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Have A Blogging Big Day

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Blogging Big Day

I’m a passionate birder – an activity known for fanatics and strong obsessions… sort of like blogging. Of course, there are many kinds of birders. Within the birding communities there are those who take part in birding events. These events are usually called “Birding Big Days“.

Usually a team of three or four people running around trying to see as many different species of birds within a 24 hour period as they can. There are a special group who take it even further and do birding “Big Years”. A whole year of fanatical birding.

1996 Congaree Bird Watching


A birding big day lasts 24 consecutive hours – you go out in the night and trying to find night birds, bird right through the day, and into the night until midnight. It’s crazy. It’s also competitive and once you’ve done a few, it gets very intense. You tend to remember these events forever.

Blogging Big Day

I’m also a passionate blogger. And, with thoughts of Birding Big Days (we usually do them in November, I’m not sure why), I thought the idea of a blogging big day might be fun as an exercises.

What if you set aside one day of mad intensity to get your blog up to a new level – however you want to measure that, be it new readers, better design or lots of new good content.

What might you do on a day like that?

Well, here are some ideas…

One Intensive Day Of Blog Work

You’ll need to plan for it. Even an intense day is limited and you want to make sure that you get through a few really useful thing. Don’t try to write 24 posts of 1000 words each, you’ll burn out.

Here are my ideas for such a day. I’m going to give them roughly in order of importance.

Start A New Blog

Have you got an idea for a blog you’re dying to start up, but haven’t got around to yet. Perhaps a day of intensity like this could be just the right time to get it all set up and running.

Analyze Your Blog

Understand what’s happening with your traffic. Make sure you’ve got something like Google Analytics set up. Study the metrics to see what’s happening on your site. Ask questions like “Which of my posts got a lot of views” or “Which days do most people visit my site”. Make notes – make a serious study of what’s going on. You could go a step further and use tools like Google Web Optimizer to actually test different things.

For example, if you have two ideas for a header, set up two pages, one with each of the headers and test it with Optimizer to see which one is going to get your users to do what you want them to do on the site. Of course, you could set up a simple questionnaire asking people what they’re interested in and generally learning more about your visitors.

Note:  Unless you’re getting a bucket load of traffic, you’ll need to leave the test for some time to give meaningful results.

Work On Your SEO

I’m not going to say to much here – there’s been plenty of info about SEO right here on FB already.

Tune Up Your Blog’s Design

If you use a pro, leave it to them, but if you design your own site, there are always lots of things you could improve.

You could take your entire CSS file, as I did the other day, and start from scratch, giving your site a totally new look. Or you could tweak away at little things. If your blog is a bit slow or too cluttered, why not do some widget/animation shedding?

If you do use widgets, I certainly suggest going through your site and asking yourself very carefully, “does this help my readers in some way?” Or bluntly, “Is this widget just here to show I’m cool… or has it got value?”

Contribute

Assuming one or more people actually read your blog, you’ve got a voice. On your blogging big day, why not give something back. You could write a post promoting your favorite cause, or add links in the sidebar to organizations doing good work to change the world. Not everything in a blog needs to be about money and prestige – give a little as well.

Promote Your Site

If you want to contribute and/or if you want to role around in money made on your blog – either way, you need one simple recourse – eyeballs on your site! Traffic – we all want traffic and you can do a lot over the course of a day to get more. If you dedicate a whole day just to promoting your stuff, I’ll give you two warnings:

  • Firstly, don’t spam or appear to spam.
  • Don’t just go to every A-list blogger and hit their comment box with dribble.

Secondly, don’t get distracted and just spend a day surfing the wild wild web. It is so easy to get sucked in. Have a plan.

Promote Off Site

One of the best ways to promote your site, I believe, is to write guest posts. You build relationships, get exposure and get some nice traffic. You could also join forums and spend time engaging in social media. You could build a great Facebook Fan Page or be daring and explore a new social media site you think could take off (nothing like being in early).

Visit other blogs and leave some good comments, but with a focus on building a relationship with other bloggers.

Promote On Site

On your own site you could do lost of thing – create a writing challenge or put strategic links to older posts in your sidebar or below your posts. Ad some social media bookmarking buttons.

Produce A Bucket Load Of Good Content

There isn’t much to say here – if you’re a blogger, this is your medium. Write a few blockbuster posts to push out over the next few weeks or fix up some older posts that were a bit thin. You could create an editorial calendar (something I’ve started recently and have found immensely helpful), or brainstorm 100 post ideas to use in the future. This is the easy part, you know what to do – the trouble is discipline. If you want to be an awesome blogger, with a blog people talk about, you need rocking content, and spending a day getting into better shape in this department will server your blog very well.

What would you do if you could hammer away at your blog for a whole day?

I challenge you to set aside a day like this – if you’re a full time blogger perhaps you need a day like this each month. It’s fun. Go for it!

