Rosanna: Strategies for Next Year's Challenge

Today please welcome Rosanna of  Writing and Photo Prompts from Life. She hails from The Philippines, and has completed two challenges. She's so excited for next year, she's ready share some tips to get your thoughts going. It's never to early to start planning!

Last year I joined my very first 30-day blogging challenge - The Blogging from A to Z  2012 Challenge - and it was quite stressful.  After picking up my "Survivor" badge, I wondered if it was worth all the stress and decided that it wasn't.

"No more blogging challenges for me."  It was a firm decision that stayed with me till early this year, but as April approached, I asked myself, "Why not?"  I had been mulling the idea of featuring my country, the Philippines, in my blog and I figured that the A to Z challenge would be the perfect way to highlight the many beautiful aspects of my country.

I survived this year's challenge as well, and I'm proud to say that this time I had fun. I did things differently this year: I began the challenge with a list of topics that I wanted to write about - from A to Z of course. This year, I also made it a point to visit at least ten other blogs after posting - and that by itself  was a fun experience.  It was like visiting different places and meeting all sorts of people.

After this year's A to Z challenge, I was ready to join other challenges - both blogging and photo challenges. As a result, I have been blogging more and I've been having a blast. I've also been learning a lot about blogging, and come next year's challenge, I know I will have more tools at my disposal, which will make the one-month challenge easier, and will leave me with more time to visit other blogs.

Up until recently, my blogging skills have been quite limited, and as it was with my posts in this year's challenge, I wrote articles accompanied by photos in each and every blog post.  Now I know there are other ways to blog - a late bloomer I am!

Here are some things I hope to do for next year's challenge:

• Feature video clips in some blogs. As we all know, there are thousands of videos on file on YouTube. To embed a video in a blog post, all one need do is click on "Share" which appears under the video box.  Upon clicking, a highlighted code will appear.  Copy the code and paste it on your blog.
• Do a photo essay - colorful, inspiring, and easier to do than writing so much text!
• Switch guest posts with another participant
• Reblog an interesting post by one of the participants
• Feature a list of the five, seven - even ten - participating blogs I like best
• Interview one of the challenge organizers or another blogging participant
• Feature the blog of a frequent commenter

As you can see, I'm already gearing up for next year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  See you then!

Those are some great goals! I also encourage you to learn something new when it comes to the technical side of your blog. Thanks for taking the time to be with us today, Rosanna!

~Tina

Sylvia Villalobos: Why Do We Blog?

I’m relatively new to blogging (seven months or so), and still learning about this fascinating world filled with communities and challenges and stories. Great personal stories. As I make my way through the blogosphere, I discover equally interesting places from faraway countries and old neighborhoods. I discover a lot of other things, but will focus on the first-mentioned aspects of blogging.

So, why do we blog?  To share our stories, I would say, but that’s hardly the only reason. Perhaps to promote a product, establish our writing, build a platform, express our creativity, be part of communities.

Some communities are so well organized (and crowded), I can’t bring myself to be commenter number 189. Does the large number of comments affect the blogger’s personal rapport with followers? I don’t know. I’m asking.

What I do know is that not having a blog is a thing of the past.  Since I like to write, I started blogging when I was told no writer is without a blog nowadays. So far so good, but are we blogging because everyone else is or for reasons that will last?

According to quora.com most blogs are abandoned soon after creation, with 60-80% abandoned within one month, and many surviving blogs are not regularly updated.  That may mean nothing to the serious blogger, but in the world of data those are large numbers.

On the other hand, the longest running blog, according to newswireless.net, belongs to Rupert Goodwins who started blogging in 1996. Now that’s staying power and dedication -- seventeen years of blogging. I’d like to think staying power is one of the goals. Otherwise, it seems like a lot of work and dedication gone to waste. A long-standing and active blog, it appears, stands on two pillars: great content and persistence. Since blogs are similar to personal journals, as a new blogger I find posts with personal touches most inviting.

For a time I thought blogging was something young people did, another aspect of the social media revolution. It didn’t take long to learn that’s not the case. Some of my favorite posts are written by bloggers transformed by life experiences. Not long ago, I read a post titled Good Girl Disease, by Doreen McGettigan. I think you’ll be moved by this true-life story. I was.

So, what is it that makes you blog?  And what motivates you to blog often?   

About the author: Silvia lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. Her stories have appeared at Fiction365, Red Fez, and Pure Slush.  She is currently working on her mystery novel, Stranger or Friend.   

Shhhh! I am Sneaking In Today!

Not really sneaking... I wanted to tell you that my Art/Design book tour called "It's Time" has started and I would love for you all to take a look. There are giveaways, interesting stories and me... if that isn't enough did I mention a big giveaway in the end. If you don't know who I am... well I can tell you, I am the person who created many of the art/logos/badges/headers here and many others places in the blog world.

So here are the dates: [CLICK ME, CLICK ME]

Be one of the cool kids!

Giveaways are at top, just below the Header!

 

READ/COMMENT/SHARE!

Thanks, have a great day!

Jeremy [Being Retro]

http://www.beingretro.com

New Name, New Place...