Goodbye to National Blog Posting Month
Well, the month of daily posting is over. I truly I enjoyed writing a blog post every day and it didn't seem like a chore. It was incredibly challenging and pushed me way past what I thought I was capable of. I jumped on this bandwagon very impulsively, but I am proud to say I didn't miss a single day. I added tons of new content to my blog, made some new friends and learned a ton. So, I thought I would share a few things that I learned with you and how it is going to affect this blog in the future.
- I learned that I truly love writing. I loved writing pieces like this one. It pushed me intellectually and challenged my writing skills since pieces like that are not depending on photos or tutorials, but are solely dependent on my mind, my thoughts and my proofreading skills. More of those will be coming for sure.
- And that type writing got me a contributor spot on The Duck and The Owl. I learned that I really, really love working with other bloggers. So I am making plans to do lots more of that in the future. Friends are fun!
- I value tutorials. Tutorials are why I started blogging. I am really good at being crafty and making it easy and that is why I wanted to blog. I wanted to teach others. My tutorials are always the most popular pages and get featured on tons of sights. But, I learned through this experience that tutorials take a TON of time to develop, craft, photograph, edit and write. It is very detailed oriented. But since I was so focused last month on churning out posts, I was constantly forced to write simple posts and tutorials are just not simple. Especially good tutorials. So I learned that I would rather write fewer posts and have fantastic content than have tons and tons of crummy content. So, going forth I will be focusing my time on the good stuff and posting less of the 'filler' stuff.
- I learned that I do not like recurring feature posts. Those posts felt like a chore. I struggled to come up with something within those set parameters and was pushed to have them down on a deadline. I like being able to write about whatever I am most excited about at the moment or about what I have time to write about. I have tried recurring features in the past and have always quit pretty quickly. By pushing myself to stick to them taught me that force is not something that will breed creativity or happiness or commitment. So I will stay away from features, well regularly scheduled features, and will write about what makes me happy and makes my fingers itch to tell you about them!
- I also learned that I am serious about blogging. My readership almost doubled during the month of daily posting. I have created a habit of posting now and since I took the past few days off, I have felt off. And I am exploding with blog post ideas! In the past my blog has been off and on and I kept losing my momentum, but I feel like I've found the drive now. I really want to rebrand and change my site and in the past I would have stayed up all night and done it with the first silly thought that popped into my head. But I am committed to finding what truly works and taking it slow and finding exactly how I want to rebrand and building it the right way. Because that is how someone serious considers a decision and makes a change they wont regret in 3 months.
So, I learned a ton from NaBloPoMo and it was a great challenge and I am SO glad I participated. Have you ever done a blogging challenge? What did you learn?
This post is a part of the National Blog Posting Month Challenge. You can see a list of more blogs participating in this challenge here and see a full list of my posts here.