BTW – If you are interested in learning more about the fanatical birders who do birding big years, I recommend reading a brilliant book – “The Big Year” by Mark Obmascik. It follows the story of three guys taking part in one of the most intense birding big years on record.

[Image by anoldent |License]

About

I'm self-employed in travel in Namibia. I have various passions, including blogging, building websites, nature, keeping in shape and fatherhood. At Sandcurves I blog about various things, but currently running a theme of 'crafting meaningful blogs'.

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{ 23 Responses }

  1. Carly says:
    What a FANTASTIC idea - I really must do this myself, especially with Christmas coming up, I should have a day spare to dedicate. I think I'll start listing NOW what I want to achieve and then set out the time to do it. Thanks!
  2. TJ McDowell says:
    I could spend the entire day brainstorming I think. That's one of my favorite parts of blogging / internet content creation anyway. You could also get a mastermind group of people together to come up with brilliant plans. I guess the real question is who has an entire day that they can put all their other priorities aside for?
  3. Sarah Long says:
    Just have to say social media sites are awesome and can't wait to see new ones pop up.
  4. Fran Aslam says:
    Hi Vernon: From Birds Big day to Blogs big day wonderful idea. And you have describes so many awesome ways to use the day is for. If we used all the items in the list it will take a week, instead of days. any ways effective tips in your lists. Great post. I will like to read more of your posts. fran A
    • Vernon says:
      Thanks, Fran, I hope to post some more here in the future, it was fun. If you followed all my advice, it would certainly take a week, or more. That's why it is important to have a realistic picture of what one can do on one intense day's work on your blog - you want to make sure you get the most important things done.
  5. Meucci says:
    Wow, what a great idea! I get so overwhelmed with what I need to do that sometimes I forget to actually DO anything, lol. I think scheduling (even training) for a "blogging big day" is a great idea I'm going to try! Thanks for all the great suggestions!
    • Vernon says:
      My pleasure, Meucci. I also get overwhelmed sometimes with all the things I want to do and having one big day to clear it all out works nicely.
  6. Peter from Blogging Mechanics says:
    Interesting idea and analogy! I know one very successful blogger who actually does blogging twice a month. He set a side one day to create 15 valuable posts, and then he schedules those for 15 consecutive days. This way he saves enormous time and his blog grows without him being around every day. Very cool strategy. I use this big day principle for new ideas. Each day I write down different ideas that comes in my mind, and then I choose one day to review all of them. Then I make a decision which is worth digging deeper and in the next step, I set up the implementation plan. I spend for this 1 full day, and the results are fantastic.
    • Vernon says:
      15 posts in one day. That would buy you a lot of freedom, but you'd really have to be able to commit yourself intensely to do that. Perhaps I'll have to give it a try.
  7. Melinda says:
    I need a Blogging Day!! I would write as much as I could so I could have more time to reread and edit later. I just can't seem to find the time to get ahead. Great idea.
    • Vernon says:
      I can relate. Usually I do fine, I keep well ahead with post ideas, but when I get stuck into other non blogging things, it is easy to get behind, quickly. The hard slog really is getting a few posts on paper. Editing is more fun.
  8. Chadrack says:
    Hi Vernon, when I first saw your post title I thought you were about just wishing us a good day :) but then I read through the article and there you've just laid out a great idea that any blogger will want to experience at least for once! Frankly, I'm already brainstorming on a few things I can really do on a blogging big day. Who knows this may just become another great idea among bloggers very soon! Thanks for sharing.
    • Vernon says:
      Thanks...who knows, it would be nice if it became something of a blogging tradition.
  9. Devesh - Technshare says:
    Interesting Post Vernon. You've made some great points. I really like all your suggestions. Thanks for sharing this great Post. Great work.
  10. Vernon says:
    Thanks, Lisa. Although I wanted to write this post partly just for fun, I do these kinds of intense blogging days on a regular basis at the moment, which is why it is rather well thought out.
  11. Vernon says:
    Thanks, Lisa - I had the idea for this post sitting around for a while, initially just as something fun, but as I thought about it, I realized there was a lot that I could say.
  12. illz says:
    I have a grammer punctuation question that has been bugging me in blogs. Those are dashes in your article correct? aren't there suppose to be no spaces before, and after. I see different blogs do it in different ways. I hardly listened in high school English class.
    • Vernon says:
      I guess the way that I use dashes are more of a habit than anything I learned in school.
  13. Patricia says:
    Hi Vernon What an informative post. I really enjoyed reading all your suggestions. As I blog every day; I like the idea of one day a month set aside to do this. Will be taking up some of your suggestions. Thanks for sharing them with us Vernon. Great guest post. Patricia Perth Australia
    • Vernon says:
      That's great, Patricia, I'm glad you found it useful.
  14. Lisa says:
    Wow...not only is this an amazing idea but very well thought out. As I sit here thinking about a big blog day, I realize I could accomplish so many things! I really enjoy the idea of checking out some new social media sites as well. Very well done Vernon!