What’s up everyone, a quick heads up, I’m starting a 30 Day blogging challenge to improve my writing and search engine optimization skills.
One of the primary goals is to become a better blogger and share the type of information that others can benefit from.
Obviously this is not my first blog post, I’ve been writing and creating content for a long time and if you spend time on this site, you’ll see I already have a lot of articles with tips on how to do various things like:
- How to Code
- How to Blog
- How to use WordPress
- Deep dives into WordPress for your business website and as a blogging platform
- and other topics that those who want to start a blog would benefit from
You’ll also see that I primarily recommend using WordPress for websites because it’s what powers over 40% of the modern web, provides you the tools you need when you’re starting a blog or website and most importantly, you’ll have complete ownership of the content you create.
The 30 Day Blogging Challenge
For the next 30 days, I’ll be writing 1+ articles each day with 1000+ words in each blog post – that’s some serious blogging goals!
This is going to be an interesting experiment in learning more about both; SEO techniques and how to write quality content. Ultimately, I want to make it a habit and priority to consistently write high-quality articles that provide value to those reading.
You should join me on this challenge and see if you can spend 30-days straight, blogging about your favorite topics.
Why 30 Days of Blogging?
Like most people, I have a lot on my daily to-do list. We all get busy and being a Full Stack Freelance Web Developer who works from home, married with 3 kids, and has varying interests, finding time to create unique blog content on a daily or even weekly basis isn’t easy.
The thing is, I do like sharing what I know and have learned, with others. I also like the fact that blogging, it’s almost like a public journal that I can maintain for myself and can see my progress over time.
So I don’t consider blogging or creating content as a chore, I see it as something that brings value to me and potentially to other bloggers (and since I focus a lot on programming) and other developers.
I’m going to listen to my own advice from a previous article about How To Write The Perfect Blog Post and if you enjoy learning by watching videos, here’s the link for that.
To make the process of blogging easier for myself, I’m going to set up a schedule that works for me and my freelance work.
For this experiment, I’ll be blogging every day starting roughly at Noon EST and ending by 11:59 PM EST each day. That’s 30 days of writing blog posts and some of the articles will also feature videos if applicable to the topic.
I might also create other types of written content for my website that might not necessarily be a typical blog post. I’ll also create some coding tutorials that will be more evergreen type content and not really considered the type of content found on a blog roll page.
Here’s how I’ll structure myself and a guide to my evolving process.
Create your Content Calendar
The first thing I need to do is create a Content Calendar to ensure that I have my list of topics that I’ll be writing about.
Having a list of 30 articles for your Blog is extremely important in order to make this journey of blogging for 30 days, a reality. I previously wrote an article about 50 Real Estate Blogging Ideas and some of those suggestions could be helpful for your niche too.
My incomplete list of the topics that I’ll write for my blog:
This is day one, and I’m writing about my blogging challenge and the importance of blogging for my, and your business.
The range of topics will vary but will all be focused on what bloggers, developers and anyone who needs to improve their online game, could benefit from.
- Web Design for Freelancers.
- Freelance Work-Life Balance.
- Landing Pages 101.
- Landing Page Optimization Tips.
- Search Engine Optimization.
- WordPress Development Tools.
- WordPress Plugins.
- WordPress Themes.
- WordPress Security.
- WordPress Hosting options.
- How to Install WordPress
- How to Code a Modern WordPress Theme.
- How to use YouTube to help with developing your brand.
- How to audit your website for issues that can impact your brand.
- Staying healthy as a blogger and web developer.
- How to Start a Blog and why starting a blog is a great idea for just about everyone who has ideas they want to share with the world.
- The benefits of becoming a blogger.
- How a blogger can get started with affiliate marketing.
- How you can create stable income and earn money as a blogger.
- Why your primary goal shouldn’t be to just make money with your blog.
- How to manage and maintain your WordPress Site.
- Which blogs you should read to learn more about the art of blogging.
As you can see, blogging is just as important for your business as it is for your personal development.
One thing I’ll be blogging about in my 30-day blogging challenge is how to improve my and your copywriting skills. Focusing on the topics that will provide the most value, along with resources you can use in your blogging process.
I will also share some of the blogging tools that I use to generate my ideas and make them a reality.
But let’s talk about another topic when it comes to blogging, and that’s:
How many words does a quality article actually need?
This topic has been written about more times than I can count. If you run a google search query about how many words should a blog post have, you will be greeted with more results than you can ever actually read.
Short-Form Content:
Technically, not every blog article needs to be 1000+ words long. You can benefit from having shorter content somewhere around 500 words.
There are lots of bloggers who find success writing short-form articles that are extremely focused and provide just the right amount of information that doesn’t seem intimidating to read.
Shorter articles might also get shared more often which is one of the main goals on a bloggers wish list.
Here’s Why Short-form Content might not be the best approach
Short-form content might not be the best format for your content, especially if you want to provide rich details and information on complex topics that will require a more long-form approach.
With short-form content, you’ll also require different ways to drive traffic to your articles since shorter content typically doesn’t work as well for SEO and first page rankings in the search engine results page.
Long-Form Content:
Long-form content tends to perform well, if it’s well written because you end up providing a significant amount of information that can be useful to people visiting your website. Search engines tend to currently favor high-quality long-form blog content. This can change but some SEO specialists suggest writing 5000 words or more.
It seems kind of crazy to think that you’ll be writing content for your blog that have over 5000 words which might make them seem less like a blog article, and more like a short e-book.
For example, if you’re a blogger and want to write about increasing your sales with landing pages, blogging with a long-form approach can be the perfect style for that.
You could provide details on how long-form blog articles are beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO), what it means when Google says “content is king,” why writing well written articles matters to both those who read your blog and the search engines whose job it is to provide the best sources of information to those searching.
