Today I’m celebrating and sharing 15 tips on how I not only survived, but thrived, during National Blog Posting Month!
Woo Hoo! Happy Happy Dance over here … I did it! I posted every single day in November.
High Fives all around. Time to party!
I wish I could say I had been organized and prepared, with tons of content squirrelled away, ready to go … but I cannot.
I did not even know I was going to participate until November 1st when I saw Xanthe Berkeley’s post on Instagram … in fact, I’d never even heard of National Blog Posting Month. Then I saw that Kim Klassen was also participating, and it sounded like a great challenge, so I jumped right in with my first post NaBloPoMo Otherwise Known as Madness. It seems like ages ago … .
So how did I do it? First of all I was determined … then …
15 Tips on Surviving National Blog Posting Month
- Commit. Set your intention. Be positive … see it as an exercise that will strengthen your blogging muscle.
- Give yourself permission on really hard days to simply post a photo and say “Hi … how are you? I’m so happy you’re here reading my blog, thank you!”
- Use prompts. I used one prompt from the BlogHer prompt pool. My post What I Did This Morning (and most mornings) and What Does Goatsbeard Have to Do With It (take that Google) was a result … a bit silly and goofy, but I got it done (and had a little fun.)
- Rely on your strengths. My strength is photography. I have no problem taking a photo a day. Once I have a photo, the rest will follow.
- Dig into the photo archives and bring content out of the dark that may never have made it otherwise. Don’t worry that it may be old content. I shared a mushroom and wild rice soup recipe I’d been meaning to post for months and months.
- Start first thing in the morning (or when you feel the most productive). You may not finish it, but by the time you go back to it later in the day it won’t be so daunting.
- Write at the same time every day.
- Set a time limit. This eliminates agonizing – get it done already. Ignore SEO. SEO drove me crazy this month. I’ll explain later … hey! another post idea!
- Write about what you love. Write down everything you can think of – throw it on the page – editing comes later.
- Get that title figured out.
- Edit photos in down time.
- Try to work ahead by at least one day (I’ve already admitted I did not do this).
- Write a heartfelt post, reveal some inner thoughts, share your vulnerabilities.
- Just start. Follow leads. Search online. Join memes. Instagram is endless inspiration.
- On an extremely busy or hectic day, put in a “place holder” … a paragraph with just enough info, explain your dilemma, then go back later (maybe even a day later) and elaborate. At least you have a blog post holder for that day. I would not recommend doing this too often … once maybe when you are desperate (which I was one Sunday … we were visiting family and I didn’t want to lose one precious moment).
So there you have it! How I survived and thrived whilst posting every day for 30 days. Will I do it again? I am not sure :)
DAY 30 #NABLOPOMO WOOT!