Follow the 28 Day Challenge @ #28DayChallenge on Twitter

Yesterday, I posted 28 Days of Blogging.  Basically it was a simple and short post about how I plan on blogging everyday for the month of February.  It was a pure test and challenge to myself to keep the Real Time Marketer blog up and active every single day for the month.  I wasn’t expecting much from this simple post, certainly not in the form of ReTweets, blog comments, or reactions.

I was wrong.

Although the post was a personal test to myself, others have jumped onto the idea and dove in head first to ignite their own blogs.  After a few minutes from publishing the post, my friend and social media shaker, Tyler Hurst set a friendly challenge.

So, after several other enthusiastic bloggers have jumped on and agreed to also post each day for 28 days…it’s time to ignite some inspirational fire.

The 28 Day Blogging Challenge

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What: Very simple, blog for 28 days in a row.

When: For 28 Days in a row (I’m blogging the month of February but as long as its 28 days, it doesn’t matter when you start)

Report Your Results: This is key.  You need to know your base, so you can evaluate how you’re doing.  After your 28 days we want to know how much you increased traffic, subscribers, or whatever else your goals were.

Why 28 Days? The 28 days is important.  We’re not trying to form a habit, who wants to blog every day?  Not me.  Besides, according to Clinical Psychologist, Peter Brown, it takes about 66 days to form a habit (on average).  But there are specific goals I want to achieve.

• I want to increase traffic to this blog
• I want to increase RSS Subscribers
• I want to create some momentum for this blog
• I want to reach a new audience that is unfamiliar with this blog
• I want to be a better writer

The 28 days is important because it’s simple.  Exactly 4 full weeks.  It’s not a month or 30 days that can start and end on random days.  It’s 4 full weeks.  I started on a Monday, I’ll end in 4 weeks on a Sunday.  Pretty simple to grasp.  It’s also long enough to produce real results.  28 days in a row is room to write a considerable amount of new content.  Even if you average 2 posts per week, it would take 14 weeks to produce what you now will in 4.

We Learn From Each Other

The best thing about involving others is that you can push each other when you’re not feeling productive or inspired.  Blogging can be a pretty lonely task.  The thoughts of “Is anyone really reading this” certainly creep in from time to time.  It’s also nice to see real results from regular people.  Not that I don’t enjoy following the careers and thoughts of the “gurus” like Chris Brogan and Darren Rowse , but…it’s hard to relate.  The nice thing about this is that I am you.  Just a regular guy with a handful or readers and interest trying to share some ideas with others.

Throughout this process you need to identify 3-5 ways you’re going to increase traffic, subscribers, post comments, and whatever else your goals happen to be.  Over time, just report how it’s working.  We all learn from this process.

Here’s the 5 I will start with (I may adjust over the process)

1. Earlier Publishing Time: I am a night owl by nature and usually save time for writing at night.  This poses a problem because blog posts are often immediate.  If you publish at 10pm, most RSS subscribers won’t look at the previous night.  They look for what publishes that day and will completely miss most of what you publish.  I will publish earlier to open exposure to a larger demographic.
2. Change My URL Shortener: Because I focus on content and not at all on SEO, the large majority of my traffic comes from social networks and not Google.  The problem with this is that most URL Shorteners like bit.ly and SU.pr rarely show as traffic on Google Analytics.  I have had several posts reach more hits by themselves than Google Analytics gives me credit for the entire month.  So I will change what I use to try and get more accurate results.
3. Post To More LinkedIn Groups: In addition to the Group I manage on LinkedIn, I am a member of a lot more.  Yet rarely to I market my content to these groups.  I will change that.
4. Sheer amount of new posts: Kinda a cop out I know, being that the challenge auto creates more posts.  But this def will bring more traffic.
5. New Content Format: Up till now, I have only provided written content.  I will incorporate videos here and there to offer a different content angle as well as to add some personality into my posts.

28 Days of Blogging List: (join the 37 blogs)

(Want to be on the list?  Add a comment with your Blog and you’re in)

• Real Time Marketer – Scott Bishop

• Tyler Says… - Tyler Hurst

• Little Tech Girl – Kris Cain

• College Caffeinated – Colby Gergen

• The Cool Perspective - Ross Simmonds

• That Girl Nena – Nena Cabasan

• Good Old Rock – Matt Stratton

• Rock Band Aide – Tommy Wall

• Living Life – Jenn

• Rockhopper – Benjamin Zalasky

• Champagne Mom

• Mitchell Hislop – Mitchell Hislop

• SMC Pros

• TC Gadget Geeks

• The 20% Challenge

• From The Trenches – John LeMay

• Sydney Unfiltered – Sydney Owen

• Ellle La Mode – Ellen Nordahl

• A Work in Progress – Leia Ferrari

• Extraordinary Mommy – Danielle Smith

• The Adventures of Reddsmitty – Kim Redd

• Country Mouse in the City – Claire

• Ray’s Wealth Wisdon – Ray Buckner

• Wes Novack – Wes Novack

• Musings of a Punk Rock Father – Andrew

• Going Green Science – Steve Johnson

• Climb The SEO Mountain – Clark Schultz

• Defying Gravity – Jackie Dreyer

• Sunday Morning Soliloquy – Leyla Arsan

• Blonde by Design – Sprite

• Yuri Artibise – Yuri Artibise

• Nouveau Geek – Pia Simeoni

• Fred Cadena – Fred Cadena

• The Universe Is Between Your Ears – Joe Winnet

• A Long Way From The Judith Basin – W. Kelly Oja

• Random Thoughts By Rebecca – Rebecca Hession

• A Blah Blah Blawg – Desiree Koh

• Shopping Cart Strategies – Dave Beck

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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February is here and time to start a torrid pace of blogging.  Here at the Real Time Marketer I like to set experiments and try tactics and techniques to record and analyze results.  This makes reporting new strategies that have been tested, easier for you.

So February will be an entire month of blogging.  Each day will have a new blog post.  I intend this to dramatically ramp up traffic to the RTM (Real Time Marketer), RSS Subscribers, and general awareness to the blog.  I’m excited to see what results will come from this fast paced month.

I’ve been very pleased with the results of this blog up till this point, but every now and again a change of pace and increase is necessary to give some momentum.  Throughout the month I’ll be trying different strategies to help boost both traffic and subscribers.  At the end of the month, I’ll report back with the results.

To help make this month easier, I’ve already established at least 20 different topics to write about.  The remaining eight I’ll think of sometime within the month.

So get ready for a wave of new information and marketing related posts.

*Think my ideas are solid and may work well for your business…let’s chat!*

Get the Real Time Marketer Directly to Your RSS HERE

Scott S. Bishop is editor for Real Time Marketer and a marketing strategist with a specialty in social media.  He is an avid blogger and active across the net.  He is @thescottbishop on Twitter

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