweet. How do we get around this? I obviously missed that instruction…
I had also made quite a few videos for the last challenge, but was stymied in moving through the process of converting to flv then uploading….so all those posts referring to videos are still languishing. Is there a video on how to do this somewhere?
Even though I did much of the ‘groundwork’ of posting I never made it into the community to see what you all were up to, so I’m looking forward to that this time! And a roster sounds great to me too.
Thanks, Jeanette, for picking up the banner from Connie this time!
(PS- do you want the 150 word post AND a video or will one of the two suffice?)
Hello Jeanette and everyone!
This was my first blog challenge. I did a short Ezinearticles challenge at the end of 2009, so I had a small idea of what to expect and how to approach this challenge.
It was a good stretch!
I’d like to know about challenges, in general, a week or two in advance. That helps me plan out my ideas, and decide how I can fit it into the marketing and other activities I have in play. I’m thinking about how I can use this next challenge, for example…
Also, I like the idea of having a “central location” of some kind.
One more piece, perhaps a post on the order of “Top 5 Twitter Skills For The Blog Challenge” that explains how to use each technique. I’m not as versed in Twitter as I am on some other things, and this could help everyone be on the same page with some of the basics.
Thanks!
@Donna Kim-Brand
It sounds like you’re already using a service or a plug-in that automatically tweets out new posts, but there’s a fairly easy way that you can get around the hashtag problem.
If you’re running your own WordPress blog on a hosting service like Bluehost, then there is a plug-in called Twitter Tools that allows you to automatically tweet out new posts AND attach a particular hashtag to every post that you send out. That’s a standard plugin I use on all the WordPress blogs I install.
Hope this helps…great comments on this challenge and tons of great ideas!
Hi Jeanette!
Thanks for planning this next blog challenge!! I’m looking forward to it. This last one was my first!
Somehow, I didn’t realize how much we were supposed to connect on the hashtag and will pay more attention to that this next time.
I would suggest a way for us to connect before the challenge so we can already feel connected by the time we start this one. Maybe #blog30? Someone else suggested a central location and I agree that that would be great!
I also have several blogs, some of which are free, and would like to be able to use free blog for this upcoming challenge if I decide to use one of them.
I love the idea of using our blog posts to create ebooks and teleseminars!
Jeanine
Jeanette:
Looking forward to this and to seeing everyone again. Ruthan and Steve’s comments resonated with me. Hope I can fit this in during June. I’ll certainly try. Thanks for continuing on the phenomenal fun we had with Connie Ragen Green.
Tara Kachaturoff
So many great ideas here!! Thanks everyone for sharing! I learned so much just by reading through all the comments.
I am excited that we can continue, after a nice little breat so June 1 is great! I am also really glad we are keeping the #blog30 hashtag, that was so helpful to look up the latest blogs that have been posted to, plus it is so fun to RT and promote each other!!
I love the idea to do a webinar or call halfway through and then again at the end for the winners like Connie did. Educational information to market and use our blogs is a big help. Oh, and the rooster is great, I like how connie set her winner post up with the twitter names and blog url’s I’d love to see that again right from the start.
My favorite part has been the relationships we have built and the new friends we have met. I don’t want that to end and you are giving us that opportunity to keep it going. The support and encouragement as well as all the amazing comments have lifted me higher then I knew I could be lifted… it is really so awesome to have this great community of people who are growing and at the same time helping others to grow as well.
I am joining you in June and I am excited that you are doing this Jeanette, thank you!
WooHooo!!! Thank you so much!!
xox
Helen
Jeanette, I’m glad you’re hosting the next round.
Completing 30 posts in 30 days was a challenge…but rewarding. I liked the fact that it forced Deb and I to constantly come up with fresh ideas and content for the posts.
And, of course, the posts can be repurposed into Articles (to drive traffic to optin pages), Reports (for free Giveaways and paid product), etc.
The real surprise was the start of new relationships as a result of tweeting posts and commenting back and forth with fellow participants.
Mynders
Hi Jeanette!
Thanks for planning this next blog challenge!! I’m looking forward to it. This last one was my first!
Somehow, I didn’t realize how much we were supposed to connect on the hashtag and will pay more attention to that this next time.
I would suggest a way for us to connect before the challenge so we can already feel connected by the time we start this one. Maybe #blog30? Someone else suggested a central location and I agree that that would be great!
I also have several blogs, some of which are free, and would like to be able to use free blog for this upcoming challenge if I decide to use one of them.
I love the idea of using our blog posts to create ebooks and teleseminars!
Jeanine
Hi Jeanette,
Its me again
This is just something I noticed when the 50 winners of Connie’s challenge were announced – some I didn’t even know where in the challenge! A few people really stood out and we all got to know them very well. But there were many others we rarely heard from. Because of this we didn’t get to go to their blogs and comment or retweet their posts or support them.
If possible, can you some how encourage, or teach, or keep track of all participants? (maybe a simple list of starters?). I think the ones that stood out were active in Twitter but that’s not possible for everyone. It could be because they didn’t use Twitter, or maybe they didn’t know how (I saw a lot of incorrect #blog30 and #mini7 hash tags at times).
So maybe some introduce some other ways that we can all learn to recognize who’s in the challenge.
Looking forward to next week.
Gwen
Hi Jeanette,
Count me in! I loved the blog challenge and am so glad that we’ll be keeping the momentum going.
What great suggestions people are making.
Creating a blog roster is a great idea.
It was really powerful to have people RT each other’s tweet and commenting on one another’s posts was also very helpful.
It would be great if there were some way to have a central location where people could connect. Twitter is great but it’s hard to keep track of everything going on.
I’ve been researching setting up a Blog Network and will keep you posted.
If anyone knows of a WordPress plugin that allows for having the RSS feed from other members of the network – like they have over at the Mom Blog Network – that would be awesome. I’ll continue to research further. Contact me on Facebook if anyone has any ideas along these lines. http://www.facebook.com/dvorah.lansky
Also – here is a link to the Mom Blog Network so you can see what I mean about each member having a dedicated page and rss feed on their page.
http://www.momblognetwork.com/user/marketingwizard
I’m already planning a theme for my posts for the June Challenge.
Looking forward to getting to know you Jeanette. Connie speaks so very highly of you!
All the best,
D’vorah
Welcome, Dvorah! Glad to have you in the Blog Challenge.
We DO have an RSS feed for each member – just click on their profile at Meet Our Members and you’ll see their 3 most recent articles.
In addition, each night we pull the feed from a #blog30 search so that you can see the updates for the day – in case you missed something.
Finally, all of the posts having to do with how to maximize your membership at Meet Our Members as well as having to do with the blog challenge from here at my blog are automatically fed into the Meet Our Members site.
Keep those ideas coming! I’m trying to keep up with all of the great feedback and input from everyone involved.