Thursday 16 August 2012

A New Blog Challenge

I have decided to do the 31 Day Blog Challenge.  I have been thinking of changing from Blogger to Wordpress but I have no idea what the differences are.  Hopefully, as this challenge is to improve your blogging results, I will be able to make a decision during the 31 days or after. Here is my overview of the first four days of the challenge.

Day 1:
Setting up Google Analytics
I downloaded various instructions on how to install Google Analytics on Blogger.  Well they all said I must go the end of my HTML page and find certain words where I would paste my code – they were not there!  Then one site suggested going to the beginning of the page and find the word <head>.  That was there!  So I posted the code and my Adwords said it was receiving information but there was no data!  This bothered me for the next couple of days and on Day 3 I decided to tackle it one more time.  Well lo and behold, I found a spot where it said <html> without the <body> before it, but it did mention something there about Google Adwords.  So I cut and pasted the same code and voila it worked.  I am presuming that the results only start from the day that this was installed as I have nothing for July.  Sad looking stats but that should improve – I mean that is the purpose of this challenge right?

Day 2:
Finding your Blog Buddy
I spent most of the day clicking on blogs and looking for someone who wrote on a similar subject to mine – nada!  Then one little lady commented that she liked my blog very much and after rethinking the purpose of the challenge – find someone who you can be accountable to – I asked her to be my buddy.  A fellow South African in the challenge also wanted to partner up as buddies – she also had her own buddy – so we ended up in a group of four.  These are my three wonderful yet so different buddies:


Day 3:
Planning your blog posts
I have not written a blog post since I finished the Ultimate Blog Challenge two weeks ago.  It just goes to show that if you are not motivated to actually do it, you will find all kind of excuses not too!  While planning my blog posts, I looked back at the last challenge, and was always falling behind due to work commitments.  So during this challenge I am going to obligate myself to two posts a week.  If I do more, then that is great.  I have also taken up a 31 day book writing challenge at the same time which I guess will keep me busy as well.  My plan is to try and stick to the lessons each day and post whenever I can.  The objective here is to learn how to blog better – I am sure there is plenty of daily tasks to make that happen!

Day 4:
Brainstorming 10 new blog post ideas
Before I started the challenge, I was going to start a new blog and keep Recovery Corner just for personal use.  The idea was to expand my writing into a new challenge of changing oneself and ultimately contributing to the new movement going on around us of making the world a better place.  But then recovery is all about change.  So I am sticking to the same site.  What I really need to do is set up categories and link my posts accordingly – another techie challenge to conquer!  
Here are 10 ideas I would like to cover:
Depression / Anxiety
Resentments and fear
Letting go
Spirituality
Thinking from the heart
Relationships
Inspiration and passion
Meditation
Transformation strategies
Soul mate series

Conclusion
This challenge is all about learning.  At the same time whatever I write will be ideas for a book I will one day put together.  Thanks so much to Michelle Schaeffer and Lisbeth Tanz for putting this together.  I am most grateful for the opportunity to broaden my knowledge base – especially the technical side!
“The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply”
Denis Waitley

4 comments:

  1. Great view into what your journey in the 31 days blog challenge has been like. I know how confusing that Google Analytics code can be, I was there a year ago. I'm still fairly new to this stuff and it frightens me but I just keep plugging along and learning.
    I like the topics for your upcoming posts and they will make great additions to your book.

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  2. Love the post. The sentence that stood out for me the most is 'recovery is all about change'. That is such a powerful statement. Can't wait for the next post.

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  3. Well done on this post and great to learn a little of your journey with the challenge. Re Blogger/Wordpress - I actually like Blogger best as it is easier however, I am planning to use Wordpress for a while or keep both - (different niches) as I like earning adsense money from blogger too. Di

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