Commitment

I started the year off in January with a 30 day blog challenge. I'm still proud to say that I did not miss a single day! However, the second the clock struck midnight on January 30th, thus ended my blogging. In fact, I'm pretty sure without actually checking, that I wrote no more than 2 or 3 posts throughout the rest of the year.

How atrocious!

I'm not sure what it is about me, but I find I do challenges better than maintenance. So, I've decided it's time to set myself a challenge again and finish the 2014 year strong! Here we go, 30 days, or more, of blogging.

The Effect of Blogging Daily

So, it's been about two weeks now that I have been writing a blog post every day. I joined this challenge not because I wanted to kick start my blog, but because I wanted to practice the writing muscle.

Because of this I haven't really done anything to promote my blog, or my posts. What's interesting is the effect of writing has on the website visits, and on me.

On the day before the challenge started I posted a link on my Facebook Page, and one more time a week ago to remind people I was taking part. But other than that I've done nothing on Facebook to share my posts and boost visitors.

I have said nothing at all about the challenge on my Twitter account. But I did share a link to a specific blog post from 2011 as part of a conversation.

Because my blog is hosted by Blogger that means Google integration, so each post automatically gets shared on Google+ via my personal account. I've received a couple of +1s and one comment from a friend on one of the shares.

Despite that complete lack of promotion, the number of visitors to my site has jumped in a pretty big way.

I hadn't written a blog post in months, and in fact 2013 was pretty dismal for posts, only 5 for the entire year. So my traffic was at basically nothing on January 1st, but as you can see that changed. The mere act of having content on there regularly makes a significant difference to visits.

More importantly I have found that my energy levels have been really high since I started blogging daily. I have had incredibly productive days for a couple of weeks and always feel super motivated to get more done. This feels great! And I hope to continue this rate of motivation throughout the rest of the month at least, if not longer!

You Do Social Media, Right?

My favourite question, which isn't really a question, is when people who haven't worked with me say "You do social media, right?"

I mean, I guess it's a question, or it usually leads to a question about either something they read or heard and are considering doing, why should they tweet, or they wonder how I make money "doing social media".

Yes I "do social media." I do it as part of my marketing strategy for my business Circle of Media. What my job is, the way I make money, is that I teach businesses and organizations how to market their business on the internet.

I always try to see this question as an opportunity to teach someone and maybe gain a new client, but honestly, some days it bristles. Let me help you understand before you ask me the same question.

After decades, and in some cases a century of advertising with print, radio, television and outdoor advertising people have become very comfortable and good at communicating for those mediums. But as we all know (and some people think heralds the end of the world) we have a new communication medium now which is the internet, the world wide web, cyberspace, online, digital - however you want to call it.

The rules online are different - mostly in that there are no rules save one - the consumer is in charge.

So I help my clients understand and navigate this new world.  I teach my clients how to use the tools there are, like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Blogger, Google, and more. All of these websites have their own design and put buttons in places you might never look for them. I do hands-on tutorials to teach people how to use the websites.

I also help my clients understand how and what to communicate in all of these places. Twitter is a networking event, Facebook is a family or neighbourhood picnic, blogging is all about entertaining and informing readers, Google is about understanding what your consumers want from you. You cannot write your newspaper ad copy into a status, a blog or even into a display ad and expect to get people to buy from you.

So, yes, I do social media to meet and stay in touch with my clients, and to keep learning from my mentors, and to make life long friends. My job is to help you understand how to do the same thing and more.

What I'm listening to - Stuff To Blow your Mind

I listen to a lot of podcast. A lot!

Browsing through my iTunes you will see that I am subscribed to well over 70 podcasts. Not all of them produce content regularly, or even at all anymore, but I would say that I listen to around 30 shows which do post regularly.

Most of the podcasts I listen to are between 30 and 60 minutes long. I became such a huge consumer of podcasts when I had my retail food store. I worked there at least 12 hours a day, often by myself and often doing manual tasks like cooking. Listening to podcasts was a way to pass the time, a way to learn and laugh while still working.