The article could also provide blogging tips, blogging strategies and blogging tools.
This will make your blog content more comprehensive because the long-form style provides an opportunity to be in depth about a topic while having lots of opportunity to add graphics and additional information.
The final part of the post could include how to write a good long-term blogging strategy that includes some of the tips I provided in this blog post.
Here’s why Long-form content might not be the best strategy
It can be intimidating writing articles that are over 5000 words. It’s not always easy to keep the reader engaged for 5000 words.
Long-form content is often times hard to find on Google, because the quality of the content might not be good enough to merit page one status. Long form blogging isn’t right for every business or website and trying to make it work for yours might do more harm than good for your brand.
There are a few different blogging strategies and some might not be right for everyone. You need to know what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog post, who you want reading it, before deciding if long form blogging will work for you.
Being consistent is key. You need to create high-quality content on a consistent basis in order to have people return to your website. If you don’t have the time to write multi-thousand word articles, then you might have to bring the word count down.
Why you should blog daily
Blogging daily can seem like an extreme challenge, especially if you don’t already blog on a daily or even weekly basis.
A daily blog post can be a massive undertaking, but blogging regularly is the best way to ensure you consistently produce fresh content.
Why you shouldn’t blog daily
If you don’t blog on a weekly or monthly basis, blogging every day could be way too much at first.
The main goal of blogging is to provide valuable content that will benefit your audience and lead to increased sales for your business or help you reach your goals.
If you’re not in the habit of blogging regularly, then it would be difficult to keep up with daily blogging.
You shouldn’t sacrifice the quality of your content, just to increase the quantity. That being said, one of the best ways to improve your writing skills, is to write more. Develop a copywriting workflow and systematize the process of creating content so you can streamline your blogging efforts.
How To Create Compelling and Valuable Posts
It’s important to regularly generate ideas by reading other blogs or news sources that are relevant to your niche. The more frequently you update your blog with new content, the more engaged your website visitors will be and in time, your articles will start to rank well in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
The Blogging Process – The Importance of a Writing Workflow
If we just sit down at our laptops, without a plan and just start blogging, we might not be able to create the type of article that’s worthy of our readers’ time.
That’s why we need to spend time either using an existing Blogging Workflow or create our own that we can use to help us improve the quality of our blog posts and streamline our efforts.
Blogging tips for those who want to improve their blogging skills
- Be succinct and direct in your writing.
- The tone of blog posts should be informative and persuasive.
- Blogs should also include a mix of anecdotes from personal experience, links to external sources of information and facts about the subject matter.
- Edit your article locally and make changes where necessary
- Post the blog post to your blogging platform.
- Publish it on social media, etc.
- Repeat!
- Learn more about the editing process if you’re not happy with the quality of content that you currently write.
- Find great images for your blog posts.
- Read blogs about SEO and blogging for beginners.
- Reach out to other bloggers in the community for tips on how they write their blog posts.
- Investigate what blogging platforms are best suited for you or your company’s needs, then decide which one is right for you. Most often a platform like WordPress would be best.
- Find a few blogs that discuss copywriting and join some facebook groups for bloggers.
- Find inspiration to get you started blogging.
Checkout this video on How to Get Free Images for your Website & Blog
Don’t Get Discouraged
At first, you will most likely find it difficult to generate a list of what you should blog about for the next 30 days. You might start blogging on day one, keep up the pace for a few days, only to be faced with writers or bloggers block with no idea on what else you should blog about.
Brainstorm some potential topics. Create an outline for your blog post. A template for your blog is extremely useful. Write the first draft of your article. Identify any assets you might need like pictures, videos, etc. Try and designate a time during the day that is dedicated just to blogging and improving your process.
Make sure to step away from your first draft blog post and do something different. The benefit? When you get back to your laptop, you’ll have a fresh set of eyes.
Use your downtime to get active on social media
Spend time engaging with people on social media, especially people in your niche or market audience. This will help you to develop your online presence. When you write a new blog post and share it on your various social media platforms, your connections will be more likely to share your content.
I often say you shouldn’t spend too much time on social media because it can end up consuming too much of your time. But if you can focus on networking on the various social media sites, then you can actually get a lot of value from using them as an actual Social Network.
Social Media and Blogging Go Hand in Hand!
This is so important, especially if you have a new blog that you want to start generating traffic to.
On day one, the traffic to your blog will most likely be low, especially from organic search. Social media websites give you an opportunity to let the world know, you have something new to share. And don’t forget, build you email list but also join email lists from bloggers in your niche market.
Learn from other Bloggers
Other bloggers have already done the research, learned from their struggles blogging, and are likely to share their insights with others. Learn from them.
Make sure to stay on top of any changes in your niche that you blog about. If you can frequently provide fresh relevant content, other bloggers and website visitors will eventually see you as an authority in your field.
Here’s a recap of some key points which I mentioned above
Write the first draft of your article. Identify any assets you might need like pictures, videos, etc. Designate a time during the day that is dedicated just to blogging and improving your process. Make sure you develop an outline for your blog posts. Using a blogging template is a great idea.
Focus on connecting with people on social media and interact with other bloggers. Get to know what their interests are so that you can write a post relevant to them or about something they might care about.
This will help you develop an online presence as well as increasing the likelihood of someone sharing your content when it’s published on their social media accounts.
Let’s Conclude this long 30-day blogging challenge announcement
Thanks for taking the time to read my 30-day blogging challenge article. I hope you’re inspired to do the same and will follow my progress over the next month as it unfolds!
I’m excited to embark on this blogging journey for several reasons, but mainly because blogging has always been an interest of mine.
Come back daily to read my latest post and if you’re just creating your first blog and don’t know where to start, then follow the tips in this post and just start blogging!