Nowadays I still often put in 12 hour days but I'm usually doing work that engages my brain a bit more. I can't listen to podcasts as much as I have in the past, but I still am pretty good at listening even while browsing through articles.

I don't give the podcasts I listen to enough love. I never email the hosts, I rarely comment on posts and I have never given an iTunes review. Seeing as how, as a podcaster myself, I am constantly asking for these things of my listener, I could do a better job of giving.

Ten days ago, I started a 30 day blog post challenge in the hopes that I could create a habit of writing more often. Not long after that the folks at Stuff To Blow Your Mind put out this episode on breaking or changing habits.

I'm sorry to report that the long believed adage "21 days to change a habit" is a piece of mythology. It turns out every person is different, and every habit is different. Some are easy to pick up, some are hard to get rid of.

I've been writing a post every day for ten days and it feels pretty good. I never need to remind myself to write. I tend to write at the same time every day, around 7 at night. I've been lucky for the last 10 days that I have not had anything that takes me out and away in the evening. But that changes next Tuesday.

Will writing at a different time of the day break my mojo? I sure hope not because I feel really good about this habit and I want it to continue.

Challenge! The first of 30

I've been taking on 30 day challenges for the last few months, some with better results and some with not so great results. In December I decided on two challenges which is probably why I ended the month completing neither one.

First I took on a plank challenge starting the beginning of the month at 20 seconds and ending the month at 5 minutes. I was doing really well with that one until I hit the 2 minute mark around the middle of the month. After a break day on a Saturday I just never started again. Oops.

The other challenge I took on was to write something every day. It was a loose challenge I made for myself. I keep a completely personal, agenda free Tumblr account and started posting there every other day or so. My writing challenge wasn't a formal challenge with any type of plan, so I didn't feel too bad if I went a day and forgot to write.

I also write blog posts for my podcast and figured I would count those towards my writing. Mostly I just wanted to up my writing so that I can practice since I need to write copy for my website which is suffering from a pretty serious case of the "cobbler's children".

But, of course, without a plan it was very easy to deviate from it. Also, "write every day" is a pretty wide open directive, what the heck am I going to write today? I may have managed a week of writing regularly before I just forgot to go back.

So, here I am again, planning on writing every day. But this time, I've got a plan, or at least the beginnings of a plan. I've got just under a week of posts already decided on, a few regular posts that will come out weekly, and more importantly, somebody watching.

I've joined Hubspot's 30 Day Blog Challenge. That part wasn't planned, but I saw an announcement last week for the event and after a day of thinking about it, I decided I needed a bit more of an incentive anyway.

I'll warn you right now, the next 30 posts aren't all going to be winners, they aren't necessarily all going to be about online media, marketing or even business, but I hope they will at least be entertaining and more importantly they will force me out of the analysis paralysis that is my go-to form of procrastination!

So, in preparation, I spent the last three days at a cottage on the Trent Severn Waterway and did absolutely nothing but eat, be merry and visit with friends and family. And now, I put my nose to the grindstone and churn it out for the next 30 days. Love the grind!

View from the deck of the cottage, overlooking the river

Technorati

I've just created an account with Technorati, which is a blog directory. People everywhere have knowledge, expertise and unique views on topics, and I want to learn from the best. I'm hoping to navigate Technorati to find those best blogs.

Do any of you use Technorati regularly? I'm still learning how to find new blogs and posts, how to add posts and build Technorati Authority. Any tips from people who have gone before are welcome.

In the meantime, the first thing I did was claim my own blog. I don't expect to ever be in their top 100, but why not have another way for readers to find me.

It's really easy, and if any of you have blogs, I recommend doing the same thing. Simply create an account and on the account page scroll down the bottom and add the address and RSS feed to your blog. They will ask some questions about how your blog should be categorized and what tags to use. Be realistic with your tags, but put in as many as you believe your blog to be about.

Once you are done that you will be given a claim code and need to write it into a blog post. Simply copy and paste it into a new post and publish, then click the Verify Claim Token and you are done. Your blog is now on the largest blog directory around.